Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Kibbutz Lavi, Nazareth & Bet She'an

It's Tuesday January 23rd and we left a little earlier today in order make all our stops now that we are leaving Tiberius and going to the Dead Sea.  Leaving the hotel at 7:30 am our first stop is at Kibbutz Lavi (click). Now a Kibbutz is a communal settlement in which all members are equal and share everything together. Kibbutz Lavi was established in 1949 and is comprised of a farm, hotel, furniture factory (click) and a auto repair shop. Although our main purpose was to see the farm, especially the dairy aspect, we learned much about Kibbutz life.


The dairy farm consisted of some 320 Holsteins.  However they also have 300 beef cattle and a chicken barn.

Kibbutz Lavi Synogogue


The furniture factory (click) specializes and is renown for its synagogue furniture. After building the furniture for their own synagogue they realized that there was a interest and demand for such furniture from other synagogues. They then started a factory to produce this kind of furniture.







Kibbutz Lavi Furniture factory specializing in Synagogue furniture


Our next stop was Nazareth with a present population of 80,000.  In the days of Jesus it was around 400-500 people. This is where Mary received the angelic announcement that she would become pregnant by the Holy Spirit and that the child was to be called Jesus. This is known as the Annunciation (click).  It is also where the Nazarenes attempted to throw Jesus off a cliff Luke 4:29 (click) and where Jesus reads from the scroll of Isiah in which he announces that he is the fulfillment of that prophecy (Luke 4:17-21 (click)).

We toured Nazareth Village (click) which depicts village life in the time of Jesus.


Wheel to crush olives in the first step of producing olive oil

As we continued on to the Dead Sea (click) we stopped at what I think is one of best sites to see which is Bet She'an (click)!  It is only in the last 30 or so years that archaeologists have uncovered most of what we see in Bet She'an today!  It was one of 10 Roman cities of the Decapolis (click)

Bev standing on the main street called the Palaydius

It was destroyed by a massive earthquake in the 8th century but gives us a great insight as to what Roman life and times were like.  Bet She'an would have existed in the days of Jesus and is very likely that he would have traveled through it.











Overlooking Bet She'an with the Tell (click)
We ended our day at the Dead Sea Daniel Hotel.