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Avinoam's Coming Home Study Tours


Judean Wilderness One-Day Study Tour

Price to be announced

 

Theme:The rise and fall of ancient Waters, Scholars, Kings and Princes

Logistics:

  • Time: 07:30 - 17:00 (7:30am to 5:00pm)
  • Starting Location: Binyanei Ha'Uma (Jerusalem Convention Center Parking Area)
  • Return Location: Binyanei Ha'Uma (Jerusalem Convention Center Parking Area)
  • Route and Transportation: Driving east on Highway 1 to the Dead Sea, then turning south on Highway 90 towards Masada.
  • Food: Bring money for lunch and snacks. There are plenty of different eating options available in the Dead Sea region.
  • Requirements: Bible, hat, water, good walking or hiking shoes, small backpack, money for entrance fees to National Park sites and optional Dead Sea mud bathing (details on registration)
  • Transportation: your own rental car or private taxi

Research Topics and Areas of Study:

  • - Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Who were the Essenes? Why did this religious group settle here? What do we know about who they were? What was their understanding of the End of Days? These questions and so many others will be addressed with our visit to this site. We'll study the Fragment of Gabriel; the Manual of Discipline; the religious community and its obsession with the multiple-times daily use of the site's mikvaot to wipe out ritual impurities. We'll also have a close look at their primary teaching that the "sons of light" will outshine and win the battle against the "sons of darkness."
  • - The P.E.F. Rock. Two things will be of interest to us in this area. First, a rock with an inscription dating to the year 1900, when archaeologist and scholar McAllister of Tel Gezer in the Shephelah was asked by his employer - the Palestine Exploration Fund of England - to make a notation of the water level of the Dead Sea at the time. He observed the water level at the time and made his mark on a rock; that to this day, remains with its inscription made with the hand of Mr. McAllister. Click and read more on this subject from the posted article on this site, under Articles.
  • - The Ancient Boat Dock. This structure, first excavated by the late 1960's Israeli scholar Pesach Bar Adon, reveals some fascinating information about the ancient water levels of the Dead Sea. This structure was at one time in ancient days, a boat dock dating to two different periods of time and use: the eighth century BCE, in the days of King Hezekiah, and the second century BCE, in the days of the Hasmoneans. This site was a Dead Sea warehouse for balsam oil, dates, black tar and mud (for health purposes). Boats would dock here and either load or unload their cargo, and in some cases, put in for dry-dock repairs. This can tell us a lot about the rise and fall of the water levels of the Dead Sea over time. See more on this subject in the Articles section of this website.
  • - Dead Sea Overview (opposite the ancient boat dock). Why was the Dead Sea called Asphaltitis by Jewish historian Josephus Flavius? (Antiquities 1.9.171 and Wars 4.8.4). Why are their sinkholes in the region? What are sinkholes? Can one drown in the waters of the Dead Sea, where a person cannot sink in salt waters that are ten times the density of the surrounding oceans? Why does the New Testament book of Revelation call the Dead Sea the "Lake of Fire" (Revelation 19:20; 20:10-15)? All this and more will be examined from this site.
  • - Masada: Last Stand of the Jewish Revolt against Rome. In 70 CE, Jerusalem went down in a flame of fires, inflicted by the hand of Titus, son of Vespasian, commander of Rome's elite 10th Legion Fretensis. However, one last stronghold still needed to be conquered; Masada, under the leadership and command of Elizar ben Yair and his zealots - 960 men, women and children who were holding out against Rome's slavery; against all odds on top of this desert mountain. Could they win against such a mighty force? What was their story? To understand these and to get answers to other questions, we will start by reading the writings of Jewish historian Josephus Flavius in his Antiquities 14 and 15; and Wars sections 1 and 2. This is just to start. From atop Masada, we will learn about ancient food storage in a hot and dry climate; a King's appetite for exquisite artwork and highly technological building programs of the day; how water was collected and preserved on a mass scale; how food stores were kept and food was made; how religion and politics were in fact, one ideology; how an intense Jewish motivation for life was nothing less than equal to Rome's intense motivation for victory. Both ideals were in collision and yet both did survive to tell their stories; one audibly and one in silence.
  • - Ein Gedi Overview. Time permitting, we'll visit or at the very least sit down for an overview study of the location of where King David and his army preserved their lives in the face of the pursuing dangers of King Saul. Remember, it was Saul who was bent on destroying David because he saw, in him, a threat to a kingdom that he was simply not willing to give up. We'll study the life and hopes of David (1 Samuel 24 - 25) and in the process, learn about the character of Saul. Ein Gedi has been and remains today, a nature reserve with biblical lessons on survival of the fittest in nature. Waterfalls, plants and animals of the desert, hiking trails, religious pagan temples, Jewish synagogues, Christian (Byzantine) churches: all this and more attests to the way life was for many, in the desert and not in the cities.