Sameria

Another day in the life of a foreigner in Israel... who is at this very moment making his experience as American as possible. To explain, I am currently watching men in black and laughing as will smith makes a fool of himself as only he can. As for the real life portion, life is good. I don't have an enormous work load (aside from perhaps 4 papers and some greek). This past weekend we went up into Sameria. I'm once again going to post my reflection report from the weekend if you care to read it... then maybe some summarizing thoughts at the end.

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Today was pretty good, but it wasn’t my favorite field study. I remembered my passport, I brought two apples, I was ready for a day of adventure… but the day was rather lacking in adventure. Maybe it was the 20 minutes in the bus before our first stop (an outlook looking over the mountains of Ephraim), but something must have killed my adventurous spirit. After this stop we drove some more and then met up with an Israelite settler of the area of the Biblical city of Shiloh. He talked to us a lot about teenagers (who to him were the primary cause of the impossibility of peace between Arabs and Jews), but I couldn’t really hear him very well so I am not sure much of what else he talked about aside from some crazy stories about the 6 day war. Dr. Wright told us about the wonders of the land of Manasseh including its cenomanian soil and its interconnections between the costal highway and the rift valley. The difference between Ephraim and Manasseh and Jerusalem lie in these connections. While Jerusalem has few routes in and out and few connections to international trade, Ephraim and Manasseh are riddled with passages allowing those living in those areas (and invaders) to move about much more freely. We also went to Mount Gerazim, and a nearby city. We ate lunch at this city (hummus and pita with some meat and cheese, always a good lunch on these trips). After a hearty lunch we walked up the street to a fenced in area where several children were kicking around a soccer ball and there was an old basketball hoop. Aside from these festivities there were several wells covered with metal bars and what we later learned to be an alter. Here we talked to a Samaritan priest about who the Samaritans are and what they believe. He explained that the Samaritans believe in the five books of Moses *which differ slightly from the books of Moses found in the Tenach* and do not then have need to worship in Jerusalem. Although their children go to school learning Arabic, they are taught Hebrew, the language in which they pray to “The God”. It was hard seeing people who were so close to the origins of the Truth and who have drifted so far. They await a messiah they do not know, one who unbeknownst to them has already come. I can almost understand why Christ had such compassion on the Samaritan woman with her “5 husbands.” The man we were talking to explained that the area we were standing in is the area where the Samaritans celebrated Yom Kippor and other festivals and the wells were where the sacrificial meat was cooked and the alter where they were sacrificed. It was fascinating to hear him explain, but as I have already mentioned heart breaking at the same time. After speaking with this man we went to Mt. Gerazim and looked down upon the city below us. We could see many of the homes of the Arab refugees forced there after their expulsion from Israeli territory. From the land of Samaria we headed to our final destination (which on the way to we stopped on an overlook covered in garbage smelling like death with bones everywhere… that stop was awful except for the sweet Terra Rosa terracing we could see from the overlook). At Shiloh we talked about the story of Samuel and about the Tabernacle. We looked at a small model of the Tabernacle and examined the remains of the wall surrounding the city. We also talked about “glacis” which is the supports running up the wall from the outside not only supporting the wall but making it at an angle so that archers could see the enemy without peering over the walls edge and so that battering rams could not so easily bash at the wall. After this we looked at an olive and grape press then headed back to the bus and home. Although it was a fun day (as field studies usually are) it just seemed a little lacking in comparison to the usual grandeur.

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It is easy to do nothing here. Just sit back and relax. We had our first rain the other day. It was awesome. Its hard to write for real while watching the movie... so I'll finish this later. But, enojy what there is for now.