Enrichment Activities for Weave Your Word in Me

Ancient Way of Making Olive Oil —

To understand the life and times of Jesus, it is helpful to learn as much as we can about that area of the world — what people did, how people thought, even what natural resources were available and how people used them.

The major crops of Israel at the time of Jesus were wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, and olives. It is interesting to note that the Garden of Gethsemane (where Jesus was betrayed) was a grove of olive trees. The trees grew well there at the base of the Mount of Olives just outside the city of Jerusalem — providing a quiet place at night for Jesus to pray.

Watch this interesting Shalom Sesame video about a modern Jewish boy from Medi’in, Israel, who learns the ancient way of making olive oil. After watching the video, see if you can put these 7 steps for processing olive oil into the correct order.

bottling oil
draining and collecting oil
crushing olives
filtering oil
picking olives
pressing paste
collecting paste in baskets

My Prayer

Dearest Father, Thank you for the olive tree — it is such a good gift! Thank you that it provides olives for food; olive oil for cooking, producing light, and moisturizing skin; and olive wood for furniture. You are very generous. Amen.

Shalom Sesame is co-produced by Sesame Street and its Israeli version, Rechov Sumsum. The series goal is to bring Jewish life and culture to audiences in the U.S.

Correct Sequence:
picking
crushing
collecting paste
pressing
draining & collecting oil
filtering
bottling