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Most students departed from their respective cities, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Ber Sheva,<br />
not knowing quite what to expect. Having been asked to put on blindfolds prior to our<br />
arrival for the opening activities at the Flour Caves, I began to wonder seriously just what<br />
I was letting myself in for. It did cross my mind that, should the bus plunge over a<br />
precipice, investigators would examine the wreckage and conclude that the accident was<br />
the consequence of a bizarre suicide pact.<br />
Fifteen minutes sitting in near silence, deprived of sight, able to hear nothing but the roar<br />
of the engine as our bus climbed up into the desert foothills, gave us a chance to examine<br />
our motives for getting involved in this series of weekend seminars. Led off the buses<br />
quite literally still in the dark, we were finally allowed to remove our blindfolds. The<br />
stark beauty of the stars and desert under a waxing moon couldn’t fail to remind us that<br />
there is more to life than our mundane commitments and concerns as students. Perhaps<br />
most important of all, the opening ceremony, which, strictly speaking, should have been<br />
described as a disorientation activity, served to break up the groups that had, naturally<br />
enough, already formed on the basis of prior acquaintance, however tenuous, and helped<br />
us to get on with the business of making new friends.<br />
Though for some the prospect of a much needed break from claustrophobic Jerusalem<br />
may have been sufficient, the primary reason for my participating in Academeet had to
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