Haifa, Nazareth and Sea of Galilee

 Haifa, Nazareth and Sea of Galilee                                                                        April 11th, 2022

Some guides are bad, some mediocre, some are good, and some are excellent.  Today, our first day in Haifa, Israel, we had the excellent variety.  Coby (Jacob in Hebrew) is a former teacher (usually a trait of excellent guides) of English, making communication with us superior.  

We chose to do Nazareth and then to the Sea of Galilee today.  We headed inland from the port and found our way to the town of Nazareth.  I’m sure you’ve heard of it.  Jesus’ hometown.  It is the only city in Israel of 50,000+ inhabitants that is majority Arab.  The 2010 population was about 110,000 for the whole of what was considered Nazareth, but this includes 40,000 Jewish settlers in what was known as upper Nazareth and has since changed its name.  The other 70,000+ are 69% Arab and about 30% Christian.  We went to the Christian section to see the Church of the Anunciation, where the Catholic church holds that Mary was told she would be having a child.  As with most things in the Christian world of Israel there are two different spots where this is believed to have happened.  The Orthodox hold that it happened on the other end of town.  On our previous trip to Israel, we tended not to visit traditional spots that did not have some archeological backing so we did not visit this church.  

This church, though is interesting with mosaics of various sizes and placement both outside and inside the structure based on how much various countries contributed.  The interior of the church is done in the Brutalist style which is very plain cement walls, columns and beams.  The lower level contains a grotto which tradition suggests is the actual home where Mary lived at the time.  The upper church contains large mosaics and is the largest Christian church in the Middle East.  There are many other churches here in Nazareth which we were unable to visit because of time, restoration, covid etc.  We were reminded that the word used for Joseph was “tekton” which translates to builder instead of carpenter and suggests that Joseph and Jesus more likely worked with stone than wood. 

From here we found our way out of the city seeing the hill where Jesus supposedly was to be tossed off of but he disappeared out of the mob trying to kill him.  Our guide pointed out several monuments at the tops of hills that recognize various biblical events.  The history is overwhelming.  Our guide, Coby, was so fluent in Christian events I had to ask how he knew so much.  He explained that he did not even know there were any Christian sites in Israel until he took the tour guides course at the age of 50.  He wanted to try to understand this so he delved in and learned as much as he could.  It is amazing that someone as generally knowledgeable and inquisitive as our guide could be so unaware of such a vast history surrounding him on all sides.  Jesus is not even mentioned in the Jewish teachings, and schools stay away from anything non-Jewish.  Wow.  Talk about a news blackout.

We moved on to the baptism site of Yardenit.  This is not where Jesus was baptized, but was a site developed with access to the Jordan River where there is water that is relatively clean and constant.  Jesus’ actual baptism took place close to the Dead Sea where the water is now muddy and less consistent as it is taken out for other purposes leaving just a trickle.  We visited both sites on our previous trip so this visit was not terribly exciting for us.  Our guide said one of his most unusual experiences while guiding was when he was asked to perform a baptism here.  Think about this!

Next stop was supposed to be a diamond shop, but our guide offered us the option of going, and nobody wanted to go so we took the long way around to the church at the Mount of Beatitudes.  We passed Cana, site of the miracle of water into wine.  We saw the Golan Heights from below and had it explained how until Israel took the Heights, Syria would shell the area from there.  We saw where the Jordan flows into the Sea of Galilee and were surprised to see rafters coming down the river.  The sea is at its highest point of the last 25 years and like the weather report in Iowa leads newscasts their news is lead daily by a report on the sea level.  Water is life here in the desert.  All the beach resorts are struggling with what to do now as much of their beach area is presently under water.

The "Moosketeers"

We went up the hill to be at the church and grounds which is the traditional place where Jesus delivered his Sermon on the Mount.  It is a lovely church where you can look out windows on all sides and see the Sea of Galilee.  On our previous visit we did not visit the grounds or the church, but stayed outside and actually received a talk sitting on the mountainside where the people probably actually sat assuming the event really did happen here.  It may have.  At that time, we walked down through the banana plantations to the road.  This time we looked over those same plantations and were informed that Israel is also now growing mangoes for export. 

Hopping back on the bus we returned to Haifa--except part way there we found our bus turning off the highway.  We were informed of a tire problem.  About two minutes off the highway we pulled into a tire store.  They were able to replace the tire in less than a half hour.  Where in the USA could you pull off the highway, have a place that had the needed (bus sized) tire and could replace it for you in half an hour?    May have been the single most amazing thing on our trip to date.  We returned to the ship without further incident.

Not at all "moose-chevious" to me.