Nazareth and Cesarai

Shabot Shalom
A very happy Jewish greeting on this Sabbath. We are preparing for dinner on the Sea of Galilee.

Today, we visited the areas related to Mary's annunciation; Joseph's lineage and thus, Jesus' lineage.

The famous well in Nazareth is the only one of its kind and is of natural spring water. It resides inside a small temple (allegedly the one Jesus preached in. I have my doubts.) Also, the cave of Mary...

These would be the spots where the women gathered to speak and collect water for the day. Here all the gossip was fetched. (Where is our modern day equivalent of the gossip well? For our family, community, church gossip?)

Speaking of water, did you know that since 1945 the Israeli's have been confiscating land from the Palestinians based on the water route? Palestinians ache for water, while the Israeli's have plenty. The UN is working on this ... slowly. It doesn't seem like the rest of the world cares.

Visited the ruins of Ceasarea. Amazing! no pictures to download, because i either have time to download pictures or write. These ruins are where Cornelius had his conversion. The whole area looks like Cape Cod, except the Mediterranean is right here, big and bold and beautiful !

The ruins also contained the area where the chariot races were held. the public latrines on the way in were male and female together at the main entrance, and open for all to see.

In the 4th century the Christians cut all the heads off the beautiful statues, citing pagenistic practices. Likewise, they closed the theater and chariot races, destroying much of it along the way. What are we Christians destroying today in an effort to exert our dominance?

Mt Carmel where Elijah fought with 40 Ba'al worshippers is amazing. The mountain sticks out like a ginormous pimple on someones smooth face. It is beautiful. The mountain range itself is about 16 miles long and 4 miles wide. We drove along it and overlooked Nazareth, Galilee etc. Outstanding landscape, lush and prosperous. Too bad the Palestinians don't get such good land to have crops. They are given the land with rocks and no water.

The plains of Jezreel are totally amazing. Beautiful. Can't wait to show you these pictures.

By the way, did you know the average person of Nazareth walked 15 miles a day?

Visited the Kibbutz, but only to eat. No time to play.

Now we are in Tiberius, where the majority of Jewish interpretive thought and writing came from.... and I have to leave for dinner, it is after all a special night here in the midst of a very Jewish population.

Shabot Shalom!
Prayer:
I pray for peace which is not the absence of conflict, but the presence of love - a love demonstrated in the non-violent mission of Jesus. Amen.