City of David

This morning we woke up early to get ready for our first all day tiyul! We took a 15 minute bus ride to the Old City of Jerusalem. We first stopped at a beautiful overlook. 


We could see the Dome of the Rock, El Akza (one of the major Muslim Mosques), and three different churches. The Dome of the Rock is the site where the Binding of Isaac (from the Tanakh), where Mount Moriah is located,and where Mohammed talked to God and ascended into heaven. 


According to Jewish tradition it is also the first site God created when he created the world in the book of Genesis or in Hebrew, B'reisheit. This site is important to so many major religions and it was a beautiful view. We sat down against a wall and had our Jewish History class. We read about the story of the prophet Samuel and King Saul. We also read about Hannah and Bat-Sheva. 


Then all the Jewish History groups got together and we circled up around the view of Jerusalem and recited a prayer called Mincha. This is just one of the three prayers Jews are supposed to say everyday. It was a great experience to be praying as one group while looking out at the Old City of Jerusalem, one of the most holy places you could ever be at. The prayer ended that portion of class and we got on the bus and headed off to the Jewish Quarters.


In the Jewish Quarters we were each given 25 shekels and about an hour for lunch. I got pita and falafel which was very good. Then it was freezing cold so I got a hot chocolate. 


We then walked around and got ready to walk to the City of David. 
Here is a little Biblical Information about David:
David became the hero in the eyes of the Israelites. Originally he was hired to play the harp to make King Saul feel better. As David got older, he became a competitor of Saul's for the spot as King. When Saul died in a battle against the Philistines, David became King. The most interesting thing we learned was that there is actually no archeological proof, besides one piece of pottery found far away, that a guy named David ever existed. Although we still do not know if David was real or not, this site was incredible and seemed so real. 


We sat down outside and discussed why Jerusalem was picked as the capital. We learned that Jerusalem was located in the center of two of the tribes, so neither tribe could claim it. Also, Jerusalem is geographically in the center of the country of Israel, just as Washington D.C. was geographically in the center of the original 13 colonies. 


In the Tanakh, it states that Jerusalem was conquered through its "Sinour" or in English, water channel. However, the word means "pipe" if directly translated from Hebrew to English. 


We then explored this site in the City of David. We crawled through excavated tunnels and looked in caves. These were excavated in desperate hope of finding proof that David existed. From the platform at this site, we could see the Russian Church and "Mountain of Olives" which is a very important graveyard. The graveyard is important because tradition says that when the Messiah comes, these will be the first people resurrected. 


We also could see an Arab Village which is land that everyone fights over. 


After this adventure in the City of David and the Old City of Jerusalem, everyone was extremely exhausted and tired. We came back to Tzuba and relaxed before dinner, finished up homework, and we are getting ready for a full day of school tomorrow. 

Sataf....School...So Much to Do!

Monday--


This morning we took a 2 minute bus ride to an agricultural site called Sataf. At Sataf we had class outside with a nice view. In class we learned about the Exodus. We discussed the religious aspect of the Exodus and how that is possibly the single most important event in Jewish History. We also discussed the Triangle of Jewish History. The three points of the triangle are people, land, and Torah. At Sataf, we discussed how the Jewish people achieved all of these. 


After the lesson on the Exodus, we took a nice hike through Sataf. We saw agricultural terraces, and olive trees. We also saw pine trees which we learned are not native to Israel, but the JNF used the money people has donated to plant them. This has now changed and they have started to plant trees that are native to Israel. 


We sat down above the terraces and read some more Tanakh. We read the book of Judges and acted out plays of each story. We saw how each Judge got progressively worse and therefore the people asked for a king. I was in the story of Samson. 


We then got to see the water source at Sataf. We crawled through a long dark tunnel, and then it opened up into a bigger cave. The cave was pitch black so luckily we all had flashlights. We then got to drink the water in the cave which was flowing directly from beneath the Earth, and therefore it is the freshest water around. 


We then returned to the Kibbutz and had general studies classes. After classes we had a group activity about the 7 native species of Israel. The 7 species are wheat, barely, olives, grapes, dates, pomegranate, and figs. The game was...two people come up to the chair and get blindfolded, then they get fed one the foods and they have to be the first to guess what they ate. If they get it right, the team gets the whole box.  It was a fun night.