Page 42 - Holyland Magazine - 2021 Edition
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To The Holy Mountain
By Eyal Shapira Join us on a journey to Mount descendants of the Israelites who lived
42 Carmel and the monasteries of the here when Elijah brought the prophets of
Carmelites that call this beloved Baal to one of Carmel’s peaks to challenge
biblical mountain home them to a contest with the Almighty (1 Kings
18:22-46). For the region’s inhabitants, the
Mount Carmel rises some 1,500 challenge was one of life and death – due to
feet above the Plain of Sharon on idol worship, God had withheld rain for a long
Israel’s northern coast, jutting into time and the resulting famine was severe (1
the Mediterranean on the west Kings 18:1-2). Elijah brought the Israelites
where the city of Haifa has taken it back to the worship of one God on this spot,
over, and facing the fertile Jezreel Valley on and the rains of blessing soon followed. The
the east. Its name comes from two Hebrew Carmelites view Elijah as the founder of their
words – kerem, which means vineyard, and order and thus see themselves as part of the
el, which means God – alluding to God’s unbroken tradition between the Old and the
blessing of the mountain that must have New Testaments.
been famous for its grapes.
During the Crusader period, according
The Carmelite Order was established to legend, St. Berthold came to the Holy
on Mount Carmel in the 12th century. Land from France and established the
Its members say the founders were the Carmelite Order on Mount Carmel, gathering
monks who lived a secluded life in caves
on the mountain’s slopes. The defeat of
