Welcome to Katzrin. I am so excited you are here. Together we will make olive oil, bread and visit my home.
Elisheva greeted us and took us back in time to the year 500 (Jewish year). After we looked the part, wearing period clothes and head gear, it was off to make olive oil. Elisheva showed us the different steps to making the oil. Katzrin was known for its olive oil and wine production.
Making olive oil is hard work. First you put the olives in the yam (base). Then 3 people push the mamal (stone) in the boreg (press). Pressing of the olives occur when the group pushed in a circular motion, Round and round they went and liquid is collected in a jar. That liquid is not oil yet. The liquid must be put into another press and left there for a while.
Elisheva explained that olive oil is the least dense of all oils and will float to the top. She explained that we Jews are compared to oil. We are crushed, but we release oil and that is then used to light up the world. She also explained how the 1st drop is called katit (pure). She blessed us that our actions should be like the 1st drop that comes out of the press, pure and golden.
Elisheva put us all to work. No rest for anyone and everyone tried all the steps. After the olives are pressed, the sediment is left on the press. We each picked up handfuls of the dregs to put in baskets. These will be used for creams and dried to light fires in the home on Shabbat. Our hands were quite messy, but the oil left made them feel very soft.
Now it was off to bread making. After making the brocha of hafrashat challah, we rolled the dough into a round shape. It was baked on a taboon and eaten with fresh olive oil and za’tar. Yum! Elisheva showed us the process of turning wheat into flour.
We now went to visit Elisheva’s modest home. She has two kitchens, an outdoor for summer and indoor for winter. It is here that she cooks food for her family each morning and stores it on a hanging shelf in her dining room. The children also sleep in the room on mats and up a ladder we climbed to see her bedroom.
After a lovely visit in her home, we went to see their synagogue. The shul is set up with benches around the walls all facing the center, as most shuls did that the time. There is no women’s section, since at that time period women did not attend services.
Elisheva taught us so much about the past, but left us with this thought.
Take the good things form the past, but don’t live in the past. Wise words form a wise woman.