Israel-pt. 1

In May of 2023 some of my family and I made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The two countries we visited were Israel and Jordan. We ended up booking a trip through George’s International Travel. This travel company deals directly with the Franciscan order; a group of Roman Catholic priests/friars that have been the custodians of the Holy Land for over 800 years. During our pilgrimage, we were able to have Mass every day in a different church. Some days we said the Morning Office and other days we said a rosary whilst driving to different sites. Whenever we visited a site that was mentioned in the Bible, which was quite frequently, Father Ben would either read the excerpt from Bible himself or have someone from the group read it. It was really neat to here a story from the Bible and be in the actual place where that event took place a thousand plus years ago.

A majority of our trip was very busy. There was little to no downtime each day. We woke up very early some days in order to fit in all the events planned for the day. This was not a relaxing vacation, which makes sense because is was not one, it was a pilgrimage.

Biblical Sites

Most of the biblical sites that we visited on this trip are not exact spots of the performed miracles or stories necessarily. Researchers have done their best to conclude where a site is by going off of the Bible and tradition as to where a certain site is held. For some sites there several different possibilities for the precise location of said site.

We were not able to visit every site known by Biblical historians in the region. We were however, able to visit a great many of them, even if our total stay at the site amounted to 30 minutes.

Itinerary for the Israel part of our trip:

Day 1: Arrive in Tel Aviv, drive to hotel in Netanya

Day 2: Muhraqa Shrine on Mount Carmel, “The White Mosque” & The Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, and The Church of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor; (night spent in Tiberius)

Day 3: The Wedding Church in Cana, Mount of Beatitudes, Tabgha, Peter’s house in Capernum, boat ride on the Sea of Galilee, and The Primacy of Peter; (night spent in Tiberius)

Day 4: Cross border to Jordan, Mount Nebo & Tree of Life Handicraft Center; (night in Amman)

Day 5: Petra & Martyrs of Jordan Church; (night in Amman)

Day 6: Cross border back to Israel, Jericho, Mount of Temptation, Jordan River; (night in Jerusalem)

Day 7: Chapel of the Ascension at the Mount of Olives, Church of the Pater Noster, Dominus Flevit, Garden of Gethsemane, Sanctuarum of Gethsemane, Church of the Assumption, Chapel of Shepherd’s Field, gift shop in Bethlehem; (night in Jerusalem)

Day 8: Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, Basilica of the Nativity, Church of Saint John the Baptist, Church of the Visitation; (night in Jerusalem)

Day 9: Dormition Abbey & the Upper Room across from it, Church of St. Peter, St. Anne’s Church, Church of the Flagellation, Via Dolorosa, the western wall, Dead Sea; (partial night in Jerusalem before flying out of Tel Aviv)

In this blog post I will talk about days 1-3 of our itinerary. There will be two additional posts, one for Jordan and one for the second half of our time in Israel.

It took us over 45 hours to travel from our house in Alaska all the way to our hotel in Netanya. This was in part due to the fact that most of the other people on our tour were booked on a very specific flight out of JFK. In order to ensure that we would not be late for that flight, we ended up getting to New York about 14 hours before our plane was scheduled to leave. Similar to our trip Egypt last spring, we booked a room at the TWA Hotel, which you can read all about on a previous post I wrote. On our trip home we did not have quite as long of a layover, so we simply stayed at the airport.

In order to get to Israel, we flew from Anchorage to Seattle, Seattle to New York, New York to Zurich, Zurich to the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel. One neat thing about the Zurich airport, that we only discovered on our flight home, was an outdoor patio with a place for people to sit and for kids to run around. Upon leaving the U.S. we flew Swiss Airlines and I have to say that this might be my new favorite airline. The Gluten-Free meals were so excellent that my sister who doesn’t have this dietary restriction was envious of the food I was served. They served us fruit, vegetables, Procuitto, GF bread, and there were no suspicious looking sauces or meats, which was definitely a bonus in my opinion. In addition to this I really enjoyed the quantity of times the flight attendants came around with water.

Day 1:

Tel Aviv

When we landed in Tel Aviv we, as expected, had to go through customs. This was probably the easiest set of customs I have ever had to go through. All we had to do was scan our passports on a machine while simultaneously getting a picture taken, then we took the little entry ticket the machine spit out. After this, we met up with a representative from the travel company and so were able to skip the passport lines and simply have a man quickly look at our passports.

Unlike other countries, Israel will not stamp your passport upon entering or leaving their country. This is because other countries such as Lebanon, Syria, Iran, and Yemen will not allow you entrance to their borders if you posses a stamp from Israel. This is mainly due to the long history between Israel and Muslim/Arab countries.

After collecting our luggage, we met our guide for the trip, Father Benjamin. He was a Franciscan priest/friar originally from Africa, who has been in the Holy Land on and off since 1995. He wore a traditional Franciscan friar brown habit most of the time, but did change into normal clothes when we went over the border to Jordan, (for safety reasons).

We had just over 40 people on our tour, so it was a bit large, but we all fit onto one tour bus.

Netanya

We all boarded our bus and drove the hour or so drive to the city of Netanya. There we spent the night at the “Island Luxurous Suites Hotel”. Due to both the 11 hour time difference and my inclination to wake up at the crack of dawn to begin with, I awoke around 2:00am. I was able to watch the sun rise over the Mediterranean Sea from our balcony. It really was quite beautiful! The City of Netanya was founded over 2,000 years ago and has a population of over 200,000 people.

Day 2:

Tiberius

The hotel we stayed in, in Tiberius, is called “Emily’s Boutique”. The hotel itself was fairly small, but they did have a nice array of food for both breakfasts and dinners. The area around the hotel is also safe to walk around and there is a walking path along the Sea of Galilee, (a.k.a. Lake Tiberius), across the street from the hotel. We used this path to get an early morning run in along the sea which was nice.

Muhraqa Shrine, Mount Carmel

Muhraqa Shrine is a part of a Carmelite Monastery that is open to the public. It is the reported site where Elijah proved to the people that their false god, “Baal”, did not exist. This story comes from the book of 1 Kings 18:19-40. In summation, Elijah had two altars built and told the prophets of Baal to have their god light the altar for them, this of course they failed to succeed in. Elijah then had his altar doused in water several times, then preceded to call upon the Lord. God responded by lighting his altar. At the Shrine there is a small garden, a rooftop view of the surrounding countryside, and a small chapel.

The White Mosque, The Synagogue Church, The Basilica of the Annunciation, and the Church of Saint Joseph- Nazareth

The White Mosque, now a Muslim site, was built over the original synagogue where Jesus read part of the Bible, revealed himself as the Son of God, and then was promptly chased out. This happened in Luke 4:16-30. A sort of memorial synagogue for this was built nearby and we visited this as well.

Next we visited the Basilica of the Annunciation. For those who do not know, the Annunciation is when God, via the angel Gabriel, asked Mary to be the Mother of God. This takes place in Luke 1:26-38. In the underground part of the church there is a stone room; it is believed that this is the precise location where this event took place. This church was really neat as the outside courtyard is decorated with mosaics of Mary donated by countries from around the world. This Basilica is the largest in the Middle East.

Lastly, we visited The Church of Saint Joseph. This Church commemorates the dream that Joseph had after he found out that Mary was pregnant and his decision to stay by her side. The details of this story can be found in Matthew 1:18-25. We were lucky enough to get to the Church on time and so were able to participate in the afternoon prayers that were going on. It was neat to see all the different Franciscans and priests from different places, process through the Church singing.

Mount Tabor

At Mount Tabor, we visited the Church of the Transfiguration and this is where Father Ben said Mass for the day. As you can probably guess, this is believed to be the place where a few of the disciples witnessed the glory of Jesus and was a precursor to His ascent to Calvary. Three different accounts of this can be found in the bible, located in Mark 9:2-10, Matthew 17:1-9, and Luke 9:28-36. Our large tour bus could not drive up the mountain and so we had to divide ourselves into smaller vans to drive up to the Church. Because there were a lot of other people trying to go down the mountain at the same time as us, a few of our group decided to walk down part of the mountain. The view was incredible!

Day 3:

The Wedding Church in Cana

The Wedding Church in Cana is the commemorative site for the first miracle that Jesus preformed. At the bequest of His mother, Jesus turned water into wine for wedding feast. This story is from John 2:1-12. Father Ben said our Mass for the day and all the married couples in our group, including my parents, had a chance to renew their wedding vows. If you descend below the church, you will be able to see an example of what the jugs of water would have looked like from Jesus’s time.

Mount of Beatitudes

The Mount of Beatitudes is a gorgeous area. On the mount there is not only a church but also a guesthouse run by the Franciscan Sisters and a beautiful garden with a view that overlooks the Sea of Galilee. Mount of the Beatitudes is where Jesus gave the sermon on the mount. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven…” This comes from Matthew 5:1-12. Our stay there was very short.

Tabgha

At first glance of this name most would not realize what this site is exactly, in fact I myself did not even know. Tabgha is the name for the site where there is a stone, (and a church built around it), that is believed to be the stone upon which the baskets of extra fish and loaves were laid upon after the miracle of the multiplication of fish and loaves. There are several tellings of these miracles throughout the New Testament. Matthew 14:13-21 and Mark 6:34-44 tell of the feeding of the five thousand, which is miracle that is believed to have happened here; (not the feeding of the four thousand). Inside the church and alter is built right over the stone. While we were there, there was restoration being done on the mosaicked floor, which was really neat to watch.

Tanureen Galilee Restaurant: a restaurant near the Sea of Galilee that serves fried fish from the sea itself, as well as chicken. The meals came with french fries (which I have noticed can pretty much be found anywhere throughout the world), hummus, pita, babaganoush, and fresh dates.

Capernum

We visited the ruins of Capernum, a very small area compared to its original size. This is where Jesus spent most of His time preaching during His ministry. In this location, there are the ruins of a synagogue as well as a giant boat shaped building. The ruins of the “White Synagogue” date back to the fourth century A.D.; this synagogue was originally built over the remains of the “Synagogue of Jesus”. The building is not technically a church but is merely a “memorial”. This almost church is built right over the place where Peter’s house once stood. This exact site is known to us due to the small inscribed shrines that were built on this spot over the centuries.

Sailing on the Sea of Galilee

In the afternoon we boarded a rather large wooden boat and took a short sail on the Sea of Galilee. We learned that the Sea of Galilee is not actually a sea but is in fact a lake. There are several stories from the Bible that talk about the Sea of Galilee; these include the calming of a storm at sea in Luke 8:22-25 and Matthew 8:23-27. The crew on the boat had items to sell to us and they also taught some of our group an Israeli dance. Afterward they gave us each a certificate for sailing on the Sea of Galilee. It was definitely a neat experience!

Primacy of Peter

This church, also run by the Franciscans, is built over the stone where Jesus placed the breakfast he had made for his disciples after they had been out fishing all night in John 21:1-19. It was the third time He appeared to them after his death and where after an unsuccessful night of fishing, He bade them cast their nets and their nets instantly became weighed down with fish. It is called the “Church of the Primacy of Peter” because after eating breakfast with His disciples, Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him. After responding yes to the question all three times, Jesus told Peter to feed His sheep. Since the church is built right next to the Sea of Galilee, we had the opportunity to stick our feet into it.

Food

While each hotel we stayed at in Israel had slightly different offerings, for the most part they served the same types of food. Some of my favorite things to eat were pears, dates, and halva (this was something we had in Egypt and is a sweet sesame paste with the texture of kinetic sand). Due to the fact that Israel is for the majority a Jewish country, most of the food served for meals was Kosher. What does that mean for people who are not Jewish? Well, it means that when meat is offered at a buffet for dinner usually no foods that contain dairy are offered at the same time. The same applies vice versa, when milk and yogurt are out for breakfast, there is no meat generally. In addition to this, pork and shellfish are not Kosher, so you won’t find bacon anywhere, unless it is beef bacon. Most of the meals we ate at hotels were served buffet style. Some of the food we ate was:

-falafel/shwarma

-rice (sometimes rice cakes as a GF option)

-hard-boiled eggs

-meat: chicken, lamb, & fish

-Vegetables: tomatoes, salad, cauliflower, carrots, mushrooms & french fries

-Tahini: this is a watery paste made from sesame seeds, (often used to make hummus), but is also served as its own dipping sauce

-Shashouka, also known as Turkish eggs, are basically eggs poached in a seasoned tomato sauce

-Fruit: cantaloupe, dates (fresh & dried), dried prunes, dried figs

Stay tuned for my next post about our time in Jordan!