by Shalom Pollack
(Israelnationalnews.com) Mount Tabor stands 575 meters (1,890 ft.) like a solitary faithful guardian where the beautiful Jezreel Valley and the lower Galilee meet. It is located 17 km. (11 miles) west of Lake Kinneret. The mountain’s distinctly perfect round form demands our attention.
The mountain is an ancient horst, a geological term for a mountain that pushed its way up above the cooling earth’s crust when the surface was first forming. The mountain’s physical prominence has determined the fate of empires in this area.
We read about this mountain in the Book of Joshua (19:22) as Joshua leads the 12 tribes in the conquest of the Promised Land 3,500 years ago. “The border reached until Tabor, Shachatzim, and Beit Shemesh….” This mountain divided the border between three tribes: Zebulun, Issachar and Naphtali.
Notwithstanding his impressive conquests, Joshua’s conquests remained incomplete. The Bible relates that pagans were allowed to remain in the land after submitting to Israelite rule and taxation. This concession is critiqued by the Bible. We can assume that they weren’t allowed to practice idolatry in public. However, a few hundred years later, the expulsion of the ten tribes from this northern part of the land was partly because they sometimes mimicked their heathen neighbors. The residents’ idolatrous influences upon the Jews were precisely what the prophets were concerned about.
Mount Tabor was supposed to witness the sound defeat of the northern tribes under the wheels of Cicero’s nine head iron chariots. Armed with farm implements, the Jews asked Deborah the judge to lead them. She summoned Barak ben Avinoam and instructed him to lead the Jewish force of irregulars and farmers against the Canaanite military machine. Mt Tabor was to fit in to Cicero’s plan to squash the ragged Jewish resistance. But as the Psalms say, “Some with chariots and some with horses, but we [will succeed] with the name of G-d.”
And so it was.
The 900 chariots stormed down the mountain – but their wheels were abruptly stopped by the winter mud in the Kishon stream. The chariots became death traps. It was a complete defeat.
Cicero fled alone and sought refuge in the tent of Yael of the Kenizy tribe, an ally of the Canaanites. She beckoned him and promised to protect him from his pursuers. He asked for water. Instead, she gave him milk to make him drowsy. Yael subsequently killed the enemy in his sleep.
And the Jews enjoyed peace for another 40 years.
The Roman Empire began its control of Israel towards the waning years of the Hasmonaim (Macabee) dynasty. Alexander the Macabee, a great-grandson of one of the defeaters of the Greeks, made one last attempt to secure independence. He gathered an army of 31,000 and fought a series of battles on and the foot of Mount Tabor. He lost 10,000 of his men and he was captured and executed. There would be another two giant revolts against Rome before the Jews were sent into exile, only to return in the last century.
Meanwhile, empires rose and fell at the foot of this lone round mountain. The Crusaders slugged it out with the Mamluks. The Mamluks battled the Mongols, and France’s Napoleon Bonaparte fought the Ottoman Turks.
In 1799, Napoleon invaded Egypt. He wanted to cut off British shipping in the Mediterranean and win lots of glory. Was he less than Alexander or Caesar?
Shrewd politician that he was, Napoleon allowed a rumor to spread that he was interested in converting to Islam. All the dignitaries and military leaders of Egypt were invited to a banquet, where they were beheaded. The rest was easy.
Napoleon continued his conquests up the Sinai coast to Yafo (Jaffa), and then Akko. There he was stopped by British and Turkish combined forces. However to secure his lingering troops, Napoleon sent his trusty General Jean-Baptiste Kleber to head off Turkish reinforcements hastily arriving from Damascus. At the foot of Mount Tabor, 1,500 French troops formed two tight squares and fended off 35,000 Turks. The results were staggering. French casualties were minor: two dead and 60 wounded. In contrast, the Turks lost 6,000 while 500 troops were captured. Perhaps the French military accomplishment sounds like Israel’s 1967 Six Day War!
When the Jewish renaissance roused the dust from the exile, many of the Jewish immigrants settled near the Biblical mountain. In 1901, Kfar Tabor was established by the determined pioneers. The few led a nation.
Shalom Pollack is a veteran Israel tour guide, who guides and plans tours for families and groups. He also writes and lectures on Israel and will be on a lecture tour in the US this coming October-November. Pollack recently produced a DVD, “Israel – Ancient Roots, Modern Miracle.” Clips can be seen on his website, www.shalompollacktours.co.il
www.IsraelNationalNews.com
© Copyright IsraelNationalNews.com
This entry was posted
on Sunday, September 6th, 2009 and is filed under history.