Page 54 - Holyland Magazine - 2010 Edition

Ripe wheat on the stalk, a sign of
spring in the Holy Land, can be
picked and eaten as is (Luke 6:1).
Grapes in the highlands, ready for harvest.
Photo: Ramat Hagolan Winery
in wine” (Gen. 49:11). When you visit
Shiloh, you can stand in the very place
where the young women came out dancing
to celebrate the grape harvest, and hear
the complicated ins-and-outs of how the
men of Benjamin were permitted to abduct
them for their wives (Judges 21:21).
Hundreds of ancient grape presses have
been discovered throughout Israel. One of
the best known is in Avdat in the Negev
desert – of all places – where grapes were
apparently raised successfully two millennia
ago by conserving water.
And what of the tree that survived Noah’s
flood? Today we think of olives and olive
oil mainly as food, but in Bible days the
olive tree also provided oil for light, for
anointing kings and priests, and for
medicinal purposes (Isa. 1:6, Mark 6:13,
Luke 10:34). No wonder that in Jotham’s
Fable, it was the first tree to which the
others turned to be their king (Judges 9:8).
The oil press after which the Garden of
Gethsemane was named (coming from the
Aramaic, Gethsemane is Greek for oil press)
is no longer to be seen, but you can see
olive presses in many other locations – at
Photo: Courtesy of Neot Kedumim, the Biblical Landscape Reserve
54
Capernaum and at Beit Guvrin National
Park, west of Jerusalem near the biblical
city of Maresha, where an early press that
used weights rather than the screw popular
in Jesus’ time has been reconstructed.
Jumping to the last item on the list of the
Seven Species, many visitors are surprised
to discover that the honey mentioned in
the Bible was probably date honey. This
product was made at special factories, one
of which many scholars identify at Einot
Tzukim on the Dead Sea near Qumran.
Date honey, called silan, makes a wonderful
gift to take home. You’ll find it for sale in
health food stores in Israel and at Yardenit,
the pilgrim’s baptismal site near the Sea
of Galilee.
The fronds from the date palms have great
symbolism. If you are lucky enough to be
in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, you will see
pilgrims by the thousands descending the
Mount of Olives bearing these fronds
(John 12:13). On the Feast of
Tabernacles, they are one of the
“four species” used to celebrate
(Lev. 23:40). The famous words
Fragrant sage tea is an ancient remedy for stomach aches.
Where Biblical Meals Await
Ask your travel planner to arrange a biblical-style meal
for you at one of the following sites:
q Yad Hashemonah, near Jerusalem: www.yad8.com
q Nazareth Village in Nazareth:
www.nazarethvillage.com
q Neot Kedumim: www.neot-kedumim.org.il
Date Honey
Those juicy Israeli dates you bring home from your
trip can be more than a snack!
Place two pounds of dried dates of the juicy variety
(Medjool) in 2-3 cups water and cook until they
become the texture of porridge. Strain the liquid into
another pot. Continue cooking over a low fire until it
is reduced to the consistency of caramel. Pour into
a decorative jar and you have the perfect hospitality
gift from the Bible.
“Land of Milk and Honey,” on the other
hand, may have connoted less intensely
cultivated grazing land sprouting wildflowers
pollinated by bees, and the goats and sheep
that grazed there.
The list of biblical foods is far from
exhausted; on your visit to Israel, you’ll
discover a host of fruits and vegetables
grown both traditionally and using the latest
methods to conserve water and enrich the
soil. The herbs mentioned in Luke 11:42
still perfume the hillsides, and you’ll enjoy
more meat than our ancestors ever dreamed
of tasting, the “fatted calf” (1 Sam. 28:24,
Luke 15:23) notwithstanding.
Information for this article is based on the book Food
at the Time of the Bible, by Miriam Feinberg Vamosh,
published by Palphot. www.palphot.com