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