The man of the hour

While I know those that visit Israel outside of the GTI tour group end up having a wonderful and moving experience, I’m not sure if it can truly compare to going with Yehuda.

[Yeh-who-da] is the man of the hour. Tour guide extraordinaire, he is what sets this trip a part from the rest. If Terry, Laura and Yehuda combined forces I’m pretty sure they could run a small country or a large university or a fortune-500 or a giant date palm tree empire. They keep us moving, keep us learning, and keep us in awe of the history and culture of this great country.

While I do not think a single blog post could give justice to all that encompasses Yehuda, I wanted you to know a little bit about this man and why he has been such an important part of this trip. He.knows.everything. He.has.done.everything. He.makes.fun.of.my.height.on.a.daily.basis (I’m pushing 5’ for those of you who have never met the tiny Asian girl writing the blog posts.) I had the privilege to interview him during dinner tonight and here is what we talked about!

Name: Yehuda

Favorite Food: “I eat a lot of stuff. I like a lot of stuff. I eat everything almost. It is better to ask what I do not like. I do not like papaya. I do not like green bean. I can eat it but I do not really like.”

Favorite Place in Israel: “Hard to tell. I like City of David very much. I like a lot of stuff.”

Career Experience: Yehuda was with the Israeli army for four years, then worked abroad for a few years. He was a student studying history and then the manager of a field school. As manager of a field school, Yehuda managed the different tour guides leading detailed tours around the region. He was later a manager of a big touring company and has been with GTI since 1988.

Family: Yehuda has a wife and two kids - a son named Arnon (named after the river bed that goes into the Dead Sea) who is 23 and a daughter named Arbel (after Mount Arbel) who is 16. His wife is a psychologist and sounds very, very smart!

Hobbies: While Yehuda is very busy, in his free time he likes to read, work in his garden and swim.

How many tours a year? Yehuda leads 32 tours each year!!

Favorite part of leading tours: “It is very dynamic work. Every few days you are with new people. Every day you are in a different place. Since you are with different people you can explain things many ways. There is no end to the study. You study all the time. You can always study and that is why I like it. It is also like being your own boss and I like that.”

Least favorite part of leading tours: “When people complain for no reasons. When people behave not nice to each other.”

How do you walk so fast? (I had to ask because he is truly the fastest walker I have ever met and it is super impressive. He could walk competitively and win gold. So far, only Paul has beat Yehuda to a location - even though he did get a head start, is half his age, and about 6 foot 3....but that probably had nothing to do with it......): “I love to walk. I am just fit.”

As you can see, Yehoda is awesome and everyone should have the opportunity and privilege to learn about the history of Israel from him!

Now, as far as the daily play-by-play, I have to tell you that I’m afraid of giving you a full recap because you would be reading forever. The group would finish this trip, fly home, get back into our jobs, realize we forgot to bring back a souvenir for that one family friend we always forget, scramble to find an extra bottle of Dead Sea hand cream - and you would still be reading my blog post from today.

We learned a lot. We felt a lot. We transitioned from Old Testament to New and got to see some of the places Jesus walked, lived and built his ministry. Needless to say, it was a pretty amazing day.

To save you some time and some sanity, I’ll try to make this quick.

Where Did We Go:

1. Mount of Beatitudes: This is the location where Jesus gave his famous Sermon on the Mount. Very surreal to get to stand here and see that this is where he started his ministry.

2. Chorazin: My favorite part of the day. Chorazin was an ancient synagogue and it was here Terry highlighted the thread of Jesus’s ministry and cultural context. Jesus was a part of the Jewish culture, therefore he was able to relate to these people on a deep and intimate level. Just like he is able to relate to each of us in a way that is personal and understanding.

For example, we were able to learn why Jesus was able to teach and preach to the Jewish people like it was NBD. Because it really was NBD. In Jewish tradition, synagogue sermons (this is not the actual or accurate term) included readings from the scriptures and a short talk given by the priest. Guest speakers, new students and other teachers were often allowed to give sermons, which is why Jesus was able to get up in Luke 4 and tell everyone he was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy.

We also got to see the ruins of an insula, which was the dwelling place of extended families. It was here Terry told us about the Jewish marriage custom. If it was arranged for a young man and woman to marry, they would move into the man’s father’s house and the father would be in charge of building a room for them (I’m not going to say anything negative about this situation because I know my parents are reading the blog and I love them very much and would never ever want them to think I wouldn’t want them that heavily involved in my marriage life.......) But by understanding this context, we were really able to visualize John 14, where Jesus talks about his father’s house having many rooms and that he will prepare one for us, and understand where Jesus was coming from when he was speaking to the Jewish people about this.

3. Capernaum: Where Jesus called the first disciples.

4. Tabgha: Location of Jesus’s restoration of Peter at the Sea of Galilee.

5. Bethsaida: Location where Jesus fed the 5,000.

6. Mount Arbel: Beautiful and such a lovely site.

7. Cliffs of Garadenes: Pigs, pigs, pigs flying down the cliff.

I’d like to end the blog with a quick shoutout to Dennis and Donna. Twenty years ago, Dennis and Donna planned a visit to Israel for their honeymoon. Unfortunately, the intifada was going on so they had to cancel their trip. Twenty years later, these two lovebirds flew across the world to finally experience their Israeli honeymoon.