One week since landing b'eretz yisrael. No real news at this time, just a lot of JHist, Hebrew, and GStudies. Tzuba's starting to get a little boring, although I've been finding new places to walk around and I've met a few people my age and even younger throughout my nomadic sessions.
Hebrew started a few days ago and I'm proud to say that I'm in level three out of five, I think. My morah's - teacher's - name is Ella, and although I'm somewhat moving in the class, she constantly tells me to stay at her level, being one of two guys in the class. It's actually really interesting - Hebrew verbs are much different from Spanish verbs conjugation-wise, and I've only barely finished the present and the infinitive. Remembering the definitions isn't as easy though.
A couple days ago we had our first tiyul, or field trip, to Tel Gezer - a polytheistic Canaanite society built upon a hill at least 3000 years old. While we were there, we took notes and observed the structure of the city and it's layout along with the very old pieces of stone that used to be the casemate walls, city gate, and watchtower. The question my JHist teacher, Yair, kept constantly asking us was 'Why didn't Abraham settle here?' At first I was mildly confused. The city had what we call in our class the 4 D's - Drink, Defense, Dollars, and Diet. It had a water supply, defense from attackers because of its position on the hill, a perfect position on various trade routes, and a field not too far off from the hill where many crops could've been grown. Also, artifacts with inscriptions of what look to be like ancient Hebrew have been found on the Tel, showing the society valued education and that the people were smart enough to document multiple things of importance including their calendar. So why didn't Abraham settle there? Easy - it was polytheistic. Abraham already came from a polytheistic culture in Mesopotamia, and if he was to settle in a polytheistic land, he would be dealing with the same culture he originally came from. I completely agree with Abraham's decision to keep moving throughout Canaan considering the agreement he had made with God to become the father of nations he would soon be. However, I also found it interesting how the people of Gezer had a 'high place' (literally the highest point on the Tel) to their gods, filled with monoliths and a sacrificial altar if need came to be that a person would have to make a human sacrifice, another value that Abraham was against. The ancient architecture and history intrigued me greatly and I can't wait for the next tiyul - it's nice to get off the kibbutz every once in a while.
All is going well otherwise. No pictures uploaded yet; I can't seem to find my connector cable for my camera. That's another thing I'm really good at - forgetting where I've put everything. I'm still discovering necessities I forgot I needed in my already unpacked luggage. More to come after this weekend probably, but for now, shabbat shalom v'shavua tov.
No comments:
Post a Comment