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Israel Study Tour with Neighborhood Church
June 18-30, 2016
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Think of a Garden
“Think of a garden. What comes to mind?” When our guide, Ronen, asked us this question, our answers were filled with flowers, and bushes, and memories of our own gardens at our homes. “But what good is any of that?” Ronen replied to our answers as he led us through a tour of a “biblical garden.”
When most of us think of the Garden of Eden, we think of beautiful flowers and trees everywhere. But there ‘s one thing we usually leave out from this garden: food. The Ancient Israelites were incredibly dependent on the food they could grow in their own gardens. Things like olives, grapes, and wheat and barley made up the core of their diet. Within our first hour of our first day, we saw a garden in Israel, one filled with grapes and olives, and even rosemary and lavender. When the people of Israel were hungry, they walked to the garden. We, now walking in the same footsteps of these Ancient Israelites, are hungry for a taste of their story, and a glimpse of our own story as well.
Yad Hashmonah
The Biblical Village on the slope of Yad HaShmonah provides visitors with hands-on exposure to the manners and customs of the ancient Israelites. The garden includes olive trees and press, grape vines and several winepresses, wheat field and threshing floor, watchtower, Bedouin tents, ancient Galilean synagogue, and a burial cave. All have been constructed according to the best archaeological knowledge of ancient life.
To sum up every single thing we did each day, I’d have to write page after page after page. However, there were some incredible and amazing highlights from our first day around Israel.
Beth Shemesh
A border city between Judah and Dan, Beth Shemesh was given to the Levites. Beth Shemesh was the most important Israelite city in the Sorek Valley as it watched both east-west traffic through the Sorek Valley and north-south traffic along the “Diagonal Route.” Recent excavations have shown a thriving city here from the Middle Bronze Age through the Iron II period.
While out on the road for our first day, we stopped to visit Bet Shemesh, Azekah, The Caves of Absalom, and even an underground pigeon farm (weird I know). At Bet Shemesh we learned of the Israelite history, filled with conflict as Sampson tried to lead the people of God. Yet, even in his failure, God brought forth good. At Azekah, we hiked to the top of a hill to see the amazing Elah Valley where David killed Goliath! We even stopped by the dried up riverbed where David would have picked his stones, so we could grab our own stones as well. At the Caves of Absalom, we crawled (and I really mean crawled), through a windy, curvy, and often far too narrow network of caves. It was here we came face to face with Psalm 142 and the desperation it would take to hide in such caves.
Tel Azekah and Elah Valley
The Brook Elah is famous for the five stones it contributed to the young slinger, David. Some surmise that David chose five stones instead of the one needed in case he needed to face Goliath’s four brothers.
Every site is almost too much to take in. We often wish we could stay for hours on end when we hear our guide shout that it is time to return to the bus. But after each site, we have already come to learn that we can’t simply just look and move on. Being in Israel is an experience of the body, the soul, and the mind, and we love every second of it. It is only day one, but there is so much more to see, so much more to taste, and so much more to experience.
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