Our last blog with some great sites March 26-April 3

Last Blog: Trip to Lake Kinneret (also known as Sea of Galilee) Stan:
March 26-28: Finished first week of army volunteer program on Thursday after lunch, got taken to train station in Be’er Sheva, took train directly to Haifa where Son Aaron picked us up in rental car and went to hotel Hof on Mt Carmel overlooking the beautiful Haifa coast line towards the north. Next morning we started the adventure driving to Bet She’an National Park. Bet She’an is 400 acres of archeological ruins starting from 16th Century BCE as an Egyptian capital in this area; the name Bet She’an is known in hieroglyphics from a 1478 BCE carving. Later King Saul was killed at nearby Mt. Gilboa (that we visited earlier) and his head/body brought here for display. Residents of a neighboring city that Saul had saved from the Philistines came at night and took his body for a proper burial (burning). King David finally conquered Bet She’an and much later the town was destroyed by the Assyrians in 732 BCE. Later the city was a Greek city and then conquered by the Hasmoneans and became Jewish again. During the Jewish revolt against the Romans in 66 CE, the Jewish residents were murdered. But the town recovered and grew with much Roman construction, which has now been uncovered and is very impressive. The Romans certainly knew how to entertain with a large 7000 person theater still intact. Next to the theatre, they had an interesting toilet system with 20 toilets for both men and women together lined up in a row against one wall. A person put his tush on 2 stones separated by a few inches. There was a running water drainage system between the 2 stones. The Romans also had an elaborate sauna and steam bath house with a very clever heating system. The Roman temples, columns, market places were quite impressive. In 749 CE a major earthquake destroyed the city that was then buried until serious excavations started in 1986. A large Tel site on the edge of the Roman city with 20 layers of settlements has not been excavated completely. A modern city with the same name was built nearby in 1948 with the founding of the state.

2. We then drove a short distance to Bet Alpha National Park where a 6th Century CE synagogue was uncovered in 1828 on a kibbutz Hefzi-Ba. The mosaic floor completely intact is one of the most beautiful in Israel and consists of a zodiac circle with inscriptions in Hebrew and Aramaic, biblical features, Jewish religious objects such as menorahs, and lions. At one end of the floor is a fabulous inscription by the artists who built the floor thanking the elders who hired such inexperienced stone workers for the job and paid them 100 measures of grain in 520 CE. The museum had a good film showing how the contract was negotiated by the elders who had to keep up with the synagogue built by their neighbors in Tiberias a little north. The synagogue was probably destroyed by the same earthquake that hit Bet She’an 4 km away.

3. We then drove north on #90 to Kohav Hayarden National Park, which has the Crusader fort Belvoir (‘fine view’ in French) that was built on top of an ancient Jewish town Kochav. This site, at the top of a 550m mountain reached by a long winding one lane road, which has to stretch when a bus passes-good grief-- was very beautiful with wild flowers and a flock of very unusual and stunning birds. Unfortunately we could not identify this stork-like bird with a long narrow beak, long legs, and a body of white with black wingtips. The fort was built by the Hospitaller Knights in 1168. In 1180’s the Arabs under Saladin conquered Jerusalem, Acre, and Safed and most of the area from the Crusaders but not Belvoir. But after an additional 1.5 year siege the Knights did surrender in 1189 and, because they put up an heroic struggle, they were not massacred as was the Arabs’ custom. Much of the lowers walls of many buildings are still standing including the moat which was built because of tradition and not because they had water at the top of this mountain. The rocks removed from the moat served to construct the entire fort. A few years later the fort was razed to prevent its use in a future Crusade. In the 18th century an Arab village was started here and in 1948 the invading Iraqi soldiers stationed here were defeated by the famous Golani Brigade of the Israel Defense Forces. Most interesting is the fact that the Iraqis never signed the armistice agreement in 1949 that the invading Jordanians, Egyptians, Syrians, and Lebanese signed which makes the Iraqis technically still at war with Israel to this very day.

4. We drove north again to Lake Kinneret passing the Jordan River at Yarden where we saw many people being baptized in white robes in the river. We turned east around the Lake to Maagan Holiday Village where we stayed for the night. It is owned by a kibbutz who put their land to more profitable use with this very beautiful resort right on the Lake. We had Shabbat dinner here with some fine Israeli wine from this area. Most of the guests were foreign and not Jewish. After a great Israeli breakfast we started off to enjoy more ancient sites.

5. We went to the ancient city of Tiberias that has an unique history since the city was purchased by a Jewish woman Donna Gracia HaNasi in 1500 or so from the Sultan of Turkey for a fee and yearly charge. She wanted it as a place of refuge for Jews fleeing from the Inquisition, that had hounded her from Portugal to the Netherlands to Italy. She also broke the Pope’s embargo of a port in Italy to Jewish vessels or merchandise because she had the support of so many businessmen in many countries. A hotel in town is named after her and it is constructed in a renaissance style with a renaissance lobby and a museum dedicated to her that we visited.

5. We saw two Tombs, of many in this city, that of the famous Maimonies, Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon, of whom it is said ‘from Moses to Moses there is no other Moses.’ He was the greatest Jewish philosopher, one of the greatest Torah scholars, scientist, and physician. He left Spain in 1150’s and spent most of his time as the Sultan’s doctor in Egypt where he wrote most of his many works. He was buried in Tiberias in 1204. His tomb site has a large metal work above of unknown significance and was unimpressive and tacky. Religious Jews pray here 24/7.

The other Tomb was that of Rachel not the biblical one but wife of the famous Rabbi Akiva. He was an uneducated shepherd and she was the daughter of a very rich man, Kalba Sauva. She married him when he was 40, he left to get educated and came back many years later with 20,000 students as his followers. He wrote much but in 135 CE he thought Bar Kochba would lead the Jewish people to victory over the Romans. After a few years of Bar Kochba’s success the Romans got very angry and massacred the Jews again. Akiva was captured and martyred very cruelly at Caesarea. He was wrapped in a wet Torah and burned at the stake. His students yelled to him swallow the flames to die quicker but he replied no I can see the words of the Torah going up to Heaven. Rachel was supposed to be very educated in Jewish Law also. The stories are better than the site. Religious Jews pray here everyday. Unfortunately it was also a very tacky site—this brought an end to the tombs Aaron and Roberta were willing to visit.

6. Just south of Tiberias is Hamat Telverya National Park which has a 4th century synagogue with its mosaic floor totally preserved. This was really high quality workmanship unlike that of the Bet Alpha synagogue. The mosaic seven branched candelabrum/menorah was spectacular. This site had a hot springs that attracted Romans in great numbers even before Tiberias was founded by the Romans in 20 CE. The ancient ruins were only discovered in 1920 while a road was being constructing. An earlier 3rd century synagogue was also located here. The mosaic floor has Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew inscriptions and a large Zodiac with the sun god Helios in the center, showing the heavy Greek influence even at this late date. This must have been a wealthy community to have such a beautiful building as this floor would suggest. The hot spring next door may have something to do with their success. Some parts of the 4th century village are also visible.

7. Headed north again to the northern part of the Lake to Capernaum National Park the site of Jesus’ preaching and some miracles and of Peter’s home. Capernaum in Jesus’ time was a small Jewish fishing village with a synagogue which is now under a very impressive late 4th century synagogue. The latter has beautiful columns and stone work with praying facing Jerusalem as all synagogues do even in Israel. Peter’s home has large modern church over it. The same earthquake in 749 destroyed the town and an earlier church over Peter’s house. The area was excavated by Catholic archeologists and it seems the church owns the land too. Priests live here in an impressive building with beautiful grounds. A very large number of Christian tour buses were here.

8. Just a few kms north is Korazim National Park with another ancient synagogue and a town known for its good wheat as mentioned in the Talmud. In the Christian scriptures Korazim is mentioned as a city condemned by Jesus. The town however dates from the first or second century CE. By the 3rd-4th century the town grew and one can see many buildings from this period including a synagogue and homes. This synagogue did not have a mosaic floor but did have many massive columns and capitols and carved roof beams suggesting a very large congregation in a large building. In the 16th century a traveler reported Jewish fisherman here. The town had some small number of residents until the start of the 20th century when it was abandoned again. It has a great view of the lake down the hill.

9. We then drove to Rosh Pina a town founded in 1880 by the Rothchilds for farming and silk production, which the latter lasted only for 3 years. The town was on the hill since malaria was present in the valley below when they bought land and started farming. The Arabs only grazed their animals on the hills that were disease free. A doctor was brought in to fight the malaria and great progress was made. A fabulous chocolate restaurant, near the 1880 synagogue, that was the doctor’s home, is called Chocolatte. It has the most spectacular dish--chocolate soup that we had last year and again this visit. It is made with dark chocolate and some hot spice that gives it just a little kick and is so rich and delicious. The inside has old stone arches all around and has so much atmosphere. The old part of town is quite quaint.

10. We then drove to the ancient town of Katzrin in the Golan not far from the Lake Kinneret. After 1967 when Israel captured the Golan archeologists started looking for ruins and one got lucky spotting a stone archway sticking up in the Bedouin village of Katzrin. The name is recent and the ancient name is unknown. A whole town was buried here with a large synagogue, oil press, and assorted oil processing equipment. During the Byzantine period 400-700 CE the area flourished with 25 villages. They found an inscription from Uzi who built homes so one reconstructed home is called Uzi’s home. Most unusual is that one home is finished with a roof and one could go inside to see how people lived 1500 years ago. They had a bed suspended from the roof that was let down at night. The cooking area was shown in detail. Again the most elaborate building in the village was the synagogue with impressive columns, capitols, lintels with nice carved pomegranates. It was the center of all life in the village.

11. We drove back to Haifa by way of route #85 which passes several Druze and Arab towns alongside of the hills on the north side of the highway. We stopped in Acco at the Moroccan Synagogue, this is not ancient but started in 1949 by one young refugee from Morocco who wanted to recreate the big synagogue in his home town. In 1949 there were no Jews in the city; in fact the British used the old Arab prison here and hanged some Jewish prisoners here because there were no Jews to protest. Now many Jews live here along with many Arabs and until one bad incident earlier in 2009, coexistence was real here. The key here is that the synagogue he built is now amazing with mosaics on all floors walls, ceiling all designed by one simple guy with a big dream. The mosaics portray all aspects of Jewish history, Israel life and nature. We were very lucky to get in and did only because his grandsons were coming to study Talmud just as we tried all the locked doors.


12. That evening we had dinner in the German Colony section of Haifa that is all restaurants and bars now. Stayed at Hotel Hof again and enjoyed the view of the harbor. Took train at 7am to get to Tel Aviv Central bus station only 3 blocks west of train station by 10am.

March 26 Sar El tour described in earlier blog

April 2-3. Finish army volunteer program on Thursday early because Army base was having a memorial weekend for fallen soldiers of the Paratrooper Brigade and they wanted to clean up the base completely without us. Took train to Tel Aviv, cab to hotel, and then took cab to Israel Museum with incredible stuff, cab back, collapse in bed to get up at 3AM to get cab to airport for 6am flight to London. One funny at airport checking in, our luggage was too heavy, so we backed up and removed paper and books into our carry on backpacks until the luggage just made the weight limit. My pack was 25 pounds and Roberta’s was 20. Then nonstop to SFO and Santa Rosa Airporter back to Santa Rosa airport and cab back to home sweet home. Thank Gd we’re safe and the blog is now finished!