Posted by: Joe Yudin | December 08, 2010

If you have been watching the news about Israel recently you would know that we have just experienced several days of wild fires in the Mt. Carmel Nature Reserve in the north of the country. This fire has really hurt the nation of Israel for several reasons. The first being the needless loss of 43 lives, almost all police officers who burnt to death on a bus that got caught in the fire. This is a tragic event and nothing will bring them back from the dead. It also hurt to see how unprepared the State of Israel was for a fire of this magnitude. The firefighters were slow to respond and without needed supplies. This was no fault of the firemen and women but rather complete negligence on the part of our government in preparation for disasters of this kind. The fire department has been calling for training, supplies, new personnel, new stations and reform for years and they have been largely ignored.

As a tour guide and travel company owner, however, I want to write about the beautiful Mount Carmel. The oldest remains of human activity in the Holy land are indeed on Mt. Carmel. On its western face, opposite the Mediterranean Sea, are embedded several caves where the stages of early, prehistoric man can be traced from half a million years ago to just 11,000 years ago, which is around the time when human beings just began to set out from caves and started to farm and build settlements. Here one can see how Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon man lived their everyday lives perhaps, as evidence shows us here, during some of the same periods.

There are many explanations as to how Mount Carmel got its name. The most likely one to me seems to be the root of the name itself. Kerem in Hebrew means vineyard and El is God, so Vineyards of God is quite a fitting name for this majestic mountain. The bible attests to the many vineyards and winemakers in the area, and the region is one of the best in Israel for wine production. Anyone who drives around Mt. Carmel today will pass by the acres upon acres of vineyards initially planted in the 1880’s by Baron Edmund de Rothschild for his new winery, and first one in modern Palestine/Israel called the Carmel Winery. These vineyards would soon be followed by others and numerous world class wineries and their vineyards dot the Carmel region to this day including Amphorae, Tishbi, Tulip and Benyamina to name a just few. Tours and tasting are available at almost every winery. These regions were spared from the fire and you should check them out.

The Bible is peppered with references to Mt. Carmel, and it is almost always used to describe fertility, beauty and being plentiful, as in Jeremiah 2:7,  "And I brought you into a land of fruitful fields (Carmel in the original Hebrew) to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof" and Isaiah 10:18, "And the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field (Carmel), he will consume both soul and body". Perhaps the most beautiful passage mentioning the Carmel is in the Song of Songs 7:1-13, the one book in the Bible that is a true love song between a man and a woman. This may be the most beautiful passage in the Bible itself:

1 Return, return, O Shulammite; Return, return, that we may look upon thee. What will ye see in the Shulammite? As it were a dance of two companies. 2 How beautiful are thy steps in sandals, O prince's daughter! The roundings of thy thighs are like the links of a chain, the work of the hands of a skilled workman. 3 Thy navel is like a round goblet, wherein no mingled wine is wanting; thy belly is like a heap of wheat set about with lilies. 4 Thy two breasts are like two fawns that are twins of a gazelle. 5 Thy neck is as a tower of ivory; thine eyes as the pools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-rabbim; thy nose is like the tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus. 6 Thy head upon thee is like Carmel, and the hair of thy head like [the] purple [dye of the Phoenecians]; the king is held captive in the tresses thereof. 7 How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights! 8 This thy stature is like to a palm-tree, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes. 9 I said: 'I will climb up into the palm-tree, I will take hold of the branches thereof; and let thy breasts be as clusters of the vine, and the smell of thy countenance like apples; 10 And the roof of thy mouth like the best wine, that glideth down smoothly for my beloved, moving gently the lips of those that are asleep.' 11 I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me. 12 Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages. 13 Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see whether the vine hath budded, whether the vine-blossom be opened, and the pomegranates be in flower; there will I give thee my love. 14 The mandrakes give forth fragrance, and at our doors are all manner of precious fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.

One of the epic battles from the Bible takes place on Mt. Carmel. King Ahab of Israel had married many foreign wives in order to create treaties with the other nations just as Solomon had done 100 years before. Ahab had let his wife Jezebel build altars to her gods including to Baal on top of Mt. Carmel. God wasn’t a too thrilled at this, so he caused a drought to strike all of Israel - not a drop for 14 years. And God sent Elijah the Prophet to confront Ahab:

17 And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him: 'Is it thou, thou troubler of Israel?' 18 And he answered: 'I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the LORD, and thou hast followed the Baalim. 19 Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel unto mount Carmel,

To make a long story short Jezebel’s “prophets” ask Baal to make it rain, they didn’t, but when Elijah asks God to make it rain atop Mt. Carmel it does and Elijah and all Israel struck down the idols and the false prophets. Jezebel then goes after Elijah who takes refugee in a cave somewhere on Mt. Carmel. In 1742 a Jewish Pilgrim wrote “And we went to Carmel which is a wonderful mountain, large and very, very high; its head reaching to the skies, and there is a big cave, and when we entered there the spirit of God rested upon us and our souls were enlightened very abundantly. And inside the cave there is a smaller cave, and it is said that here hid Elijah… (Legends of the Galilee, Zev Vilnay, p11)”. This cave can still be visited to this day. Many Jews of Sephardic descent hold ceremonies here for baby naming, Bar Mitzvahs and special blessings.

The Carmel is also home to some very special villages, amongst them Ein Hod, Dalyat al Carmel and Kibbutz Beit Oren. Ein Hod is an artist’s village built in a ruined Arab village that was deserted during the 1948 War of Independence. The village actually rests in the middle of the Carmel Mountain Nature Reserve and borders on an ancient olive grove. The Jewish villages who settled there were led by renowned Israeli artist Marcel Janco, founder of the Dada movement. There are several museums, bed & breakfasts and cafes in the village and many galleries in the artist’s homes and studios. Unfortunately a portion of this village, known for its romantic scenery and inspiring atmosphere, has been burned in the wildfire.

Dalyat al Carmel is the largest Druze Village in Israel. The Druze are an interesting people. It is not exactly clear when the Druze arrived in the Land of Israel. They claim to have been living here for the last 1,000 years. Evidence shows that Dalyat al-Carmel has been home to the Druze for at least 200 years. There are about one million Druze in the world today of which about 110,000 live in the State of Israel. The Druze religion sprung out of Islam during Egyptian domination of the Middle East in the 11th century. Their founders blended Greek philosophy, elements of Hinduism with Islam which bore this new religion. They also have their own prophets until today which led them into direct confrontation with the Muslims who believe that Mohamed was the last prophet. The Druze believe in reincarnation, their men serve in the Israeli army and they have many holy sites on Mt. Carmel and in the Galilee and Golan Heights. The market in Daylat al-Carmel is one of the most colorful in all Israel. Check it out. Fortunately this city was spared from the fire.

Beit Oren (House of the Pine Tree) has a unique history. It lies in the midst of the pine forest called by locals “Little Switzerland”. Unfortunately this is where most of the fire damage took place. In 1934 the Jewish National Fund (JNF), the same organization that plants trees all over Israel, gave part of this land to 15 young Jewish pioneers in order to create a new agricultural settlement (by the way did you know that Israel is the only country in the world where the forests are growing and the deserts are shrinking due to tree planting efforts by the JNF?). This new Kibbutz, a socialist community where every member owns and shares everything together, and works the land together as a community, was used by the Jewish underground - the Hagannah - as a training base first to help the British fight the Nazis during World War II and after the war to fight the British to achieve independence. It was from this kibbutz that the Palmach (the special strike force of the Hagannah) set out to free over 200 Holocaust survivors who were being held by the British in a prison camp (Atlit) at the foot of Mt. Carmel. The raid was successful and the immigrants were freed. These Hagannah fighters also set up bunkers, trenches and fortifications on Mount Carmel incase the Nazis were successful in invading Palestine, the Jews could use this secret base to make its last stand. Due to the economic difficulties these communal villages faced in the 1980’s, Kibbutz Beit Oren was one of the first Kibbutzes to change their status from communal to capitalistic and is no longer a Kibbutz but a private village. Today most Kibbutzes in Israel have followed Beit Oren’s path on economic restructuring. Unfortunately, Beit Oren suffered from severe fire damage. Most of the people got out and during the fire Israelis got together to provide these people with temporary homes, food, clothes and blankets for immediate relief.

Lastly I want to explain to you a little bit about the breathtaking hikes on Mount Carmel. The range is 700 square kilometers and is a mountain range peninsula that juts out into the Mediterranean Sea offering incredible views of the sea, surrounding valleys, Haifa, Acre and even the Galilee and Golan Heights. Its peak elevations range from 5-600 meters above sea level and receive about 800 mm of rain annually in a good year. The vegetation is rich and the different species of trees include pistachio, oak, pine, carob, gum, buckthorn and St. John’s Wart. Incredible wildflowers dot the mountain in the spring such as the white Madonna Lilly (which can grow 1.5 meters tall), orchids, broom and cyclamen. Leopards, crocodiles and deer were hunted to extinction in this area during the Ottoman period about one hundred years ago, but many hyrax, boars, foxes, wolves, lizards and birds thrive there.

Hiking trails crisscross the Carmel Mountain, and by following certain well marked trails and with a good map, plenty of food and water, a compass or GPS, you can experience almost everything mentioned in this specific blog post in two days of hiking of about 15 km each day. Have a great time and please remember to make sure you have put out your camp fire before you leave your rest spot! Leave nothing but tracks!

All Biblical passages are derived from The Hebrew Bible in English, according to the JPS 1917 Edition.

Please consider donating to the Jewish National Fund to help restore the Carmel Forests to their glory.