[img]96|left|||no_popup[/img]Dateline Jerusalem – What a unique idea! My friend's daughter had a bat mitzvah, and instead of having the usual party to celebrate her 12th birthday and entrance into Jewish womanhood, the family invited me and her school friends to join them on a 2 1/2 hour air-conditioned bus ride and tiyul (Hebrew for trip) to the city of Tiberias. It is one of Israel's four holiest cities, along Lake Kinneret , also known as the Sea of Galilee. We drove in comfort along the only toll road in Israel, built by a Canadian company. Such a pleasure to avoid traffic. As we exited the toll road, we drove for miles along cornfields, fruit trees and beautiful forests. When we arrived at our destination of Tiberias, we took a tour of the Dona Gracia museum, had a boat ride on an old fashioned wooden boat on the Kinneret, and enjoyed a picnic at a nearby kibbutz.
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Dona Gracia was born into a prominent Jewish family that was forced to convert to Catholicism to avoid death at the hands of the Inquisition in 15th and 16th century Spain. Her “converso” family were Catholic in public but were “Crypto-Jews” (also known as “Marranos” or “New Christians”) in private, practicing Judaism in basements and closets to stay alive. The family fled from Spain to Portugal but then learned that the Inquisition had moved there. Dona Gracia was one of the wealthiest and most influential women in Renaissance Europe, money earned in the spice trade and banking. She traveled throughout Europe. It was in Italy that Dona Gracia publicly reclaimed her Jewish identity. When the Pope sentenced a group of Conversos to torture and burning alive at the stake in the Italian city of Ancona for secretly practicing Jewish rites, Dona Gracia organized a trade embargo of the Papal States and Ancona. She was imprisoned for two years and accused of heresy. But the Great Sultan of the Ottoman Empire took her under his protection and she was finally released. In those days, the Holy Land was under the control of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire. He granted Dona Gracia ruling authority over Tiberias, Israel, where she made it into a major center of Jewish settlement and a refuge for Conversos and other Jews fleeing Europe. She is one of the first of modern Zionists because of her attempts to re-establish a homeland for the Jewish people in the abandoned, desolated Holy Land. Her efforts in rebuilding Tiberias and surrounding areas had contributed to her being known as a significant individual in the establishment of the modern State of Israel.
The city of Tiberias, named after the Roman emperor Tiberius, is an ancient city surrounded by a modern one. Until the Persian and Arab conquests, it was the religious, administrative, and cultural center of Jews for a period of 500 years after the destruction of the Holy Temple and loss of Jerusalem. It is one of the holiest cities for Jews because so many Jewish scholars lived there, the Sanhedrin (the High Court of Israel during the period of the Second Temple) moved there, and the Mishna and Jerusalem Talmud were written there. The city is known for the tombs of Maimonides, Rabbi Akiva, and Yochanan ben Zakkai. Tiberias is below sea level and sits along 32 miles of shoreline of Lake Kinneret, known as the Sea of Galilee to Christians. It is 650 feet below sea level and 14 miles long. Israelis call it by its biblical name of Lake Kinneret. The lake is the largest freshwater lake in Israel and the lowest freshwater lake on earth. It is the second lowest lake on earth next to the Dead Sea, a saltwater lake. Lake Kinneret provides over half of Israel's domestic water demand, but it is at a dangerously low level.
It was a long day, but most enjoyable. The young 10 to 12 year old girls seemed to have the time of their lives dressing up in Renaissance period costumes at the Dona Gracia Museum, dancing to modern day music on the wooden boat cruising the clear turquoise blue waters of Lake Kinneret, and feasting at a picnic on a religious kibbutz while the Bat Mitzvah girl gave her speech. As we got off the bus at the end of the day, I overheard one of the guests tell the bat mitzvah girl that it was the best bat mitzvah she had ever attended. I definitely think this was a unique experience for all.
L'hitraot. Shachar
