We have just finished a month of holidays that started with Rosh Hashana on Sept 16, followed by 10 days of repentance until Sept 26, Yom Kippur, then 8 days of rejoicing for the harvest in a fragile sukkah, to remind us  that our joy comes from our security in God. On Sunday the pastor, David Pileggi spoke about gratitude even in fragile circumstances. Behind him is a Sukkah built by the Hebrew congregation of Christ Church.

The final day, Oct 8, is called Simchat Torah. It is a joyful celebration of coming to the end of reading the entire Torah Scroll (Genesis to Deuteronomy), rolling it back to the beginning on the same day and beginning again. We went to a celebration in a park to see the dancing.
Here is a little video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z7_bx4h5Zg&feature=g-upl

 

Sunday afternoon we found location of (not the original building) the Upper Room where Jesus and the disciples ate the Last Supper (Passover Seder)

 

 

 

In the same area is the traditional tomb of King David and the entrance to some caves that mey have been catacombs where beleivers hid during times of persection.

It was here that the symbol "grafted in" was found on the walls. It represents the followers of Jesus (fish) and their Jewish heritage(Menorah and Star of David)

 

 

 

 

Sunday night we had dinner with Tom and Gayle, Phil's dad and step-mother who were there to give talks to a group of ENT surgeons in Haifa.

 Monday we drove along the Dead Sea to Masada (fortress)

 

We took the cable car up this time--

 

------rather than the ancient snake path-the same one used in the first century to get all the stuff up there----look for little people on the trail

 

 

 

 

You will remember the story of the 960 Jewish rebels who fled to Herod the Great's palace in the desert, resisted for 2 years but were finally overcome with a ramp. They all chose to kill each other rather than die at the hands of the cruel Romans.
During their stay they converted part of the palace into a synagogue in which was found a scroll with the scripture from the prophet Ezekiel describing the resurrection of the nation.

 

"Dry bones hear the word of the LORD---

I will make breath enter you and you will come to life---

Come from the four winds O breath and breathe into these slain that they amy live--

They say 'our bones are dried up and out hope is gone--'

This is what the sovereign LORD says-

I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them--

I will bring you back to the land of Israel

Ezekiel 37

 

 

It is interesting to see the remains of the Roman camps around the base of the mountain, seige walls  originally 2 miles long and 6 feet thick, long after the Romans have ceased to exist.

We also revisited Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 1947. These are among the most famous and important documents ever found, and they confirm the accuracy of the manuscripts from which our modern Bibles are translated. Below is the cave in which they were found.

On the way home, between Jerusalem and Jericho is the Inn of the Good Samaritan. The location is accurate. From a hill across the highway you can see the outskirts of both Jerusalem and Jericho, and the difficult terrain which the road traversed.

Today there is an Ottoman era building houseing a museum of mosaics, but there are no remains of the inn to which the Samaritan took the Jewish man attacked on his way to Jericho.

Tuesday Oct 9 was a Hebrew lesson day, but in the evening we heard the Israel Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta in an amazing performnce of Mahler 5
-too bad they didn't have any paintings to display.
Today was another class, but this time an outing to the Mahane Yehuda (Jewish Camp/market)
Something like Kensington Market only much bigger and selling only produce from Israel. I went with my teacher Reut and after learning all the names of the foods, we bought falafels and went to her house for supper and coffee.

 

 

 

Tomorrrow we leave for the Jesus Trail 60 km hike from Nazareth to Capernaum. We will take the blackberries but not the computers-security and carrying them etc, so our next blog will be after we get back on Oct  17th.