Sunday, March 4, 2007- Day 7
Today we finally got into Old Jerusalem. Our bus dropped us off and we entered Jerusalem through one of the 8 gates - this one was the Lion’s Gate. This city has so much history you can barely scratch the surface in one visit even if it is filled with intense study and touring. Old Jerusalem, which is surrounded by that enormous wall that is 2 1/2 miles around, the British, under their occupation in 1947 divided the city into the Jewish Quarter (1000 people), the Armenian Quarter (1000 people), the Christian Quarter (3000 people) and the Muslim Quarter (20,000 people).
Our first destination was the Wailing Wall. According to the Bible, the First Temple or Solomon's Temple was built in the 10th century BC. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC, the Second Temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire in the year 70 AD as a result of the First Jewish-Roman War. Each Temple stood for a period of about four centuries. Somewhere in there Herod built a wall around this whole area. The Western Wall or Wailing Wall is part of this wall. It derives its holiness due to its proximity to the sacred Holy of Holies on the Temple Mount, which is the Most Holy Place in Judaism. This makes the Western Wall the holiest location in Judaism which is currently generally accessible to the Jewish people for prayer.
By the 4th century it was being used as a holy place of prayer. It was taken over by Turks and then the Muslims; controlled by Jordanians from 1948-1967, then recovered by the Jews in the 6-Day War in 1967. At that wall, which is segregated according to sex, the Hassidic Jews are praying constantly from dawn to dusk. To us they are seem to be a bit strange looking because of their apparel and because they move their upper bodies in a bobbing type of motion (to resemble a flickering flame) when they pray. I understand this is done to demonstrate adherence to Job 4:14 where it reads "fear and trembling seized me and made all my bones shake". They all tie phylacteries (a small box containing a mini-scroll of the Shema [Deut 6]) on their head and on left arm (Exodus 13:9 + Deut. 6:8: "Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads". There were at least 50 praying when we were there. They pray for three things: the rebuilding of the temple, the coming of the Messiah, and peace. The lower 5 layers of block are the original wall of Herod (I believe), then there are another 8 layers of large blocks laid by the Byzantines and the top layers were placed by the Turk - Suliman the Magnificent in 1517AD. The Jews are not allowed to go over the wall into the Muslim Quarter or to the Dome of the Rock (Mt Moriah where according to tradition Abraham offered Isaac in sacrifice to God. Interestingly, since the 6 Day War, Israel has had control of this area but they know that if they try to occupy it or change it in any way they would bring the wrath of the entire Muslim world down upon them and so they have therefore decided tread very carefully in that area.
Our group separated into groups by sex and went to the wall to pray. Since a head covering is expected I had to use one of the cardboard hats provided. It was very stylish as you can imagine.
From there we entered the Rabbi’s Tunnel which is a tunnel running parallel to the city wall. As you walk you can reach out and touch stone blocks from the original wall. Micha informed us that when Jesus lived where we were walking was a paved path around the city and Jesus would have walked it. So once again we walked where Jesus did. Awesome. This tunnel empties out on the Via Dolorosa.
After Jesus was scourged he started on the walk to the site of crucifixion. This was the Via Dolorosa. It originally had 4 what are called Stations of the Cross (places specific things happened when Jesus walked here). Then the four became11 and now I believe there are 14. Micha pointed out that many of the stations have no Biblical basis. They were simply made up. The bottom line is it is a very narrow street and lined with shops selling virtually anything you might want.
Finally we visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher which is another possible site for the crucifixion and burial of Jesus. The primary custodians today are the Greek Orthodox, the Armenian Apostolic and Roman Catholic churches. In the 19th century, the Coptic Orthodox, the Ethiopian Orthodox and the Syriac Orthodox acquired lesser responsibilities, which include shrines and other structures within and around the building. Times and places of worship for each community are strictly regulated in common areas.
We bid farewell to Micha at the airport. I cannot imagine touring without both Micha & Walt. They truly did an excellent job.
I am sure I have probably missed a few things but I offer here my insights into our pilgrimage.
Our trip home was long. We boarded our plane around midnight back in Tel Aviv. We then spent the next 11 or 12 hours chasing the darkness until we arrived back in Newark around 6:30AM. Then it was through customs and on to our next plane. When we finally made it home around 4:00 PM we were exhausted. It took us a week to get over jet lag.
And there was evening and there was morning – the seventh day, I think.
I hope to return to Israel someday. Perhaps I will lead a tour. I do feel though that every Christian should seriously consider going to Israel because it truly is like “going home”.
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