The Pressing Stone

This is a page from my journal entries from Israel. While there I journaled every day and made sure to capture explanations of things while I was in front of them so I wouldn't forget. Each night I would journal the day's events, and that meant late nights and lots of pages. I averaged around 15 pages a day while there.

Explanation of the Olive Press

What you're looking at is a drawing of a black volcanic rock pillar with knobs and grooves cut in it. At the left is a poor rendering of what an olive crusher looked like. First, the olives would be dumped into the crusher where that wheel would grind them into a paste. Then the paste would be scooped into baskets that would be stacked on eachother and then placed on top of the pillar. Next, a large flat stone with knobs carved on the edges would be placed on top of the baskets, and it would be attached to the pillar with ropes tied from the knobs on the flat stone to the knobs on the the pillar. The ropes would be evenly twisted which would squeeze the olive paste, and the oil would trickle down through the baskets, down the grooves cut in the pillar, into the groove surrounding the pillar and finally into the holding well at the base of the pillar. Simple, effective and primative. The first pressing of olive oil would be collected and taken to supply the minorah in front of the veil in the temple.

This is an example of why that particular journal is so important to me. Any time I want to return to Israel, I pick it up, and I'm once again, walking the dusty roads of Galilee.

This is me... take it or leave it.