Filed under: Visiting Israel
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Here are our family photos from Monday, December 25, 2007:
Golan Heights 122506
“We Brought Peace Upon Us”, Peace Child Israel Song lyrics and story
In the morning, we headed north to the Golan Heights. We stopped at Katzrin – a synagogue site and discussed Elie Cohen, Israeli’s master spy who convinced the Syrians to plant eucalyptus trees on the heights that were used to 1967 by Israeli pilots to bomb Syrian military settlements. The synagogue section featured a film designed to bridge the sensitivities of the religious and the secular in Israel, a retelling of pardes story of the 4 scholars who entered paradise – one dying, one becoming blind, one not affected, one becoming a heretic. http://www.geocities.com/chris_holte/judaism/pardes.html The heretic on horseback and his former discipline take a walk along the lake on Shabbat, discussing mysticism, until the heretic reminds the religious discipline that he has gone the limit for a walk on Shabbat. Respect for religious diversity was the subtle message of the film. At the synagogue site, we prayed for a few minutes. The girls in the group were very interested in all of the cats roaming in the ruins.
We then climbed up the heights to the Syrian border and visited Koffee Anan – a coffee shop on Little Avital – a hill with a bunker overlooking Kuneitra across the border and to Mount Hermon. A Danish artist had made use of scrap metal from the war to form sculptures of funny creatures. It was windy and cool on top of the hill. We descended via Banias, a shrine to Pan, and the headwaters of the Dan. We spent a good time walking in the nature reserve along the Dan and visited the site of one of the shrines of the northern kingdom of Israel. A group photo of that visit is in the synagogue’s archives. Rafi mentioned that the Mormons have a connection with Tel Dan – they believe that Nephi left Dan to sail to the New World and become the ancestor of the Native Americans.
We head down the mountains to Tiberias, where some of us stopped into a jewelry factory but most continued to Kibbutz Ha’on to prepare for a special dinner.
Hamat Gader
http://www.hamat-gader.com/?curLanguage=eng
is a hot springs on the Jordanian, Syrian, Israeli border. We had a Thai-Asian inspired dinner before entering the hot springs – large pools with showers and forced water seats. The group shared some wine, chilled by the December air and warmed by the waters and the friendship. We headed back to the Kibbutz for a better night of rest.
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