Full Day Tiyul of the Week

Today we traveled about two and a half hours up north to Beit Shearim. We sat outside and learned about the development of Oral Law in the Jewish Tradition. 

We discussed Hillel versus Shemai and whose ideas we follow today. We mainly follow Hillel because it is his grandson who codifies the Amidah, consolidates Judaism, and establishes many other traditions to make the Jewish religion a unified one. We learned about Yehuda and his accomplishments and contributions. 

Yehuda is the man who codifies the Mishna, or decides what is Mishna and what is not. We went into some burial caves that had both Jewish and Hellenistic Art. We could tell the difference between the Jewish and Hellenistic because Jews are not permitted to have art such as animals on their stones, where as the Greeks and Romans were. 

We also saw many other ancient sculptures, such as one of a Menorah from Beit Hamikdash. These burial caves were a very desirable place to be buried, because the location was where the Sanhedrim sat, and everyone wanted to be buried by Sanhedrim. After this part of the Tiyul, we headed to a nice spring. Supposedly the water was about 80 degrees, but it was definitely colder than that. 

We got changed, had pizza and vegetables for lunch, and then went swimming. There was also a waterfall on the other side that we could play in. Swimming was fun and refreshing. We then got back on the bus and headed to a small museum that contained a mosaic. The mosaic had been very well preserved. 

We discussed what each item on the Mosaic symbolized then we went outside and split into our classes. In our classes we discussed our Jewish values. We played a game having to do with what we believe and what we would choose to do in certain situations having to with Israel or Judaism. We then went back to Tzuba to sleep after a long day!