Modern Olive Processing

After seeing our ancient olive press, you might be wondering what modern inhabitants of the Holy Land do with their olives. 

My friend Sahar shared photos from her family's 2009 harvest.  First of all, picking olives is not an hour-long novelty, like it was for me, but a week-long endeavor for the whole family.  The best olives are tapped with a rock, packed with peppers, lemon or lemon leaves, and salt water, and stored for 10 days before eating. My friend Samia helped me pack two bottles of olives using this process, and I get to taste them in a few days.

 The rest of the olives are taken to a state-of-the art olive processing machine. "Within half an hour, about 119 kgs of olives were pressed into 18 liters of extra virgin olive oil."

Treasures

I haven't been an avid yard-saler since my North Carolina days, but some friends were heading to the Association of American and Canadian Expatriates yard sale, and I tagged along.  Actually the story is more complicated than that.  Our yard sale expedition was nearly cancelled due to rat poison.  But after some tense moments and medical consultation, we headed off, prepared with a wad of shekels and a GPS. 

Listening to the  GPS narrator mispronounce Hebrew and Arabic street names would be quite entertaining, if we weren't straining so hard to read street signs, anticipate lane changes, and recognize landmarks among the buildings made of uniform local stone.  As my friend and I were heading into the city to retrieve a lost cell phone from a helpful stranger, I asked the lady to describe her apartment building.  She said, "What can I say?  They all look the same."  Even GPS didn't help because we were spelling the street name Betsal'el instead of Bezalel. 

Anyway, back to the yard sale: it was in an open courtyard deep in the Jewish area of West Jerusalem, and people milled about just as at any other yard sale, except with more headscarves and hats.  I was on the lookout for Christmas gifts, some wardrobe variety, and shoes.  My Ecco shoes have been disintegrating faster than I can duct tape the soles back together.  I didn't find any shoes that fit, and I have no comment at this time about the Christmas gifts, but I had a great time looking at merchandise and hearing English mingled with Hebrew, Russian, and Brooklyn.

 At one table full of beautiful greeting cards, I saw a what I thought was a magnified photograph of a snowflake, but as I looked closer, I could see it was lace.  I stopped to talk to Ruth Guthrie and her husband, and she told me the story of the lace. 

"This lace belonged to my great-grandmother, and she wore it over a black shirt.  She always dressed like she was rich.  She came from Bosnia-Herzogovina, my grandmother brought the lace with her, not the first time she came to Israel (1954), but much later.  I kept begging her for it, but she said, 'Not for little girls.'  But when I got older, she gave me some of her laces little by little.  She loved me, and she was very good to me."  I asked Ruthi if she had written down her grandmother's story, and she said she hadn't yet.  But she has been telling them to her children and grandchildren. 

At another table I saw a beautiful silver plate not unlike the one above.  The Hebrew letters identify this as a Matzah plate for a passover meal.  I asked the lady behind the table if there was a story behind this plate.  She turned to the man next to her and said, "Is there a story behind this plate?"  

The man said, "Of course there's a story behind this plate.  The children of Israel were in Egypt, and they were in bondage and having a terrible time...." 

Elah, Elah, Goliath's Back

This weekend we took a trip with the Muhlestein and the Lewis families.  Kerry Muhlestein is the other BYU Religion professor here and Glenn Lewis works for the US Consulate.  Both Kerry and Glenn are counselors  in the Jerusalem Branch Presidency (Frank is the Branch Clerk).  Between our three families there were 16 children.  We left our home in the hill country of Judea and drove southwest to the valleys of the Shephelah (the low hills between the Judean hills and the coastal plain).   First we visited Sampson's neck of the woods in the Sorek Valley.  

We stood on Tel Beth-Shemesh overlooking Zorah, the birthplace of Sampson not far from where he burnt his enemies' fields with the help of 300 foxes (Judges 15).  This was also the location where the ark of the covenant was returned to the Israelites after the Hophni and Phinehas incident (1 Sam 6) .

Next we drove to the valley of Elah where the young shepherd boy David slew the mighty giant Goliath.  Between Azekah and Socoh you can still see a streambed, and you can still pick up stones, although the smooth ones are long gone, and if you bring along your sling, you can try to frighten the grasshoppers in the dry field to the left.  Or you can frighten your mother when the stone flies toward your sister instead of the grasshoppers. 

The hill behind Amanda is where Saul's armies would have encamped when they left the fortified city of Azekah and advanced toward the Philistine camp.  The Philistine chariots had a hard time penetrating to the hilly valleys of Judea, but they clung tenaciously to their territory on the plains. 

We thought about Uncle Mark and wished he were here to lead us in slinging.  (He returns home from Iceland in a month!)  According to Jeff Chadwick, the history teacher at the BYU Jerualem Center this year, a rock can reach 90 mph or more as it leaves the sling of an experienced marksman, which David certainly was.  From that perspective, the miracle was not that the stone killed Goliath, but that David hit his target on the first attempt.  David had perfect faith that with the Lord's help, he would succeed within five tries.

Notice how far apart everyone is standing.  There were no direct hits on each other, thankfully, and we all learned more about trusting in the Lord to overcome gigantic obstacles. 

The next valley south is Guvrin.  We explored some cool man-made caves at Beit Guvrin National Park.   The first cave complex was an ancient mine for soft chalky limestone, which could be mixed with water, heated up, and then applied to homes or cisterns to waterproof them.  This method of waterproofing cisterns was a crucial development in the region's history, allowing the winter rains to be stored for summer use and enabling people to live farther away from springs and rivers. The plaster was not permanent however, and the cisterns needed to be constantly repaired to make sure they did not leak.  Jeremiah told the wicked inhabitants of Jerusalem before the temple was destroyed that they had forsaken the living water of the Lord and were trusting in broken cisterns that could hold no water (Jeremiah 2:13).

   

The circular mining operation left behind bell-shaped caves with a circular opening at the top, and the bell caves eventually connected.  We walked from one cathedral-like dome to another.  In the soft limestone walls we could see carvings such as a Byzantine cross, the name of Allah in Arabic, and a reindeer!  We sang together, explored the rooms, and got dusty climbing on ledges.

Another cave complex contained empty Hellenistic tombs (built around the 3rd century BC), some of which were elaborately painted. 

These empty tombs provided for a fun game of sardines for the kids.  I'm not sure that those whose bodies anciently found a resting place in these tombs envisioned children one day "dancing" on their graves. 

The last place we visited on this trip was a Hellenstic dovecote with thousands of holes for birds to nest. The birds were raised for food, for fertilizer, and for sacrifices at the Temple of Herod (Luke 2:24).  Some of the doves raised here may have been used for the temple in Jerusalem.  The majority of the holes were twenty feet up on the walls, but there were a few holes lower down for some cute little turtle-doves.

We drove past eucalyptus trees imported from Australia to drain a swampy area, then we stopped for ice cream cones at a McDonald's before heading home up the Bab el Wad.

The weather is getting cooler, and the cloud cover made for a beautiful sunset.

Some strange creatures must have followed us home from the caves.

More photos from October

We walked to the Western Wall early one morning as Jews celebrated the end of Sukkot and the beginning of Simchat Torah.  Worshippers filled the courtyard, sang and waved branches overhead.  We saw several Torah scrolls carried in beautifully ornamented cases.  .

This was my second time at the Wall, but my previous visit was on the Sabbath so photography was not permitted, neither was using cell phones, nor writing.  But apparently it was still okay to place a pre-written note into the cracks of the walls even if it is Sabbath

At the Arabic Culture night, a father and son who work as muezzins at Al Aqsa Mosque sang the Call to Prayer and verses from the Quran for us, also demonstrating Islamic prayer.  We ate a delicious meal I can only compare to chicken chimichangas, but better, with amazing side dishes.  Then we worked off the extra calories with folk dancing in the gym.  Sorry for the blurry photo--blame it on the beat!

Emily talks with her friend Johnathan at the Seder or Passover meal at the Jerusalem Center.  The menu was salad, then fish, then soup, later chicken with mashed potatoes, then fruit, and finally Israeli sweets.

At the end of the meal Amanda found the hidden matza and was rewarded with a box of chocolate candies.  She shared them with us for family home evening.

We attended a Liberal Orthodox synagoge on Friday night with instructor Ophir Yarden.  The rabbi and congregation sang hymns and psalms to say goodbye to the old day and welcome in the Sabbath as a bride would be welcomed to her wedding.  We followed along in the song book as best as we could, and tried to learn a few more Hebrew letters as we soaked in the melodies and joined in the choruses.

A view of the October sky over West Jerusalem.

On October 17 we snorkeled off the stony beach of Eilat, the southernmost tip of Israel.

After chasing fish for 4 hours, we enjoyed dinner at the restaurant affectionately known as the "cow kibbutz."  We brought home a gallon of chocolate milk.



Olive Processing

For eight weeks we have viewed Jerusalem from beneath the branches of a lovely young olive tree on our patio.  Up until last week we were content to just look at its silvery-green thin leaves and sweep up the early fallen fruit.  Then the first rain of the fall signaled the olives were ready, so we climbed a ladder and used our fingers to comb the green and purple fruit from its branches.  The olives rained down among our roses, demonstrating exactly why experienced olive pickers spread a tarp first.  Our small tree yielded maybe a quart of olives.  The students gathered many buckets full, and these sat for a week and then were rinsed and soaked. 

Today we helped strain the olives out of a huge tank of water, pour them into the circular stone trough, and rotate the crushing stone by pushing on a beam.  Continuous shoveling helps move the unmashed olives under the stone. The object is to crush the pit of each olive, for this is where the most oil is located.

Hanni, our guide in this process, estimated the stone probably weighs over half a ton.  Hanni is on the left in the photo above.

If the words "Child Labor Laws" are crossing your mind right now, don't worry.  The grimaces in the photo are staged.  The beam is heavy, but three or four people can keep it going for 5 to 10 minutes.

And if you can't keep up with the big kids, you can just take a break.

After about 45 minutes of crushing, Hanni decreed that greenish-brown mush was ready..  Careful not to splatter our clothes, we scooped the fragrant mush into donut-shaped baskets. The baskets were stacked into a press, and everyone took turns twisting the screw. 

Screw-based presses have been in the Holy Land dating back1200-1500 years.  This technology influenced Johannes Gutenberg when he designed the printing press.  The other press on the property is a weights-based press, using technology twice as old.  For more photos and more commentary on the Jerusalem Center's olive presses, visit Chad Emmett's blog, Beit Emmett .

As the press forced the baskets to flatten, the oil and juice ran reddish brown onto the stone, then into the basins below.  After settling, the oil can be easily skimmed off from the top of the watery juice. 

Historically, olive oil was a source of light, nourishment, flavor, and healing. The mash left over in the baskets was used for fuel and food for animals.   Because our olives were exposed to sunlight, the oil will be bitter and not suitable for cooking, so it will instead be used for healing as consecrated oil used for anointing the sick. 

As the red liquid poured down, we talked about the symbolism of the olive press or Gethsemane ( "Gat Shemanim" means oil press in Hebrew).  One of our kids took the perspective of the workers in an olive press--having put in a lot of effort to help make the oil, they could imagine better how much work it took for the Savior to atone for our sins.  Through this experience, we hope our children can imagine the Savior voluntarily placing himself beneath the great weight of justice in our place and feel solemn gratitude that Jesus suffered for us, so that we might not have to suffer if we will repent.

When you walk through the dark, hold your head lamp high

This field trip through Hezekiah's Tunnel was definitely a favorite for Frank and me, and we look forward to taking our whole family later this month and also bringing Grandmas and Grandpas in December. 

We began by touring some very recently excavated ruins that may have been a part of King David's palace or at least some important buildings within the walls of King David's city.  This site is downhill to the south from the existing Temple Mount but near the top of the Ophel Ridge which David captured from the Jebusites. Some bullae (small round pieces of clay upon which seals were pressed to seal documents) were found in this area with the names of Gedaliah and Jocal who may have been among those who condemned the prophet Jeremiah after Jeremiah warned them to flee Jerusalem (see Jeremiah 38:1-4).  If they condemned Jeremiah, it is possible they also condemned Lehi as well.

  

 Next we walked to the famous "Area G" excavated by Kathleen Kenyon in the 1960s.  In this area was uncovered a huge "stepped stone structure" that was a glacis or retaining wall that was built in order to strengthen the hillside and to support the large building on top (possibly the palace).  Later, after Jerusalem grew because northern Israelites fled south from the Assyrians, some people even built homes on the glacis itself.  (Lehi's ancestors, who were from the tribe of Manasseh--a northern tribe--likely made their way to Jerusalem during this time period.)  The ruins of one such house are on the stepped stone structure and probably date to around 600 BC.  It is called the "House of Ahiel" because some ostraca (broken pottery pieces with writing on them) contained his name.  To the right is a room called "the Burnt Room" because it contained a layer of ash and arrowheads from the Babylonian invasion.  This home witnessed prophets like Lehi and Jeremiah and the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple.  

 

Then we watched a 3-D film about the City of David and its importance in Israelite history.  We took off our socks, put on our head lamps, and headed down a lot of stairs. 

After many flights of stairs, we passed an archaeological site in progress.  This site has huge rocks that may have been from a Canaanite tower. 

Here the path divided; our friend Ann Killian went left to the "dry tunnel" with others who didn't wish to get soggy.  The dry dunnel is a Canaanite watercourse which was only recently discovered but has fueled all kinds of speculation that it may be the "gutter" mentioned in 2 Samuel 5:8 that helped Joab conquer the city for David.   Frank and I went with 38 students to the wet tunnel--this is Brandt Peacock (aka "the sheep whisperer").

The water was cold at first but soon felt really refreshing.  We sloshed along for around 30 minutes in water that came up to our knees.  For most of its length the tunnel was just tall and wide enough for us to walk through single file.  The course meandered back and forth, following natural fissures in the rock when possible, with a few abrupt turns near the meeting place where the tunnelers met.  We were amazed at the narrowness.  There was hardly enough room to swing a hammer, let alone a pick axe.  The chisel marks on the walls showed the painstaking effort this must have taken. 

Here you can see a dramatic shift in direction as the northbound tunnelers originally started off directly behind me (Jill), then turned almost 90 degrees left and headed off behind where Frank is standing.

 A plaque described the meeting of the tunnelers: "While the laborers were still working with their picks, each toward the other, and while there were still three cubits to be broken through, the voice of each was heard calling to the other, because there was a crack in the rock... and at the moment of the breakthrough, the laborers struck each toward the other, pick against pick."  The original plaque is in Turkey, but a replica is near the exit of the tunnel. 

 Near the end of the tunnel the ceiling was around 40 feet above us.  If you look closely you can see bats.  Not really. 

 At the end of the tunnel was a lovely green pool, once thought to be the pool of Siloam, but a better site has been found further south. 

 Water from the tunnel used to collect on the right, then spill over the stairs and end up on the left in the pool, a portion of which has been excavated. 

Here the Savior sent the blind man to wash the mud from his face, thus restoring his sight. President Kimball posed the question, why didn't the Savior use oil, herbs, and water from a pure spring to heal the man? The answer is that by using the impure, gritty elements of the earth, Jesus made it clear that the healing came from Him. Truly the Savior has the power to reach out and heal us even as we are surrounded with the mundane or filthy elements of earth life.

 

Below left, Jill and Jocelyn stand in the pool of Siloam.  Below right is the playground for Arabic children, whose laughter and shouts spill down the stairway as we exit. 

Admission: 25 shekels (NIS) for adults,19 NIS for kids and dignified folks, or free with Nat'l parks card.  3-D Movie 10 NIS