Golan Heights 4: Up to the Heights

The Golan Heights, as their name indicates, are at a relatively high altitude. I say "relatively" as they only appear to be at great altitude because the surrounding landscape, the Jordan Valley and the Kinerret (Sea of Galilee) are hundreds of meters below sea level. The highest point on the Golan is only about 520 meters above sea level.

The ascent is hilly and winding. This is the same Syrian-African rift valley which stretches the entire length of Israel beyond the Dead Sea.

On the eastern shore of the Kinerret, looking across at Tveryah (Tiberius).
Climbing the winding road to the Golan Heights. The small hill in the middle of the valley is the ruins of Sussita, the Roman administrative capital of the Golan Heights in ancient times.

We pass by Neot Golan, one of many small rural Jewish settlements dotting the region.

One of the geographic surprizes of the Golan Heights is that, despite the hilly ascent, once you pass the first wave of hills, the region suddenly becomes perfectly flat.

The religious settlement of Chispin.

Golan Heights 3: The Beit Shean Valley

And now back to my posts of Machon Meir's trip to the Golan Heights. Previous posts in this series:
Golan Heights 1: On the Road Again
Golan 2: Flowers in the Jordan Valley
Continuing on our journey through the Jordan Valley, we come to a massive checkpoint at the "Separation Barrier," back into pre-67 "Little Israel."


The separation barrier / security wall/ whatever you want to call it is a strange monument to the importance of image. Large sections have yet to be built, and last we've heard from news reports, the construction had been so bogged down by legal delays that funding had run out. Vast sections of desert remain unguarded. Meanwhile, on the main transportation arteries running through Judea and Samaria (the West Bank,) the barrier has a look of real permanence. Large sliding gates, severe tire damage spikes, areas for search, and the like seem to indicate that this crossing is secure.
Of course, I've been at this same crossing point at night, and I saw a soldier wave a passing vehicle aside for a security check. The vehicle floored it, burst through the checkpoint, and was on its way. The guards just looked at it, shrugged, and waved the next car over. God knows what was in his trunk.

The kibbutzim (agricultural collectives) in the area have specialized in using the plentiful runoff water in the region for fish farming.
Fish ponds
More fish ponds.

Binyamin, deep in study.

To our left is Har (Mount) Gilboa, where Shaul, the first King of Israel, met his end fighting the Phillistines who were encamped at Beit Shean.

Looking to the east, we see a break in the mountains, where the Yarmouk river

Foreground: Crops in the Beit Shean Valley (in the territory of the tribe of Issachar.) Across the way is the Yarmouk valley. The hills to the left (north) are half of the territory allotted tribe of Menasheh (Manasses,) today known as the Golan Heights, captured from Syria in 1967. To the right (south) is the tribal region of Gad, now ruled by the Kingdom of Jordan.
The spot we're standing in is in the area of Issachar on the above map, to the far east, looking eastward.

This intersection between the Yarmouk and Jordan Rivers was also critical not only as a biblical division of territory, but also 1,908 years later, when this was the scene of an epic battle. The Byzantines, who had inherited the holy land, along with all the other territories of the East after the split of the Roman Empire, had expended their energy fighting endless battles against the Persians. Weakened by this incessant warfare, they were caught by surprise as a small force of Muslims under the command of Khālid ibn al-Walīd, sucessor to Muhammad, who, in an upset victory, defeated the ruling Byzantines and expelled them from the holy land forever in the year 636 CE. The Byzantine Empire itself had been horribly oppressive towards the Jews of Eretz Israel since the adoption of Christianity, and the new Arab Muslim overlords were welcomed.

While, at first, the Arabs ruled as a Muslim minority over a plethora of religions, the Arabs began a gradual process of colonization which continues to this very day, bringing in their foreign language (Arabic,) religion (Islam,) and customs from their far-off homeland in the Arabian Peninsula. Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattāb then built the Al-Aksa mosque on the ruins of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. The term Al-Aksa is a cognate of the Hebrew word "Ktzeh" (edge, extremity) and means, "The Farthest," in Arabic. At that time Jerusalem marked the farthest extent of the Arabs' conquest from their native homeland in the Arabian Peninsula.

Yehudah's Barmie

In Israel, Bar Mitzvahs aren't the sort of extravagant, multi-thousand dollar affairs they are in the U.S. I think it's maybe because the kids here actually understand what they're saying when they are called up to read from the Torah. In the U.S., at least with the one or two assimilated Jewish kids I went to Junior High with, a Bar Mitzvah had that sort of edgy feeling of being a desperate party to stave off the inevitable farewell to Torah as the child descended to the same level of non-observance as his parents. In Israel, you can rest assured that your child will grow up surrounded with a more pure Torah existance, and will have at least the opportunity to continue to grow spiritually for the rest of his life. Hence the Bar Mitzvah is much more down-to-Earth.

But enough about me, this was Yehudah's Bar Mitzvah. I made the schlep out to Pisgat Ze'ev to wish Yehudah a Mazal Tov and visit my old friends there.


I said hi to Yehudah and his father Steven, from my old Pisgat Ze'ev days.

Someone came up to me, "I have someone you might be interested in."
"How did you know I'm not married?"
"Because your shirt is untucked."

I proceeded to chowed down on copious quantities of food.

Took some pictures.

The Fam

Watched the brothers all sing Yehudah a song they composed. A very talented bunch they are.

Danced around a little bit.

And had a good time fully.

Mazal tov to the Bar Mitzvah boy.

What is the Worst Thing a Person can Be?

In response to Nina's question on my previous post:

Why do you think the worst thing is to be a Christian? Aren't there a lot of things worse than that? It seems believing in Jesus is just a conclusion of interpretation of scripture that some people make. It doesn't seem immoral, hateful, or anti-holy.

Well, I never said, nor do I believe, that the worst thing a person can be is a Christian. Obviously, after careful consideration, I don't believe in the whole theology, and I'm not a Christian. I'm also not a Buddhist, an Anarchist, a Nudist, or a Libertarian, and I could explain my reasoning there as well. I'm just doing the best I can with the tools I've got.

I have no idea what the worst thing a person can be is, and it may be different from person to person, depending on his or her natural inclinations. Let God make that judgement. According to Judaism, those who descended from Noah (which is basically everyone in the world) is responsible for the seven Noahide laws:

1. Idolatry is forbidden. Man is commanded to believe in the One G-d alone and worship only Him.
2. Incestuous and adulterous relations are forbidden. Human beings are not sexual objects, nor is pleasure the ultimate goal of life.
3. Murder is forbidden. The life of a human being, formed in G-d's image, is sacred.
4. Cursing the name of G-d is forbidden. Besides honoring and respecting G-d, we learn from this precept that our speech must be sanctified, as that is the distinctive sign which separated man from the animals.
5. Theft is forbidden. The world is not ours to do with as we please.
6. Eating the flesh of a living animal is forbidden. This teaches us to be sensitive to cruelty to animals. (This was commanded to Noah for the first time along with the permission of eating meat. The rest were already given to Adam in the Garden of Eden.)
7. Mankind is commanded to establish courts of justice and a just social order to enforce the first six laws and enact any other useful laws or customs.

(These laws were taken from a separate website which also provides a detailed explanation of the biblical basis for these laws.)

That's it. A Non-Jew who follows these laws has a place in the world to come. No need to become Jewish or Christian. There is, in fact, an religion of non-Jews based on this understanding, the Bnei Noach.

There is some question as to whether Christianity is a violation of Noahide Law number one (prohibition against Idolatry) for a Goy (non-Jew.) On the one hand, Christianity has brought the idea of one God to the rest of a humanity which was previously pagan, so it's a step in the right direction. On the other hand, Christianity teaches about three gods, god taking human form, and various other concepts which are completely impossible to square with a Jewish understanding. On the one hand, Christianity has spread the idea of a God who gave the Torah to the Jews at Mount Sinai to the rest of humanity. On the other hand, Christianity has also been responsible for some of the most terrible persecutions of Jews. So, as I said before, I don't think Christianity is necessarily the worst thing a person can be. My feelings are mixed.

I do, however, believe that becoming a Christian is among the worst things a Jew can do to himself. For a Jew, a higher standard exists, and to believe in the trinity and in a human god is definately placing other gods before the God who gave the Torah at Mount Sinai. There are three sins which a Jew is required to give his life rather than commit:

1. Idolatry.
2. Murder.
3. Incest.

Jews throughout the ages have given up their lives rather than make the slightest hint which could be interpreted as conversion to Christianity. Of course, the Jews who did convert to Christianity whom I have met over the years are so ignorant of Judaism that I don't know if they can be held completely responsible for their own beliefs. They are, however, held fully accountable for other Jews whom they lead astray, regardless of understanding, and they certainly aren't doing themselves any favors in the world to come.

A Woman Who Covers Her Head With an Apicorus

I was recently surprized by a visitor from the Old Country, Walnut Creek. It was Rabbi and Rebbetzin Kagan of Chabad of Contra Costa!

It's always nice when friends come for a visit.

On Motzei Shabbat (Saturday Night) they took me out for a bagel. Of course, you can't eat until you've made havdallah (ceremony separating Shabbat from the week,) so...

Making Havdallah with a match and beer.

I had a great time. Looking forward to more visitors from the Old Country, so let me know if you're coming!

What I learned in Yeshivah today

We’ve been reading in Masechet Shabbat (The Talmud section relating to the laws of Shabbat) about knot tying, a forbidden activity. But, because the Talmud is basically an endless stream-of-consciousness holy debate between hundreds of rabbis over a period of four centuries, our topic of discussion wandered off, to how to deal with Christian missionaries, which I’ve been discussing earlier on the blog.

While reading the discussion, the conversation also occasionally refers to an “apicorus.” An apicorus is a Jew who has, through intellectual or spiritual drift, decided to leave the Torah world and dropped all distinctly Jewish behaviors such as observance of Sabbath and Kashrut (Jewish dietary restrictions.) Most contemporary non-observant Jews were not raised with an authentic understanding of Torah from birth, or they believe the anti-Semitic slander that they read in the press, or see the members of the Torah-observant public who don’t live up to the Jewish standard of ethical behavior. While there is some debate over who counts as an apicorus today, it is widely agreed that although a shrinking majority of worldwide Jewry today is not Torah-observant, they lack the basic knowledge to make an honest intellectual rejection Torah and do not qualify as apicoruses.

The page we read (Tractate Shabbat, Page Ayin Hey, Side Alef) refers to the prohibition of learning from a Magoshta. Two opinions then come from the debating partners Rav and Shmuel arguing whether a Magoshta is a sorcerer or a Christian missionary. Later commentators then debate the subject further, when suddenly, in the Shulchan Aruch (the code of Jewish Law, written about a thousand years later,) refers to a Magoshta as an apicorus. What? Weren’t we just talking about Sorcerers and Missionaries? And the context of the wording is even stranger, that, “one is not allowed to learn the foreign worship of an Apicorus.” But an apicorus is by definition a non-believer, so how could he be worshipping? What gives?

Well, it turns out the Shulchan Aruch was censored. In the middle ages, a Jew would, from time to time, convert to Christianity. These apostate Jews would fight to prove their loyalty to their new friends by becoming the worst of the tormentors of their estranged brother Jews, much the like assimilated Jewish anti-Zionists of today. Because they had inside knowledge of Hebrew, these apostates invaded Jewish Batei Midrash (Houses of Study) and went through Jewish books with a pen knife, erasing any reference to a Missionary and replacing it with the word apicorus.

Of course, such apostates were not exactly the crème de la crème of the Beit Midrash to begin with. They would visually scan the texts, find the word, and replace it, lacking even the ability to read the context. This results in some very bizarre passages. For instance, the term “Nochri” can mean either a missionary or a wig. In one reference, we found a sentence reading, “A woman covering her head with an apicorus.” The student has to back-track through the censorship to figure out the original intent.

In some cases, entire sections or paragraphs were eliminated from the Talmud, resulting in wide blank spots in the middle of the page, which still appear in some contemporary editions. This also results in some misunderstandings of what should be done with apicoruses. A religious Jew might read certain passages which originally described how to handle missionaries which was censored to read, “Apicoruses,” and, God forbid, think that such treatment applies to his non-observant brethren. Fortunately, the Islamic world had its own religious gripes against the Christian world and was perfectly happy to leave the passages intact. Thus, today, many of the original manuscripts brought from Jews in Islamic countries are now being used to restore the original texts.

Golan 2: Flowers in the Jordan Valley

Continuing on our merry way, we pass through mile after mile of date palms.

Of course, not only is the Jordan Valley, "Occupied Palestinian Territory," it's also a defensive border with Jordan, with which Israel is officially at peace. A border fence cuts close to the road, reminding you of just how tiny this country really is, and the neighborhood it's in.

As we head north up the Jordan Valley, away from the rain shadow of the Jericho plains and towards the verdant Galil (Galilee,) the hills come to be covered with grass and greenery.
We turn a corner and suddenly come upon a field of blossoming flowers.

The bus driver was considerate enough to pull over for us to stretch our legs. It was like in "Wizard of Oz" when they all go running through the poppy fields.
Although in this case they were "Calaniyot." At least the red ones were.

Golan Heights 1: On the Road Again

As mentioned previously, the current Israeli government is nearing collapse, having entered the "Death Spiral." Over the past week, the PM has both approved almost a thousand new housing units in Jerusalem neighborhoods to grasp at support from the right, as well as continued negotiations with the Palestinian Authority in a desperate reach for support from the left. Never mind the inherent contradiction in this, in that the Palestinian Authority demands the destruction, or preferably the expulsion of Jews and transfer of the properties to the future Arab entity, of those same neighborhoods. Meanwhile, in an attempt to buy some media protection, he's negotiating with Hezbollah up north about the release of captured terrorists, and he's opened negotiations with Syria to retreat from the Golan and wipe out the last forty years of Jewish building there.

It's sad that we have a political system which promotes people of such base moral caliber to such high positions that thousands of Jewish farmers who would have their lives destroyed by one small man trying to keep his job. And that's not to mention the hundreds of thousands of Israeli soldiers and civilians who would be threatened by an Iranian proxy perched on the Golan, looking right into the heart of Israel. Of course, nobody takes his discussions on the Golan Heights seriously. His American overseers feel a deep sense of hostility towards Syria, unlike the Palestinian Authority, and would not support such a deal. He is so deeply unpopular at home that he could never pass any agreement through the Knesset anyway. But still, I figure this is a good chance to show a little solidarity with the unjustly threatened Jewish community of the Golan by posting my photos of Machon Meir's spring tiyul (trip) to the Golan Heights of 2007. Although the photos are over a year old, I just haven't had the chance to post them yet, so here we go!

We'll start the day with chocolate sandwiches. The breakfast of champions!

A quick stop in the outhouse before our two hour bus ride and... wait a minute, can someone explain why there's a toilet seat cover hanging from the wall?

Michael waited until the last possible second to pack. And get dressed.

Yericho (Jericho)

More Yericho date trees and fields.

Passing the Yericho Monastery.

On the hilltops in the distance is Mitzpeh Yericho.

Some sort of agricultural settlement in the Jordan Valley.

Date Palms in the Jordan. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in the background.