Jaffa

 

Today we heard from Yuval Roth. In 1993 his brother was kidnapped and killed by Hamas, the Palestinian movement which wants an Islamic state in Palestine. In 1994 Yucal heard about an organization that was working to reconcile the Jews and Moslems. Yuval joined in 2000, and held hundreds of dialogue meetings in local high schools. One of the Muslims asked whether Yuval could help get his brother from the Palestine border to an Israeli hospital. The care was financed by the Palestine government, but the brother couldn’t pay for a taxi from the border to the hospital. In 2006, he founded Road to Recovery. Today, 1400 volunteers transport 140 patients per day from Palestine to Israeli hospitals. The money raised is used to cover the expenses of the volunteers.

Egyptian Triumphal Arch 

Then we explored the old city of Jaffa. Jaffa is 4000 years old and is mentioned in the book of Jonah. We saw the remains of the walls that protected the city. Here was found the remains of an Egyptian triumphal arch from the time of Ramses II, 3^rd century BC. After Jaffa failed to pay the Egyptian tax, the army attacked, but couldn’t breech the walls. The general disguised himself as a merchant and offered trade goods to the town. They let him into the city but soldiers came out of the carts, instead of goods, conquering the city, as told by a papyrus scroll discovered in the 1920s.We continued up the hill to a modern artwork, the Statue of Faith. The Floating tree is an Orange tree, this area used to be filled with orange groves , but are disappearing as the city grows.

Synagogue reopened in 1948

A highlight of our day was visiting a synagogue with separate sitting for men and women. We learned about the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, read through the year at services. It also has the 613 Jewish laws. The Talmud is the second key book for Jews. It shows the deliberations of Rabbi over generations on religious questions. The Talmud was completed 1500 years ago, but such debates still occur to date as technology changes create new questions of how to apply Jewish laws.

House of the Tanner

In the Acts of the Apostles, Jaffa is where Peter had a dream with all the animals both clean and unclean. God spoke “what I have made holy, you shouldn’t make unholy”. This led to the decision to break away from Judaism and all its laws. We visited St. Peter’s church and also saw the tanner’s house where Peter stayed in Jaffa. Down the hill we passed by the Jaffa Great Mosque and the Ottoman fountain. We had a traditional Mideastern lunch of salads in a restaurant on the edge of the flea market. From Jaffa’s clock tower we walked along the beach to our hotel. For dinner we returned along the beach to the Manta Ray with excellent dishes of steak and fish.