Monday: Capernaum to Gaberden

20140227, Thursday

Leonardo Jerusalem Hotel

Jerusalem, Israel

1650

 

We just returned from a long day of walking around the Holy Sites in Jerusalem and we have a few moments to put our feet up before a 6:30 dinner. I'll leave the narrative on how we got to Jerusalem to the chronological narrative, so I'll get to it right now.

Back to Monday: our first stop was at Capernaum. The archeologists have uncovered the synagogue where Jesus taught. Everything in Galilee is made of stone, Capernaum being no exception.

 

 

We read the scriptures related to the events at the time and pondered how to make those lessons applicable to us.

The tradition is that Peter and his mother-in-law lived at Capernaum and another church is built on top of their home. It is a beautiful setting on the shore of Kinneret and the weather was dry, mild with just a light breeze: wonderful.

 

I was reminded about a conjecture of the prophecy in Isaiah that the Messiah would come dwell with "people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined" (Isaiah 9:2) with a commentary that this "darkness" might refer to the basalt rock that is found in the northern area of Galilee, especially around Capernaum. The original synagogue was built using the black basalt stone. In addition all of the buildings of that time were of the dark stone. At some later time another synagogue was built on top of the original structure but this time they used limestone. The contrast is easily seen in the pictures.

 

 

The weather was so nice and the setting by the lake so wonderful that lingering here was a joy. I hope that the pictures do it justice. But we had to leave.

 

 

 

 

Next stop: Tabgha, the traditional location of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes.

 

 

The church there is nice, a mosaic on the floor with loaves and fish and an alter covering a rock upon which Jesus is traditionally thought to have sat.

 

 

 

Steven Perry is very musical and loves to have his groups sing in these wonderful acoustic chapels.

Next: Traditional site for the Mt. of Beatitudes. Again it is a beautiful location. The church has protected the area and made it available for worshippers. The actual location though was most likely lower on the slope to the shore in a natural amphitheater. We again read the appropriate scriptures and thought about the lessons, I'm not doing the era justice with these brief comments about our stops. I hope that the addition of the pictures and videos will add some depth.

 

Following the Mt of Beatitudes we went for lunch in Tiberias at a waterfront restaurant called The Deck where we were served St. Peter's Fish, which is a type of Talapia which grows in Kinneret. Outside of the restaurant we found fishermen using nets to catch the fish and saw just how many of these St Peters fish there are!

 

Following lunch we took a boat ride on the lake. This gave us a different perspective on the areas where He walked and the paths He would have had to travel. We sang more songs and Asher taught us how to dance. A very enjoyable treat to be on the water.

 

We turned our bus toward "home" but we had time for one more stop. An unscheduled stop at another ruins. It became and still is a ruin: Chorazin, one of the three cities that Christ cursed because of the people who lived in those cities rejected him even after witnessing miracles that even the people at Sodom or Gomorrah would have believed if they had been witnesses to the same miracle.

 

Our very last site for the day was Gaberden: the site where Christ allowed the evil spirits to come out of the man and into a nearby herd of swine. We did not stop because according to our guide there is nothing to see but the cliff off of which the swine ran and drowned in the Sea. My question was answered about how could they have drowned in the Sea when the water was so far away from the cliff. Apparently there is good evidence that 2,000 years ago the Lake was much larger and actually did come up to the base of the cliffs.

 

Since neither Judy and I can recall anything that we did on Monday night I'll assume that we worked a bit on this log, had dinner and went to bed early.

 

It's now just before 6:30 so it's time for our dinner tonight.

 

20140225 Tuesday #2

20140225

TuesdayEin Gev, Holiday Resort, Israel

1700

 

We have returned for the evening and will be spending our last night at Ein Gev so we spent the last hour in the room re-packing our bags and preparing for an early morning departure. I think that we have done what we can to prepare and now it's time to return to Sunday.

 

After our second visit to Nazareth we drove to another ruin: Beit She'an which among many other impressive sites has the largest intact Colosseum.

Our in-country guide, Asher, spent a couple of summers a few years ago digging in and uncovering parts of the site. It is still under construction and he seemed genuinely excited about seeing what they have done since his last visit. This day was a walking tour in the ruins and I was hot and sweaty. Tired? Yes. Still enjoying the trip? Yes!

What are they sitting on?

Yep.

The site is very large. I'll save the many other pictures we took for the link at the end of this post.

 

Our last stop of the day was at Yardenit which is on the Jordan River and where someone has created a baptismal site for pilgrims who want to be baptized in the water where Jesus was baptized.

 

It is certainly more commercialized for my taste and since the scriptures place the location of His baptism near the region of Jordan and Jerusalem this place for me was truly unadulterated exploitation. Nevertheless we witness some fun as people were rejoicing as many were being baptized.

I had also promised a friend at work that I would bring him some water from Jordan so that he could give it to his priest to perform baptisms. Judy was good enough to scoop some into a water bottle for me. I hope that it makes the journey home safely.

 

Another long day. Sunday was finally over: another beautiful sunset recorded. Dinner and then bed.

Monday morning we arose leisurely at 5:30 and got ready for breakfast and boarding the bus for a push off by 0800.

More pictures from Sunday here: https://plus.google.com/photos/110443086774709195319/albums/5987142449121461217?authkey=CPHdsarT75KjDg

 

20140225 Tuesday

Ein Gev, Holiday Resort, Israel

0700

 

A good sleep last night. Mostly cloudy this morning with good sun breaks but since I do not know the weather patterns here I'll reserve my forecast. Some clouds are high and dark enough that I would not be surprised at a shower in places. It does seem a bit cooler while I'm sitting out on the deck but it is only 0700.

Back to Sunday:

Following our trip to the mountain-temple we took the too fast taxis down the hill and boarded our bus again. We went back to Nazereth . The city today was not as near crowded. It was still obviously full but not packed as it was on Saturday.

Our stops today were city-center to visit the Church of the Annunciation and Joseph's church just next door. Both of them built on the traditional locations where Gabriel visited, calmed, instructed and blessed Mary and then Joseph. I am just now struck how instructive it would be to study how these angels issued callings to their members: usually starting with "Fear not." Perhaps there are further lessons here.

The thought came to me while visiting the town, and recognizing just how small the area is, that Joseph must have known Mary and her family very well. Traditionally the Groom is somewhat older than the Bride so Joseph may have know her and watched her grow and become prepared to be his Bride. With that familiarity, and understanding of her goodness, that it may have been much easier to trust her and accept her and prepare himself for Gabriel's visit.

Throughout the church and the grounds various countries have donated art which depict Mary

 

 

 

 

This piece donated by USA

 

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20140224 Monday

Ein Gev, Holiday Resort, Israel

1745

 

The day's trips are done and Judy and I are sitting on the back porch watching Kinneret with waves a bit over one foot tall lapping on the shore. She is more active tonight than the last couple of evenings, the forecast for tomorrow might bring us more clouds and possibly rain. We have experienced wonderful, warm - but not too hot - weather: the hottest was 26 degrees C. The wind has usually been slight. At 1715 the sun is now setting behind the hill on which Tiberious sits. Judy just rushed to the shore to take photos for the end of the day. Dinner is at 1830 so I have a few minutes to try to keep this log current.

Back to Sunday morning.

The wake up call was 0600; however, I was awake by 0400 and laid in bed trying not to wake Judy. At around 0500 I realized that Judy was doing the same for me. We gave up. I got ready and then worked on this log while Judy got ready. Breakfast was at 0700. The food has been very good with a nice variety each meal. For me though the breads have been a nice surprise and a consistent highlight.

We boarded the bus at 0730 and drove to Mt Tabor which is one of the traditional sites of the transfiguration.

The road to the top is too steep with multiple switchbacks so we had to leave the bus at the bottom and all got into smaller 10-person taxi vans for the ride to the top. The Franciscans have purchased the land and have built a church and monastery to commemorate the event. Judy and I were trying to come up with an appropriate term for what many of the Christian churches have done in building these commemorations: we came up with "exploit;" however, I have pondered how I really feel and I have come to a more charitable conclusion. Yes, there is some degree of exploitation but I am very grateful for their efforts to preserve the history and make it available for me to visit.

We do not know where the transfiguration took place. We know from the scriptures that it was at a nearby mountain. Tabor is one such place, the highest in the area. Mt. Hermon is another candidate but that is much further to the North.

Well, in either place the lesson learned is the same: The steep and long bus ride up the mountain-top / temple gave me time to think and to appreciate that temple worship is often preceded by real work and that work is necessary to change our lives to be worthy to participate in temple ordinances and enter into sacred covenants.

 

Christ took Peter, James and John up this long steep mountain-top. Only then - at the top of the mountain - in the only approved temple - could Moses and Elijah return and perform their sacred work. Now I've often wondered why Moses and Elijah had to return to provide their keys to Him who gave them the keys in the first place. Did He, while as a mortal, somehow temporarily gave them up? This does not ring true to me yet I consider it a possibility. More likely though as I read the available text and ponder the temple experience that I think it was that it was at this time, in this mountain-top temple, that Peter, James and John received their endowment. One day we will learn more. For now I am content to recognize that we too must often take the long steep climb to prepare ourselves for the temple.

 

 

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20140222 Saturday, Shabbat Shalom

20140222 Saturday, Shabbat Shalom

0530, Natanya, Israel (Beach resort town just North of Tel Aviv/ Jaffe

The Seasons on the Sea

I'll just lightly touch on the misery of air travel recognizing that anyone who grumbles about some slight inconvenience while enjoying a trip to Israel does not deserve the right. We loaded the plane around 6:30 after another quick international security check. We were surrounded by wonderful people who were traveling home, vacationing like us ( nearly all in our group were taking this flight) or visiting families and friends. It did take nearly 3 hours before we actually pushed back: we don't know the real reasons; however, our seat mate could see that there was some issue with the luggage. It looked to him that they had to unload our plane and then load it back up with luggage from another plane as if the luggage was originally loaded into the wrong planes - can you imagine that!?The crew did seem anxious to leave because the days are relatively short this time of year and the Shabbat starts early and they wanted to get people home in time.

Tel Aviv, Ben Gurion Airport

 

10 hours later we touched down in Tel Aviv.

Bright blue sky with occasional puffy clouds and nearly 70 degrees.

After retrieving luggage and three other members of our group who arrived on different planes we bundled ourselves into our waiting bus and met our in-country tour guide: Asher Ashkenazi. Asher has been taking "LDS" groups on tours for over 20-years. He seems very pleasant and knowledgeable and well versed in Mormon theology and culture as he quoted liberally from the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Bible, Various church and civic leaders in describing the area in which we will visit.

Our guide, Steve Kapp

Our first stop was to drive quickly through Tel Aviv and visit the adjacent old town of Jaffa, known in our scriptures and, among other biblical stories, the place when Peter was given his vision of the unclean animals on the sheet instructing him to take the gospel to the Gentiles in Simon the Tanner's home. We visited the traditional home of Simon.

Simon's House

We will hear "traditional" during much of this trip. Most of the sites are just unable to be verified. This home actually has people still living in it and the family will not be disturbed in order to do a proper historical review. In any case - if not here then in a home much like this very near here which for me suffices.

Judy, from Jaffe looking towards Tel Aviv

 

Following our visit to Joppa we drove north through Tel Aviv and up the coast to what seems to be a Mediterranean Sea resort town of Natanya and are staying in the The Seasons on the Sea Hotel.

We offloaded or luggage, got keys to our rooms and pushed the button for the elevator. We got in the Shabbat elevator. Learning the lesson of Shabbat and the guidelines of appropriate behavior during this holy day. The one elevator that is designated as the Shabbat elevator dropped to the basement floor and then made an express to the top, 17th floor. It then descended only two floors at a time, skipping the odd numbered floor. In the back of my mind I seem to remember that one of the guidelines is to not walk up more than two floors during Shabbat. I'll have to research to confirm this vague memory. In any case a treat to be involved in the Shabbat in such a manner.

After checking in we went down for dinner with the group and met many who were coming out of Synagogue and were attending Shabbat meal in the hotel restaurant. What a wonderful tradition of gathering family and friends for prayer, song, communion and a meal. We enjoyed listening to their song/prayers before their meal and interacting with the family groups who were celebrating Shabbat. We need to learn so much from how to really observe the Sabbath and how to gather our families in devotion to our Father.

After dinner the Naumann's and us took a walk on the moonlit beach for about 45-minutes enjoying the night, the miracle of being here and each other. Bed was welcomed around 9:30. Sleep was solid until 4:00 - jet lag! I tried to lay still in bed so as not to wake Judy. She was doing the same for me. I gave up at 5:00 and started the day. It looks as if Judy is ready now too and at 7:00 breakfast and Cesarea, Mt. Carmel, Megiddo and Nazareth are waiting for our footsteps.

 

Additional photos are found here:

https://plus.google.com/photos/110443086774709195319/albums/5987137147110512577?authkey=CJXpxN_g2PWNQg

 

Location:Israel, Natanya

20140223 Sunday 1725 Ein Gev, Holiday Resort Eastern Shore of Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee)

20140223 Sunday

Ein Gev, Holiday Resort

Eastern Shore of Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee)

1725 Hrs

We just returned from our Sunday excursion and we have some time before our 6:45 dinner call. I'm sitting on our back porch of our room for four nights. The sun has just set and Judy has joined a few of our new friends gathering sea shells by the sea shore; which, of course, is not a Sea at all. The "Sea of Galelee" is a large Lake: the lowest fresh water lake in the world. I don't know who first translated the name of the lake into the English Sea of Galilee but whomever it was did a disservice to all language purists. I like the Hebrew name best: Gennersaret The Sea of Galilee, is I believe more rightly known as Kinneret or Lake of Gennesaret, which both mean "Harp" reflecting the shape of the Lake. The other names are Lake Tiberias and journeying further into the lexicon jungle is written in the Hebrew as יָם כִּנֶּרֶת, or Judeo-Aramaic: יַמּא דטבריא, and finally Arabic: بحيرة طبرية). Let me pick up the thread again on Saturday morning:

Our first stop Saturday morning was at the Cesarea National Park to see the largely restored amphitheater constructed by Herod, or I should say by the slaves under Herod's rule.

History lesson in Herod's amphitheater

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the National Park there is also the remains of his seaside palace and the hippodrome, which may actually have been the site of the earliest Roman games which became the forerunner of our modern Olympic Games.

Looking towards the hippodrome

 

The day was warm, dry and beautiful. The wind was only wispy and walking along the Mediterranean was a delight.

Just a short bus ride further up the coast, which actually should have been just a modest walk further up the Park is the remains of the aqueduct - again built by Herod for his city he named Cesarea in honor for his benefactor at Rome.

 

Back in our chariot we drove north to Mt. Carmel. Bibliophiles will remember the story of Elijah and the false priests of Baal which happened on Mt. Carmel. Today the site is "protected" or perhaps the cynic might prefer a more negative term by the Carmelite Order of the Catholic Church.

Other than being in total awe about standing upon rich history I enjoyed the view over the Valley of Migido where one day the Battle of Armageddon will be fought. The Migiddo Valley is rich and fertile and is one of the many prophecies that have and will yet come forth from this region: one can easily see that this valley is an example of how the desert will bloom as a Rose.

 

 

A side note about spelling: it seems that with so many nationalities and their languages converging in one spot that the rules of how to spell an item - or even the name of the location - become rather lax. Notice the two different spellings of the Valley and even the name of the large Lake.

The top of Carmel was also a great way to get our bearings on the locations of the sites we have seen and will yet see on our trip which surround the Jezreel Valley (aka the valley of Megiddo, aka Armegedden) or the valley next to Meggido to which we drove next.

Tel Megiddo is a site upon which village, after town, after city had been built over the ruins of the previous dwellings. After a couple few centuries a large mound, or Tel, forms. Archeologists then dig through the layers revealing the history of that site. The largest Tels need at least three items to survive: location, for trade; location for growing food; location for water.

Successful Cities also need a good stout wall and defensible city gates.

 

Food and grain storage.

Large enough for horses, chariots and other livestock.

 

 

 

 

And a water supply. Megiddo dug a shaft down and then horizontal to the spring located outside of the city walls.

Apparently some people do not like walking down empty water shafts - either that or they don't like husbands taking candid pictures ...

 

 

We did finally reach the end of the tunnel:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We bid our farewell to the long-ago inhabitants of Migiddo and turned our attention to Nazereth.

Deadlock. Standstill.

 

Anyway you want to describe it; as soon as we got into town we got no where fast. It was the Jewish Sabbath so the Jew's shops were closed; the Muslim's Sabbath was on Friday so they were shopping; the Christian's Sabbath is on Sunday so they too were shopping so it looked as if all of the Muslim and Christian shops were open; however, the Jewish shops were closed. I guess the good thing is that during a weekend, no matter what day, one can find some shop open. In any case, the little village is no longer little and is now a much too crowded town whose borders are crammed because of the tourists who flock to Mary and Joseph's town. Today must have been the day to go to town and shop or to enjoy a day off of work: it was a 5-street traffic jam and we were in a huge tourist bus. There were a few other tourist busses but our guide tells us that this is the slow season and the crowds are no where near as bad as when it is busy.

50 feet and 45 minutes later we rounded the center of the city and headed back out of town towards our next stop.

The local YMCA had acquired a parcel of land and have preserved and restored it to look like the time of Mary. There was a very small museum through which our guide escorted us and then out to the field to demonstrate, with actors, what the area would have looked like and what the townspeople would have been doing on a long-ago spring day in Nazereth. On the surface it was a bit hokey but then again it is another attempt to protect and preserve precious history so I will now forbear to comment because we owe a great deal to those who keep these sites open to the public.

A 400-yr old tree transplanted from the Mt. of Olives

 

It became easy to imagine that time in this place

 

During construction of the historicle village they uncovered interesting items; such as the location of a wine press. Notice the groove between the upper level where the grapes were juiced and the holding container below.

 

 

 

 

The "village" has re-created traditional shepherding and carpentry and weaving crafts along with a working olive-press.

 

 

 

 

The olives are harvested and then broken with a large stone. Once prepared for pressing they are then gathered and placed in multiple stacked woven baskets and placed over a gathering vat, such as this hole:

 

A large "pressing-pole" is prepared with weights and allowed to press down on the baskets containing the olives.

 

 

 

 

 

The olives release their oil which then seeps through the woven baskets to be collected in containers placed in the gathering vat below.

 

 

 

 

Following our time-travel adventure we drove to the "traditional site" where following Jesus' announcement in the synagogue that "This day this scripture is fulfilled in your ears" and the people exclaimed accusing him of blasphemy and tried to take him to a high cliff to toss him over. If this is actually the site I can better understand how He slipped out of their midst because the site is rather a distance from the village. It is across a small valley and up the hill. At any time he could have slipped from their midst, especially if anyone else was there to assist him.

On our visit we found a number of families enjoying picnics and outings. One man motioned to us in the bus as we drove by to join him and his family and pointed to his small BBQ as if he would be glad to share his lunch.

Once Steve, our guide, was pulled and pushed to the top of the cliff-top we gathered to discuss the events of Mary, Joseph and their young son as they started their family at this place.

 

The drive to our current place on the eastern shore of Gennesaret was long. Sunset arrived quickly. Darkness and our private musings enveloped us. The road was windy. The people on the bus were tired. We drove mostly in the dark. We arrived in the dark. The complex is on the Eastern shore of the lake, about 1/3rd up from the southern shore. It has a main building with a cafeteria, a gathering "pub" a few conference rooms and offices. On either side are about ?40. small cabins each. (I've re-looked at the compound and the other side of the main building there are many other cabins so this is larger than I first found. The rooms have two single beds for flexibility for couples, or two singles; a small bathroom with just a shower; a small kitchen with a 1/4-sized refer, range and sink. We have a closet and desk and a black shiny rectangle-thing that sits on the wall with wires leading to it. It is about 1" thick and seems to be looking at us from the opposite wall as we lie in bed. Each of the cabins have a small back porch with views of the lake. It is a nice setting and a comfortable place to call home for a few days.

 

Additional photos for this day are found here:

https://plus.google.com/photos/110443086774709195319/albums/5987138662222252033?authkey=CLuYpe_NvMf_Ug

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