Category Archives: Israel

Gazelle Valley Park, Jerusalem

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My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look! There he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice. Song of Solomon 2:9

My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look! There he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice. Song of Solomon 2:9

photo: Israel Ministry of Environmental Protection

Gazelle Valley, in the middle of urban Jerusalem, has been home to the native Israeli mountain gazelle for millennia, but, in recent decades, the encroaching city severely suppressed their numbers and real estate developers threatened to wipe them out permanently.

photo: Israel21c

photo: Israel21c

The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI), along with area residents, fought for 15 years to maintain the wild patch, and they won! Then the city of Jerusalem, community groups, and NGOs worked together to clean up the neglected plot and turn it into a nature reserve and community gathering place. The park opened in the spring of 2015, with enhancements planned for years to come.

photo: Haaretz

photo: Haaretz

Within the 64-acre park, the replenished (and growing!) gazelle population has 22 acres to roam freely without being disturbed by human visitors. In addition to glimpses of gazelles, birds and other wildlife, humans enjoy walking and bike paths, picnic tables and benches, guided tours, educational programs for all ages, chamber music concerts, and weekly Friday evening Shabbat celebrations.

Gazelle Valley Park is open daily. Entrance is free of charge.

 

 

Banias / Caesarea Philippi, Israel

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waters of the Banias Spring (one source of the Jordan River), with Pan's Cave, aka the Gates of Hades, in the background - For Greco-Roman pilgrims to the sanctuary, the large cave, with its seemingly bottomless pool and flowing stream, marked an entrance to the underworld or “gates of Hades.” The spring no longer flows out of the cave but rises from the ground below.

waters of the Banias Spring (one source of the Jordan River), with Pan’s Cave, aka the Gates of Hades, in the background – For Greco-Roman pilgrims to the sanctuary, the gaping cave, with its seemingly bottomless pool and flowing stream, marked an entrance to the underworld or “Gates of Hades.” The spring no longer flows out of the cave but rises from the ground below.

In or around the last decade before the Common Era, the city of Caesarea Philippi was commissioned by Philip the Tetrarch, a son of Herod the Great. The site already had a long history as a religious sanctuary. For over two centuries it had been known as Paneas, a major sanctuary for the Greek god Pan. The modern Arabic name Banias derives from the Greek Paneas. Before the Hellenistic period, the area was sacred to the Canaanite god Baal. Sheltered in the foothills of Mt. Hermon, the region’s highest mountain, with abundant  water and a lush, garden setting, it does feel like hallowed ground. Continue reading →

Capernaum, the Town of Jesus

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the incomparable Jacob, one of our guides in Israel, at Capernaum

the incomparable Jacob, one of our guides in Israel, at Capernaum

After leaving his hometown of Nazareth, Jesus made Capernaum, on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, the center of his ministry. The Gospels tell many stories of Jesus teaching and healing there.

the synagogue at Capernaum

the synagogue at Capernaum

 

Today, you can see the remains of a 4th-century synagogue, which stands on top of an earlier synagogue that is likely the one where Jesus preached. The remains of Peter’s House and the 5th-century church built around it can be viewed through the glass floor of the modern church built over the site. The tradition that the house belonged to Peter (the disciple of Jesus also known as Simon)  goes back to the middle of the 1st century.

NAME THAT COUNTRY Episode 119

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In 1947, local Bedouins found the first cache of what came to be known as the Dead Sea Scrolls in a Judean Desert cave. Eventually, eleven caves would yield pieces of some 800 ancient manuscripts, the last found in 1956. It’s generally accepted that the scrolls were collected by the Essenes, or a similar Jewish sect, which had a community living at Qumran, in the shadow of the caves.

Can you name that country? 
See below for answers.

Continue reading →

Pilgrimage

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As long as humans have found transcendent meaning in earthly places, they have made special journeys to those places. Traditionally, a pilgrimage is an act of religious devotion, but lately the word is used to describe a trip to any place that is especially inspiring to the traveler. Continue reading →

Chagall’s Jerusalem Windows

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The 20th century artist Marc Chagall was born and raised in a Hasidic community in the city of Vitebsk, Belarus, then part of the Russian Empire. He moved to France as a young man but throughout his long life his art continued to reflect the home and Jewish mysticism of his youth. Chagall’s works are instantly recognizable by their intense colors and floaty, dreamlike quality. Jewish themes are ever-present.

In the early 1960s he did a series of 12 stained glass windows for the synagogue at Hebrew University’s Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem. The 12 sons of Jacob became the 12 tribes of Israel, each represented by a gem stone and other symbols according to the blessings of Jacob and Moses. Chagall’s Jerusalem windows are brilliant expressions of these spiritual and temporal foundations of Israel.

The Hadassah Medical Center synagogue is open to visitors Sunday-Thursday, 8am-3:30pm.

See tours to Jerusalem here.

NAME THAT COUNTRY Episode 110

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This 1:50 scale model depicts the capital city of our mystery country as it was 2,000 years ago. In the 1960s, archaeologists, historians and architects used ancient texts and archaeological records to recreate a mini version of the city as it may have looked just prior to its destruction by the Romans in 70CE. In the foreground is the oldest part of the city, founded by David, the country’s 2nd king. The model is on display at the national museum.

Can you name that county? 
See below for answers.

Continue reading →