Bethlehem!!

We got to sleep in on June 26th, relatively speaking anyways. We were moving to another hotel for the night, this one in Bethlehem. So we jumped on a bus and headed the fifteen or so minutes to Bethlehem. Sounds easy enough, and it was...for us. If you aren't a foreigner or an Israeli, things get a little more complicated when you get here...

That is the wall that has drawn so much ire from the the world community. I leave you to your own opinions and thoughts about this fortification.

Our first stop was...

This is the place where the first people outside of Jesus' family heard of his birth. This little chapel is built over the spot where it is held that the shepherds were visited by the angel, "as they watched over their flocks by night..."


I had Christmas songs going through my head the entire time.
We made the same journey that those shepherds made, up the hill to Bethlehem to what is now the Church of the Nativity...

Here is the little tiny entrance...

The little wooden entrance inside the first, that's Professor Wing leading the way to the left...

Finally here is the church interior, packed with Russian tourists...
The Basilica itself was built in 565 by Emperor Justinian. These columns and mosaics are from the original construction...


Here is a picture of the main altar...

Here is the adjoining Church of St. Catherine, which you may have seen when Christmas live from Bethlehem is shown...

We didn't go down into the Grotto of the Nativity, we came back later. We were staying only five minutes away.

Our next stop was the "refugee camp," of Dheisheh. Founded in 1948 after the Israeli War of Independence for 3,400 refugees, it now is home to four times that number. It is a little less than a square kilometer, but with that many people in that small a space, a little bit goes a long way. Just so you know, 80% of the population are children under the age of 18. That was what was most heart rending, seeing so many children, happy as could be. One of my companions said it best, "I am sad that they're happy with this...
We visited an NGO for the children and took a tour with one of the volunteers. I took this picture because it reminded me of our first day in the Holy Land at the Western Wall. Again, I thought it was appropriate...
We then went to meet with an assortment of Palestinians at the Palestinian Bar Association. There was a judge, several lawyers, and one very outspoken prosecutor. She was formidable. It was actually really refreshing to hear all of them talk so frankly, ask us so many questions, and explode into debate amongst themselves.

After that it was back to the Nativity to see the place where the manger sat. It is down below the main altar of the church in the Nativity Grotto, marked with a star

Here I am praying there...

That too, was a moving experience for me. This trip filled me with hope, despair, thoughts, arguments, confusion, and faith. I haven't come to a conclusion for myself, on anything, but I know it will come. The world to, must come to a conclusion on this situation, but it is even more confused than I am. I am not sure whether that is a comforting or a disheartening thought.

The Dead Sea!!

The next day, June 25th, we met with a friend of Professor Wing's. His name is Albert Aghazarian, a member of one of the oldest Armenian families in Jerusalem. If the goal you had when visiting this well-respected translator, was getting answers to you deepest questions about the situation in Jerusalem, Israel/Palestine, and the people who are involved, you are likely to be disappointed. In a way, I think that was his point. In the Holy Land, the answers to your questions must be found (or perhaps stumbled upon is a more opt way of explaining Albert's attitude), they cannot be given. The effect of this idea that we listened to him tell stories, jokes, and philosophy while his lovely wife Madeline showered us with hospitality. Coffee, coffee, and more coffee, lemonade, candy, and cookies. As I said, you have to love the people of the Middle East, as they all, regardless of their backgrounds, will gift you with the greatest hospitality.
Then it was off for a drive. We went to Tel Aviv and stopped for a brief photo op. Professor Wing wanted us all to see the difference between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. It was striking, we were only an hour away by car, but we were a universe away in ideas, problems, and issues. Strange. I took some pictures, but I will save them for my Tel Aviv post. A few of us went back to Tel Aviv for an afternoon. There was no way I was doing one brief bus tour through Tel Aviv, its just too pretty. After a few minutes we jumped back on the bus and headed back the way we came. We went past Jerusalem to the Dead Sea.

It's rather striking really, right after you have cleared the wall between Israel and the West Bank, you enter the desert. That is truly what it is, it is dry and hot. Only a few Bedouin shacks could be seen until you get into the Jordan Valley. Its still hot, but the dry desert is replaced with irrigated fields of date palms...
You aren't far from an incredibly dry inhospitable landscape though, so it confuses me greatly why the Essenes chose the dry part for their little outpost...

Here is their view of the Dead Sea, with what is now Jordan in the distance...
The Essenes were an ascetic sect of Judaism that removed itself from society, in a reaction to the presence of the Romans and other Gentile. Fortunately for us, one of the requirements of their sect was a daily period of copying texts. Any text will do, and they included the canonical Torah, Talmud, and new testament works, but also included the apocryphal works. They stored these copies away in clay vessels hidden in caves. Collectively, they are known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. They are some of the oldest biblical texts around. You can see many caves up on the hillside in my first picture, but this little hand carved hole in the wall, cave number four, held the treasure trove. Over ninety percent of the documents came out of here...
Then it was off to the "beach." Well, not really a beach, more like hard sand and rock leading down to extremely salty water. Rule number one: water does not go near eyes, that hurts. Rule number two: water does not go near mouth, tastes bad. Rule number three: have fun and don't lose your balance floating, which is what I think I am doing here...

It was a lot of fun to stand up in the water and not touch the bottom. You can try to go down if you like, the furthest I got was up to my chin, then you just bob up and down. Here we all are doing just that; I'm on the right sitting with my calves on top of the water. It was not unlike being in a water bed..

It was really weird to be in the water for almost two hours, and not be a prune when you get out.

Another thing, mud is fun...

It was a great opportunity for us to have fun in the Dead Sea. You remember the date palms? What with the diversion of the Jordan River, irrigation to those fields, and evaporation, it is estimated that nothing will remain of the Dead Sea in 2050.

Jerusalem!!!

It has been a long time since I have posted and I apologize. The reason was that our four days in the Holy Land were set at ultra high speed. It was one of the most amazing trips for me. I was excited beyond normal people words. I was in the Holy Land!! I cannot impart to you how much that meant to me as a history student, nor how often I felt chills go up and down my spine upon seeing some of these sights. I could spend a lifetime in that place and never tire of the people (Palestinian or Israeli), or the sights, or the feelings you get when gazing at the city. Speaking of which, we arrived in Tel Aviv at around 10:30ish, and after clearing customs and finding our travel company, it took us an hour to get to Jerusalem. The Holy City itself!! We stayed at a hotel located in East Jerusalem, right inside the Jaffa gate. So we were physically inside the Old City portion of Jerusalem; if you look at a map we were right on the border of the Christian and Armenian Quarters. Here it is, my first sight of the Old City...

That was right around midnight, so it was off to bed for me. The next morning, June 24th, was amazing for me!!! We went off on a stroll down the thin sloping "roads" the Old City (driving simply will not work). It is actually really small, it took us maybe ten minutes to cross the city at its widest point. I guess I should have expected that, since the wall it self that you saw in the picture above was a reconstruction of the medieval walls, razed to the ground in 1234 by the Tartars. The current walls were built in 1538 by the Turkish Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. It really does feel like a medieval middle-eastern town though. A lot of the architecture is from the Mameluke period, when Jerusalem was ruled by the Mameluke slave-soldiers of Egypt...
What I was never really able to get over, for the entirety of our stay in the Holy Land, was how close everything was to everything else. After a short walk, our guide turned us down a small path, we turned the corner, and saw this...

One of the holiest sights in the entire world, on a beautiful morning, the Western Wall. It is all that remains of the Temple built by Herod the Great. It was a Thursday, a day when the boys come to the wall for their Bar Mitzvah, and leave the wall as men. So I am glad we got there early, otherwise it was probably going to get a little crowded closer to the wall, especially on the women's side of the mechitza (the barrier between men and women while they pray). We were still able to get in and I left a prayer note in the wall. You have to cover your head before God though...
Before going up the long wooden ramp to al-haram al-qudsī ash-sharīf, I snapped this picture...

He was wandering around since we arrived, and I thought he was an appropriate reminder that what we were about to do is something very few Palestinian Muslims have been able to do. Al-haram al-qudsī ash-sharīf, the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims, the Temple Mount to Jews and most Christians, has been off limits to Palestinians who don't live in East Jerusalem since 1967. It was an intense experience for me. You go up this long enclosed walkway overlooking the Western Wall...
You enter through a small doorway, into a beautifully landscaped space...

With the wind whispering in those pines, you know immediately why it is the Noble Sanctuary, a great and holy place regardless of what religion you have. It was absolutely beautiful. The Al-Aqsa mosque was off to our right...

And we had a view of the Dome of the Rock through the trees off to the left...

It was otherworldly, a truly beautiful place. Here are some more of my favorite pictures...

We didn't get to go inside, only Muslims are allowed to enter these holy places now.

The history of the place may already be known to you, here is the brief version. The where the Dome of the Rock now stands, is exactly over the place where Jewish Temple, the shrine to the Holy of Holies, once stood. This was where Soloman's Temple was, and after its destruction by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BCE, the sight remained empty until Herod the Great. Herod the Great was the Herod who wanted to find Jesus as a newborn to kill him. His son, Herod Antipas, is the Herod in the story of Jesus' crucifixion. It was Herod the Great, who built the very Temple that Jesus went to visit before his death. It was huge, and remained the holiest place for Jews until its destruction in 66 CE during the Roman suppression of a Jewish revolt. Al-Aqsa was the first Muslim addition to Mt. Moriah (the other, less politically charged name for the site); the mosque was probably built by the Umayyad Caliphate in the 670's. The Dome of the Rock followed in 691. During the Crusades, Al-Aqsa was the headquarters of the Templar Knights, the Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon. The Dome was turned into an Augustinian Church. The dome itself was originally covered by the melted remnants of 100,000 melted dinar coins. Under the Turks, the Dome was covered in tiles. In 1955, the Jordanian government undertook a renovation of the Dome and covered it in a bronze/aluminum alloy. In 1998, the Dome was again refurbished with 80 kilograms of gold. A personal gift of King Hussein of Jordan of $8.2 million made this possible.

It was an incredible morning experience!! I have been excited about doing this for a long time and I am still excited thinking back on that morning!! We weren't finished though. We went for a visit to an Israeli court. It turned out that the building itself was the original location for the High Court of the British Mandate of Palestine. We actually sat in the very room that was once used for that purpose. It is under refurbishment and is being prepared to function as a museum, or at least that is the plan right now.

Next we stopped at the Shoah Memorial and Museum; Yad Vashem.

It was a truly epic monument. You walk through the Museum, getting the full unadulterated view of the brutality and antisemitism. People are telling their stories on video screens. Models tell the story of Auschwitz. I had to pick up my pace, weaving between the groups of Israeli soldiers, because I felt physically ill. The entire story told by the museum ends with the founding of the State of Israel, and a long walk out onto this beautiful panoramic view of the countryside...
The message was implicit, but very clear: "The Jews have suffered for most of recorded history. It stops now. This is Israel, and we are not leaving."
It was hard for me on the rest of the trip. I know all of that is true, but how do you reconcile the needs of two peoples laying claim to one land, when both groups have loud and intransigent sub-groups, who absolutely refuse to yield on their viewpoints. It troubles me, but I won't trouble you.

The rest of the Shoah Memorial area is an enormous plot of ground that includes, the Children Memorial (no pictures), the Hall of Remembrance, and the Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations. Walking in this place is a very emotional and thought provoking experience.


After that, we went to another holy spot, this one for Christians and Jews. As you will see in the pictures, the Mount of Olives is the site of a large and prestigious Jewish cemetery. For Christians, Mount Olivet is where Jesus ascended to heaven after giving instructions to the apostles. The view of Jerusalem is amazing...

It is easy to see why so many wars have been fought over this location. Jerusalem is a beautiful city. You can see the Dome of the Rock pretty easily, but you have to look behind it to see our ultimate destination for the day...

I'll tell you what it is later, if you haven't already guessed.
Our guide has us walk down Mt. Olivet. For anyone who wants to do the same, be forewarned, it is steep and the blacktop can be slick, so be prepared. We passed by the Dominus Flevit Church, where Jesus wept over Jerusalem, no shorts so we didn't go in.

At the bottom of Olivet, is the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed the night before his trial and crucifixion. It was beautiful, well-kept by the monks, and filled with olive trees that were probably 2000 years old.

I cannot share with you what it was like to walk and pray in the place where Jesus prayed with the full knowledge of what was to come.

Watching over the Garden is the Church of All Nations...

It was built in the 1920's with the donations of several countries. Every nation that contributed has a dome with their flag and coat of arms.
Our next destination was the same as Jesus' next mortal destination, The Church of the Holy Sepulchre...

It doesn't look like much when you look at the main entrance, especially when this ladder is above the door and has been left there since before 1852...

The reason for this is the status quo rule. The Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, the Armenian Apostolic, and the Coptic, Ethiopian, and Syriac Orthodox Churches all have a portion of the Church as their area of care and responsibility. They don't get along. When and where mass can be held are strictly regulated, as are the common features of the church, like the ladder. Nothing can be moved or changed unless all the communities agree. That seems rather harmless when you are considering the immovable ladder, but included in the common areas are the facades, foundations, the frescoes, etc. The Church is not in good shape, but it is still beautiful and moving.

Our guide left us here, because we were only five minutes from our hotel and he knew some of us would want to spend a great amount of time wandering the halls. Right inside the door is the Anointing Stone, where Christ was prepared for burial...

It is a maze in the rest of the Church, so I suggest if you have plans to go, take a floor plan so you know what it is that you are looking at. Although, it was fun to get lost inside looking.

Turns out that directly to the right of the entrance, if you are facing the Anointing Stone is a steep thin little staircase that leads you right up to Calvary. There is a Greek Orthodox Altar right where Christ was crucified...
It is off to the left, the direction I actually went that Christ was buried, the sepulchre...

As you can see, it too is held by the Greek Orthodox, and there is a long long to get inside.

It was a very and spiritual way to end a day in Jerusalem.