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"Life's too short for people not to laugh at your jokes." -Pastor Les Shelton Thoughts and Musings from Pastor Les |
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You may indicate ISRAEL-06: “BEDOUIN HOSPITALITY IN THE NEGEV” Hospitality is a cherished value among Bedouin and is considered indispensable to their survival in the desert. It would be impossible for them to travel in the immense emptiness of the desert without unquestioned access to tents where they find shelter, food, drink, and directions. This required hospitality is deeply ingrained in their culture and extends even to enemies. This simply means that whoever shows up at their tent door must be allowed entrance, served coffee, meals, and welcomed. The host is honor-bound to provide such hospitality for three and one third days, during which time the host is obligated to defend the guest with his life. At the end of 3.3 days the guest must go but they are still under the protection of the host up to forty paces from the front door of the tent. Over forty paces and they are on their own. There may be many reasons for the enemy/guest to take that 41st “pace” running. A May 26, 2008 article in “The Arab News” relates the importance of these customs: TAIF, 26 May 2008–Arabs are known for their hospitality – how well guests are treated is seen as a measure of what kind of person the host or hostess is. Hospitality is among the most highly admired virtues and hosts consider it an honor to serve their guests. Thus it is understandable that refusing your host’s hospitality is a grave offense, especially in Bedouin circles where old traditions die hard. The Okaz Daily reported that a Saudi man here threatened to shoot his five guests after they refused to eat the dinner he had just served. The guests, who came to ask the man for his daughter’s hand in marriage, were disappointed to learn that he had already agreed to marry her to someone else. They refused dinner and attempted to leave the man’s house. Offended, he pulled out his gun and threatened to kill them. Though he forced his guests to eat at gunpoint, everyone enjoyed the meal without further incident. Our time was much more peaceful and a glance outside showed the rugged mountains of Edom now arrayed in a delicate pink of the sunset. It’s time to go. We have rooms reserved on the shore of the Red Sea.
NEXT: Eilat and The Red Sea See you Sunday, Pastor Les
BEDOUIN HOSPITALITY IN THE NEGEV....... Personal observations of Israel in November 2007 Grinding up the gravel road from the camel pens we stop on the ridge quickly overtaken by our own dust. Looking east the landscape drops away immediately in a stair-step of declining ridges to a deep valley containing an incongruous rectangular green smudge of agriculture in the vast honey-colored panorama of valleys and distant limestone mountain ranges. It’s a kibbutz, an Israeli cooperative farm settlement, resembling a couple of postage stamps from our hilltop. On our right sharing the ridge is a large Bedouin tent. Inside the welcoming dimness of a large open space are floors covered in beautiful carpets and pillows. A gentle dry breeze wafts through an opening on the east side of the room framing the brilliant day and the distant mountains of biblical Edom. The first mention of tents in the Bible is Genesis 4:20: Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock. Adah is the daughter of Lamech the fifth generation from Cain, the son of Adam and Eve. All through the Old Testament many references are made to living this Bedouin lifestyle. Our Bedouin host graciously encourages us to make ourselves comfortable on the beautiful carpets and pillows. There is immediate acquiescence and groans are heard, not unlike the camels complaints, as we lower our tired sight-seeing camel-riding bodies to the floor. Getting up very soon does not seem likely. I lean against a deep pillow and the twilight inside the tent lightens as I look around. Shadowed corners and the occasional gleam of polished brass objects. It comes to me that my sitting cross-legged on the floor leaning on pillows places me in a picture that has been consistent for thousands of years. This is the same scene I would see were I sitting in the tents of the Israelites in the wilderness, or Abraham as he left Ur of the Chaldees. This is it! This is before Jerusalem and Jericho, these very conditions were what spread out around the base of Mt. Sinai. It was from these shelters that women went out each morning to gather the God-provided manna for food undoubtedly glancing toward the mountain to see if Moses was returning from having conversed with Jehovah. Author Clinton Bailey, A Culture of Desert Survival, writes “the more I learned about Bedouin culture, the more I realized that it was almost totally a culture of desert survival... Bedouin oral culture is of great antiquity, the oldest for which there is ancient documentation.” “The Bible provides a lot of evidence of the Hebrews living a Bedouin life, even though we don’t immediately identify the ancient ancestors of the Jews with Arabic-speaking nomads... both of these Semitic peoples had to survive the hardships of the same Middle Eastern deserts.... they possessed the common culture of desert survival. An understanding of this culture, as witnessed in its tradition state down to the late twentieth century, thus affords us deeper insight into the Bible.” (Bailey, Introduction) One source indicates that less than 10% of current Arabs still live the Bedouin desert lifestyle. This still leaves 120,000 Bedouins living in the Negev, current Israeli citizens, with many others occupying the deserts of other countries; Jordan, Syria, Amman, Egypt, etc. Those no longer living in the desert itself have moved into villages and towns, taking jobs in the trades, professions, and farming. The arid deserts prevented the Bedouin becoming farmers requiring them to develop skills with livestock; sheep, camels, etc., for their nutrition and livelihood. This same lack of rain required them to move over wide areas in constant search of fresh pasture for their flocks creating an existence requiring the mobility of tent-living. As hospitality ritual requires, coffee beans are ground by hand and coffee is prepared and served in tiny cups. The coffee is sweet and flavorful. The host plays a stringed instrument called an Oud, a 12 string instrument looking somewhat like a guitar made of a large wooden salad bowl. One of our group accompanies him on a small drum. Stories are told, customs are explained; it’s very pleasant.
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