It’s that time of year when discussions on birthright are being tossed at me left and right. You’ll make life-long friends. Once-in-a-lifetime. It’s the true Jew-ish experience.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m positive I’ll go, but I’m not sure when. While some people want to go to Israel for the falafels and hiking, I’d much rather learn about the different areas of our homeland as mentioned in the Tanakh.
But recently when I was sitting in services, it occurred to me that for the past fifteen years or so, I’ve always heard of these biblical characters, but never understood exactly where they were located in comparison to the Middle East.
And coming from someone who has never traveled beyond North America’s east coast, it feels like I should be bringing a fold-up map of Israel to morning services rather than my siddur.
Leave it to BibleMap to solve our confusion faster than you can say amen. Bible? Say what?
Recently, I came upon a blog called JPS Interactive, a website devoted to talking about Jewish educational technology. Becca Stern, one of their website’s interns, mentioned the BibleMap and I just had to post something about it. Starting with Genesis, the website tracks the location of every biblical character on a large map of the Middle East. For each book you click on, bright pin-points show up on the map and illustrate where certain events in history should’ve taken place as hinted to in the Tanakh.
In honor of Simchat Torah starting today, I figure it’s only smart to keep up with weekly parshas to figure out just where our ancestors stood only mere centuries ago. So as I take a number and get in line for the next stop to Israel, Biblemap will have to work as my GPS to guide me through the twists, roadblocks, and turns the Torah has to offer.
