Our dig instructor, Avra, was happy to hear that we are from Western New York. She was born in Israel, but her mother is from Kenmore. The two other families participating in the dig happened to both be from Boston, Massachusetts. We were led down a rickety ladder into a cave that was used by Maccabees during the Hellenistic period prior to 100 BC. The caves were used primarily for storage, and our job was to dig up whatever the prior residents left behind.
Picks and trowels in hand, we dug into the soil and filled many plastic buckets with rocks, dirt, bones, and shards of pottery. The goal was to find something amazing, and of course I wanted us to "win." In my opinion, Leroy deserved the prize for unearthing a handle from a jug of some sort. After a hundred or so buckets were filled, we formed a "schlep line." The eleven adults and teens in our group transferred the buckets filled with soil from the cave up the ladder and outside. Once the dirt was all out of the cave, we dumped the buckets onto screens. We shook the screens vigorously, leaving the rocks and the bits of pottery and bone. We sorted out the interesting-looking items and placed them in buckets to be washed and examined later by others.
After the digging, schlepping, and sorting was over, we were given a tour of a mostly-unexcavated cave.
We crawled and squeezed our way through several candle-lit passageways. It was definitely not for the claustrophobic! Avra wrapped up the day with photos and a description of the most important find from Bet Guvrin. A large stone inscription was discovered that gives important, previously unknown background information about the Jewish festival of Hanakkuh. After the other families left, we chatted with Avra for a while and she told us about other caves in the park which we explored before leaving.
As we were walking to our car to exit the park, a tour bus pulled up and a crowd of senior citizens poured out. A friendly-looking, white-haired woman approached Leroy and presented him with a tiny blue and white ceramic pair of Dutch shoes, tied with a ribbon. "Shoes from Holland!" she declared, beaming. How special (or weird) is that?! And where are my little shoes??
As we were walking to our car to exit the park, a tour bus pulled up and a crowd of senior citizens poured out. A friendly-looking, white-haired woman approached Leroy and presented him with a tiny blue and white ceramic pair of Dutch shoes, tied with a ribbon. "Shoes from Holland!" she declared, beaming. How special (or weird) is that?! And where are my little shoes??
We hoped to visit the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem on the way back to Ben Yehuda Street. We had a very detailed street map with us so we could find the museum. Finding anything in Jerusalem has been a challenge. Streets often change names every few blocks and are rarely marked with signs. We've also been stymied by unfamilar traffic patterns. At one point, Leroy got into the left lane to make a left turn and found out that the middle lane was for the left turn, and the left lane had to go straight!
When we finally got to the Holocaust Museum after countless wrong turns, we discovered that it had been closed by mid-day for the start of the Sabbath! We're sorry to have missed this experience; I visited once before, and Leroy was hoping to get to see it also. Back at Ben Yehuda, we set out to find a place open for dinner on the Sabbath. We were unsuccessful in finding a restaurant, but managed to be served two schawarmas on the street just before the Jewish proprietor closed up shop.
Tomorrow morning we're having breakfast with a United Church of Christ missionary before driving to the Jordan River and Jericho. Who knows what other adventures tomorrow will bring?
