II. NORTHWARDS TO BEISÂN, KADIS, ANTIPATRIS, etc.
October 23, 1850.
Leaving Jerusalem upon the Nabloos road, and crossing the upper portion of the valley which, lower down, after a curve becomes the valley of Jehoshaphat, we passed almost directly over the sepulchre of Simon the Just, of whom such “excellent things are spoken” in the books of the Maccabees, and in whose memory an annual festival is kept by the Jerusalem Jews on this spot on the day called רםועלן"ל rather more than a month after the passover. Two other saints are celebrated on the same day of the calendar—viz., R. Simeon bar Jochai, the cabbalist of Safed, author of Zohar, and R. Akiva of Tiberias.
Then mounting up the side of Scopus, we halted for a few minutes to survey that view of the holy city which surpasses all others, and must have done so in the palmy days of history. It was at the time of mid-afternoon, when the sun’s rays pour slantingly with grand effect upon the Temple site.
I could not but recollect that this was exactly the hour appointed for the daily evening sacrifice “between the two evenings,” (Hebrew of Exod. xii. 6,) and think of the choral music of Levitical services grandly reverberating among the semicircle of hills.
Meditations of this nature would lead one far away in varied directions, perhaps unsuited for the commencement of a long journey lying before us.
The next object attracting our attention was the Roman milestone lying beside the road, shortly
after passing Sha’afât. This I always make it a rule to examine every time of passing it. At one time I had it rolled over in order to be able to read the inscription; but I afterwards found it tossed with the writing downwards—perhaps all the better for its preservation.