There ya go, Mary. When Moses and the Hebrews finally got to the Promised Land (Israel/Canaan) after their years of wandering, they approached from the east, through what is now Jordan. In the last chapter of Deuteronomy, Moses climbs Mount Nebo and looks across the Jordan River to Jericho and the rest of the Promised Land, a land Moses was not to be permitted to enter. After the death of Moses at the end of Deuteronomy, the first chapters of the next book, Joshua, tell how Joshua led the people across the Jordan River and captured Jericho.

I guess the Jordan was a mighty river at the time - or maybe its significance was just because it was a natural boundary. Nowadays, it's just a trickle as it runs past Jericho and goes south another ten miles (16 km) or so into the Dead Sea - the river is used to irrigate the entire area, so there isn't much water left by the time it gets to its end. As we were driving through Jericho last November, our tour guide pointed down a side street to the river- I couldn't see anything, which was a bit of a disappointment. The river ends at the Dead Sea, which has no outlet. I made the mistake of diving head first into the Dead Sea - the chemicals and salts in the water burned my eyes and nose and every place where I had shaved. I started growing my beard right after that, because my face was so sore.

I could see the river from a distance as it entered the Sea of Galilee from the north - it's a little mountain stream up there. The river flows through the Sea of Galilee, a freshwater lake that is about 6 miles (10 km) wide and 13 miles (21 km) long.

We went into the Jordan River at the south end of the Sea of Galilee for a baptism ceremony. John the Baptist probably did his baptizing in the desert maybe a hundred miles (160 km) farther south, near Jericho - but that area isn't as hospitable to tourists for political and esthetic reasons (and land mines). Where we had our ceremony, the river was maybe 30 meters across and 3 meters deep. It seemed we were the only Catholics at the baptismal site - everybody else seemed to be evangelical Christians, mostly from the U.S. Before we went into the water, some men from South Carolina told us to watch out for the piranhas. I baptized the priest, and then he baptized me and a woman we were using as a lifeguard, and then the three of us spent about half an hour dunking the rest of the group. I'm glad we got a chance to watch the evangelicals first - we sedate Catholics didn't quite know how to do this total immersion stuff - you kind of tilt the people back so the back of their head hits the water first. The whole event was a lot of fun, and we laughed and cheered and sang - but I think we all were deeply moved from a religious perspective, too.
So, anyhow, all the time I was in the water, something was nibbling on the back of my legs. Didn't break the skin or anything, but it sure was a strange sensation. The priest and the lifeguard got nibbled, too.

So, nowadays, the Jordan River is kind of a dumpy little creek that feeds the Sea of Galilee and then flows south to the Dead Sea and stops. The tourist buses stay away from the West Bank, so you can't see the main expanse of the river. Still we saw enough. The Sea of Galilee is absolutely gorgeous, especially as the sun rises over the Golan Heights and sparkles over the lake (moonrise is cool, too). The Dead Sea, the lowest place on earth, has a misty, haunting beauty to it. Once you've visited the area, you get a sense of the significance of the Jordan River, and you begin to understand why so many wonderful songs have been written about it. The river has layer upon layer of meaning, most significantly the ideas of freedom and of going to a better place. No wonder it has so much meaning for the slaves in the United States.

But I still wonder what was nibbling at the back of my legs…

-Joe Offer-