Day 01 - Temple Mount, Hebron, Wood Carving Artist

We gathered after breakfast for a few team building exercises and then jumped on the bus to head straight for the Temple Mount. Ronen gave us a brief history of Jerusalem, focusing on Abraham’s sacrifice with Isaac from Genesis 22, and the many parallels not only to contemporary practice of ritual sacrifice but also to the story of Christ.

We also learned about the post-exilic period from 516-37BC, from Zerubbabel to Herod. Only a few Jews returned from exile in Persia - most were content to stay. But Zerubbabel, whose name means “foreigner in Babylon” returned and led the rebuilding of the temple. Less than a century later (333 BC) the Greeks conquered Israel along with most of the ancient world. Then the Maccabeans freed Israel (167BC) until Rome came and took over, eventually installing the unpopular but savvy Herod the Great as king.

We left the Temple Mount, and after spending some time at the Western Wall for prayer, we boarded the buses and drove toward Bethlehem along the valley of Hinnom.

In Bethlehem we switched to vans and stopped by the woodworking “factory” to see the craftsmen at work behind the scenes. Johnny had box lunches prepared for us, followed by time with his family in their shop. Johnny’s family is a great example of the complexities at work in modern Israel - they are Palestinian (citizens), Arab (culture), Christians (religion). They live in the West Bank - a region within Israel run autonomously by the Palestinian Authority.

We drove south from Bethlehem to Hebron to a tel, where we saw an excavated site next to a kindergarten (!) that contained identified structures from four different millennia (not a typo). In other words, the structures we saw today pre-date Abraham and are about the same age as the Great Pyramids: 4500 years old!

Ascending a staircase on top of that structure we were able to overlook the Hebron Valley in the field with Abraham originally purchased from the Hittites to bury his wife Sarah in about 2000 BC. Also buried in this “tomb of the patriarchs” are Abraham himself, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob and Leah. That grave is commemorated by a monument at the end of the field, which contains a small Jewish prayer room, but has primarily become a mosque. We returned to Dan hotel with full hearts.

- Adam Richardson