Beit She'arim: Part 2

Welcome back to Part 2 about Beit She'arim!

As I said in the last post, Beit She'arim was a place I'd never heard before. That's because it wasn't mentioned in the Bible. It's an important place in Israel's history from the 1st century AD. There are the remains of a Roman-era Jewish town, and, what we'll explore in this post, the necropolis—a series of rock-cut tombs and caves carved into stone.

According to Wikipedia, Beit She'arim became the popular place for burial around 135 AD, when Jews were barred from Jerusalem and could no longer be buried on the Mount of Olives. The Sanhedrin ended up settling in the town of Beit She'arim before moving on to Tiberias, so many famous rabbis were buried here.

In all, there are more than 30 burial caves. Some have been excavated, and some haven't. Some were ravaged by grave robbers, so much of the contents were destroyed. But there still remains some incredible historical detail. 

A UNESCO Heritage Site, Wikipedia says that "though only a portion of the necropolis has been excavated, it has been likened to a book inscribed in stone. Its catacombs, mausoleums, and sarcophagi are adorned with elaborate symbols and figures as well as an impressive quantity of incised and painted inscriptions in Hebrew, Aramaic, Palmyrene, and Greek, documenting two centuries of historical and cultural achievement. The wealth of artistic adornments contained in this, the most ancient extensive Jewish cemetery in the world, is unparalleled anywhere." 

Beit She'arim: Part 1

Beit She'arim is one of those places I'd never heard of before coming to Israel to study Hebrew, so it was all new to me. What an incredible place to explore!

It's a national park, but on the way in to the park, there are things to see... 

...like the remains of a 2,000-year-old synagogue

...old city gates and an olive press from the same time period

...the remains of an old basilica

...a statue of Alexander Zaid, who started the kibbutz down below, and a beautiful view over the Jezreel Valley

... and more! Come back next week for Part 2 of the series on Beit She'arim!

The Rock, The Road, and the Rabbi: Mic drop!

I loved reading Kathie Lee Gifford's The Rock, the Road, and the Rabbi, probably because it reminded me of my trip to Israel in 2017. 

She went to a lot of places I went to, so I could see them in my mind's eye—but her tour guide was Ray Vander Laan, whose videos with Focus on the Family are incredible. I've heard there's a 3-year wait to get on one of his tours (probably longer now thanks to covid-19), but it's always good to dream. 

This book is an easy read, as each short chapter focuses on a different location, and then Rabbi Jason Sobel (pictured on the cover) often adds to the commentary. So I'm going to make this a series, because there were so many good things I picked up on in this book.

Here's some good stuff just from the opening chapters:

"All of Scripture is meant to point to the Messiah in some way. For example, as Rabbi Jason explained to me, the first letter of Genesis is the Hebrew letter bet, and the last word of the book of Revelation is the Hebrew word amen, which ends in the letter nun. The first and last letters of the Bible spell the Hebrew word Ben, which means 'Son'. From the very first to the very last letter, everything in the Bible points to the Son!" (page 5). This really struck me, because I am currently learning Hebrew, and of course, I started with the alphabet. How amazing! I love how things are hidden in Scripture like this!

Later, on page 8, Gifford describes her first few hours in the Holy Land, following guide Ray Vander Laan up a mountain to reach Gezer, an ancient Biblical city overlooking the Via Maris (the ancient trading road that ran alongside the Mediterranean Sea). Ray explained, "The problem with the Bible [...] is that the Bible was written by Middle Easterners for Middle Easterners. But we try to understand it with a Western mindset. We try to apply our own principles and our Western understanding to a culture that is completely foreign to us". As they gazed down on this road from above and saw how it connected the ancient world as nothing else could, the lesson hit home (described on page 10). 

Then, the commentary changes and Rabbi Jason Sobel adds his thoughts, and it is like the biggest mic drop of all:

"Israel's geographic position is key, since it functions as a land bridge between Asia and Africa. But from a spiritual perspective, there is even more. I believe the land God promised Abraham has the same geographic boundaries as the garden of Eden" (page 10). 

WHAT???

I've heard that it could be in Bahrain, or even Saudi Arabia. But Israel itself being the Garden? WHOA! That's especially interesting to me because as Ezekiel 36-37 predicted, the Land has come back to life in recent decades. The very desert is blooming—which is spoken of in Scripture. And later in Ezekiel, it talks about the Millennial Kingdom and how a river will flow out from the Temple Mount, in one direction to the Mediterranean and in the other, to the Dead Sea. It says that the Dead Sea will fill with life. Could Israel really be the setting for the Garden of Eden?

What do you think? Let me know in the comments below!