{I am going to post my photos on my Facebook page, as they are several of them, and I label them according to each place.}
Israel is a country approximately 250 miles long and approximately 45 Miles wide. It is similar in size to the state of New Jersey. The southernmost area, Eilat is sometimes called the Miami Beach of Israel. Only 8 percent of the population lives in the Southern half of the country. Much of it is desert.
It is a country of 9 million people, including:
6.5 million Jews
2.3 million Muslim Arabs
About 120k- 150k Christians (mostly Arab)
Around 85% of the population live in apartment buildings.
Only the very rich live in free-standing homes. The three largest cities are:
Jerusalem - - around 1 mil - mostly government workers
Tel Aviv - - professional workers
Haifa/Mt. Carmel “God’s Vineyard”- mostly blue collar workers
Tel Aviv means “Hill of Spring”. The word “tel” was a general word in ancient times, which meant mountain, hill, mound - - there was no distinction according to size or shape.
Today, we traveled to our first stop through Netanya (which means “Gate of God”), arriving at Caesarea by the Sea (an Israeli National Park) where we spent a lot of time, through Yokneam, to Mediggo which overlooks the Jezreel Valley, then to Haifa/Mt. Carmel area and finally to our lodging out in the Galilean countryside not far from Mt Tabor.
Joppa (the forerunner of Tel Aviv) was the first deep-water port in modern Israel.
Herod the Great built the deep-water port at Caesarea with Roman concrete which contains a yeast, which “heals itself” of cracks and such. A far superior product to more modern concrete and scientists have only recently discovered this yeast that makes it such a marvel.
Herod also built hippodromes there in Caesarea and elsewhere. He built them for entertainment purpose, most notably for chariot races.
The “modern-day” concept of 1st, 2nd 3rd place winners? Instituted by Herod, at Caesarea.
Caesarea was the center of Roman life here in Judea. That is why Cornelius the centurion was here. All the centurions were headquartered in Caesarea. It took almost 12 years to build the deep water harbor. It was started in 22 BC and it was finished in the spring of either nine or 10 BCE. The harbor covered 60 acres. It could accommodate hundreds of vessels of different sizes. In later periods under the Muslims, and then the Crusaders, Caesarea continued its extensive trade with major trade centers of commerce around the Mediterranean.
Caesarea was built after Herod the Great found himself on the losing side of a battle for the emperor-ship in 31 BC. He had been supporting Mark Antony, who lost the fight. The new emperor Octavianus became Herod‘s new master. In order to prove his loyalty, Herod built the deepwater port of Caesarea, and dedicated it to the new emperor.
Herod was an architectural genius, but he did not inspire loyalty. His wife, thinking that the new Roman emperor would behead him, was already plotting to replace him when he came home triumphant from his meeting with the emperor. So he had her put to death. About 10 years later, he realized his sons were also plotting against him to overthrow him, in part, because he had killed their mother. So, he had them tried, and put to death also. About five years after their deaths, the project was complete.
One of the ancient contemporaries of Herod said it would be better to be a pig in Herod’s household because he kept kosher, but he killed his wife and sons!
Continuing to explore Caesarea, we visited there the ruins of the only mithraeum excavated in Israel.
In the early second century, CE, one vault was converted into a Mithraeum. The contrast between the the shaft of sunlight, reaching directly upon the altar from the opening made in the ceiling, played a role in the cult of Mithras, known as the Unconquered Sun.
Only men were allowed in the Mithraeum. They came to be called Fathers. All the temples to Mithros faced East, because sun rose there.
Mithraeumism became the religion of the Roman soldier. Sun worship.
1st Christmas was celebrated in 310, around the time of the birthday of Mithros, the Winter Solstice.
While at the mithraeum, we heard teaching on the original Christians, the Nazarenes, followers of Jesus of Nazareth.
The Nazarenes is a first century CE group that sort of drops off the historical radar in many many cases. The most important associations between the Jewish believers and Caesarea has to do with Constantine’s biographer, a guy named Eusebius of Caesarea, who in this role became privy to many ancient religious writings and the custodian of them. The earliest followers of Jesus were Torah-observant believers. We know, for instance, that James, the half-brother of Jesus, issued orders for Paul and others to take a Nazarite vow, regarding the circumcision issue that is referenced in Acts. The next 14 bishops of The Way, the Nazarenes, were similarly Torah-observant. But, the 16th was a man named Marcus, a Roman, and when Marcus came in around 135 CE everything that was Jewish about Christian faith was wiped out from the city of Jerusalem. The Jews themselves were forbidden to go back into Jerusalem except on Tisha B’Av, the anniversary of the date the Temples were destroyed. And, when they did, they would see pigs running through the streets and all manner of pagan defilements everywhere they looked; so, the deal was that the main “Christian Center” switched from Jerusalem to Caesarea.
Clearly, Eusebius had a bias. He discussed areas that he should talk about and literally omitted much about what was more important. But, the point that is that this switch to a Roman Bishop of Jerusalem led to the official Catholic history and trajectory, going forward from Caesarea.
Also at Caesarea, we could see in the distance near the shore a large power plant. This complex produces 25% of the drinking water in Israel. Much drought in this land! But about five years ago, several desalination plants were built, and now water is plentiful in Israel. Wonderful potable, drinking water! In fact, Israel now exports drinking water to Jordan.
We went on to stand in the ruins of the palace of Herod Agrippa, where Paul stood in Acts 24:17 when he came to bring offerings to Caesarea.
Pontius Pilate was the Roman prefect who presided over the trial of Jesus of Nazareth (see Matthew 27:11-26). A large monument fragment has been unearthed in the ruins of Cesarea, with the name Pontius Pilate on it.
There is a magnificent, restored ampitheater in the ruins at Cesarea National Park. The Romanesque outdoor theater seats 3000 people, and has amazing acoustics. In the theatre, in the sound box, Agrippa I made his famous speech in his splendid, golden robe and did not give God the glory. In just a few hours a worm ate him from the inside, causing his death.
We left the national park and journeyed north. The town called Or Akiva (which means Light of Akiva) was named after Rabbi Akiva, who was a pioneer in educating people in the Talmud and Torah. He had over 24,000 students.
He was tortured and burned to death. As he as dying he said, “The parchments are burning, but the letters are flying up to the heavens.” That’s a close approximation of what he said. His point was that the enemies could destroy the papyrus scrolls, but the letters and words front the scrolls resided in the hearts of his students, and no man could take those away or extinguish them.
As we rode, our guide talked about the achievements of the Rothschild family, how they developed modern Caesarea and led restoration efforts in the area. The Rothschild Foundation today is still spending money on educational efforts in the area.
On the way to Megiddo, shortly before we got to Megiddo, we went by the city of Nazareth, and also Mount Tabor, where the transfiguration of Yashua (Jesus) occurred, and also where the battle of Deborah occurred. Recall that Deborah was one of the Judges.
Re: Megiddo and other major events and places, we tend to only think of them as just future or just past. In many cases they are both. They have been prophecies fulfilled not long after the prophecies were made, but they also have an unfulfilled future prophecy.
While at Tel Megiddo, we saw several ancient structures - - a well, a granary, stables for horses, and a “high place”. You remember reading about the “pagan high places” in the Old Testament? How the judges and kings could never seem to get rid of all of them? Well, some of the bamot (bah-MOAT) were places dedicated to the worship of Israel’s one, true God. When the Mishkan was headquartered at Gilgal, for instance, it was ok to worship Hashem (Father Yahweh) upon the high places. Later, when the ark of the covenant was moved to Shiloh, worship of any type on the high places was forbidden.
What was the number of people in a chariot in ancient days? One was the driver. One was the archer. The third one was in the back, the one who held onto the other two. “The Seatbelt.” I thought that was interesting.
At Megiddo, we looked out from the top of Tel Megiddo, and one of the rabbis on our tour spoke of gates - - {Hebrew: shearim}
Jacob was the first to speak of the Gates of Heaven. The gate he spoke of was a vertical gate, which resembled a ladder, hence the term “Jacob’s Ladder”. This was the first mention of such “gates” in the Old Testament.
There were three Old Testament people who made radical changes in their lives through the power of God:
Moshe
Jacob
Joseph
The havdalah service at the close of every Shabbat (Saturday night) is the closing of the gates, for example.
“May the gates of Heaven always be open to us”, the rabbi said.
Another rabbi on our trip spoke of gates.
Every morning in the Tabernacle and later the Temples, morning sacrifices would be performed. There were 24 rings north of the altar, inside the Nicanor Gate. The sacrifice would not be done until the sunlight would touch the 2nd ring of these rings.
The Nicanor Gate faced East, for that to happen. The Temple walls had many gates, for specific purposes.
When you look down from Tel Megiddo to the Jezreel plain, you are flabbergasted at how huge that plain is.
From Megiddo, we went on north to the Haifa area. This was land given to the tribe of Zebulun, when Joshua made the land distribution at the time the 12 tribes entered into the land of Canaan and began to conquer it. Haifa consumes the area from the top of Mt. Carmel all the way down to the Mediterranean Sea. Haifa is today a very busy harbor, a center of industry and the home to Haifa University. At the university is the Hecht Museum, a smallish museum with many ancient Israeli artifacts. The main attraction one of our rabbis wanted us to see was a section of one of the eight domes that were inside
Section of the dome inside the double “Hulda Gate”. There were 8 of these domes inside the “Beautiful “ Gate, another name for the “double” Hulda Gate. (There was also a triple gate on the southern wall of the Temple complex. Hulda is not a person’s name; instead it is a Hebrew word that means, basically, rodent.
These eight domes were made of limestone from Jerusalem. Jerusalem is soft when quarried and hardens upon exposure to light and air. Some types of limestone quarried in Israel turn to powder at a certain temperature. That is why some have endured and other evidence has not.
The double Hulda gate “the Beautiful Gate”, because there were 15 steps leading up to it, was where the common people entered the South wall into the Temple. The triple Hulda Gate was for the priests, Levites and animals led for korbanot “burnt offerings”.
The two Hulda gates were excavated by the famous Israeli archeologist, Benjamin Mazar, in the late 1960s.
These gates were gorgeous. Few people living today, that are not Muslim. The message of it is the beauty of the gate is not on the outside, but on the inside.
In Ezekiel we are told to learn every exit and entrance to the Temple. The order of the words, “exit” and “entrance” were not accidental. Why “exit” first? Because the exit was more important than the entrance. You left the Temple a changed person!
We left the Haifa University area after going up into a high tower onto the 31st story. It gave us a magnificent view of the harbor area. There is a cable car, sort of like the one at Stone Mountain in GA, that runs from the port area up to the top of Mt. Carmel, to the University area.
One of the rabbis told us about the Druze of Mt. Carmel.
They think they are descended from Jethro, Moshe’s (Moses’) father-in-law.
But, they also think they are descended from the Chinese.
They worship a very secretive religion.
Most adherents never know all the secrets.
Tremendous fighters, most have huge mustaches, and wear small white round hats. As for the women, they bake a particular type of bread known as Saj. It is a very thin bread, thinner even than the American “wrap”. It is rolled very thin and laid on the top of an inverted kettle, where it bakes quickly. I have tasted it before and love it in falafel wrap sandwiches. Delicious!
After we left Haifa, we journeyed an hour or so to our hotel destination in the middle Galilee. It is called Kibbutz Lavi, off of Hwy. 77. The accommodations are very nice. I am going to like calling this our “home base” for the next five nights. It is after 10 p.m. here, and so after tonight, four more nights.
I’m beat (again) and am going to head to bed, because our pace is strong during the day, and we have to be downstairs for breakfast at 6:45.
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