Yesterday the CFI staff had a rare gift. Someone donated money for the entire staff to take a day long outing to Bethel and Shilo. This was a great gift, because the only way to go to these places is if you have your own car (you cannot take rentals) or on a tour bus. Now, you might be wondering how it was to go into the West Bank (Judea & Samaria) area right now with everything that has gone one with the three kidnapped boys. Well, we were north of Jerusalem, the boys were kidnapped around Hebron, but still just to be on the safe side, the tour company we went with had us in a bullet proof bus for the day. Our first stop for the day was in modern Beit El (Bethel) to visit a rabbi & archeologist. Beit El is a nice oasis in the middle of a very deserty area. We learned on the trip that the land in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) has quite a lot of water (relative to the rest of Israel) but mismanagement by the Arabs causes the land to be like that of a desert. While the Jewish National Fund has done much to plan trees around Israel, however, they cannot do the reforestation in the West Bank because any money donated to plant trees in that region is taxed by the country of origin for the donation. This means that it is left up to individuals living in areas to plant trees, and it seems that the Jewish inhabitants are the only ones interested in doing so.
After the short lecture at the rabbi's house we were taken to what is believed to be ancient Bethel. Bethel has not been overly excavated and there is not a lot there. But it was still interesting to see what little bits there were. From Bethel we went onto Mt Gerizim and visited the ancient Samaritans ruins. These ruins have just been made into a national park with means they are now protected.
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| Ruins in the foreground, and an Arab community in the background |
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| These ruins overlook the valley in which Shechem was located. Today Shechem is known as Nablus and populated entirely by Arabs |
After we left Mt Gerizim, we stopped in the modern Samaritan Village for ice cream purchased from the a Samaritan priest, and then we drove on to Shiloh for lunch before touring ancient Shiloh.
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| CFI staff enjoying a picnic lunch |
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| On the top of the hill in the far left of the picture is a synagogue where the women of the area are working on making a new veil to separate the Holy place from the Holy of Holies in the new Temple. |
What is widely accepted as the remains of the Tabernacle are clearly visible in Shiloh; as are various levels of the site where people lived. We finished our day by listening to a lecture by former mayor of Shiloh, terror victim, writer, and founder of the Shiloh Israel Children's Fund, David Rubin.
I will be posting more pictures of the trip on Facebook and Flickr if you would like to see them.
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