Cousin Lenny was our tour guide for an interesting exploration of the town of Nazareth. Lenny lives in Nazareth Illit (upper or higher Nazareth--a Jewish area). We drove approximately 40 minutes to his apartment and were greeted by a shepherd and his flock on the hill just below Lenny's apartment building. This is not an unusual sight we are told. Driving the herd has not changed too much in two thousand years, except that the Arab shepherd is wearing a jacket and pants instead of more traditional Beduoin garb. The drive to Nazareth Illit took us through an Arab town, Kefir Kena. As with our drive to Zippori, we saw several minarets along the way. The Arab towns look different. They are not clean--I'll stop there.
Leny is a fabulous tour guide. He knows Nazareth well, has studied the Jewish view of Jesus' life, and was able to tell us about the town, the churches that celebrate the annunciation, the grotto where the angel Gabrielle is to have told Mary that she was with child, and a small church-synagogue where Jesus is said to have given a midrash which was a bit not in keeping with the rabbis of the day and from which he was chased away. His knowledge is quite extensive and he was happy to share the area with us.
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