On our fifth day, we visited the Western Wall (Wailing Wall) located on the western side of the Temple Mount, the site of Solomon’s Temple (the first temple) and, later after Solomon’s Temple was destroyed, the second temple rebuild by Herod the Great.  Herod’s temple was destroyed in A.D. 70 by the Romans.  The Jewish temple was never rebuilt.  Today, the Dome of the Rock occupies the temple site.

In the afternoon, we traveled the short distance to Bethlehem and visited the Church of the Nativity.  Then we traveled to Herodion, a fortress built by Herod the Great on the outskirts of Bethlehem.  Herodion is a great archeological site.  Herod the Great is buried there, and many of us walked down to the platform that held his tombstone.  The platform and its decorative elements are in suburb condition.

In the evening, some of us went back into the Old City to shop and some of us walked throughout the Old City, including the Muslim Quarter.  We tried to obtain access to the platform of the Dome of the Rock, but without success.  The gate was closed and policemen guarded the site.

The next day, we left Jerusalem and descended to the Dead Sea, the lowest place on the earth!  On the way, we passed by Qumran (we will visit the site on Friday).  We spent a few hours in En Gedi, a box canyon where David and his men hid out from Saul after learning that Saul intended to kill him and where David spared Saul’s life.  We hiked into the beautiful spring-fed waterfall at the rear of the canyon and saw lots of Ibex (deer-like animals) and some conies, little brown gopher-like animals (both of which are mentioned in the Bible).

We next visited Massada, a fortress/palace complex build by Herod the Great, and the site where the Jews made their last stand against the Romans after the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.  The site is accessed by both a cable car (an exciting ride) and a long switch back trail which I would love to hike some day.  The ruins at Massada are really interesting, and there is some beautiful first century tile work that has been excavated.

We settled into our hotel (the Meridian David) and then went to “float” in the Dead Sea. 

Yesterday, a small group of us ventured into the Negev, while most of us hung out in the hotel spa.  From a safari-type vehicle in the Zin Wilderness (a portion of the Negev), we saw:  a mother camel nursing her 2-3 day old baby; two large horned ibex males fighting each other; a group of 3 wild camels along the road; an oasis pool fed by a waterfall originating from a stream far overhead; gorgeous desert scenery.  Our guide made lunch for us, which included local goat cheese stored in olive oil.  The Bedouin here eat a lot of goat cheese.  When goat cheese is stored in olive oil, it will keep for up to 5 years!

Today we went to Qumran along the shores of the Dead Sea and the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem.  We had a farewell dinner and are now waiting at the Ben Gurion airport for our flight home.  It has been a wonderful experience.

On our third day in Israel, we had a low key morning.  Many of us visited a museum to see a 2,000 year-old fishing boat excavated from the Sea of Galilee.

The boat is similar to the boat that would have been used by Peter, Andrew, James and John.  In the afternoon, we traveled to the Arbel cliff and enjoyed a magnificent view of the Sea of Galilee.  Later, we traveled by boat on the Sea of Galilee to mass at a church in Tiberius.  While we were on the sea, we recalled how Jesus prayed along on the Golan Heights after learning that John the Baptist had been beheaded until about 3 in the morning.  When he was ready to return to Capernaum, he walked on the water to reach the disciples in their boat.  He would have had the moon at his back, the wind would have been blowing hard through the Arbel pass and his robes would have been flying around him.  To the disciples, he would have looked like a ghost. 

Our fourth day took us south to Nazareth, where we visited the Church of Mary’s Well, a very old and ornate church with a spring of running water at the rear of the sanctuary.  We also visited the brow of the cliff where the Jews of Nazareth threatened to throw Jesus over the cliff for his teachings.  We traveled to Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast, a Roman deep water seaport build by Herod the Great and occupied by the Tenth Roman Legion.  The ruins are spectacular.  They include a hippodrome, an amphitheater where Herod Agrippa collapsed and later died (having been “eaten by worms”) and a royal palace.  Herod the Great constructed a sea wall to prevent the port from filing in with silt.  The presence of a seaport at Caesarea meant that Egypt could ship its produce from Caesarea instead of traveling further north to Tyre, which created some conflict with Tyre.

 

From Caesarea, we traveled to Jerusalem, arriving in the evening.  We stopped briefly for a welcoming ceremony and prayer before checking into our very elegant hotel, the Inbal.

 

On day five, we went to the Mount of Olives, where we visited Dominus Flavit (literally, “Jesus wept”), a church which memorializes Jesus’s weeping over the city of Jerusalem.  The church is shaped like a tear drop and has a beautiful window that looks out over the old city of Jerusalem, including the Dome of the Rock..  From there we visited the Church of all Nations, a somber church that memorializes the dark time of Jesus’s crucifixion and has a thorn of crowns sculpture that surrounds the altar.  We had quiet time in the Garden of Gethsemane, which was really special. In the afternoon we traveled the Via Dolorosa and visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher which contains traditions sites of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus.  That evening a small group of us shopped on our own in the old city and practiced our bargaining skills.  We think we did quite well!

On our second day in Israel, we visited the archeological dig at Hazor, mentioned in the book of Joshua.  Joshua 11:13 says that Joshua captured Hazor and killed its king (King Jabin) and then burned the city.  The archeologists have found abundant ash at the site, and we saw it too.

We also visited Dan in the northern most part of Israel where the river Dan (one of the three headwaters of the Jordan) runs and where Jeroboam, the king of the 10 northern tribes, installed a golden calf as a god for the people to worship.  Jeroboam wanted to keep the Jews from going down to Jerusalem during the three annual pilgrimage festivals because he was afraid the northern tribes would revert to the house of David.  The platform on which the golden calf sat has been excavated along with a sacrificial platform.

We visited Caesarea Philippi, the location of the temple of Pan (the pagan god of good times (basically, debauchery) depicted as half goat and half man from which we get the words pandemonium and panic) and the place where Jesus asked Peter, “Who do you say I am?” and Peter made his confession of faith.

We came back to the Kibbutz by way of the Golan Heights and saw many Druze villages.  The Druze are members of an independent religious sect who live mostly in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Their religion contains elements of Christianity, Judaism and Islam and incorporates a belief in reincarnation and in the ultimate perfection of humankind.

The weather is warm and sunny in Galilee.  Our first day here, we visited the Mount of the Beatitudes and studied the Sermon on the Mount on the “mount.”  We also visited Capernaum and saw the traditional site of the house of Peter’s mother-in-law (where the crippled man was lowered through the roof) and the synagogue just next to it where Jesus taught.  We visited the relatively new excavation site at Bethsaida, the birthplace of Peter and Andrew.  It was interesting to see a biblical site under exploration.  We had lunch in Tiberius.  Most people ordered “Peter’s fish” and one woman at our table found a shekel in its mouth.  We drove around the Sea of Galilee and located the site on the Golan Heights where Jesus expelled the demons from “Legion,” the demons went into the swine and the swine rushed into the Sea of Galilee because, as my Bible teacher says, they would rather be dead than inhabited by the demons.

Israel!

It's off to Israel on Tuesday. Watch this site for updates.