Israel In Character Tours

12/08/2024

More From The Golan

An ancient synagogue in the Golan*, The Book of Daniel and Tisha B'Av* During War*.

You're probably thinking that my reference to the Book of Daniel in connection to Tisha B'Av is a mistake and that I meant Megillat Eichah (Book of Lamentations).
Read through and you'll see that it was intentional and that's what keeps things interesting!

The video:
Off to the side of the road in the Golan, fenced off to keep the cows in and the people out are the barely visible remains of the once magnificent ancient synagogue of Ein Nashut (4th-7th centuries C.E.)

The image with red and white arrows:
A basalt stone found in a Syrian village nearby is thought to have been looted from the ark complex of the Ein Nashut synagogue.
The engravings depict the story of Daniel In The Lion's Den. There is a figure in the middle holding up both of his hands in defense from or dominance over (red arrows) the faces of lions (white arrows).
-On display at the Golan Antiquities Museum in Katzrin.
Thank you Asher Smith for your time at the museum.
Image of the lion head above the depiction of Daniel:

A fuller image of the basalt stone from the arm complex.

Our Story:
In the book of Daniel Chapter 6 Darius, King of Mede (Persia) appoints a hierarchy of officials and ministers to oversee his vast kingdom. 120 officials report to 3 ministers, one of who is Daniel, who report directly to the king. King Darius notices Daniel's work ethic and abilities and wants to promote him. This spurred jealousy among the other officials who instead of taking a moment for self reflection or improving their work productivity collude to discredit Daniel in the eyes of the king.
Not being able to find fault with Daniel they concoct a plan that will simultaneously bring him down a notch or two and also gain them favor with King Darius through flattery. And they do so as follows.
They approach King Darius as a united front and "out of reverence" for the king they suggest they he create an unamenable decree stating that no person or god should be worshipped above the King himself. King Darius issues the decree and the ministers lay in wait to catch Daniel in the act of praying to his G-D. When they caught him red handed, they bring the case before King Darius who seems to have no choice other than to throw Daniel into the Lion's Den as punishment only to discover in the morning that the G-D of Daniel saved him. (This is the story behind the engraving on the stone).
A king likened to a deity seemed to have been duped into sentencing a favored minister to death. The text describes how upset he was, fasted and ran to check on Daniel first thing in the morning. Couldn't this king have overruled his own decree?
Israel is in the midst of war with another front on the horizon and Jewish communities world over are suffering from heightened anti-semitism. We see a similar sentiment in the story when the officials in our story bringing charges against "Daniel the exile from Judah", which is the modern day "So and So THE JEW". Infrequently does the news report a person's name followed by his religious or ethnic affiliation.
Realizing that he had made a mistake that would cost Daniel, a loyal minister, his life, King Darius didn't set aside his ego, political ambition or personal religious views in favor of his responsibility as a leader. Daniel would have died had G-D not miraculously intervened.
I ask, how can we strengthen our leaders today to act upon their responsibilities first and foremost? Jewish tradition demands that we make our efforts and G-D will meet us halfway but we aren't meant to sit back and wait for Him to run the show. This ties to our values of free will, self reflection and constant growth in our level of humanity.
It is not overly dramatic to state that we are being attacked at every level and from every direction; physically and spiritually. We each need to explore where we hold up hands to the faces of the lions and say "You Shall Not Pass" - no more!
The last verse of chapter 6 says: "Thus Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and during the reign of Cyrus the Persian".
The verse is saying that Daniel prospered under 2 different reigns. I'd like to offer my own thought that Daniel survived the war on him during the reign of King Darius. He prospered under the reign of King Cyrus who decreed religious reforms, a revolutionary idea for the time, and allowed Daniel to lead people back to Israel and rebuild the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, whose later destruction we begin mourning tonight.

May G-D help us transition from the time of Darius to Cyrus and soon! May this be the last Tisha B'Av Fast where we feel the immensity of mourning biblical and modern day loss of life and direction.

27/06/2024

Just got home from 3 fun-filled days in the Golan exploring off the beaten path sites to guide.
Will share it all with you in the coming days so stay tuned!
See Israel In Character Tours!

16/06/2024

So you've been to Israel and this you've seen it all? Uh-uh!

With Israel In Character Tours we are exploring what the Iron Dome System and Digital Farming have in common.

12/05/2024

Yom HaZikaron (Israel's National Memorial Day For The Fallen) is all the more difficult this year because the pain is raw and ongoing today, October 219.

5 more of our soldiers killed in action will be buried today hours before the memorial ceremonies begin.

ממעקים קראתיך ה'

17/04/2024

-Edited

“If only the universe would send me a clear sign, I would know what to do”. I find myself thinking this on occasion and maybe you do as well.

While on tour at the Neot Kedumim Biblical Landscape Park I visited the ancient stone water cistern shown in this picture. Similar to a pulley system, a vessel attached to a rope was lowered into the cistern to collect drinking water and then pulled back up. The repetition of the wet rope sliding against the stone created the grooves that my fingers are pointing to.

As cool a “Snapple” fact as this is, my goal in telling you about it is actually to connect it to the Pesach (Passover) Hagaddah which we read at the Pesach Seder (Passover Feast).

Rabbi Akiva makes an appearance in our Pesach Seder when the rabbis, so immersed in their study of Torah, have to be reminded by their students that dawn arrived and with it the time to daven (pray).

But we met Rabbi Akiva earlier, when he was a 40 year shepherd. I can imagine him sitting under the shade of the tree near the stream where his flock was grazing and drinking. He’s watching over his animals and taking in the tranquility that the nature around him has to offer when his eyes fixate on grooves in the stones of the stream created by water flowing over them repeatedly. Uneducated at the time this may have been an interesting science lesson for him but fortunately for us he takes this lesson to another, deeper level and realizes that “If water can make such an impression on stone, maybe the Torah can make such an impression on my heart”. Such a seemingly simple encounter turned into food for thought gave us one of the most influential and followed Rabbis of his day. All because he looked at nature/reality and sought to understand how it should inform his choices.

But when looking at the impressions in this ancient cistern in Israel made by the wet rope from the vessel used to draw water, we gain a visual understanding of the parallel that Rabbi Akiva drew!

We also meet the Pharaoh of Egypt in the Pesach Haggadah in the context of water a few times. His daughter draws Moshe (Moses) out of the Nile River and Pharaoh allows her to raise him in the palace with the royal family even if his decision was passive. G-D showed Pharaoh who HE is when HE transformed the Nile River, much revered by the Egyptians as the source of their existence and economy, into blood rendering it useless.

After coming face to face with the reality of G-D’s existence and power Pharaoh has a choice to make. Does he acknowledge this reality and this G-D? Or does he opt for a more convenient interpretation which maintains him as the “One ring that rules them all”? It’s not a spoiler to say that he chose the latter. Instead of allowing the reality of what he saw with the waters of the Nile to wash over him and leave an impression, his heart is hardened (like stone) in defiance. Would things have looked different if he know what we know about waters’ impression on stone?

Our reaction to the figurative waters (reality) that we encounter can either bring us clarity to be followed by action as it did for Akiva who became a great leader we remember even today or we can choose to remain in a fog and be crushed by the waters as Pharaoh was in the Red Sea.

We each have our own realities to face and actions to decide upon especially in these dam challenging days. I ask G-D for the clarity to recognize, pursue and achieve what it is that I am meant to do with this.

10/03/2024

Pura Ruins Nature Reserve
שמורת טבע חורבת פורה

10/03/2024

At Biblical Tel Socho

07/03/2024

One of the many views that Israel has to offer that seem straight of out the Bible/Tanach. ♥️

12/02/2024

Dear Tourists,

You may not be here right now but I know you will be back. In the meantime I'm mapping out more sites for us to enjoy together such as the Yitav Stream Nature Reserve. 😀

07/02/2024

דרום אדום מעלה רגשות מעורבים השנה אחרי ה7 לאוקטובר.
אני כן רואה את אלוקים בשקיעה ההיא.

שיר למעלות אשא עיני אל ההרים מאין יבא עזרי.עזרי מעם ה' עושה שמים וארץ.

The south covered in red anemones is usually quite the sought after view this time of year. But post October 7th I view it with mixed emotions as this is the site of the Nova Music Festival Massacre. But I do see G-D in that sunset.

Psalm 121
A song for ascents
I lift my eyes to the mountains From where will my help come?
My help comes from G-D maker of heaven and earth.

25/01/2024

Happy Tu B'Shvat from a blossoming almond tree in Ancient Susiya 🌳🪷

06/01/2024

"Free Menu Items For Soldiers". This made me smile the other day. We all have something to contribute and whatever it is, it's beautiful!

30/11/2023

Thank you Lois Frank for inviting us to speak to the residents of The All Seasons about life in Israel during War- what you don't see on the news in the US.
It was heartwarming to see how many people attended and had questions taking our 1 hour Q&A to 2 1/2 hours!

07/11/2023

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, of blessed memory

20/10/2023

Shabbat Shalom! Pumpkin Pie Spice Challah season has commenced!

20/10/2023

Prayer For The IDF and Security Forces

He Who blessed our forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — may He bless the fighters of the Israel Defense Forces, who stand guard over our land and the cities of our God, from the border of the Lebanon to the desert of Egypt, and from the Great Sea unto the approach of the Aravah, on the land, in the air, and on the sea.

May the Almighty cause the enemies who rise up against us to be struck down before them. May the Holy One, Blessed is He, preserve and rescue our fighters from every trouble and distress and from every plague and illness, and may He send blessing and success in their every endeavor.

May He lead our enemies under our soldiers’ sway and may He grant them salvation and crown them with victory. And may there be fulfilled for them the verse: For it is the Lord your God, Who goes with you to battle your enemies for you to save you.

19/09/2023

Coffee date with this guy.
Israel In Character Tours

11/09/2023

29/08/2023

This week.

26/07/2023

Tonight, as we begin the day of Jewish mourning known as Tisha B'Av, join me join me in the ancient city of Caesarea, Israel located on the Mediterranean Coast. It’s beauty, innovative engineering and centuries of rich a history offer a fun day out.
But it wasn’t always a setting for romantic picnics at sunset. Let’s examine this through the recent exposure of archaeological finds.
This picture, with the glittering sea in the background, is believed to have been an underground cistern providing water to the city when the Romans ruled Israel some 2,000 years ago.
A city can only become a city if there is drinking water for the people. In Caesarea we have multiple water sources created with engineering that astounds us today in modern times.
King Herod certainly needed this to supply water to his mid-sea private freshwater swimming pool!
The cistern was later converted into what is believed to be a prison, after King Herod’s time. Inscriptions found in this structure and an above ground courthouse nearby would both support that idea.
But what do picnics, and swimming pools have to do with Tisha B’Av? There is more here than a parallel to the prohibition of eating and swimming on this day.
In the 2nd century C.E. Roman Emperor Hadrian outlawed the study and teaching of the Torah and disobeying was punishable by death.
On Tisha B’Av we commemorate 10 Jewish leaders who were tortured and murdered by the Romans for their dedication to Torah study. They are known as the 10 Martyrs and Rabbi Akiva was one of them.
His imprisonment and ex*****on took place in Caesarea.
Could this be the location of his imprisonment?
On this day that recounts historical tragedies begotten by disunity, and the recent Keneset/Israeli Parliament vote that has polarized Israel I'd like to sign off with the most famous quote from Rabbi Akiva:
"As Rabbi Akiva said, “This is a major principle of the Torah: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ”
רַבִּי עֲקִיבָא אוֹמֵר (ויקרא יט, יח): וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ, זֶה כְּלַל גָּדוֹל בַּתּוֹרָה
- Bereisheet Rabbah 27

23/07/2023

Multi period architecture facing Temple Mount.

20/07/2023

Check out the new website!
https://www.israelincharacter.com

20/07/2023

What a unique find at the beach that I swim at!

A Stroke of Luck: A rare 2,500-year-old marble disc, designed to protect ancient ships and ward off the evil eye, was discovered by a lifeguard diving at sea and handed over to the Israel Antiquities Authority. >> 🧿

A marble disc, dating to the 5th–4th centuries BCE, was found during a dive by lifeguard David Shalom at the Yavne-Yam archaeological site near Palmachim Beach. Yaakov Sharvit, Director of the Marine Archaeology Unit at the Israel Antiquities Authority, explains: “From drawings on pottery, mosaics, and ancient coins, as well as from historical sources from the 5th century BCE, we learn that this design was common on ships’ bows and served to protect against the evil eye and envy, aided navigation, and acted as a pair of eyes looking ahead and warning of danger. This decoration is still common today on modern ships in Portugal, Malta, Greece, and the far east.”

The large white marble disc, 20 cm diameter, is flat on one side and curved on the other, and it has a central cavity with traces of paint appearing as two circles around the center. It is identified as an eye motif, in Greek “ophtalmoi,” and such discs adorned the bows of ancient warships and merchant vessels. Lead or bronze nails attached the center of the disc to the ship’s hull.

Although this artifact was once common and one would expect to find many similar artifacts, it is, in fact, rare. So far, only four similar ancient items have been discovered in the Mediterranean: two from the wreck of an ancient merchant ship found at the Tektaş Burnu site off the western coast of Turkey, between the islands of Samos and Kios, dating to 440–425 BCE, and two on the Mediterranean coast of Israel—one from the Carmel Beach and the other, just discovered, on the Yavneh-Yam coast.

“Yavne-Yam was settled for the first time in the Middle Bronze Age,” Sharvit says, “and was settled down to the Middle Ages. Near the ancient mound, there is a natural sheltered anchorage protected by a rock promontory.”

In water surveys conducted by the Marine Archaeology Unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority since the 1980s, finds from shipwrecked ships testifying to extensive commercial activity at the site were discovered. These include anchors of various sizes and weights with one to three holes, fishing equipment, lead weights, and stone anchors. Items used on ships were also found, including a lead cooking oven, grinding stones, stone bowls, fishing tools (bronze fishhooks, lead fishing nets, and lead depth measurement weights), as well as storage jars, amphorae, bowls, and cooking pots dating back to the Late Bronze Age, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods!

Sharvit explains: “Many of the pottery vessels were manufactured in the Levant or the eastern Mediterranean, but some were imported from distant Mediterranean countries.” The site revealed many Bronze Age finds, including dozens of gold items (earrings, beads, jewelry fragments, ingots, and jewelry industry waste), as well as a Syrian hematite seal. The finds were scattered in the area where 20 stone anchors, bronze arrowheads, tridents, and two figurines of the god Baal were discovered in the past. The archaeological finds indicate that the anchorage was in continuous use from the Late Bronze Age down to the medieval period.

Do you know what other talismans were used to ward off the evil eye? Share them with us!

Photography: Israel Antiquities Authority

19/07/2023

Streets of Jerusalem