By Rabbi David Wilfond, Director of Education
Today is Sunday and the teens are exploring the area around Jerusalem. Two days ago, the group arrived in the Jerusalem after completing a 4-day desert trek in the footsteps of the Children of Israel that had wandered for forty years in the desert, dreaming about Jerusalem. When the teens arrived in Jerusalem, they went first to an observation point overlooking the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. Here the group had a ceremony celebrating their first view of the Ancient and Holy City of Jerusalem. Friday night, the teens celebrated their first Shabbat in Jerusalem, always a special occasion for our groups! Saturday was a spiritual and relaxing day of Shabbat services, rest and optional activities. Today Sunday, the teens participated in an Archeological Dig and got to get their hands dirty uncovering treasures from the Biblical past of the Jewish People in the Land of Israel.
In the afternoon, the group travelled to one of Israel’s oldest archeological sites, the Biblical city of Gezer. The Biblical Patriarch Abraham and the Matriarch Sarah lived near Gezer, but never settled in this city because its residents’ attitude towards their children (including offering them up as sacrifices) was anathema to everything Abraham and Sara believed in. Today, there still stands at Gezer an ancient Canaanite altar with twelve giant stone idols representing the chief gods of the Canaanite religion. Alongside the altar, archeologists uncovered mounds of charred bones of human babies from the offerings of the Canaanites. The whole point of the Torah’s story about “The Binding of Isaac” is to teach us that our God does not want us to sacrifice children. As Jews, we may sacrifice for our children, but we don’t sacrifice children! In contrast, our Torah commands “Choose life that you and your children shall live and long endure on the land that I have promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” (Deuteronomy)
Tomorrow the group will tour the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The group will visit the site of the Biblical City of David and learn about King David and King Solomon and the lasting impact of their work to make Jerusalem the physical and spiritual capital of the Ancient Kingdom of Israel. The participants will get to cool off from the summer heat as they hike through the ancient underground water system built by King Hezekiah in the 8th Century BCE to protect Jerusalem’s water from the invading Assyrian Army.
After lunch in the Old City, will visit the Western Wall, the Kotel. The Wall is one of the last remainders of the Temple Mount Complex built by King Herod and has been a site of prayer and pilgrimage for Jews for millennia. Here it is custom to write notes and to put them in the crevices between the ancient stones. It has been asked: what holds together this ancient wall of stones that has no mortar between its rocks? One rabbi taught: It is the prayers of those who come here that holds this wall together. A teen asked about the flowering plants that grow on the wall. How can they grow on a wall with no soil nor rain? Its seems impossible. So too it is with Jewish prayer. Prayer is a hope that what at first seems impossible may become possible.
Every day is filled with rich discoveries: visiting Jerusalem, Masada, and the Dead Sea. There is so much to look forward to and enjoy with friends right now!
