26Nov2010 Day 4

26 November 2010 Day 4

Today is Friday and Sabbath starts for the Jews right after sun down. Nee said that the dinner tonight is a Sabbath meal, and so will be very good. She said the breakfast tomorrow will be the most pathetic meal of the week as they would not have anything piping hot, being unable to do any work on the Sabbath. Switching on switches was considered as work. Nee said that she once came to a lift where a man was loitering at  on a Sabbath, and who kept giving her queer looks. She was suspicious of his intentions until she realized that he merely hoped she would help him press the lift button. Obviously that was not a Shabbat lift. Her family once visited a Jewish family during Sabbath and found the place in darkness. They sat around commenting to the hosts on the lack of light in the room until her family realized that the host family wanted the light on but had not switched it on before Sabbath, and couldn’t switch it on once Sabbath had commenced. The Jews are not allowed to ask others, whether by actions or words, that they needed something prohibited done. Secular Jews, however, don’t keep the traditions and some will travel to Arab towns for entertainment during the Sabbath.

Ramon gave all of us local sweets as a gesture of friendship.

We went to the Jordan River, to a baptismal site called the Yardenit (Kibbutz Kinneret M.P., 15118 Jordan Valley, Israel. Tel: 972-4-6759111. Email: info@yardenit.com. Website: www.yardenit.com). This place was near the entry point of the Jordan River, right at the northern tip of the river, and so the water was the cleanest. Nee said that when Naaman was told to wash in the Jordan River, he didn’t want to because, in those days, the Jordan River was a very dirty river. Naaman couldn’t understand why he had to bath in such a dirty river when there were plenty of clean rivers where he was. Rev Niam spoke on Matthew 3:13 - Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. She said that John recognized His relative when Jesus approached him for baptism in the Jordan River, just as he had when he was a baby in his mother’s womb and heard his Mary’s voice.

We next went to Kursi National Park at Gerasenes. That was where the pigs went off the cliff (Luke 8:26-37). Kursi used to be inhabited by the Jews. A synagogue was found here. Nevertheless, the population of Jews here was still smaller than the population of Jews elsewhere. I trudged up the cliff where the pigs reputedly fell off. The remains of an old and small chapel are there, with a portion of its mosaic floor intact.

Nee said that the Jews consider the most important day to be their Sabbath, followed by the Passover. If the Passover falls on a Sabbath, they will choose to observe the Sabbath instead of the Passover.

We passed some cows on our way. Nee said that cows are sometimes used to graze in the “forbidden” zones of the land, where land is fenced up due to the possible presence of land mines. The farmers are willing to do that as the government will compensate them in cash for each cow that is killed in an explosion. However, the animals rights body launched a strong protest, saying that a cow’s life is still a life. They actually don’t need to use animals as the Israelis have very advanced equipment that can seek out land mines.

 

We also passed by an apple orchard. Nee said that Israel exports their best apples, leaving their second-best apples for local consumption. They were unable to grow good apples until they managed to get Golan Heights during the Six-Day War. That is because apples need a very cold climate in order to grow well.

Next, we passed by a hill heavily manned by Israel Defense Forces. They had previously fought a battle there and now use the hill as a natural watchtower from which they observe Syria.  

We alighted to snap shots of the Valley of Tears, which is not the one mentioned in the Old Testament. This Valley of Tears is what the United Nations are telling Israel to return to Syria. The land used to be under Syrian control until Israel claimed the land as war spoils after defending Israel against Syrian attack.

Passed by Mt Hermon, where a Druze village exists. The village, Ein Kenya, lies in the southwestern foothills of Mt Hermon, above the Banias Nature Reserve. Until the Six-Day War (1967), the inhabitants of Ein Kenya included Christians, but today its 1,600 inhabitants are exclusively Druze.The Druze people are descendents of a kingdom that no longer exists. They are neither Arabs nor Jews. They are a Muslim offshoot that is considered heretical by mainstream Islam. They have their own religion. They believe that their population will always remain at 7 million because they believe that they will all resurrect, that they will return after death. Since in their belief everyone alive today is the reincarnation of someone who lived at the time of their first generation, there is no reason to allow new believers to join them today. Therefore, the Druze refrain from missionizing, and no member of another religion can become a Druze.

Lunch was at a Lebanese place called Lebanis Restaurant. Next to it is Banias Hermon National Park, in the district of Caesarea Philippi. Here we ate corn, long beans, eggplant, yellow and green chillies, black olives, pita bread, and what they called a shashlik, which was a kebab of grilled meat. We were also poured a tiny cup each of Turkish coffee after our meal. This coffee tasted more “normal”. We visited the Park after our lunch. There were the Hermon River Springs. When Jesus was here, he saw that the people worshipped a lot of gods. Nee read Matthew 16:13-20 “When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?..." Rev Niam read Luke 9:22-27:“Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, "Who do the crowds say I am?" … And he said, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life." She said that after Jesus does ministry, He would go away for a “silent retreat”. He wasn’t a workaholic. As for the disciples, after witnessing Jesus’ miracles, they had to evaluate on their own what they themselves thought Jesus was. Jesus wanted them to not just listen to hearsay, but to have their own (personal) experience of God/Jesus.

Rev Niam also said that many Christians try to skip the suffering part of the Christian life. She highlighted (in Luke 9:22-27 - …Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?...) the necessary way of suffering of the Son of Man, and that, if we want to follow Him, we will need to walk the road of suffering as well. There was a rather fun element there: a sand verse pit. Using a really heavy metal cone, one could make clear imprints of the verse Matthew 16:18 (in various languages) “I tell you, you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church, and the power of Hell will not prevail against it.”

We passed by Syria at close range. We could see the fence that separates Syria from Israel.

Nee said that the Jews have 2 books of oral tradition: the Mishnah and the Talmud. She said that it wasn’t possible to follow the complete oral tradition. If any Jew attempted to do so, he’d be like the living dead, totally immobilized, unable to advance nor retreat in his steps. Some families, in order to avoid the hassle of having to prepare meals for Sabbath, actually choose to stay in a hotel during Sabbath. Some Jews live in a community called a kibbutz. There are a number of such communities in Israel. Years ago, children used to stay separate from their parents in the kibbutz but they have done away with that as it wasn’t helpful to family bonding. These days, some Jews choose to leave their kibbutz when they earn much more than the rest of the people there. All the people living in a kibbutz don’t get to keep their salary. All their money is put together with the rest of the members’ money, and is equally distributed among all members.

At the vesper, I led in 2 songs: “The most beautiful blessing of one’s life” and “Give thanks”. Rev Niam asked us to pre-read Psalm 125 before tomorrow’s itinerary. We were told that our tour bus was too big to drive up Mt Tabor, and that the usual practice was to transfer to mini-vans. We prayed that we would have no difficulty getting the mini-vans we needed (limited number, and large number of tourists expected).