Sunday, April 3, 2022

Trip of a Lifetime - Day 9

Three Churches, Two Kibbutzes, and a Winery

Have you ever woken up in a Kibbutz?

I HAVE!!! 

I don't know what the locals call this handsome guy, but I call him Bill. He's very vocal, and not at all camera shy, so I was very pleased with our encounter.

I met Bill at the edge of our kibbutz, on my way down a trail along shore of the Sea of Galilee. Our guide, Naz, explained that it's actually a lake, and it's never been called Sea of Galilee except for in the New Testament. It's called Lake Tiberias, and it's the largest fresh water lake in Israel. This is where Jesus recruited some fishermen to follow him, where the fishermen made the miraculous catch of fish, and where Jesus walked on water. The shores of this lake are where Jesus fed 5,000 people, and delivered the Sermon on the Mount. I wanted to go down at sunrise and snap some photos. The trail went along the lake for a very long time before it opened to a clearing where I could take photos, and by then I emerged at a marina. 

When I was at the kibbutz at 6am I was hearing the thumping of some techno music somewhere to the south. I didn't know what it was, but I followed the shoreline and discovered that the music was just beyond the marina. There were hundreds of people dancing, in what I termed "Tent City Dance Party."  When I got back to breakfast, Naz explained that those are Muslims partying right before Ramadan, when they will fast. Someone said, "Oh, like Mardi Gras!" He nodded. Not a perfect parallel, but that's the idea. Ramadan started yesterday in Israel.

Tent City Dance Party

At 7:00am we enjoyed another fantastic breakfast of fresh veggies, hummus, grapefruit, omelette, cheese, couscous,... I'll stop there. The buffet was three tables full of food, and I sampled quite a lot of things. All of them were fantastic. 

We boarded the bus and were back on a tour of a second kibbutz, three churches, and a winery. Maybe that should be the title for this adventure! (By this time the consensus of the group that it would have been preferable to have three wineries and one church, rather than three churches and one winery, but I was content with all the churches.)

I'll discuss these events out of order, starting with the kibbutz. The kibbutz movement took place in the early 20th century, coinciding with the rise of socialism around the world, and the Zionist movement that led Jews to emigrate back to their homeland. In order to worship, observe kosher dietary restrictions, and preserve their way of life, immigrant Jews coming to Palestine from all over Europe and Asia needed to join together in community. The idea behind a kibbutz is that everyone contributes to the community in the ways they are able, and everyone shares the yields of the community equally. The community should be able to sustain itself. Some members of the community are teachers, some are plumbers, some tend animals, and some are electricians. And all will receive an equal number of eggs, for example.
 
The kibbutz where we stayed, overlooking the southern tip of the Sea of Galilee, was Kinneret Kibbutz. Its main source of income is from guests like us. They have several buildings that serve as lodgings for guests. The rooms are simple, but have everything one needs for a comfortable stay, including WiFi and a TV. 

We visited another kibbutz further north, on the northeastern edge of the Sea of Galilee. There we spoke to a resident who was born there. His father was also born there, and his children will be born there, too. He explained that his father's parents came to this kibbutz from Germany in 1944. My mind halted right there. Jews coming here from Germany in 1944?! I wanted to ask him to tell me that story, which must have included a great deal of lived experience in Nazi Germany before and during World War II. But he just brushed over that sentence like it had no particular significance except that's when his father's parents moved here, and got busy helping to establish the community, which was still quite new. We parked in a parking lot near the cattle lots, then walked along the paved sidewalks between modern homes with trampolines and children's bicycles in the yards. I guess I was expecting something more.... I dunno... Amish-ish? But this was pretty modern! The guy we were talking to was in jeans and a t-shirt, he has traveled all over the U.S. and Australia and Europe, and his English was perfect.
This is their stockyard.

I wish I could remember his name. He was born here.

Busy making milk for sale. 

If the profits from the stockyards don't support the community, they will be closed down and efforts will be redirected to a source of income this is sustaining.

Also on the day's itinerary were some pretty important holy sites. 
  • Nazareth, the Church of the Annunciation
  • Capernaum, The Mount of Beatitudes
  • The Wedding Cana Church
  • Kfar Nahum (Capernaum) National Park
The Church of the Annunciation, in Nazareth, was built on the spot where the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her she would deliver a son. It's pretty stunning. It's the largest church in the Middle East, and when you walk all around the grounds you can see the preserved and protected ruins of Mary's neighborhood from 2,000 years ago.
Church Of The Annunciation

Interior

Under the main floor you can see Mary's house.

Separate section, same church. Did I mention it's the biggest church in the Middle East?

We also saw the Cana Wedding Church, where Jesus performed his first miracle -- turning water into wine. It stands above the ruins of the original site.

Cana Wedding Church

This is what they meant by "pot of wine." I always pictured a large clay pot that might hold maybe four gallons of wine. Nope! This thing would hold an awful lot of wine!


These ruins of the original church (4th Century Byzantine) are under the Cana Wedding Church.

This section of ancient ruins from the original church can be seen from the upper level of the church, beneath the floor, made visible with screens.

Is that enough church for you for one trip? 
No?! 
Well then let's head over to the Mount of Beaitutdes, north of Capernaum! This church was built on the site where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount. There were 8 beatitudes, so the church is an octagonal structure, with each wall featuring a stained glass window of each beatitude, in Latin.
"Beati pauperes spiritu quoniam ipsorum est regnum caelorum."
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The Beatitudes, in English, line the main sidewalk. 


Tiles like this display the Beatitudes in Korean, Sri Lankan, and many other languages.

Another bus ride, another stop, this time in Kfar Nahum National Park and St. Peter's Church in Capernaum. This is where they believe the Apostle Peter lived, and the church is built over the excavation site where the earliest Christians gathered. This is considered to be the site of the first Christian worship gatherings.

The front of St. Peter's Church.

Underneath St. Peter's Church.


Center of the interior of the church, with glass floor to reveal the site where the first Christian worshippers gathered.

Byzantine synagogue in Capernaum.

Oh my goodness, this is a long blog for a long day! But I'll conclude with the wine tasting experience at Golan Heights Winery. We started with a tour of the facility, including the cellar full of barrels of wine. Then we went into the wine tasting room to try two whites and two reds and two dessert wines, paired with a beautiful platter of cheeses and crackers. 

Wine in oak barrels.

These are the ones we tried.

Mom hanging on for balance after tasting five delicious wines.

Remember when I said I was presenting these out of order? It would have been perfect if we had ended the day after the wine tasting, but this was somewhere between several church stops, so we still had a lot to see when we boarded the bus after this experience. It was a very full and wonderful day that ended back at the kibbutz. 

Be sure to check the next blog. We visited.... churches!