Galilee and Beyond

We made it back to Haifa, got our luggage and discovered that there are two bus stops in Haifa one going North and one going South (where we took the bus to Caeserea). To go to Tiberius we need the other bus stop which is definitely not a tourist attraction. We made it safely on the bus and to Tiberius. We got to our hotel just in time to enjoy the tail end of the hotel’s dinner buffet. After breakfast (another really good buffet) the next morning we met our tour guide, Zvika, for a tour of areas in the Galilee. It turned out to be a private tour for just Shira and me. We headed northwest for a hike up Mt. Meron, which was Israel’s tallest peak prior to 1967. We saw snow on Mt. Hermon, Israeli’s ski resort. There were a number of school groups visiting Mt. Meron. We learned that Israeli schools travel with arm guards due to attacks in the past against school children. From the East lookout we could see Lebanon and Syria as well as the some beautiful landscape. The hike along Mt. Meron was one of my favorite parts of the trip. We came across a group of young people who were following the tradition of hiking across Israel (sort of like hiking the Appalachian Trail). After Mt. Meron we went to Safed, home to some really old synagogues and religious history (most notably Kabbalah). We had a nice time discuss Jewish history in the synagogue dating back to Rabbi Joseph Karo, author of the Shulkan Aurech (a book that helps to interpret the Jewish Law dating back to the mid-1500s). Because of the hard ground the Jews could not bury old books underground, so they put the books in an above ground Geniza. We also saw the differences between synagogues of Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews. One of the big ones is the seating arrangements. In a Sephardic congregation the seats are around the sides so people can face each other, while in Ashkenazi there are rows of seats. In order to ensure everyone entering the sanctuaries had proper attire the synagogues offered paper-kippot. In the Ashkenazi sanctuary our short sleeves were too short, so we had to wear one of the provided shawls. There is an artist colony in Safed where jewelers, painters, sculptures, etc make some very beautiful work.

After Safed we headed along the picturesque countryside, passing an area that our tour guide pointed out was destroyed during the most recent Lebanon missile strikes, but the community help replant trees and make it green again. Our destination was the tomb of Rabbi Yonatan ben Uzziel. Tradition holds that unmarried people who visit the tomb will find their beloved within the next year. It was a popular place with bus-loads of young women arriving and praying away. According to the tour guide he has been invited to two weddings and one of my fellow congregants said it worked for his child. I will let you all know…

Next was an “Israeli Lunch” of hummus and stuff. Pickles and pickled vegetables were quite popular. Our waiter was a Bedouin, getting ready to move to Finland to join his brother in seeking a better future. I had the hummus and schwarmma with falafel, French fries, and more. It was quite good and very filling.

We returned to the Sea of Galilee (or the Kinneret) and Tiberias. Earlier we learned that the sea level has dropped about 13ft. We drove through a kibbutz that specialized in growing bananas and had boats that were FAR away from the shore, but had been closer. We drove around Tiberias a bit before being dropped off at the bus station. This station had a little convenience store and it was still daylight, so it wasn’t as scary as Haifa. We managed to find the bus to Jerusalem along with a large number of soldiers. We would later learn that Thursdays are not a great day to travel because that is when the soldiers get to go home from Shabbat. It was a LONG trip over three hours, but luckily Shira and I had seats. There were many people standing/sitting/lying in the aisles. The saving grace of the trip was that there was free wi-fi on the bus. While it was dark on the trip I got to see some road signs, including Modin (home of the Macabees). When I finally spotted the sign for Jerusalem I was super-excited. Although it was hard to tell if it was the awe of Jerusalem or I was just glad to be almost off the bus. We arrived at the Jerusalem Central Bus Station and were very happy to find our luggage still on the bus (it was really crowded when we put it on and as more people joined I was concerned someone might make room bus tossing it off). Security was tight getting into the bus station with a metal detector and an x-ray machine for bags. We found a taxi and got to our hotel, Little House in Rechavia. We asked for dinner recommendations and wound up at “The Coffee Shop” where we again got a HUGE meal. I had a salad that could feed a whole community. Shira had a tuna melt that was on large pieces of bread. We didn’t realize bread came that big. It was then back to the hotel room complete with free wifi preparing for our first day in Jerusalem.

Pictures