From Hezekiah's tunnel we would go and sit on the Southern Steps of the Old City. Dr. Wechsler gave a good handout about the strange occurrences that surrounded Jewish traditions at the time of Jesus' coming. Even Jewish sources thought something strange was going on.
One of the striking scenes from Jerusalem was the evidence of the Roman destruction of the temple. Jesus prophesied that the stones of the temple would overturn one on top of the other. The Roman government put down the Jewish revolt in the 60's by systematically dismantling the temple stone by stone. We stood at the base of the walls and looked down the huge stone street running along the walls pockmarked by huge chasms from where the stones were pushed off into the streets. There is a replica cornerstone on the ground reminiscent of the one that would have been destroyed earlier. The replica is engraved where the trumpets would be blown to start a celebration.
The steps of the temple are said to have been built staggered to cause a person approaching the temple to be thinking as they walked and to not take a trip to the temple mindlessly. I personally don't believe that this is why the steps were designed this way...but what do I know? At this site we saw a movie about what a pilgrim's trip to the temple would have been like. This has always fascinated me.
We go onto the temple mount itself. The history is amazing. This single spot is the most important site of Judaism and one of the most important sites of Islam as well. The Muslim Dome of the Rock is built on the site of the old temple. The building is beautifully adorned with gold and mosaic. Many believe it has been built over the site of the holy of holies. The Muslims believe Abraham went to sacrifice Ishmael here and that Mohammed ascended to Heaven from this spot.Guards make Tiffany put a sweater on to cover her arms as we get there. It feels less joyous than below. It really felt like the site of a holy war...and in innumerable ways it was.
We are warned that though the Dome of the Rock is beautiful it was built as an anti-Christian and anti-Jewish monument. The inside contains a scroll across the top of the dome about God not having a son and on and on. I read about this before we came yet I wish we still could have gone in and seen it. We took a picture in front of it anyway.
The Old City is one of the most confusing places I have ever been. It is a mix of Jewish and Muslim and Christian and Armenian sections with holy sites and shops and bazaars and bizarres all around. It was the most wondrous and wonderful place I have ever seen. Since returning from Israel I heard that it
was recently named as one of the new seven wonders of the world. Geologists also believe that it is the single most vulnerable place in the world to be obliterated by earthquake because of the poor foundation it was built on. This might say something about the vulnerabilities of the holy buildings as well and how some might come down and be replaced by others. This is a city that exists in a box of walls. Like building a metropolis on top of a sand box.
We did most of our souvenir shopping here. We bartered an olive tree nativity music box down to $20 from $50. Tiff says I'm good at this. I found out soon that she is bad at this. International incident starting bad. We found a shop that custom made t-shirts which was nice because we bought Hebrew Sesame Street shirts for Addie and Ben. In the Old City we drank fresh squeezed pomegranate juice which was amazingly good.
We enter one shop and I buy a shofar and Tiffany is interested in a ring. The vendor does not have the ring she wants but he pushes her into saying she is interested in another type. He runs down the street to find a different ring that she will like. It does not fit and she does not like it anyway. However, she doesn't say she doesn't like it...she says it doesn't fit so he runs to find a different size. As he leaves I know she doesn't want it but the guy is running back and forth to get a ring. When he returns I say "She doesn't like it and we're not buying it." The guy explodes. I begin walking out and Tiffany keeps apologizing and I am nudging her "Let's go...now!" She was bad at this bartering. Almost an international incident. We felt bad and Tiffany feared the Old City for the remainder of the trip.
Later that night we bought personalized Hebrew rings that we do like. I bought a pinky ring which might or might not look pretentious that has the names of my kids on it "BEN-ADI" in Hebrew lettering. It is beautiful but we will soon find out on the trip that it is going to be one name short.
We walk to the Pools of Bethesda an amazing site with multiple pools and colonnades excavated in the 1800's. This site is mentioned as a place of Jesus' healing in John 5. Because it is only mentioned in John 5 and nowhere else biblically and no where else in Jewish history most scholars believed that the place did not exist. Until it was dug up.
At this site was an amazing church with impeccable acoustics. We sat in the church and sang "It Is Well With My Soul" along with another group that was in the church at the time. The acoustics caused the singing to boom forth and crash audio down onto all of us. It
was one of the most memorable moments of the trip. I wish I could sit here with the people of Bethel and have them experience the same thing.
I think this night was the first night that we played Phase 10 with Brooke and Mike. I was glad that we had now adjusted enough to stay up and enjoy our evenings more. Also at the Prima Kings hotel in Jerusalem I found out that Illinois was surprisingly still alive in the Big Ten Tournament and in the finals. They should not have a chance to make the NCAA tournament but they did. This was exciting and gave me a reason to check the news every morning. They didn't make it but it was a nice ride from a distance. We were wearying of being away from home and this was a nice touch of home. Going home seemed so far away. Something that was not a nice touch from home were our daily phone calls to our kids. Addie would just yell out "DAD...DAD..."and then say nothing. Ben just said nothing. These calls were not very fulfilling and usually took me about fifteen seconds before I handed the telephone to my wife. On an answer to prayer note...Before we left we looked hard for a good, cheap and reliable way to call home. We heard of something called the Pelecard which was an Israeli company that sold pin numbers over the internet to use to call the United States from Israel. It seemed fishy but we took the risk. It was good, reliable, and cheap. God bless the Pelecard company.
One of the striking scenes from Jerusalem was the evidence of the Roman destruction of the temple. Jesus prophesied that the stones of the temple would overturn one on top of the other. The Roman government put down the Jewish revolt in the 60's by systematically dismantling the temple stone by stone. We stood at the base of the walls and looked down the huge stone street running along the walls pockmarked by huge chasms from where the stones were pushed off into the streets. There is a replica cornerstone on the ground reminiscent of the one that would have been destroyed earlier. The replica is engraved where the trumpets would be blown to start a celebration.
The steps of the temple are said to have been built staggered to cause a person approaching the temple to be thinking as they walked and to not take a trip to the temple mindlessly. I personally don't believe that this is why the steps were designed this way...but what do I know? At this site we saw a movie about what a pilgrim's trip to the temple would have been like. This has always fascinated me.
We go onto the temple mount itself. The history is amazing. This single spot is the most important site of Judaism and one of the most important sites of Islam as well. The Muslim Dome of the Rock is built on the site of the old temple. The building is beautifully adorned with gold and mosaic. Many believe it has been built over the site of the holy of holies. The Muslims believe Abraham went to sacrifice Ishmael here and that Mohammed ascended to Heaven from this spot.Guards make Tiffany put a sweater on to cover her arms as we get there. It feels less joyous than below. It really felt like the site of a holy war...and in innumerable ways it was.We are warned that though the Dome of the Rock is beautiful it was built as an anti-Christian and anti-Jewish monument. The inside contains a scroll across the top of the dome about God not having a son and on and on. I read about this before we came yet I wish we still could have gone in and seen it. We took a picture in front of it anyway.
The Old City is one of the most confusing places I have ever been. It is a mix of Jewish and Muslim and Christian and Armenian sections with holy sites and shops and bazaars and bizarres all around. It was the most wondrous and wonderful place I have ever seen. Since returning from Israel I heard that it
was recently named as one of the new seven wonders of the world. Geologists also believe that it is the single most vulnerable place in the world to be obliterated by earthquake because of the poor foundation it was built on. This might say something about the vulnerabilities of the holy buildings as well and how some might come down and be replaced by others. This is a city that exists in a box of walls. Like building a metropolis on top of a sand box.We did most of our souvenir shopping here. We bartered an olive tree nativity music box down to $20 from $50. Tiff says I'm good at this. I found out soon that she is bad at this. International incident starting bad. We found a shop that custom made t-shirts which was nice because we bought Hebrew Sesame Street shirts for Addie and Ben. In the Old City we drank fresh squeezed pomegranate juice which was amazingly good.
We enter one shop and I buy a shofar and Tiffany is interested in a ring. The vendor does not have the ring she wants but he pushes her into saying she is interested in another type. He runs down the street to find a different ring that she will like. It does not fit and she does not like it anyway. However, she doesn't say she doesn't like it...she says it doesn't fit so he runs to find a different size. As he leaves I know she doesn't want it but the guy is running back and forth to get a ring. When he returns I say "She doesn't like it and we're not buying it." The guy explodes. I begin walking out and Tiffany keeps apologizing and I am nudging her "Let's go...now!" She was bad at this bartering. Almost an international incident. We felt bad and Tiffany feared the Old City for the remainder of the trip.
Later that night we bought personalized Hebrew rings that we do like. I bought a pinky ring which might or might not look pretentious that has the names of my kids on it "BEN-ADI" in Hebrew lettering. It is beautiful but we will soon find out on the trip that it is going to be one name short.
We walk to the Pools of Bethesda an amazing site with multiple pools and colonnades excavated in the 1800's. This site is mentioned as a place of Jesus' healing in John 5. Because it is only mentioned in John 5 and nowhere else biblically and no where else in Jewish history most scholars believed that the place did not exist. Until it was dug up.At this site was an amazing church with impeccable acoustics. We sat in the church and sang "It Is Well With My Soul" along with another group that was in the church at the time. The acoustics caused the singing to boom forth and crash audio down onto all of us. It
was one of the most memorable moments of the trip. I wish I could sit here with the people of Bethel and have them experience the same thing.I think this night was the first night that we played Phase 10 with Brooke and Mike. I was glad that we had now adjusted enough to stay up and enjoy our evenings more. Also at the Prima Kings hotel in Jerusalem I found out that Illinois was surprisingly still alive in the Big Ten Tournament and in the finals. They should not have a chance to make the NCAA tournament but they did. This was exciting and gave me a reason to check the news every morning. They didn't make it but it was a nice ride from a distance. We were wearying of being away from home and this was a nice touch of home. Going home seemed so far away. Something that was not a nice touch from home were our daily phone calls to our kids. Addie would just yell out "DAD...DAD..."and then say nothing. Ben just said nothing. These calls were not very fulfilling and usually took me about fifteen seconds before I handed the telephone to my wife. On an answer to prayer note...Before we left we looked hard for a good, cheap and reliable way to call home. We heard of something called the Pelecard which was an Israeli company that sold pin numbers over the internet to use to call the United States from Israel. It seemed fishy but we took the risk. It was good, reliable, and cheap. God bless the Pelecard company.
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