Shabbat Shalom

June 29 - Friday

We got to sleep in today! We woke up around 11 am (normally we have been waking up at 6) and Jason came by to pick us up for lunch. We went to a place close to downtown and had some Shewarma. People here really take their shewarma seriously. Once you become loyal to a Shewarma shop, people will go there their entire life. Jason gave us an orientation to the city and introduced us to a couple of people. Haifa is an interesting place. It is unique in Israel in that the Arab population is predominantly of Christian background. That being said, being Christian to them, is a cultural thing, much like other Arabs are culturally Muslim. They would not be able to tell you what the trinity is or how the redemption of mankind was completed at the cross with Christ. The Jews here, as well as the Jews in all of Israel are very secular. They value the Torah and the Tenak (interpretations of the text) and they memorize the Torah in school, but they find the value only in knowing about their heritage. Most Jews do not believe in God, and they take the Torah much like one would take the Ramayana and other creation stories of near-east civilizations. They find believers to be ignorant and stupid for believing in the supernatural. It's a very disheartening thing to look at.

There are believers here, however! Jason said there are about 400 believers among 4 churches in this city of 600,000. He took us to Bet Eliahu (Bet=House Eliahu = Elijah= YHWH is God). This is a Messianic Congregation. Most of the Jews here are Jews who came to live here from Russia and other European countries during the Zionist Movement (after the holocaust, when the State of Israel was established in 1949). Most of them were already Christian believers in their countries of origin, who happened to be of Jewish descent (remember the Jews were dispersed throughout the Europe, Asia and Africa by the Roman Empire in 70 AD). Converting others to a different religion is strictly forbidden in Israel, and converting Jews to any other religion is also seen as a loss of culture and can get you kicked out of the country here.

During the time when Jews were dispersed, some went to Europe and eventually mixed with Europeans. Others went to other Arab regions and mixed with the Arabs (Ronan's father came from Baghdad when the state of Israel was established.) Still others went to Africa and mixed with the natives. So you have Jews who are very white, Jews who look Arab, and Jews who are black. There is tension and racism among these groups. There are terms for each of these groups, but I forget them now.

The congregation at Bet Eliahu is made up of Jews who came from Europe. They sung worship songs in Hebrew and had a sermon also in Hebrew. We then had a Shabbat Dinner of Lamb with Tahina Sauce, and bread.

I hope you're not as confused as I am with all the different groups here lol. Sunday we will go to a church of Arab believers.