The same day that I first met Tali's middle sister (and her amazing mother-in-law Mazel) was the day we went on a hike to Sataf and a tour of Ramla. Sataf is an ancient town in the Judean hills near Jerusalem. It's built over a natural cave full of water. The living quarters were built above the water, and the agricultural space was under the water where it was easier to irrigate. Sataf is stunning. It's an easy hike to the remains of the village, and view is stunning.
The tour of Ramla was... just OK. Ramla is a beat-up city existing in a vaguely embarrassed stasis. Listening to kids from other cities in our program criticize Ramla, and whine about how they were worried the Arabs in Ramla would attack them made me incredibly frustrated. The overall theme of the tour was that Ramla is one of the oldest cities in Israel. It was established in the 8th century by Muslims and the huge tower and the remains of an aqueduct stand from that era. The central mosque in Ramla is a long rectangle (not the usual square), because it was adapted from a crusaders church. There is also St. George's Church (Greek Orthodox), which has some of the most phenomenal iconography in the Greek Orthodox tradition (Which I know about thanks to Iris, the teacher at my Gan, who is pursuing a PhD focusing on the techniques and themes of the iconography in the Ramla St. George's.).
That's it for tonight. I'll fill you all in on Pesach and such starting tomorrow morning. If you want to know about why we are "Jews" who speak "Ivrit(Hebrew)" while living in "Israel" (as opposed to, for example, the French, who speak French, and live in France), let me know, it's cool but a little dry.
I hope you enjoyed the barrage of posts!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I want to know!
ReplyDelete:) You aren't even Jewish! But here it goes:
ReplyDeleteIvrit (Hebrew) came first. Ivr comes from the word meaning strangers, which is what Abraham and his family were when they arrived in Israel (then Canaan).
Israel came next, chronologically. Jacob (Joseph's father) was named Israel after he fought the angel. It means fighting with G-d. It's also an acronym for the names of the three fathers and four mothers (Issac and Jacob=I [yud], S=Sarah [sin], R=Rachel [resh] and Rebecca, A=Abraham [alef], and L=Leah [lamed]). Israel is the land of Jacob, hence the name.
"Jew" comes from the Judans. Upon his death, Jacob allotted plots of land to each of his twelve sons (who each headed one of the twelve tribes of Israel). The largest part went to the tribe of Judah, and covered most of the southern part of Israel. When the Assyrians conquered Israel, they moved all of the 10 tribes north of Judan territory to other parts of Assyrian territory. Only the Judans, and the Benjamin, a much smaller tribe, remained in Israel. And they became the Jews.
There's some debate about this last bit. It's considered mythology by some (thanks Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribes_of_Israel)
:) Enjoy!