So day 4 for us had an interesting start. Relatively early in the morning, we made our way to Mt. Ben Tal, which means "son of the morning dew." From the top of the mountain, you can see Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. The view is like being on a plane. You can see everything. I could probably have seen everything better if I had my glasses, but oh well. So what I found interesting about what we learned at Ben Tal was the way Israel is dealing with the Syrian refugee problem. Yes there is a fence between them. No it is not electric. It is electronic. Meaning if someone touches it, they don't get zapped. Instead Israel is alerted and if they see that the person is injured they will let them in and treat them at field hospitals they have set up. Unless they're so bad off they need to be flown to a major hospital, in which case that will be done, all with Israeli taxpayers money. Also, fun fact: Israel was one of the first countries to set up field hospitals in Haiti and Nepal after their disasters. But you won't necessarily hear about that because Israel didn't do it for publicity. In fact, if it wasn't for an organization called Stand With Us, nobody would know about it at all. That's because Israel not only understands the sanctity of life, it is where the idea originated. The world's religions are so focused on a culture of death, but it's from Judaism that we get the idea of the value of life.
So after Ben Tal, we went to a place called Banias. Another one I'd never heard of. Or at least I thought I hadn't. So it turns out Banias is what used to be the Roman temple of the god Pan. It is also called Caesarea Philippi. Oh, hey, that sounds familiar. So that was where Jesus talked to His disciples and asked them who people said He was. This was when Peter declared Him to be the Son of God. So I remembered something about this location being near a cave which was why people called the place "The Gates of Hell." So we get there, we're looking at these cool ruins and this gorgeous stream and fig trees and whatnot, and oh that's a cool looking cave. I take a picture, I move on. The gears turn, I turn, and I freak out. Click. So turns out this cave used to have a part of the temple in front of it, and a river flowing out of it. This was where sacrifices would be made to Pan, and if the blood of the sacrifice came back in the water, then it hadn't been accepted. Fun fact. But yeah, so that's why they called it the Gates of Hell. And that's why when Jesus told Peter that the gates of Hell wouldn't stand against His church, He was again, not just saying words. He was tying everything into what was around them. Cause He was just brilliant like that.
So after Banias came one of many first time experiences for me. "Kayaking"/"white water rafting." On the Jordan River. So I was freaking out all day cause I don't think I'd be very good at kayaking. Also white water sounded dangerous. But basically it ended up just being rafting on not so white waters. There was like one "rapid" that was like... ah. Haha so it was pretty chill. Minus that one point when this one Israeli guy swam over to our raft and climbed on and wouldn't stop talking to us. Then two of his friends joined him. Then they started doing backflips off our raft. And they kept coming back. Like ok, it was funny at first, but after a bit even our tour guide was like ok, stop. (Shout out to Yogev, coolest tour guide ever. The dude knows, like, everything.) Oh and then there was a raft that had this older Arab family. Like they were all old. No kids, no teenagers, no young adults. And this family made it their primary objective to splash us every time they saw us. Like, ok first time it was funny, but when it happened again... it was war. Can't really tell you who won that war. I think they just got bored. They were actually pretty friendly at the end when we got out. All in all, it was a pretty cool day.
So that's day 4. Never mind the fact that it's like day... 12 now. I'll catch up eventually. Shabbat shalom.
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