A Holiday Interlude

Warning: this is a long post.  Enjoy 😊

Sukkot lasts for 8 full days.  The first day is a national holiday so everything is closed.  The last day is a national holiday so everything will be closed (and we will blog about that day).  But the middle is different.  It's called חול המועד (ḥol ha-mo'ed), or "the profane of the holiday."  What this means is that it's still a holiday but observance isn't as strict.  Public schools are closed (yay for Alice and Gabi; boo for Helen) but most things are open.

However, it's a time when LOTS of people take a vacation.  The roads are jammed.  People head north to hike.  People head to Jerusalem because Sukkot is one of the three harvest festivals of the Jewish calendar (the others are Passover and Shavuot [which is 7 weeks plus 1 day after Passover]).

So what do the Levy-Miyakes decide to do with the Denver grandparents, who are here for a week?  Head out on a vacation for three days.  Yes, we hit lots of traffic and loads of people, but it was a memorable three days.

We started with a two-day tour of the north, led by a tour guide.  Our first stop was Caesarea, a Roman port along the Mediterranean.  We saw the theater, the promontory palace, and the hippodrome (hard to believe that it is 250 yards in length -- I challenged Alice to a race but she said no).

Then we had a short hop, skip, and jump to Mt. Carmel.  This is supposedly the site of Elijah the Prophet's famous battle with the priests of Baal (see 1 Kings 18).  Today, there's a nice statue of Elijah and a Carmelite monastery, from whose roof you can see quite a long ways.

To say that we went to a roadside cafe for lunch is stretching the meaning of cafe.  Our tour guide knows people everywhere so we pulled off the road and had lunch prepared by a couple of Druze.  They prepare large, thick crepes filled with nutella, hummus, or labneh (think a cross between sour cream and yogurt).  They get rolled up and cooked on an inverted wok over a wood fire.  Again, on the side of the road.  They also have olives and honey for sale.  In addition to our crepes, they gave us some stuffed grape leaves to try.  Everything was great.

After lunch we went to Nazareth for a visit to the Church of the Annunciation.  The site sits atop the supposed home of Mary and there is some archaeological evidence to date it back to that time.  But the space is so much more.  There are at least 50 mosaics, donated by Christian communities from around the world, throughout the complex and worship space -- all of them venerate Mary in some way.  My favorite was one donated by Japan.  The American one has generated much controversy but it's pretty neat.

A short walk from the Church of the Annunciation is St. Joseph's Church.  Had to make a stop there as well to see it.  Not quite as ornate as others but meaningful just the same.

The last stop in Nazareth was the Greek Orthodox Synagogue Church.

Then it was on to Tiberias, along the western coast of the Sea of Galilee, for a night in a hostel.  Dinner was wonderful and then we walked along a boardwalk by the sea (really, it's more of a lake -- it's about 20km by 12km).

Day two began with a very short stop at the tomb of Maimonides, also known as Rambam.  He is still considered one of the pre-eminent Jewish legal scholars and interpreters of all time and his works are still read today, even 800 years after his death.  He was also the official court physician to the vizier in Egypt.

Then we went to Capernaum, the site of some of Jesus' most famous teaching.  There's an old synagogue there, although it faces north (not south, towards Jerusalem, so some claim it wasn't really a synagogue).

It also provides an amazing view of the Sea of Galilee.

The next stop was the Mount of Beatitudes.  Everyone is pretty clear to say that the site probably isn't where the sermon was delivered -- the land was available for purchase and it was snatched up.  Then a church was built and a holy place is created.

Then we got adventurous.  We drove up into the Golan Heights, a part of Israel that was annexed in 1967 from Syria, after the Six Day War ended.  It's got strategic importance -- whoever controls the land can see down into the other country and knows what's going on.  Our guide took us to Quneitra, a border crossing site that is controlled by the United Nations and is not open.  They're strict, as the sign indicates.

And then it was to the Valley of Tears, the site where the Yom Kippur War of 1973 began.

From there, we drove to Banias National Park, where the Jordan River begins.

In addition to being a national park, there is an ancient Greek temple complex there, dedicated to Pan.

Two days down, one to go.  Jerusalem called so we hopped on a bus and met a new guide at 9am for a tour of the Old City.  Jerusalem is always busy -- it's a holy city for all three monotheistic faiths so there are always people everywhere.  But during this week, it's every busier.  Tours everywhere.  Groups of people singing, playing instruments.  Honestly, it was great.

We learned about the history of the walls of the Old City, walked through all four quarters (Jewish, Arab, Christian, and Armenian), and finally made our way to the Kotel, the Western Wall, the holiest site for Jews.  Synagogues are oriented toward this site -- it is the only remaining part of The Temple in Jerusalem, originally built by King Solomon, destroyed by the Babylonians, rebuilt 60ish years later, and destroyed for good by the Romans in 70 CE.

But Jerusalem is not only holy for Jews.  We saw the Dome of the Rock, the site from which Muhammed ascended to heaven on his night voyage, and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the site where Jesus was crucified and buried.

On the way to the bus station for our trip back to Ra'anana, we did stop at Mahane Yehudah, a huge outdoor fruit/vegetable/meat/spice/candy market.  It's always this crowded.

After three days of touring, we're all spent and our feet hurt.  Everyone was a super-trooper and had a few days that they're not sure to forget any time soon (we hope).