Psagot and Ai

In the last entry of this little series, Har Bracha, my men arrived in Israel and spent their first week at Har Bracha working in the vineyards there.  They were able to get their bearings and to tour some amazing places.  They spent some time in Jerusalem on Friday then traveled a short distance north of Jerusalem to Psagot for a restful Sabbath.

The Psagot ReSettlement

Psagot is a Jewish re-settlement in the area of the ancient Biblical city of Ai.  In Joshua 8, HaShem instructs Joshua to conquer this small city just after the fall of Jericho.  Established in 1981 in the ancient territory of Benjamin, Jacob’s youngest son, Psagot is a former military base just a few miles away from Jerusalem and where the Binyamin Regional Council is located.  The Binyamin Regional Council covers at least 42 other re-settlements in the southern hills in the region of Samaria (Shomron).  These are the Mountains of Israel that the prophets spoke of so fluently. The Psagot Winery is located in Psagot.

While at Psagot just prior to Sabbath and through most of Sunday, Shalom was able to see the ancient winepress at the Psagot Winery.  Yaakov, the winery owner, tells a story that one day some Arabs came by to convince him that he did not belong in the land.  He, being a kind and gentle man, walked as they talked and took them to a spot where an archaeological dig had taken place.  He showed it to them and asked, “Do you know what this is?”  They recognized it as an ancient wine-press and he told them that it has been dated to The Second Temple Period (between 538 BCE and 70 CE).  He pointed to this ancient room and said, “This belonged to my ancestors” and there was nothing they could say – Muslim Arabs do not drink wine.  They quietly left Yaakov standing there at the wine-press of his ancestors.  You can see this winepress in the video below.  This is the ancient homeland of the Jewish people and archaeology continually confirms not only this fact, but that the “stories” in the Bible are actually factual truth.  One archaeological version of the wine-press includes this cave as part of a network of caves already in use at the city of Ai in the days of Joshua, son of Nun, and the network of caves expanded over time, right up to the Second Temple Period.

Olive Press at Ancient Ai

Along with Shalom’s visit to the ancient winepress he spent some of his free time walking around the ancient ruins of Ai.  There it sits, just across the street from the Psagot Winery.  On Shabbat, Shalom sat with his Bible to read, re-read and re-read again the battle at Ai while he sat in that very place.  While Shalom stood at these ancient ruins, he was deeply impacted with the reality of the Bible.  How can you deny it’s truth when you stand face to face with evidence that proves what ‘modern society’ refuses to acknowledge?  Sure, he believed the Scriptures to be true before he traveled to Israel but his visit to the ancient wine-press that day permanently sealed his convictions on the issue.  He called me after Sabbath that week to tell me that he had experienced something

Ruins of Ai

new, exciting and very real while at Ai and he asked me to read Joshua 8 after we finished our conversation.  He couldn’t put into words what had taken place in his heart and his mind while sitting and thinking at Ai.  Shalom also told me that while he was walking around outside he successfully befriended a litter of puppies that kept following him around and growling at him.  Turns out they were wild dogs.  LOL   He said that after he cornered them and caught one he realized that they were wild dogs, but they decided to like him anyway.  This became Shalom’s favorite place to spend quiet time on Shabbat as he continuously read the accounts of Joshua bringing Israel into the Promise Land.  A few weeks after my men arrived in the Land, my dear friends husband and son arrived to join my guys.  Shalom was able to take his childhood friend through his special place, Ai, and they explored a little together.  Even today, after he’s been home for 6 weeks, Ai is still one of his cherished memories.

Where was my husband while Shalom was out at Ai?  He was also reading his Bible and having his own quiet time absorbing the realities of Israel, but he also enjoys a good long Sabbath nap every week.  :)  So after Bible study with the group in the morning, Shalom would go outside for his quiet time while his Dad took a nap.

Wine ready to be packaged for shipping

The Psagot Winery has produced several award-winning wines, primarily their Edom, which is a Bordeaux blend.  My men brought home a few bottles of Psagot wine for our Sabbath table and oh boy!  Wonderful wine!!  The following week our Sabbath guests approached the local stores and asked them to carry wine from Psagot because they were just that impressed with it.  We have saved our Psagot wine for Sabbaths when we have special guests and for Passover.  Tonight we will celebrate The Meal of Messiah and we will anticipate The Wedding Supper of The Lamb with our preserved Edom wine, the last of the wine they brought home.  We’re a little sad to see the last of this wine go because though we’ve tried to find something comparable in the past 6 weeks, there simply isn’t anything that can compare.  We will likely get a case of wine from KosherWine.com.

After their first Sabbath in Israel was complete, the winery owner needed some of the guys to help him secure  labels on wine bottles because he had a shipment of 70,000 bottles, if I remember the number correctly, to go out to the USA in a day.  That’s a lot of wine!!  This is a major part of the Jewish economy in Judea and Samaria.  In 2010 economic growth in Judea and Samaria continued its positive trend:  their GDP rising by 8%, unemployment decreased by 1% (where ours keeps on rising), and during 2010 2.43 million tourists visited Judea and Samaria, a 49% rise compared to 2009.  This region is receiving a true blessing from HaShem while the rest of the world is struggling.  Does that seem rather prophetic to you?  It sure does to me!

At Psagot, looking toward Beit El (Bethel) and the Jordan Valley in the rain

My men were needed back up at The Mount of Blessing so they were not among the group to help at the winery securing labels that day.  They pruned in Har Bracha that week – except for the incredible thunder & hail storm they had one day that kept them indoors.  The hail was the size of marbles and came down in sheets!  They say it’s been raining most days, which is a tremendous blessing for Israel as it is not only an arid land but they’ve been in the midst of a drought for the past seven years.  They  learned that “good weather” means rain.  The guys have said that while here at home it might be drizzly all day, there it rains HARD with big ol’ drops of warm water.   Here at home where we receive almost 50 inches of rain each year while in Israel receives less than 25 inches per year with the northern regions seeing more rain than the southern regions.  Since there have been drought conditions in recent years, there has been less than average rainfall.  It sure didn’t rain 25 inches while my men were there, but it did rain often and it gave my guys an opportunity to see rain as a blessing rather than as an annoyance.  My husband has always enjoyed a good thunder storm, it reminds him of when G-d spoke from Mt Sinai and has a lot of meaning for him. He had several opportunities to be in the mountains of Israel during thunder storms while they were there.  He enjoyed it, as much as one can enjoy working in the wet and wind.  ;)

Stay tuned because during their second week in Israel, they also worked in Shiloh.

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