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Monday, January 24, 2011

BET SHE’ARIM NATIONAL PARK ISRAEL

As some of you winter in Arizona,Texas Or California we try to take advantage of the beautiful weather in Israel and do day trips in the country.

The country is small and everything is “close by” just hours away ,so we took off at 9AM to Bet She’arim National Park that is only 2 hours from were we live and were back at 5PM after a great visit.

Igal a friend that works as a volunteer tour guide in the park was nice enough to give us a private tour in one part of the park.

Here is a short summery about the park as it appears on the website.

A world-famous Jewish cemetery of the messianic era

Bet She‘arim National Park

The ancient Jewish town of Bet She‘arim, located on a hill in the Lower Western Galilee, reached its zenith in the second–fourth centuries CE.
The inhabitants of Bet She‘arim hewed grand tombs deep within the hill. Ancient courtyards, corridors and steps lead visitors to large halls where they can see the rock-cut burial chambers and stone coffins (sarcophagi). The rooms and the sarcophagi feature an abundance of carved reliefs,

inscriptions and wall paintings. Stone-carved doors, which imitate the style of wooden doors, closed some of the caves.
The reliefs and paintings represent Jewish artistic motifs that were popular in the Roman period, including a seven-branched candelabrum, the Ark of the Covenant, a shofar, lulav and etrog. Secular motifs are also present—ships, animals, human figures and geometric patterns.
Most of the inscriptions are in Greek, but inscriptions also appear in Hebrew, Aramaic and Palmyran. They often reveal the name, profession and origin of the deceased.
In the third century CE, Bet She‘arim became a renowned Jewish center due to the presence there of the spiritual leader Rabbi Judah Hanasi, head of the Sanhedrin. The Roman authorities, who supported his leadership, gave him much property, including an estate at Bet She‘arim. Rabbi Judah moved the Sanhedrin from Shefar‘am to Bet She‘arim, and at the end of his life to Zippori. He was buried at Bet She‘arim in 220 CE, garnering fame for its cemetery in the Jewish world throughout in the talmudic period.
Before or after visiting the caves, don’t miss the ruins of Bet She‘arim at the top of the hill. Near the remains of a basilica, apparently built during the lifetime of Rabbi Judah Hanasi, is a bronze statue of the pioneer Alexander Zayid astride his horse. Zayid, who established the defense organization called Hashomer, discovered a burial cave in 1926. Nearby on the hill, with its magnificent panorama of the Jezreel Valley and Mount Carmel, is the double-domed tomb of the Muslim Sheikh Abreik.

If you want to learn more about the N.Parks in Israel go to National Parks

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Saturday, January 22, 2011

Small but beautiful Israel


We are back at home after 5 months Rving in North America.
It was our 9th summer RV trip and usually we spend between 4 and 5 months each summer exploring different States/Provinces.
Many times we were asked about our homeland,how big is it?is it all desert?how many lakes we have?are there forests or mountains? and so on.
So before I give you some details here is what happened in Minnesota 3 years ago:
A nice couple from Minnesota was camping in a spot next to ours and we got a conversation going, after some time I noticed that his vehicle plat says "10,000 lakes State" (or something close to that),so I asked him if they could spare a lake for my country,it would double the number of lakes in Israel and Minnesota will not even notice it.
So we have ONE lake (next to Tiberius),ONE mountain,ONE river,ONE Dead Sea,ONE Desert all in a country of 400 Miles from the North Boarder till the South and between 8-15 Miles width from East to West-YES that is all(try to find it on the Atlas....BUT it is BEAUTIFUL and it is HOME take a look and do not forget to open the sound.
Small But Beautiful Israel Slideshow: Danny’s trip from Eilat, Israel to 9 cities Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Dead Sea Region, Tiberias, Caesarea, Acre, Jaffa, Jerusalem District (near Shoresh) and Rosh Hanikra was created by TripAdvisor. See another Israel slideshow. Create your own stunning slideshow with our free photo slideshow maker.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Winter storage

 
 
 
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While we are enjoying the warm weather in Israel our trailer that is stored in Ontario went "under covers" ,I hope that it will survive this extreme winter and will be ready for us in the spring.