Word: barak
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Most spas have names that conjure up an atmosphere of bliss and tranquillity. So I am a little taken aback by the sign outside the spa in the orange groves of northern Israel. It reads, ADA BARAK'S CARNIVOROUS PLANT FARM. Barak makes most of her income by showing off her plants, which eat everything from insects and reptiles to small mammals and schnitzel. She started grabbing one of the little snakes slithering in and out of the hungry plants' jaws and passing it around to visitors at the end of her act. And that...
Traditionally, snakes have gotten a bad rap in the Holy Land--just ask Eve--so I am surprised that Barak's technique has found acceptance here in modern Israel. After some experimenting, she eventually settled on a combo of big snakes for a deep massage (the king and corn snakes are heavy enough to produce a kneading sensation) and little ones, whose passage over the skin is a trembling flutter. "People either like it a lot or they hate it," says Barak. She makes this remark as a busload of Israelis arrives, and an 18-year-old with flowing brown...
...decide to get the $80 spa treatment, since I am dubious about both its calming and its curative effects. Barak's cousin Dr. Nava Becher reminds me that Moses coiled a bronze snake around his staff and thrust it upward to the sky ("to remind people of the Almighty," she says) and that the snake is a symbol for medicine ("meaning that what kills you can also cure you"). Many of Barak's regular clients claim that the snakes help ease migraines and soothe sore muscles...
...string of brick-colored diamonds along its spine, open its mouth impossibly wide. Is it going to strike? No--it coughs up a half-digested mouse, leading me to assume that the snake is as queasy about giving me a massage as I am about getting one.) When Barak plops a writhing tangle of snakes on my belly, their first reaction, and mine, is panic. They race away in six directions, and she patiently plops them back, braiding them together to slow their getaway...
...with the Labor Party along with smaller parties representing pensioners and the ultra-orthodox lobby. She is trying to bring Labor on board again by offering them a "real partnership" - making key concessions that Olmert would not. She will have to contend with the ego of Labor leader Ehud Barak, a medaled ex-general and former Prime Minister who finds it difficult to take orders from Livni, a relative newcomer to Israeli politics. Experts say that Barak wants Livni to give Labor better cabinet posts and may want Olmert's 2009 budget rewritten. Livni has one advantage: polls show that...