"Human constructs." That's my new pair of words to think about this week. It's not a new concept; just a new term for something that I ponder from time to time. A quick reference check and I find the given example of a human construct is money. Money, even silver and gold, has no value other than what humans have determined its value to be. By giving money value it becomes very functional in our society. Interestingly enough, in today's economy, money or the value of money, isn't even represented by coins or bills. Today's exchange of value is virtual. Some may think that there's "real" money of "real" value behind the transactions, but I bet most transactions ever involve gold or silver or other money backings.
However, I have not been thinking about economy or money. I've been thinking about religion, ceremonies, rites and norms. Basic to religion is the basic question: Is God a human construct? Does the frailty of humans require that they create a god to acquire confidence to overcome that frailty? Do humans need to have a god to explain the unexplainable?
Let's assume there is a god. There are several monotheistic religions, such as Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Well, the believers of these religions may not agree with the doctrine of the other religions, if each believes there is one god and they're not the same god, then there must be three gods (at least) or indeed there is one god but they each have a different understanding of the same god. This may be a good time to introduce the "human construct" idea. If god is the one and only and yet each religion defines god differently, then the differences must be "human constructs," or god reveals himself/herself in different ways to the different religions.
Now that we have human constructs in each religion, what are these constructs and how do they affect the religion. The inequalities of women and men in Islam, such as the dress code, is both cultural after the beginning of Islam as well as before. The Christians celebrate eucharist at different intervals with similar text based on an event, called the Last Supper, when Jesus said something to the effort that when you eat bread and drink wine, think of me. Jews have hundreds of rules which probably came about for natural reasons as much as spiritual reasons.
The issue then becomes which human constructs are valuable, effective, meaningful and should be continued and which should be set aside as a hindrance to the essence of the religion and the "best practices" of human behavior. How can we relate to god, do the will of god and do it without doctrinal baggage?
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
The Last Day in Israel
I apologize to all of you who are watching the news about Paris and wondering if this behavior could expand to Jerusalem or our flight. Our driver is awesome; he knows what's happening where and sometimes detours if he has heard something about an unsafe area. More importantly is that we all over the world need to join together with positive thoughts that whose who hate will hate less and that our leaders will use wisdom and compassion to protect us.
Aha, the teacher and guide discovered that we would tolerate a earlier, 7:30AM, get on the bus. We did this to drive to a crusader's church, that is it was built by the crusaders when they tried to rescue the Holy Land from the Turks and Arabs. We had reserved the church to conduct a final mass on this trip. There were exactly 20 chairs in the front row for all 20 of us. Keriann, Kay and Marvin started the service with a trumpet accompaniment and some singing. Teacher Luker led us in the eucharist, scripture readings and an hominy during which each of us could talk about our "Emmanus" moment during this trip, a time when our eyes were opened and we saw Jesus or something special. It was very postivie about what group members were feeling.
The church is possibly near where Jesus walked with the two men on the way to Emmanus and then taught them and broke bread with them. Dr Luker also pointed out several other sites where this event may have also occurred.
A quick bus ride hanging on the sides of hills that were covered by enough trees for them to call forests. Amazing for being in Israel. We ended at Yad Vashem, a museum featuring the holocaust. The focus seemed to be on the persons who were imprisoned and killed. If one watched all the videos and read all the explanations it might take days to pass through the museum which zig zagged from rooms on the left to rooms on the right and back again. We allocated ourselves one hour.
After exiting the museum we viewed several outdoor monuments and the children's museum. The museum was dark to the point that one had to follow the railing but filled with hundreds of small points of lights and the names of all one and a half million children who were killed in the holocaust were read in English, German and Hebrew along with their age and country of residence. Simple but very thought provoking.
Back to the hotel of a lunch of your choice and a free afternoon. Some chose to walk to the Old City and walk the Via Dolorosa (the route of Jesus's final walk to Gologoth), some went shopping and others napped. I napped. The walkers reported taking some "altervative" routes and walked about six miles. The shoppers shared stories about their wares at the evening meal.
Meals at this the Olive Tree Hotel are buffets with great variety. I have not seen any milk in the evening or meat in the morning, so I suspect we are working with a Jewish kitchen. Monday evening was an American style menu, Tuesday Chinese and tonight Italian. While one can always find something tasty, some of us think if they stayed with a Istaeli menu they'd be better off.
Internet service is very bad to impossible this evening so it's questionable if this will be posted this evening. As we return to Portland tomorrow, a post will probably be just an acknowledgment that we arrived back safetly. With the holidays coming soon, it may take some time, but I will try to develop a more extensive website about this trip: saxowsky.com/nov15.
Aha, the teacher and guide discovered that we would tolerate a earlier, 7:30AM, get on the bus. We did this to drive to a crusader's church, that is it was built by the crusaders when they tried to rescue the Holy Land from the Turks and Arabs. We had reserved the church to conduct a final mass on this trip. There were exactly 20 chairs in the front row for all 20 of us. Keriann, Kay and Marvin started the service with a trumpet accompaniment and some singing. Teacher Luker led us in the eucharist, scripture readings and an hominy during which each of us could talk about our "Emmanus" moment during this trip, a time when our eyes were opened and we saw Jesus or something special. It was very postivie about what group members were feeling.
The church is possibly near where Jesus walked with the two men on the way to Emmanus and then taught them and broke bread with them. Dr Luker also pointed out several other sites where this event may have also occurred.
A quick bus ride hanging on the sides of hills that were covered by enough trees for them to call forests. Amazing for being in Israel. We ended at Yad Vashem, a museum featuring the holocaust. The focus seemed to be on the persons who were imprisoned and killed. If one watched all the videos and read all the explanations it might take days to pass through the museum which zig zagged from rooms on the left to rooms on the right and back again. We allocated ourselves one hour.
After exiting the museum we viewed several outdoor monuments and the children's museum. The museum was dark to the point that one had to follow the railing but filled with hundreds of small points of lights and the names of all one and a half million children who were killed in the holocaust were read in English, German and Hebrew along with their age and country of residence. Simple but very thought provoking.
Back to the hotel of a lunch of your choice and a free afternoon. Some chose to walk to the Old City and walk the Via Dolorosa (the route of Jesus's final walk to Gologoth), some went shopping and others napped. I napped. The walkers reported taking some "altervative" routes and walked about six miles. The shoppers shared stories about their wares at the evening meal.
Meals at this the Olive Tree Hotel are buffets with great variety. I have not seen any milk in the evening or meat in the morning, so I suspect we are working with a Jewish kitchen. Monday evening was an American style menu, Tuesday Chinese and tonight Italian. While one can always find something tasty, some of us think if they stayed with a Istaeli menu they'd be better off.
Internet service is very bad to impossible this evening so it's questionable if this will be posted this evening. As we return to Portland tomorrow, a post will probably be just an acknowledgment that we arrived back safetly. With the holidays coming soon, it may take some time, but I will try to develop a more extensive website about this trip: saxowsky.com/nov15.
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Mount of Olives
Thanks to Gail's briefing I think I can brief you on today's events. Let's start at a church over the tomb where Jesus was buried. Teacher Monte Luker explained an idea about where Jesus was buried, died and how the churches came to be. The area of the tomb and Gologoth, where Jesus died, happened in an abandoned guarry. When quarries were abandoned, tombs were carved into the walls. Also because there was a harder stone in the middle of the quarry, a hill remained there and the Romans used that hill for crucifixions to be in the eye of the public and a warning for such anti-Roman activities. So this theory is that the crucifixion and tomb are actually quite close.
We saw the tomb after waiting in a long line and crouching down to enter a small entrance. The slab where Jesus lay was a simple slab but carved smooth out of the stone. The ornamentation in and around the tomb was extravagant, but well intentioned. The tomb is literally in the Orthodox Church but there are chapels of the Coptic, Armenia and Roman Catholic churches in the wings or down the hall.
Walking further down the halls, we saw a rock through a glass display window. It was a part of the base of the hill Gologoth. Further on was a steep staircase leading to the top of the hill. In the top of the hill was a permanent hole carved to hold the base of a crucifixion cross. The hole where the cross of Jesus was set lie under an altar. One could crawl down and touch the hole if you wished. Again the ornamentation overwhelmed the simplicity of the hole and the event of the Crucifixion.
More walking and we visited a chapel with a great deal of imagery about the selection of the donkey and where Jesus started his ride into Jerusalem. It was a brief stop.
The Church of All Nations is adjacent to a cave where Jesus taught his disciples. The walls of the church and courtyard are covered with the Lord's Prayer in many languages of the world. By far most of the languages are minor languages and it was difficult to find the English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese and the like.
It was all downhill from here and very steep. We are now on the Mount of Olives which is covered with thousands of above ground tombs. Most tombs have little scattering of small rocks on them. Jews place another stone on the tomb with each visit, much like Christians might place flowers on the grave sight. Jews choose to be buried on the hillside of the Mount of Olives because they will be first to see the coming of the Messiah.
On the road down, a very steep narrow road, a nephew of our bus driver (I hope I heard that correctly) and acquaintance of our teacher since childhood, asked if he could sell some scarves. He offered them at five for $20 and it was hard not to buy five. He laid them out on the street and we picked through them. When our excitement was waning, he went and opened another bag of scarves and put them on the street as well. He is going to get married in about a week. Finally we continued down the street.
At the bottom of this walk was the Garden of Gethsemane. The garden is well manicured and there may be a tree or two there that may be as old as 2000 years, or nearly that old. Of course, if it is that old it might have been there when Jesus prayed there. In the nearby church was a rock on which Jesus possibly prayed. The garden is historic, the rock is traditional. Whether or not the rock is the same rock, it gives one time to pause and think.
Lunch was buffet, Jewish or at least Middle Eastern for just $10. What a financial treat. And now to the museum. In the first door was an outdoor display of a model fo the city of Jerusalem. It was a great review of what we had seen, will see and will not see. We were early for the Tuesday 4:00PM opening of the main part of the museum so we sat with a cup of coffee or tea. A delightful rest. Teacher gave us a 30-minute explanation of parts of the museuem related to our tour and then we had 30 minutes to stroll on our own. It was dark as we left the museum and headed back to the hotel.
We saw the tomb after waiting in a long line and crouching down to enter a small entrance. The slab where Jesus lay was a simple slab but carved smooth out of the stone. The ornamentation in and around the tomb was extravagant, but well intentioned. The tomb is literally in the Orthodox Church but there are chapels of the Coptic, Armenia and Roman Catholic churches in the wings or down the hall.
Walking further down the halls, we saw a rock through a glass display window. It was a part of the base of the hill Gologoth. Further on was a steep staircase leading to the top of the hill. In the top of the hill was a permanent hole carved to hold the base of a crucifixion cross. The hole where the cross of Jesus was set lie under an altar. One could crawl down and touch the hole if you wished. Again the ornamentation overwhelmed the simplicity of the hole and the event of the Crucifixion.
More walking and we visited a chapel with a great deal of imagery about the selection of the donkey and where Jesus started his ride into Jerusalem. It was a brief stop.
The Church of All Nations is adjacent to a cave where Jesus taught his disciples. The walls of the church and courtyard are covered with the Lord's Prayer in many languages of the world. By far most of the languages are minor languages and it was difficult to find the English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese and the like.
It was all downhill from here and very steep. We are now on the Mount of Olives which is covered with thousands of above ground tombs. Most tombs have little scattering of small rocks on them. Jews place another stone on the tomb with each visit, much like Christians might place flowers on the grave sight. Jews choose to be buried on the hillside of the Mount of Olives because they will be first to see the coming of the Messiah.
On the road down, a very steep narrow road, a nephew of our bus driver (I hope I heard that correctly) and acquaintance of our teacher since childhood, asked if he could sell some scarves. He offered them at five for $20 and it was hard not to buy five. He laid them out on the street and we picked through them. When our excitement was waning, he went and opened another bag of scarves and put them on the street as well. He is going to get married in about a week. Finally we continued down the street.
At the bottom of this walk was the Garden of Gethsemane. The garden is well manicured and there may be a tree or two there that may be as old as 2000 years, or nearly that old. Of course, if it is that old it might have been there when Jesus prayed there. In the nearby church was a rock on which Jesus possibly prayed. The garden is historic, the rock is traditional. Whether or not the rock is the same rock, it gives one time to pause and think.
Lunch was buffet, Jewish or at least Middle Eastern for just $10. What a financial treat. And now to the museum. In the first door was an outdoor display of a model fo the city of Jerusalem. It was a great review of what we had seen, will see and will not see. We were early for the Tuesday 4:00PM opening of the main part of the museum so we sat with a cup of coffee or tea. A delightful rest. Teacher gave us a 30-minute explanation of parts of the museuem related to our tour and then we had 30 minutes to stroll on our own. It was dark as we left the museum and headed back to the hotel.
Monday, November 16, 2015
Jerusalem
We'll see how far we get tonight. It's after 8:00 in the evening; we boarded the bus in Bethlehem at 8:00 this morning. The iPhone says we took about 10,000 steps, walked over five miles and climbed 20 flights of stairs. As we were returning to the hotel from a fabulous light show at the City of David, people in our group were saying things like "It's way after my bedtime," and "I'm ready for bed." It's been a long day.
"Do you have your passports?" "We may need our passports today." These were a couple of the teacher's comments this morning. We arrived at the Dung Gate to enter the old city of Jerusalem about 8:30 and stood in line for 30-40 minutes to get through security. They didn't ask for passports but our bags were scanned and we walked through metal detectors. We climbed an covered ramp to get to the courtyard of the location of the former Jewish temple. Currently there is a mosque built there.
As we entered, one of the "dress code police" said that one young male in shorts and one young female in shorts needed to cover their knees. Gail had already given a scarf to the young lady which she fashioned into a nice skirt but it was not long enough. They were taken aside - we didn't know to where - and returned after a elongated five minutes each with a wrap-around skirt they had to buy. The father of the young lady was giving her a side-by-side supportive hug when another "appropriate behavior police" approached them and said "I know she's your daughter but you can't touch her here." Our teacher explained what we were seeing and after a couple stops a "time keeper police" came by and said five minutes, five minutes before we have to leave the courtyard. The teacher continued talking hoping to give us as much information as possible in the five minutes. Soon another "time keeper police" came by and pointed to his watch. We talked as we walked toward the exit and didn't have to be removed by force.
We strolled through some back streets and re-entered the old city at the Western Wall, also called the Wailing Wall. As we stood in the courtyard looking at the wall we read that the men enter to the left and women to the right. Curiously enough curious women after they entered their portion of the Wailing Wall peered over the wall that divides them from us. A good writer could write an entire chapter or even a novel about the sights and behaviors that one saw. Oh, if everyone could have the fervor for prayer as some of these gentlemen at the wall had. Wow. Including loud wailing.
As I entered the area by the Wailing Wall I was asked where I came from. "Oregon." "Are you a Jew?" "No." "Welcome." I'm not certain what that was all about but then I noticed that several of our group were wearing the little Jewish hat, a Kipa. I also noted that I was wearing a hat and others wearing hats also were not wearing a Kipa. Maybe he was helping me get things right, or maybe I looked like a Jew.
The West Wall is named so because when the wall that enclosed the Temple Mound where the temple stood was destructed, and then later rebuilt, the lower part of this wall is a part of the original wall on the west side.
As we were leaving the Wailing Wall we heard music and came across a group involved in some Jewish ceremony with drums, a clarinet, a saxophone, a trombone and a couple dozen family members/friends dancing in a circle. As this concluded the family members/friends continued inside and the musicians headed out in the opposite. We wondered "Were these musicians for hire?"
We learned more from our teacher as we viewed the continuation of the West Wall on the outside. There was a 3-D movie, more stories, more information, more photographs and many more stairs up and down. We received an exclusive talk from a modern-day Jew. He closed his shop and gave us his full attention. Another excellent representation of another view of religion and the world from Jew.
Then it was uphill and more uphill to an Armenian Tavern for lunch - we actually were given a menu and were allowed to order individually - and some spirited conversation about American politics. By now we are all skilled geologists, archealogists, historians, theologians, politicians and statespersons. We have not mastered either the Hebrew or Arabic languages, yet.
Finally, well finally, before dinner, we climbed down into Hezichiah's (sp) Tunnel which is an underground water tunnel for the city of David. Two of our group chose to walk the tunnel; the rest of us chose the dry but still very narrow upper tunnel. The bulk of us walked to the mouth of the wet tunnel through a Muslin neighborhood with some care. The end of the tunnel is the Pool of Shiloam where Jesus restored the sight of a blind man by placing mud on his eyes and telling him to clean it off in the Pool of Shiloam.
After checking into the hotel and an early supper we attended an awesome light show in the City of David which was projected on the walls of the city ruins. Another wow. The show depicted the history of Jerusalem from beginning to today. The reviews from the group were very positive. Very impressive.
For pictures for this day go to Dave's blog at dallastlc.org
"Do you have your passports?" "We may need our passports today." These were a couple of the teacher's comments this morning. We arrived at the Dung Gate to enter the old city of Jerusalem about 8:30 and stood in line for 30-40 minutes to get through security. They didn't ask for passports but our bags were scanned and we walked through metal detectors. We climbed an covered ramp to get to the courtyard of the location of the former Jewish temple. Currently there is a mosque built there.
As we entered, one of the "dress code police" said that one young male in shorts and one young female in shorts needed to cover their knees. Gail had already given a scarf to the young lady which she fashioned into a nice skirt but it was not long enough. They were taken aside - we didn't know to where - and returned after a elongated five minutes each with a wrap-around skirt they had to buy. The father of the young lady was giving her a side-by-side supportive hug when another "appropriate behavior police" approached them and said "I know she's your daughter but you can't touch her here." Our teacher explained what we were seeing and after a couple stops a "time keeper police" came by and said five minutes, five minutes before we have to leave the courtyard. The teacher continued talking hoping to give us as much information as possible in the five minutes. Soon another "time keeper police" came by and pointed to his watch. We talked as we walked toward the exit and didn't have to be removed by force.
We strolled through some back streets and re-entered the old city at the Western Wall, also called the Wailing Wall. As we stood in the courtyard looking at the wall we read that the men enter to the left and women to the right. Curiously enough curious women after they entered their portion of the Wailing Wall peered over the wall that divides them from us. A good writer could write an entire chapter or even a novel about the sights and behaviors that one saw. Oh, if everyone could have the fervor for prayer as some of these gentlemen at the wall had. Wow. Including loud wailing.
As I entered the area by the Wailing Wall I was asked where I came from. "Oregon." "Are you a Jew?" "No." "Welcome." I'm not certain what that was all about but then I noticed that several of our group were wearing the little Jewish hat, a Kipa. I also noted that I was wearing a hat and others wearing hats also were not wearing a Kipa. Maybe he was helping me get things right, or maybe I looked like a Jew.
The West Wall is named so because when the wall that enclosed the Temple Mound where the temple stood was destructed, and then later rebuilt, the lower part of this wall is a part of the original wall on the west side.
As we were leaving the Wailing Wall we heard music and came across a group involved in some Jewish ceremony with drums, a clarinet, a saxophone, a trombone and a couple dozen family members/friends dancing in a circle. As this concluded the family members/friends continued inside and the musicians headed out in the opposite. We wondered "Were these musicians for hire?"
We learned more from our teacher as we viewed the continuation of the West Wall on the outside. There was a 3-D movie, more stories, more information, more photographs and many more stairs up and down. We received an exclusive talk from a modern-day Jew. He closed his shop and gave us his full attention. Another excellent representation of another view of religion and the world from Jew.
Then it was uphill and more uphill to an Armenian Tavern for lunch - we actually were given a menu and were allowed to order individually - and some spirited conversation about American politics. By now we are all skilled geologists, archealogists, historians, theologians, politicians and statespersons. We have not mastered either the Hebrew or Arabic languages, yet.
Finally, well finally, before dinner, we climbed down into Hezichiah's (sp) Tunnel which is an underground water tunnel for the city of David. Two of our group chose to walk the tunnel; the rest of us chose the dry but still very narrow upper tunnel. The bulk of us walked to the mouth of the wet tunnel through a Muslin neighborhood with some care. The end of the tunnel is the Pool of Shiloam where Jesus restored the sight of a blind man by placing mud on his eyes and telling him to clean it off in the Pool of Shiloam.
After checking into the hotel and an early supper we attended an awesome light show in the City of David which was projected on the walls of the city ruins. Another wow. The show depicted the history of Jerusalem from beginning to today. The reviews from the group were very positive. Very impressive.
For pictures for this day go to Dave's blog at dallastlc.org
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Bethlehem
We heard severl times today the references of Bethlehem in the Bible. Foremost is the birth of Jesus and 14 generations earlier, King David. So we headed for the cave where Jesus may have been born. Our teacher, Dr. Monte Luker, a professor of Biblical history, says that it is possible and likely that Joseph and Mary actually were at the home of Joseph's family. Many other relatives were also there creating chaos and crowded conditions in the house, so Mary chose to find privacy for the birth in the adjacent cave where the animals were kept. After the birth the baby was placed in a manager in the adjacent barn.
The church, actually churches, over the birth cave are Greek Orthodox (their altar is over the cave), Syrian and Armenian (their altars are to the left) and Roman Catholic. The congregations take turns with worship on Sunday morning, and we were there on Sunday morning, and the cave was closed when we arrived. So we went worship at the Christmas Lutheran Church and returned for about an hour wait in line to see the actual location in the cave. I'm afraid all the ornaments and tapestry made it hard to impossible to envision a cave. But they all have good intentions and we hope they are correct. I didn't get a respectable picture so I will include a commerical image.
Worship at the Lutheran church was in Arabic, and some English. The bulletin was in English and Arabic with English pronunciation. The hymnal were interesting, at least to me. Page one is located where we would call the back of the book. The music was written as we know it but from right to left, but still top to bottom. Pastor David greeted the congregation and read one of the scriptures. One of our team estimated that we, 20 in number, represented about one fourth of those attending the service. The hymns are familiar, the pastor played guitar and there was a great pianist.
After the cave we went to the traditional shepherd's field, where the shepherds who came to see Jesus that first night cared for their flocks. There was a restaurant there called The Tent, The service was a modified family style serving. First were flat bread, salads and several delicious dips for the bread: hummus, a spicy garlic hummus, cucumbers in yogurt and a green one. All great. Then they brought the huge trays of chips (French fries) and shikakob (sp?) of several kinds of meats but they served us and filled our plates. All was good costing us $17. Lunch is always a surprise both with regard to menu, service style and cost.
Our last adventure of the day was a drive through a Jewish "settlement" with a local resident as our guide. We stopped by his house and continued to learn his point of view and ask questions. He has worked for the Israeli government and explained the justification of Jews' desire to live in the West Bank and to have one government, an Israeli government where all and any persons can be citizens. If his goal was to stimulate conversation, he was successful. If it was to persuade us, he wasn't all that successful. With the killings in Paris and Beirut on our minds, the conversations continued intently through the evening meal. Now we lie down to sleep, asking for peace and hoping for wisdom among our leaders.
The church, actually churches, over the birth cave are Greek Orthodox (their altar is over the cave), Syrian and Armenian (their altars are to the left) and Roman Catholic. The congregations take turns with worship on Sunday morning, and we were there on Sunday morning, and the cave was closed when we arrived. So we went worship at the Christmas Lutheran Church and returned for about an hour wait in line to see the actual location in the cave. I'm afraid all the ornaments and tapestry made it hard to impossible to envision a cave. But they all have good intentions and we hope they are correct. I didn't get a respectable picture so I will include a commerical image.
Worship at the Lutheran church was in Arabic, and some English. The bulletin was in English and Arabic with English pronunciation. The hymnal were interesting, at least to me. Page one is located where we would call the back of the book. The music was written as we know it but from right to left, but still top to bottom. Pastor David greeted the congregation and read one of the scriptures. One of our team estimated that we, 20 in number, represented about one fourth of those attending the service. The hymns are familiar, the pastor played guitar and there was a great pianist.
After the cave we went to the traditional shepherd's field, where the shepherds who came to see Jesus that first night cared for their flocks. There was a restaurant there called The Tent, The service was a modified family style serving. First were flat bread, salads and several delicious dips for the bread: hummus, a spicy garlic hummus, cucumbers in yogurt and a green one. All great. Then they brought the huge trays of chips (French fries) and shikakob (sp?) of several kinds of meats but they served us and filled our plates. All was good costing us $17. Lunch is always a surprise both with regard to menu, service style and cost.
Our last adventure of the day was a drive through a Jewish "settlement" with a local resident as our guide. We stopped by his house and continued to learn his point of view and ask questions. He has worked for the Israeli government and explained the justification of Jews' desire to live in the West Bank and to have one government, an Israeli government where all and any persons can be citizens. If his goal was to stimulate conversation, he was successful. If it was to persuade us, he wasn't all that successful. With the killings in Paris and Beirut on our minds, the conversations continued intently through the evening meal. Now we lie down to sleep, asking for peace and hoping for wisdom among our leaders.
Saturday, November 14, 2015
Saturday - Sabbath - Shabbat
Hang on. If I had the energy this could be a long write and then a long read. Busy, full of many sights and great information, and I think, a bit intense.
Shabbat is the day of rest for Jews. It's starts at dusk on Friday and goes through Saturday dusk. During that time there are some specific guidelines that Jews must follow. One is to not start a fire. The reason for lighting a fire would be for heat, light or cooking., so when electricity became a part of those processes, the church authorities interpreted that rule as not being able to turn on anything electrical like lights or stove or heat or television. Or a latte maker. This really upset one coffee lover this morning.
The first drive of the day took us on a around-about route to Arad so we could experience the Negev Desert. Truly a desert as one might imagine one in Israel; there was nothing except barren rolling hills with deep eroded ravines and distance mountains, or higher hills. Tel Arad - remember a tel is a mound with one city built upon the ruins of another - is an outpost built by King David to secure the southern border of his kingdom. The outpost was quite exclusively military with minimal accomodations. However, there was a temple which is not a place of worship of God, but the house of God. Worship was done outside where the animals were slaughtered and sacrificed. Some of us stepped into the holiest of holy place with no repercussions. Around the tel was an ancient Canaanite village.
The next stop a bit farther north was Masada. What was the Alamo to the Mexican-Texas war was Masada to Israelites. Jewish resistors moved to Masada on top of a high plateau with very steep sides when the Romans were conquering Israel. After Jerusalem was conquered in 70CE, the Romans moved on Masada. The resistance had a great defense but over the course of three years the Romans built a earthen ramp to the top and penetrated the walls. Knowing that they would win the next day, they retreated for the night. The Jews knowing they would be captured, raped and enslaved the next day took their own lives. Men killed their wives and children, men killed other men by a group of ten. The ten drew lots to see who would kill whom and finally who would kill himself at the end. The Romans only found dead bodies the next morning. The intensity of the Romans to persist for three years and the Jews who were able to resist for three years is amazing.
At Qumran, just a few minutes farther north, we had lunch - what chaos that was as it was like a fast food cafteria and we didn't know what we were ordering or what we would be paying; it turned out OK, For the most part it was pocket bread filled with chicken or falafel and French fries. We saw the caves on the hillsides where the Dead Sea scrolls were first found and also saw the room where the scrolls were written. These were written by priests who were sort of run out of Jerusalem - they didn't agree with all the priests in authority. The writings were rewrites of some the Torah and some original thoughts about their beliefs, From where we stood we could see several of the caves: Caves numbers four and five.
Alas, we arrived at the Jordan River. The river is the borders between Jordan and Israel and even though they have a friendly relationship the border is quite militarized. The military allows tourists through to this one point where people come to look, to touch the water, to fully immerge themselves or to be baptisted. While one can say with great confidence that John the Baptist did do baptisms here, it's not likely that Jesus was baptisted here despite claims by certain groups.
The climb up to our view point at Jericho was challenging. On top one could see a mountain or high hill where Jesus might have been tempted, according to some. We saw an excavation of an old tower, claimed to be 10,000 years old - it may have been for defense or religious purposes. Jericho is the oldest city on earth and the tower is the oldest man-made structure. Jericho was chosen as a location to live because it is a beautiful oasis in the middle of the desert. One of our group plays trumpet in a band or two and he played "Joshua set the battle on Jericho and the walls came tumbling down." That may appear later in a video.
Five minutes later we foun ourselves in a major gift shop looking at jewelry, sharves, dried fruits, hand blown glass and more. We bought some goblets because they were beautiful and were made from Hebron glass. Our hotel is on the outskirts of Bethlehem, run by Palistinian Christian. We actually had milk and meat in the evening meal - Jews don't eat milk and meat in the same meal - and we might have bacon for breakfast.
Shabbat is the day of rest for Jews. It's starts at dusk on Friday and goes through Saturday dusk. During that time there are some specific guidelines that Jews must follow. One is to not start a fire. The reason for lighting a fire would be for heat, light or cooking., so when electricity became a part of those processes, the church authorities interpreted that rule as not being able to turn on anything electrical like lights or stove or heat or television. Or a latte maker. This really upset one coffee lover this morning.
The first drive of the day took us on a around-about route to Arad so we could experience the Negev Desert. Truly a desert as one might imagine one in Israel; there was nothing except barren rolling hills with deep eroded ravines and distance mountains, or higher hills. Tel Arad - remember a tel is a mound with one city built upon the ruins of another - is an outpost built by King David to secure the southern border of his kingdom. The outpost was quite exclusively military with minimal accomodations. However, there was a temple which is not a place of worship of God, but the house of God. Worship was done outside where the animals were slaughtered and sacrificed. Some of us stepped into the holiest of holy place with no repercussions. Around the tel was an ancient Canaanite village.
The next stop a bit farther north was Masada. What was the Alamo to the Mexican-Texas war was Masada to Israelites. Jewish resistors moved to Masada on top of a high plateau with very steep sides when the Romans were conquering Israel. After Jerusalem was conquered in 70CE, the Romans moved on Masada. The resistance had a great defense but over the course of three years the Romans built a earthen ramp to the top and penetrated the walls. Knowing that they would win the next day, they retreated for the night. The Jews knowing they would be captured, raped and enslaved the next day took their own lives. Men killed their wives and children, men killed other men by a group of ten. The ten drew lots to see who would kill whom and finally who would kill himself at the end. The Romans only found dead bodies the next morning. The intensity of the Romans to persist for three years and the Jews who were able to resist for three years is amazing.
At Qumran, just a few minutes farther north, we had lunch - what chaos that was as it was like a fast food cafteria and we didn't know what we were ordering or what we would be paying; it turned out OK, For the most part it was pocket bread filled with chicken or falafel and French fries. We saw the caves on the hillsides where the Dead Sea scrolls were first found and also saw the room where the scrolls were written. These were written by priests who were sort of run out of Jerusalem - they didn't agree with all the priests in authority. The writings were rewrites of some the Torah and some original thoughts about their beliefs, From where we stood we could see several of the caves: Caves numbers four and five.
Alas, we arrived at the Jordan River. The river is the borders between Jordan and Israel and even though they have a friendly relationship the border is quite militarized. The military allows tourists through to this one point where people come to look, to touch the water, to fully immerge themselves or to be baptisted. While one can say with great confidence that John the Baptist did do baptisms here, it's not likely that Jesus was baptisted here despite claims by certain groups.
The climb up to our view point at Jericho was challenging. On top one could see a mountain or high hill where Jesus might have been tempted, according to some. We saw an excavation of an old tower, claimed to be 10,000 years old - it may have been for defense or religious purposes. Jericho is the oldest city on earth and the tower is the oldest man-made structure. Jericho was chosen as a location to live because it is a beautiful oasis in the middle of the desert. One of our group plays trumpet in a band or two and he played "Joshua set the battle on Jericho and the walls came tumbling down." That may appear later in a video.
Five minutes later we foun ourselves in a major gift shop looking at jewelry, sharves, dried fruits, hand blown glass and more. We bought some goblets because they were beautiful and were made from Hebron glass. Our hotel is on the outskirts of Bethlehem, run by Palistinian Christian. We actually had milk and meat in the evening meal - Jews don't eat milk and meat in the same meal - and we might have bacon for breakfast.
Friday, November 13, 2015
Free Day
If you think "Free Day" means that I won't write a post to day, that's not so. It means that the driver is off for the day and we can hang around the kibbutz. But there wasn't much "free time" because we had to see the sunrise, get breakfast and prepare to float in the Dead Sea. Then there was the "float" and mud sponge bath (only some did that), and several showers to clean off the salt and mud. Lunch came soon after that and the talk over lunch took us within an hour of an afternoon tour of the kibbuta which ran almost until supper. Supper was filled with stories and laughter so the day was all gone. Now it's late and I'm thinking that "Free Day" should mean a day free of a blog.
And so it is.
And so it is.
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