The Golan Heights an in depth tour
Where: Ramat Golan area.
Duration: 1 days
What to bring: Clothes suitable for the weather, swimsuit, hat, high-topped shoes, sandals.
Language: The tour is originally in English.
Geological processes are prominent in the Golan, and they tell us about the location's stormy past. Before vast eruptions of lava, there was a huge chasm that became covered over throughout millions of years. People also resided here during the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods, and there are clear signs from the Chalcolithic period.
In the past, the Golan was part of the Land of Israel, Abraham and his servants raced as far as the Dan region in order to rescue his brothers (Genesis 14). In the Dan Reserve, the "Gate of Abraham" is considered the oldest Canaanite gate in the world, the Dan Tribe settled here, the conquests of Vespasian, Gamla (the Masada of the Golan), all point to the Jewish past of the Golan. To date, remains of dozens of Jewish synagogues have been discovered on the Golan Heights, most of them from the period after the Second Temple, with the direction of prayer facing Jerusalem.
Activities
The Golan Heights, bordering Syria, popular with tourists, is a flourishing region, most of which is agriculture of field crops, wine, plantations and grazing cattle, with cold winters and hot summers.
We will begin at the Yarmuk River and the Roman baths at Hamat Gader. We will view the synagogue that served the sages of the Mishnah,we will talk about Eli Cohen, an Israeli hero (in fact his story will guide us during the tour). We will visit the synagogue in Ein Hakashot, the Talmudic village in Katzrin, the capital of the Golan Heights, the local museum and the local wine industry for tasting. We will visit the Hexagon Pool and the waterfall in Nahal Dvora, we will tour Gamla and hear its fascinating story, we will visit the raptor observation post, tell the story of the stone circle (Rujm el-Hiri), the dolmens, and a paleomagnetic site. We will end the tour with a visit to the fortress of Nimrod and the story of this magnificent and special place.
The Golan Heights serve as the northern wall of the State of Israel. The area was and is still under belligerent threat. In order to understand its importance to Israel, we will pass through a number of battle sites, we will discuss the situation before 1967, the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War. We will visit a number of military outposts, ascend Mount Hermon ("the eyes of the state") and there you will hear my personal story as a commander in the Battle of Mount Hermon in the Yom Kippur War.
An in-depth tour of the Golan Heights and northern Upper Galilee requires three full days.
Midrash of the Talmud in Pirkei Avot by R. Elazar HaKapor, in which he rejects arrogance and pride:
"Do not be like the upper lintel that no human hand can touch, And not as the upper scoop that swallows faces rather than the middle scapula that flattens the legs, But rather as the lower escapee that everything was taught;
And the end of the whole house is hidden - and it stands still. "