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The St. George monastery in the Judean desert.
'Inaccessible' Sites
For The Return Visitor
WALTER ZANGER
Special to The Jewish News
here may be some
countries in the world
which you can "do" in,
say, two weeks. Then, having
done them, you need not come
back again. Israel is definite-
ly not one of them. No other
country in the world is being
explored and excavated as in-
tensely as Israel.
Consider first the Prophet
Moses. The prophet Moses?
Since the bible is quite clear
that Moses died and was
buried on the other side of the
Jordan, his 'tomb' may seem
an odd matter to be discuss-
ing in our context. But there
is indeed a Tomb of Moses, at
least the Moslems believe it
to be so, and it is a magical
building which you can see
even from the Jerusalem-
Jericho highway. But so rigid
are the usual tourist routes
that few visitors indeed ever
go there. This site, not 1,000
yards from the main highway,
may truly be considered well
off the beaten path.
The origins of this most
unscriptural of places are in
Arab history. When the
Crusaders were expelled from
the land in the late 1170s,
Saladin decreed the feast of
Moses at a supposed tomb,
and he built the mosque on
this spot.
Having expelled the second
Crusader kingdom a centruy
later, the Sultan Beibars built
a courtyard and hostel around
the mosque. A clue to the
significance of this Moslem
holy day is that it always falls
around Passover/Easter, when
Jerusalem is full of Jewish
and Christian pilgrims. That
is when the traditional march
to Jerusalem takes place.
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This holy day is no longer
observed, but the place is still
there. Looking like a fairy
tale castle from the Arabian
Nights, the Tomb of Moses,
En-Nebi Mussa, is just south
of the Jericho road, nearly at
the Jericho end of the road. A
paved path leads toit, but not
one in a thousand have ever
gone.
Now for a place that is real-
ly far away, difficult to get to,
and worth every minute of
the long trip to get there. In
Josephus, the first century
Merot is the
reflection of the
Jewish community
a millenium ago.
Jewish historian, there is
mention of a Galilean city
called Merot.
The city is there, all right,
and- it existed from the second
century BCE right through
the Crusader period. The
town of Merot was an elegant
and prosperous place, com-
plete with synagogue, dwell-
ings, storage caves, cisterns,
burial caves, courtyards and
public buildings With
astonishingly large lintel
stones. Merot is a reflection of
the vigor and strength-of the
Jewish community in the
Galilee a millenium ago.
lb find Merot, you have to
get to the great tel (hill) of
Hazor on the road from Rosh
Pina to Kiryat Shmona. Just
south of Hazor is a dirt road
that leads west. Follow it. It's
passable for all but the lowest
slung vehicles. After a .trip
you wouldn't believe, you will
find yourself at the town, and
you won't be sorry you went.