Around the Sea of Galilee

The bus from Jerusalem to Tiberias went along a highway that goes through an area of arab villages (within Israel) and is, at points, right next to the separation barrier between Israel and the West Bank. We then went west through Wadi Ara past the arab city of Umm al-Fahim. It was a bit memory lane for me as I had visited this area on a previous visit to Israel. We then went down the other side of the hill into the Jezreel Valley. I didn't see the archaeology site of Megiddo but thought a bit about Armaggedon and the future battle in that valley. Soon I saw Nazareth from the south (the main road on which we traveled goes through the Israeli city of Afula in the valley below. We stopped in Afula as is customary on long inter-city bus rides but I felt insecure about getting off in search of water (even though my bottle had been empty since Jerusalem). That was fortunate because the usual fifteen minute stop seem about half that long and I was left to wonder how many people ended their bus ride sooner than they had hoped. Soon we were passing below Mt. Tabor--the site believed by many to be the setting for the Transfiguration. I noticed the sign for the hiking trail and took note of where I would ask the bus driver to stop if I were to want to hike that small mountain in the near future. We continued a few minutes more and started down the other side of another hill and the Sea of Galilee came into view. What a peaceful lake! I was soon to enjoy a long weekend of looking at and across it from various vantage points. The bus soon descended to below sea level and on to the city of Tiberias.

Despite my having planned ahead, a lack of signage lead me to wander around the city in search of the recommended hostel. I went south out of the city and then north out of the city and felt like at least I had my bearings. I decided that I would get into just any hostel and the second one I checked out happened to be the one I had been searching for from the beginning. It was clean and seemed new and, like I expect from a hostel, cheap. I didn't have all that much daylight time left so I stocked up on groceries and settled in for an evening of reading about Hammath--the ancient settlement south of Tiberias. The next morning I arrived there early with a bit of understanding of the site. The hot spring had been the draw of the exact location and I dipped my hand in and confirmed that the water is hot. Along with the ancient synagogue (see other blog entry), I looked around at the Byzantine era city wall, gate and roadway. Finally, I walked through the Ottoman era bathhouse that is now a small museum featuring archaeological finds from the site. Across the street, I noticed the modern spa that uses the waters of the hot spring.

It was Friday and there was more Judaism in store for me. In the early afternoon, I met up with a friend who likes to attend Jewish services and we went in search of information about the messianic congregation. We found out that we wouldn't be able to make it to that service but we ran into an adherent of kabbalim. He invited us to their sabbath service. The group whose meeting we attended is that which some singer named Madonna participates in. It was too fast paced for me. Normally in synagogue, I can barely keep up with the liturgy since I haven't chanted it hundreds of times before and because my hebrew still has its limits. But here, the idea wasn't to read every word but to scan pages at a time, subconsciously absorbing the bolded letters which probably were supposed to convey some meaning when absorbed in that way. As far as I can tell, the exercise had no effect on my theology or sense of inner peace.

Things slowed down and we were invited to join the dinner. That was a mellow paced discussion in which we were told that kabbalah could be practiced by anyone, it isn't just for Jews. I later talked to other informed folks about this group and was informed that the group we visited is very much on the fringe--orthodox Jews treat Kabbalah as the mysteries that only the initiated should be exposed to.

Saturday we went to the Tiberias branch of the Mormon church. Meetings are held in what looks like a rich guy's house (which the church owns) with a wonderful view of the Sea of Galilee.
That afternoon, a few of us threw ourselves a picnic on the south end of the Sea of Galilee and then I lobbied for visiting a site. My friend (not the one I went to Synagogue the evening before) is a licensed tour guide in Israel and he took us to a very interesting site that I don't recall having been aware of before--Susita. Susita was a hellenistic village at the time of Jesus and the archaeologic work there has uncovered a cardo (main street) and a number of buildings. There are pillars all over the place a rock channel for water brought from across a valley. Most interestingly, the site seems to fit the New Testament story of the guy who had the legion of devils expelled from him into a herd of pigs. There is a hill with a bunch of caves, which may have been used for graves; flint so the guy had something to cut himself with; and, of course, the hellenistic folks would have pigs while Jews would not have (dietary cleanliness rules). So we thought about Jesus ascending to the village, encountering the possessed guy ... and the pigs running down into the Sea of Galilee. We considered how the inhabitants may not have liked having their pig supply diminished. I thought that perhaps Jesus was showing his Jewishness a bit by cleaning up the food supply. It was one of those discovery moments that makes educational tourism so interesting.

The next day, we visited the church of the Anunciation in Nazareth. We read about Mary being informed about her upcoming motherhood from one of the gospels and we went around to the various depictions of Mary with Jesus from countries around the world.

After Nazareth, we went to Sippori. It is north of Nazareth and west of Tiberias. I think it is one of the better archaeology sites in all of Israel. It had an ancient synagogue with mosaics similar to those in Hammath Tiberias (which I'll write about separately) and there were houses / palaces / public buildings with many other mosaics. There was also a cardo with more pilars laying around and a Roman theater. The last feature we took in was the cistern. Water storage is pretty important around here and cisterns can sometimes be more interesting than they sound. This one was shaped by a fault in the earth so it felt a bit like the Narrows in Zion's National Park.

I decided to call it a weekend and went to the bus stop to see when I could get on a bus back to Jerusalem. I was informed that I would have to wait until I forget what time unless I was willing to go on the slower bus through the Jordan Valley. I soon realized that I wanted to go on that bus. Not because it was slower (it stopped a bunch of Israeli sites including small settlements in the east side of the West Bank) but because it would be a different path than the route to Tiberias and I could look at different stuff. Before long, I was looking into Jordan and then noticing Israeli settlements as well as arab villages or Bedouin camp. A bit north of Jericho, the bus started ascending to Jerusalem.