By the Sea, By the Sea, By the Beautiful Sea
The morning dawned on yet another glorious day for our travelers, who have been blessed with wonderful weather thus far in their journey.
They began their travels back to Jerusalem on Har Gilboa, the Gilboa Mountains, on the edge of the Jezreel Valley. For generations, the Gilboa was a bald ridge. According to the Bible, Saul, King of Israel, perished there with his sons during a battle with the Philistines. When David ascends to the throne in Saul's stead, he pronounces what amounts to a curse on the mountain, saying that nothing will grow there and no rain will fall there because the site harbored the death of Saul. In recent years, JNF has reclaimed the mountain and in the springtime it is a popular site for viewing wildflowers.
While on the mountain, Dror made tea for them with apples and cinnamon. This was a fitting precursor to their next stop, the Morad Winery in Yokneam. This site is exclusively in Hebrew, but there may be those among you who will enjoy it www.morad.co.il. Morad is known for its fruit based wines, including such flavors as pomegranate, date and parsley (ok, parsley isn't a fruit). Participants were fascinated by a film which explained the process by which the wine is made and enjoyed the tastes they were offered afterwards (just a sip).
From Morad they went to visit the ancient Roman city of Caesarea, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Once a thriving metropolis, much of ancient Caesarea has been preserved. Many of our participants challenged their soldier-friends to a race on the site of the ancient chariot races (we won't say who won). A stop in the original amphitheatre -- now restored and used for contemporary concerts -- prompted Dr. Bruce Sharon of the staff to offer a rap from the stage, with the sea as his backdrop. Word has it there has been quite a bit of Dr. Bruce rapping on the bus and there are those who have suggested that he ought to switch professions and become a stand-up comedian.
You can read more about Caesarea here -- http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vie/Caesarea.html. We're waiting to hear about the factual errors our travelers picked up in the film which accompanied their visit. The history buffs among them always do.
It's been wonderful to watch the group grow into a community. When they stop at a store and buy snacks (there's a lot of eating on this trip -- you can't go anywhere without Israelis offering you a cup of tea, and Israelis never drink tea without cake or cookies), they are eager to share with one another. The relationships they have built range from sophisticated intellectual conversations to simple friendly exchanges. It's clear they get almost as much out of being together as they do from being in Israel.
Have we mentioned what a privilege it is to share this experience with them?
Rabbi Elyse Winick
