Our first full day -- Saturday, December 16, 2017

After Peter called us last night, I resolved to wake early so we could go explore.  After all, the tour guide wasn't going to meet us in the hotel lobby at 9am.

Nope, that didn't happen.

We made it down to the lobby for breakfast around 8am.  I can't really tell you what was on offer.  It tasted like little quiches, pastries, fruit salad, vegetables, lentils and cottage cheese.  The food, whatever it was, was colorful, fresh, and delicious.  The coffee was bracing. 

We managed to walk down to the beach for about 15 minutes before we had to head back to meet the guide.

Moti Bar Kuv is about 6'4", 50 years old, lean and fit.  He grew up near Haifa, and worked in archeological digs for many years before he decided to go into business as a private tour guide.  His grandfather and extended family hailed from Thessalonika for hundreds of years.  The port was filled with Jewish tradesman and dock workers.  When the British protectorate needed port workers near Haifa in the early 1930's, they sent a Jewish port union leader to Thessalonika with immigration certificates to recruit Jews there to "return" to Israel.  (They don't call a Jew's moving to Israel "immigration"; they call it return.  Anyway, Moti's grandfather and grandmother caught the bug.  A huge fellow, Moti's grandfather knew many trades.  In Thessalonika, he worked as a longshoreman.  All the extended family members worked hard to talk him out of his crazy idea.  Why move away from everyone and everything in that secure, prosperous, civilized Jewish community to a dangerous, backward, unsettled land?  Moti's grandfather and grandmother were not dissuaded and moved to the British protectorate of Palestine.  There he worked as a longshoreman for only a few years but then again had to start over from nothing when British authority collapsed at the start of WW 2. The grandfather became a fisherman/fish monger.  For years, the grandparents received entreaties to return home.  Then the entreaties stopped.  Why?  Because every single member of the extended family who stayed in Thessalonika died in Auschwitz.  The last member of the Kuv family died 12 hours before Auschwitz was liberated.  Moti recounted that he learned this sad fact by reviewing records of the sadistic Nazi efficiency at the death camps: every numbered prisoner had his meager daily rations recorded right up to 12 hrs before they were sent to the gas chamber. I cannot even imagine the helpless anguish Moti's grandparents must have felt.

Moti related this story to us while driving his sedan through the old city of Jaffa and then north to Mt Carmel.  We wove in and around a huge Arab street market (a great place apparently to shop, if you really need something, since many stores are closed on Sabbath.)  We drove to the top of the mountain.   When we reached the Carmelite monastery there, we stopped to see the statue of Elijah, poised to kill a prophet of Baal.  Moti reminded us that at Passover, Jews leave one chair free for Elijah, and at some point make a big deal of opening the door for Elijah.  Moti told us he held a vivid memory of himself at age 5, looking up to the fierce statue of Elijah on Mt. Carmel.  So at the next Passover, when everyone rushed to the door to welcome Elijah, he dove under the table. Since the statue of Elijah looked pretty scary to me up on top of Mt. Carmel, I told Moti I could understand his fear, and if Elijah jumped down off his pedestal, I'd protect both Moti and Rols.  (I think that assurance really assuaged any left-over anxiety from his childhood.)

Moti took us up to the top of the monastery roof, from which you could see the entire valley to the west ... where tradition holds that Armageddon will occur.  You could definitely see how the plain would stage a battle.  Throughout history, that plain has seen so many battles, for it forms the crossroads between Europe, Asia and Africa.  Moti pointed out the hills of Nazareth, Mt. Hermon, Meggiddo, and the spot where Gideon took his 200 soldiers and defeated the Midianites. Just two weeks ago,  Rols shared a message at the prison in Monroe, and he talked about that battle.  Apparently, the 200 Jewish soldiers hid torches in clay vessels.  When Gideon gave the signal, the soldiers threw down the clay vessels and lit the torches.  The Midianites thought they were being attacked by a huge force, and ran away.  The Biblical message was that God can use common and even broken vessels to shine.

After Mt. Carmel, we headed north and west, back to the coast.  We visited Caesarea, and saw the Roman theater, Herod's palace, Pilate's home, the Hippodrome, and the ruins of the Byzantine fortifications.  Walking through the huge ruins of Herod's palace, we saw the ruins of the ancient receiving hall where Paul was taken and where he "appealed to Rome."  We saw a copy of a marble stone honoring Pilate; the original is in the Jerusalem Museum.

We traveled on to Acre, and traveled down and backwards in time through layers of excavation from the Ottoman fortress to the Crusader's fortress to the Roman ruins of a fort.  We ate at a little hole-in-the-wall place where Arab Christians make, according to Moti, the best hummus in Israel.  (It was amazing.)  Apparently the family that runs the restaurant, and about 10 other families, where left homeless when the 1948 war for independence destroyed their village.  The families are all Israeli citizens, but their petitions to return to the now-safe area to rebuild their village have always been denied.  Moti said he thought his government was wrong, and asked if perhaps there were any similar circumstances in the States (as with Black people or Native Americans).  Mmmm.

As dark fell around 6:30, we found ourselves on the street of our hotel in the old Lutheran "Templer" neighborhood in Haifa.  Apparently in the late 1800's, break-away Lutherans left Wurtenburg, Germany to found a colony in Haifa.  They prospered and grew, until the War of Independence.  After statehood, they were given two options -- emigrate to Germany or emigrate to Australia.  (Sad.)  But their old colony became the future home for various Christians.  At this time of year, Jewish and Arab people come from all over to walk down a broad avenue lit with Christmas lights, a Christmas tree, wandering Santa Clauses, food and entertainment.  It's the only place I've ever seen a giant, decorated Christmas tree, flanked by the Islamic Crescent Moon and the Israeli Dove of Peace.  We had a hamburger kebab at a youth hostel, did a free Christmas craft, and listened to music.

This hotel is lovely and old.  I feel like I need another 14 hours of sleep just so my spirit can absorb everything from this incredible day. Shalom, people, as we celebrate advent.  Blessings and love.