Jerusalem Judds

Snorkeling, Tunnel, Olive Pressing

Warning: long post, trying to catch up on some busy weeks last month!

A few weeks ago, during the Sukkot holiday, Amanda, Emily, and I went snorkeling at Eilat with the students. It started with an early morning bus ride lasting 4 hours!

The landscape went from date palm groves to desert cliffs (for the majority of the trip) and finally gave way to a seaside resort town.

The weather was warm but not too hot, with nice breezes. The sand was a little bit too rocky for sand castles, but it was perfect for digging holes.

There was a small area for waders marked by buoys and ropes, with a larger area accessible by piers for snorklers and strong swimmers.

Many of the fish were close enough to shore that we could see some in the wading area. The kids tried out our waterproof camera and got some nice photos.

When it was our turn to snorkel, it took a while to get used to the equipment. Amanda took off pretty quickly and stayed out for nearly an hour. Emily and I took our time getting in and pretty much went from one pier to the other, then we were ready for the wading pool again.

Snorkel Selfie!

We left the national park beach area and headed in to the town for some sightseeing and fast food.

Then we hopped on the bus and went to Yotvata, which we fondly call the cow kibbutz. The main building is a cafeteria and cow-themed gift shop. We always buy some chocolate milk here to bring home. We enjoyed a nice dinner of chicken, rice, spaghetti, and salad, with coupons for free ice cream afterward.

Then a four hour bus ride home, and our day was done. Like many experiences here, there are intense unique experiences that are only accessible after some sacrifice, like four hours on a bus. We have to be patient with the inconvenience of travel to experience some of these places. In fact, this describes the 12-hour plane flight as well.

Another adventure from the same week started as a hike through the Kidron Valley past what is called the Tomb of Absalom to the city of David.

We walked to the south edge of the present day old city. David's city of Jerusalem was a small hilly spur to the south of the city. Today there is a Palestinian village there with an expanding Jewish archaeological site and visitor's center.

We watched a stirring 3-D movie about the city of David and the building of Hezekiah's tunnel. It was a little dated and one-sided, but it helped us visualize where we would be touring that day.

Amanda models the "taco hat."

In the background is the Palestinian village of Silwan. In the foreground is a Sukkah for the Israeli families within the City of David archaeological park.

Frank taught the students about on-site connections from the days of Melchizedek, David, Jeremiah, Hezekiah, and the Savior.

The tunnel is always fun, even if it's chilly at first.

Another highlight of this week was pressing olives. The trees on the BYU Jerusalem Center property yielded only half the olives we needed, so more were purchased and left to rest for a week. (I don't know why I couldn't rotate this photo, sorry...)

The first step is to crush the olives. We took turns hefting the massive beam as the huge stone rolled around to crush the fruit and pits of the olives. I wonder if this is the type of millstone to which Jesus compared the eternal destiny of those who offend his little ones.

The mush was loaded into baskets and stacked under the beams of the presses. The mush was slimy and gritty, like a facial scrub with walnut shell exfoliants. Our hands were soft for days afterwards.

The first liquid to flow down carries the rust red color from the ripe black olives. A solemn sight to think of how our Savior's soul was crushed under the weight of all our sins in Gethsemane, the place of the olive press. Over the centuries this oil has healed the wounded, illuminated homes and temples, nourished the body, and anointed kings and priests.

The Gutenberg-era press uses a twisting screw to apply the pressure.

The baskets grew thin as the juice and oil flowed into the collection basins.

This press used weights to press the oil. This type of press would have been used extensively in the time of the Savior. For us, this was a fun way to immerse ourselves in the ancient agricultural processes. But for those who lived here, this would have been a serious and strenuous process that ensured their livelihood for the coming year. The whole family would have worked for weeks to make sure the harvest was used to its fullest potential.

Here are the faculty and families who are working together this year to help nurture each other's testimonies and those of the students who come here. (Lisa is absent, she was working on homework.)

Some views of the south side of the Jerusalem Center:

Emily's Post

On Sunday we had a field trip and we got to herd goats

More goats !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amanda got to stand on a tall sukkah

Sheep and Sukkot

We had a lovely visit to Neot Kedumim, a Biblical nature preserve. The name means "Pleasant places of old" and it was built to help connect people to the plants, animals, and geography of the Bible. We had the opportunity to try herding sheep and goats around a corral, trying to move them from one circle to another even when they just wanted to hang out in the shade and eat leaves from low hanging trees.

We were in groups of 15 or so, and the successful groups worked together to surround the sheep, encourage them in the right direction, with those around the sides keeping the flanks from scattering.

Shepherds were well regarded in Old Testament times; consider Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and David. Shepherds had to be dependable, courageous in the face of predators, and steadfast through long months of solitude. They had to travel long miles to find the best places for their flocks to graze.

This exercise made us consider, first, the ways in which we all tend to resemble sheep, with a herd mentality, reluctant to move when settled, quick to halt progress when shade or tender greens beckon. Or goats, who seemed a little more clever but also tended to scatter rather than clump together.

The second application of this lesson was to contemplate different forms of leadership. Does a good shepherd walk in front of the sheep to show the way? Or walk behind the sheep to encourage the slowest and see who is straying from the path? Or rely on helpers like sheepdogs to send their watchcare out over a larger area? I think the Savior employed all of these kinds of leadership in different situations. Elder Gary S. Price said during our district conference in November that the reason the good shepherd knew one of his sheep was missing was not because he counted to 99 (it's no small task to count sheep), but because he knew his sheep.

We also drew water from a cistern deep underground. This gave a new understanding of Rebekah's efforts to draw water for 10 camels.

Our visit coincided with the season of Sukkot, or Tabernacles. (Sukkah is singular, Sukkot is plural.) Observant Jews eat and sometimes sleep outdoors in these temporary shelters, which must be built to specific standards to be kosher. There should be at least 2 1/2 walls, and the roof should be of "raw, unfinished, vegetable matter." Here is an example of a sukkah that wouldn't be considered kosher.

Later that day, we were invited to help our friend Ophir Yarden to build a sukkah in his backyard. This was both a treat for us and a big help to him. He had bought the sukkah frame secondhand, so there were some pieces that didn't completely fit. We used the wall of the house as one of the walls.

We all helped hold up the metal posts while the roof was put up.

Here is the "raw, unfinished, vegetable matter" for the roof: palm fronds cut from a tree in the back yard.

The final roof beams fit perfectly on the metal shutters on the house, which were the perfect height and thickness, a Sukkot miracle!

The Esplins helped Ophir's children to rinse the branches. If it were to rain, it wouldn't be good to have dust and insects fall down on the interior. Typically, the rains don't come until after Sukkot, and in fact, the Jews begin to pray for rain after Sukkot. This year it has rained a few times since Sukkot.