Blessed Rain Water at Jewish Legion Memorial, Shiloh Junction

Yesterday one of my walking partners called and suggested that we take a walk to see streams of water at the Shiloh Junction. Her timing was great, and I was able to take a break from my Shabbat cooking to join her.

Since our time and walking prowess are rather limited, we took her car to the Shiloh Junction and walked across the road to the Shiloh Valley park and hiking trail. It has also been dedicated as the Jewish Legion in Binyamin Memorial.

During World War One, the first Jewish fighting force was established, the Jewish Legion, and one of the areas it got to was Shiloh. So, last summer a memorial was set up at the Shiloh Junction.

Today, the area just west of Shiloh is a Jewish agricultural area with olive groves and vineyards. Since it's part of the Emek Shiloh, Shiloh Valley, it's extremely fertile. When we came to live in Shiloh in 1981, the entire area was barren. But in the past twenty years, this area has been one of the most profitable agricultural sites around. Prize-winning Meshek Achiya Olive Oil grows olives here, and a number of prize-winning wine companies get their grapes from here, too.

Experts can taste the difference between rain-watered produce and artificial irrigation, so the accumulation of rainwater here is very important, Baruch Hashem, thank Gd.

כנס שילה Kenes Shiloh #7, 2018, 5778, in Pictures

Yesterday I was lucky to have attended the seventh 7th כנס שילה Kenes Shiloh, Shiloh Conference. It certainly helps that it's conveniently located just over a mile's walk down from my house. I didn't attend the earlier event commemorating one hundred years of the Jewish Legion at the "park" across from the Shiloh Junction, which included a four kilometer hike at "high noon." I figured that it would be just too much for me.

I arrived at Shiloh Hakeduma, Ancient Shiloh, aka Tel Shiloh in time for a tour of the latest discoveries and exhibitions. That's the real highlight for me each year. Even though I get to the Tel almost every Rosh Chodesh for Women's Prayers there, we rarely get to see all the archeology and touristy exhibits.

One of the newest exhibits is the hologram. I definitely recommend getting an official tour at Shiloh Hakeduma, so you can see it along with the movie and museum.

Our guide, Yisrael Ben-Aryeh, made a point about Shiloh being the most important Biblical archeological site for experts in the field. That's because none of the other historically and theologically significant Biblical cities/locations are really in Israel's hands. Arabs have destroyed and have been given rights, autonomy, over the other important Biblical locations, such as The Temple Mount, Shechem, Hebron, Biblical Beit El etc.

Not only was Shiloh the location of the Mishkan, Tabernacle for 369 years, but there was Jewish activity there even hundreds of years later. After that Christians built churches and then Muslims came for a short period.

After the tour, there were a number of lectures about various topics, the very latest discoveries, the Prayer and significance of Biblical Chana, the Jewish Legion, Zeev Jabotinsky and other fascinating things.

The כנס שילה Kenes Shiloh, Shiloh Conference is in Hebrew, and I highly recommend attending if you understand Hebrew. Tours, visits and other events can always be arranged at  Shiloh Hakeduma in English and other languages. Our tour guide can lead tours in four languages. And there are guides  who know additional languages. Phone: 02-5789111, Fax: 02-9948011, visit@telshilo.org.il.

Here are some of the photos I took: