Where is my stick?

We went on my favorite field trip thus far yesterday. Neot Kedumim, Ancient Pastures, a place where we learned about daily life in biblical times.

The idea behind the creation of Neot Kedumim was that people will not understand the Bible if they do not understand the landscape. So, we spent the entire day going around Neot Kedumim and discussing phrases and words commonly found in the Bible (ie. shepherds, still waters, land of milk and honey, the cedar and the hyssop, and bad fruit) and how when we understand what they meant in the context of either herding or farming we can understand the analogies of the Bible so much better.

Our first activity was the art of sheep herding. It definitely takes skill, as well as good leadership. (I was quite tempted to type "leadersheep" but refrained, although I suppose by telling you my terrible pun not using it was moot. Oh well.) Here are some of our group herding sheep. There are some techniques to sheep herding: create boundaries, stay behind the sheep, be calm but aggressive, and make sure to communicate with the lead goat. In this picture they seem to be doing quite well, although all of the groups had some problems. We were supposed to lead them from one circle to another and make them stand in the circles for 30 seconds. The record was to complete the task in 3 minutes, which our guide said was excellent time. I must say, for first time sheep herders I think we did a pretty good job.
So we always have to have an application to our lessons, right? Leadership applications seem fairly obvious: create boundaries (if you let them run amok you aren't leading), stay behind the sheep (lead from the back, give them direction and guidance but let allow them to move forward on their own), be calm but aggressive (don't scare them and have confidence), and pay attention to the lead goat (many leaders have strong people within the group who help them to lead).

Our next big adventure was making an oregano-like spice out of hyssop, salt, sumac, and sesame seeds. First, of course, we discussed what hyssop is. In the Bible it seems to always be paired with cedar trees, "He spoke about the trees, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the rock" (1 Kings 5:13) and we learned why that is. The cedar tree is a symbol of pride, cedars are very high maintenance trees that need lots of water, good soil, lots of care, and really aren't good for anything except shade. Hyssop, on the other hand, is the symbol of humility. It grows on the ground and is quite ugly. It is also used as a spice (like we made) as well as in medicines; whenever someone was cured of leprosy in Bible times hyssop was part of the cure (see Leviticus 14:2-4). This is me, of course, pounding our hyssop spice with a mortar and pestal. Who knew they used those in Israel as well as the Americas?

The whole field trip was really low-key, and I enjoyed the active parts of it. I always like our field trips to see places, but this time it was nice to be able to participate. On Wednesday we will be going to Yad Vashem. I suspect it may be my favorite and hardest field trip of the semester. We'll see.