Israel Trip: Day 10

Me on top of Masada overlooking the Dead Sea to the North

So, this is the 10th and final ISrael trip update. I hope these updates were interesting and enjoyable, and more or less readable considering how fast I wrote them and put them up.

Jim/Hopps

For our final day in Israel we left the Bedouin camp and drove north along the Dead Sea to just south of En Gedi, the spring near where David fled from Saul, to the mountain fortress of Masada. Masada is a fortress built on top of a butte, a stand alone mountain top separated from near by hills standing far above the Dead Sea Valley, while it is only 50-100 feet above sea level, the Dead sea is nearly 1800 feet below sea level.

Masada from the West with the Roman ramp leading to it (It was wider and higher when used)

It is thought to have been first constructed by Jonathan the brother for Judah the Maccabee, it was especially fortified by Herod the great during the first century AD as a stronghold for him to flee to in case of a Jewish revolt. It is most well known because Jewish rebels took it by surprise from a Roman garrison when the Romans were quelling the Jewish rebellion around 70AD. This was the last Jewish stronghold to fall to the Romans. The Romans surrounded it and built a siege wall and eight encampments around it to ensure no one could get in or out.

The square is the remains of a Roman encampment, in front of it is the siege wall

They then used 30,000 Jewish slaves to build a ramp up the side of the mountain to allow siege equipment up. The Jewish slaves were used for many tasks, about 5,000 of them daily would walk several miles north to the spring at En Gedi to bring water back for the camp. When the Romans had the ramp built and started using siege equipment the Jews built a construction of two layers of wooden beams with sand in between behind the area being battered to act as a shock absorber. So, the Romans fired flaming arrows to burn it, but the wind was blowing the wrong direction and blew it back towards the Romans, the Jews were ecstatic about this change in fortune. However, the wind changed abruptly and burned the defensive structure away. The Jewish leader, playing on the emotions of the moment, spoke to the men and convinced them to not let themselves be captured by the Romans, that the Romans would abuse them and their families, death wasn't the issue, they wanted to die free. So 10 men were picked to kill everyone, and then lots were drawn for one man to kill the rest and then kill himself. This was very much against the Jewish beliefs, there is no stipulation in the Jewish religion for killing other Jews or yourself unless being forcibly made to change your religion. Even on the very important day of atonement, Yom Kippur, fasting is the very important custom, but if a doctor says you need to eat or you might die, then you must eat. When the Romans made their way into Masada the next day they were surprised to find all the Jews dead, they were not expecting that, they acted more like the Romans would have. Masada was rediscovered in 1838 by Edward Robinson though it wasn't excavated until later. Masada is kind of like remember the Alamo was to the Texans, it is a symbol of Israel, it is their saying that Masada shall never fall again, though of course there are many opinions as to how this should be accomplished. This is a place that every single Jewish school kid will visit at some point in his education. As was mentioned when I spoke about the Holocaust museum, for the Jews, if you say you will kill them, they will try to kill you first.

On top of Masada looking South

Cable car for those not wanting to walk

We got to climb Masada, first from the side of the Roman road, and then back down the snake path on the taller Eastern side.

We then went to Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. The Dead Sea Scrolls are a very important archeological discovery, they are dated from between 150BC-70AD, the oldest previous Biblical manuscripts were form the 6^th century AD. They include at least portions of every old testament book along with Jewish sectarian communal writings and apocryphal books. This is a big deal particularly for Christianity because copies of Isaiah 53 were fond from before the time of Christ. This chapter is a prophecy of the coming of the messiah which for Christians is Jesus, so this disproves previous claims that this was added after the time of Christ as part of the 2^nd portion of Isaiah by Christians wishing to bolster their claims. At Qumran are some ruins from the Jewish sect who lived here, believed to be the Essenes. They were a Jewish sect with strict laws and purification rituals who devoted themselves to the studying of the scriptures. Some say that it is possible Jesus spent some of the time between 13 and 30 at Qumran studying, since he probably was studying somewhere to become and ordained Rabbi and many of teachings are very similar to those of the Essenes, though there is no proof either way.

After Qumran with our academic portion finished we went to a beach on the Dead Sea and went floating. It is quite an odd sensation to float so easily, It is just like floating in an inner tube, minus the inner tube. The mud is supposed to be very exfoliating and soothing from the Dead Sea, I tried rubbing it on myself, it pretty well felt like mud, but it was fun nonetheless. Being in such a heavy salt solution (28%-30% compared to ~7% in the ocean) causes you to know if you have any small cuts or abrasions, thats for sure. Once you get out and walk towards the showers the water dries and leaves a nice salt crust on you. Overall, quite an experience.

Then we drove back to Jerusalem for a farewell dinner at an old Monastery that is also a restaurant now. We had chicken and lamb kabobs, then we headed to the airport. Once at the airport Israel does things a little differently. When you first get there you get in line for a few questions and a possible interview depending on your answers and profiling. Then they scan your checked luggage, and possibly you might take it to a counter to opened and searched. Then you check in and go to passport control and then personal security, with several quick passport checks along the way. Rather intense security, definitely more to leave than to enter the state of Israel. We had two hours to do it and thankfully everyone got through, though it was close. Me and Chuck Kopp heard the flight was overbooked and tried to volunteer to get bumped since we would probably 1^st class back to the states and a free ticket, but apparently, either in Israel or for international flights, you have to volunteer at check in time, so it was too late sadly.

This was a very fun and informative trip. I am very happy I went on it, it was nice having the logistics organized for me, and the amount of learning from a trip like this, in comparison to a self trip, is vast. Mishi's incredible knowledge of all these things and the previous research done in preparation for this trip really made it very profitable. On a trip like this there is also a huge building of friendship and community among those who go; I was able to meet new people and get to know people better I only kind of knew. It makes me sad to come home, to break up that community, we had been in close proximity for a long time, for 11 days, and now we are split back up to our respective lives. While life must continue, it is always a little sad and depressing for a few days as that feeling wears off.

Israel Trip: Day 9

Ok, back in the states now with more predictable internet. Here is Day 9 update.

Jim/Hopps

We started out the day at the Church of Peter Gallicantu. Gallicantu is latin for crowing rooster. This site is in remembrance of the 3 denials of Jesus by Peter. It is built on the location that is thought to be the house of Caiaphas the high priest. It is likely this is the site since it is on the side of Mt. Zion near the Temple Mount, though it is possible his house might have been further up since he would have been quite rich. The current church there was built in the 1950s, but it is built on the ruins of a Byzantine time church. It is unknown what the Byzantine church was called, if it was to commemorate the same thing. Underneath the current church are the ruins of the Byzantine church that can be seen.

First level of Byzantine ruins under the church

In the lowest level is an old cistern that is believed to have been used by Caiaphas as a torture chamber and holding cell and possibly Jesus was kept there over night. From an outlook can be seen a monastery in the Ge Ben Hinon (sp?) valley that is thought to be the plot of land bought by the priests with the 30 pieces of silver that was given to Judas. An interesting though, while we often give Peter a hard time for denying Jesus, he is the only disciple to follow Jesus there, the other 10 disciples disappeared.

A statue of Peter denying Jesus

We then went to the Israeli museum which has a model of Jerusalem as it was in the second temple period, the time of Herod.

Overview of model from the north

It shows the Temple pretty well finished and a wall around the outer suburbs of Jerusalem.

Herod's Temple model

Old City of David

Jerusalem was only in this state for about 5 years from 65AD to 70Ad when the Romans laid siege and destroyed Jerusalem. At the museum is also the shrine of the book, it is a place where some of the Dead Sea Scrolls are on display. The entrance is a black basalt slab of stone, this represents the son of darkness. One of the scrolls found at Qumran speaks of the battle between the son of light and the son of darkness, similar language to the book of revelation. The main exhibit is underneath a white dome that bears resemblance to the top of the pottery jars the scrolls were found in, there are jets of water pouring onto the roof, these represent the living water.

Dome over the Shrine of the Books

Inside the dome in the middle is a larger than life handle and end of a scroll standing on end with a sample dead sea scroll wrapped around it,I was unable to get photos inside since photography was prohibited inside.

We then had a presentation on the Shepherds Field overlooking Bethlehem. Shepherds at that time basically lived the bedouin lifestyle, nomads who lived off the products of their animals, the wool and milk and meat. They would live in tents or caves. There are several caves with monuments that claim to be the location where the angels appeared to the shepherds on the night of Jesus' birth, but there isn't really any way of knowing since that aren't exactly any markers or remains left from such as visit.

Then a brief presentation on the Temple. The first temple was built by Solomon as a final resting place for the Ark of the Covenant, for place for the spirit of God to reside. It was built in 7 years, though it is interesting to note it Solomon spent 11 years on his own palace and 21 years on the palace complex for his hundreds of wives and concubines. At the temple is where the Levite priests were the intermediaries between man and God. The first temple was destroyed in 586BC by Nebuchadnezzar. A poor temple was then rebuilt 70 years later by Nehemiah when the Jews returned to Israel. Herod rebuilt the temple in a magnificent manner starting in about 20BC.

To finish the day we went to a Bedouin encampment in the northern Negev desert area near the Dead Sea. This is a place for visitors to spend the night and experience and learn about eh Bedouin culture and lifestyle. When we first arrived we had the opportunity to ride camels. It was two people to a camel, one on each side of the center hump.

Riding Camels!

It was an experience, particularly since they are sitting with their legs tucked under when you get on and off and so they have to rise up and then sit back down to get off, they do so by first rising one end of the body and then the other. It was a lot of fun. The bedouins have a lot of culture to their way of living, though very different from ours.

The main eating tent at the Bedouin Camp

Sitting around having tea and learning about the Bedouin lifestyle

When guests are first welcomed they are served a sweet tea, but when the talking and visiting is over the host serves a bitter coffee indicating it is time to wrap things up an go. The bedouin concept of women is also very different, the women do essentially all the work from shepherding to cooking to child bearing while the men more or less sit around and talk. Women are seen as property, a man can have up to 4 wives at a time and can change them out anytime he feels like it. They don't understand our culture, our women dress similar to us and we have them out in the open. However, in a situation in a visitors camp like we were at they deal with it because they are getting paid to show of what they do to live. While we were there we saw no women, even though they would often do the work being demonstrated by the men, they don't want out and about. There has been a lot of conflict between the bedouins and the Israeli government over land. As long as they are moving around in the desert area it hasn't been a big deal with the government, but now that some of them are settling down into more permanent settlement arrangements this is causing more problems. They don't see the land as ownable, kind of like the Native Americans at the founding of America, so they don't see why they can't just move and around and live where they want to. Later that evening after a delicious meal, sitting in groups on cushions eating from a shared platter of rice and lambburger and chicken and vegetables with pita bread, we walked out into the desert. We walked away from the lights and looked at the stars, it was very peaceful but also a little ominous.

Stars at night in the desert. Orion's belt in the Center

While walking out we saw some sort of dog creature lurking outside our flashlight beam, but it was probably a tame dog from the settlement. There was enough light from the moon and stars and distant cities it was pretty easy to see where we were going even without flashlights. It was interesting to think of these being the hills that David fled to when running from Saul, it would be very difficult to find someone out here if they knew what they were doing hiding in the hills and caves in the nearby mountains.

Israel Trip: Day 8

Here is todays update, it might be a little disjointed, particularly towards the end, but I wanted to get it posted nonetheless because we are moving abodes tomorrow and my internet access will be very limited over the next two days before getting home. So instead of dumping 3 updates once I get back, here is 1 and I will dump the last 2 days once I get back.

Today we started by listening to an Israeli settle talk. He talked a little about the history of the Et Tun (Not sure on spelling) block of 4 settlements. The first was settled in 1929, it went through several periods of destruction and resettlement. There was a massacre at the Et Zion (again, not sure on spelling) settlement where 150 settlers were rounded up and shot by the Jordanians. There was held a memorial each year on independence day for the 69 orphans from that, until 1967 when the West Bank, were Et Zion was located, was regained by the Israelis. He didn't talk much about the whole issue of settlements though, I was a little disappointed. It seems a big reason behind the settlements is that it is the Biblical land of Israel and they want to claim it for the state of Israel. There is much contention about whether to give the West Bank area to the Palestinians, but it si more than just an issue of desiring peace, there is actually quite a desire among many Israelis for peace, but if the Palestinians own the West Bank, they will be within ½ mile of Jerusalem, if they don't get East Jerusalem, which is what they want probably won't be happy without. So, while it seems there is no need to be provocative with building settlements, it is also hard to give it back because of the danger of being so close to the territory and risking attack.
We then went to Yad Vashem. This is the Israeli Holocaust museum. Throughout this museum they try to tell individual stories to better allow the viewer to relate to and grasp the size of the event, it is hard to grasp the fact the 6 million Jews were killed. First we saw the children's memorial, for the 1.5 million children killed. It was sponsored by a couple who's child was killed in the holocaust, but they survived. It starts with rock columns with the tops knocked off and an arch with metal rebar sticking out of it to represent the metal fences and barbed wire of the camps. Then you walk into the memorial itself. There are 5 candles lit in the center with an arrangement of mirrors around them and around the room, which is pitch black but for the candles, and then mirrors reflect the light back and forth approximately 1.5 million times to represent the 1.5 million souls. As you walk through this the name, age, and country of origin of each child killed is recited in English and Hebrew (and also Yiddish?), it takes a year and a half to get through them all. This is one of my favorite memorials I've ever been to. As you walk into the dark room it is slightly disorienting, you can't tell where the walls are or anything, it is just this immense collection of lights, and the children's names are being read off. To me it was awe-inspiring in a sense and also very reflective and sobering, to think of those 1.5 million children who were murdered, what they might have grown up to be and do. I think a well done memorial is an amazing thing, particularly when it is done well and with care, when certain aspects symbolize something to do with the event being memorialized.
Then we went into the main museum, it was interesting to me in that it was rather well lighted, rather than dim as I would have thought. It is basically a long triangular corridor with the displays in rooms to the side and you zig-zag back and forth until you get to the end and it flairs open onto a balcony overlooking a valley, it symbolizes the hope of a new day and the land the Jews now had. We all went through the museum at our own pace. Near the beginning a quote was on a display that jumped out at me, “A country is not just what it does-it is also what it tolerates...”-Kurt Tucholsky, a Jewish writer. This to me is something very applicable to any country at any time for any issue. When I first saw it I thought more of issues morality that might be tolerated, though that is more on a personal level perhaps than a governmental level. But it is certainly applicable to many other issues, this quote and the next one both should give motivation to not just stand idly by when things are happening that you know aren't right, but since they don't directly affect you don't seem worth your time and effort. This quote is more famous than the last, “They came for the communists, and I did not object for I was not a communist. Then they came for the socialists, and I did not object for I was not a socialist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not object for I was not a Jew. When they came for me, there was no one left to object...”- Martin Niemoller, German Pastor.
This memorial to me wasn't as emotional as perhaps I've been dealing with the holocaust at other times, I think this might have been an issue of factual overload reading all the signs, and maybe an atmosphere as conducive to that, but to me it was still very sobering and heavy. I think memorials like this are excellent, they remind us of many things. In particular they remind us of the event that happened, that it really happened, that real people had their lives effected. It reminds us that since it has happened once, it can happen again. I think this is a cue Americans could take from the Jews; with something such as 9/11, we should always remember, it was real people and a real event and we should be working to stop that from ever happening again, if we forget, it will happen again. For the Israelis their motto is “Never Again.” They have their own state and will never let an atrocity like that happen again. If you say you are going to kill them, they will believe you and try to kill you first; people didn't believe Hitler and he did it anyways.
I think this also shows the utter depravity of mankind, what it is possible to inflict on each other, even in this “modern” age. A question to ask, and one I don't have a an answer to is what the Germans who actually did these acts were thinking. I mean, they were humans, not animals, but it appears they had lost their humanity by the things they did. What was it that caused them to do that, or at least to allow them in their own minds to do that? People also ask the question of why didn't people do anything about it at the time it was happening, whether Germans, or Jews, or anyone else. I don't think most people would be any different now, most people wouldn't do anything about it. It comes somewhat gradually, and then you have to fight against every institution you've ever known, your government and police, that isn't something you do lightly. I think, just like then, it would take a bit to get people to do anything about a situation that has arisen (while a little further away, take other genocides such as Darfur for example).
We also had a site presentation that talked about the effect of the Holocaust on the formation fo the state of Israel. Looking at it as a whole, there was already a Zionist impetus before the Holocaust happened, but the holocaust helped speed things up and put some pressure on other countries to allow the Jews to have a state of their own. So while not causing the formation of the state, it did assist. Some people say the holocaust caused the state of Israel, but it can also be said that if there had been a state of Israel there would have been no holocaust.
Also I presented on the 1948 Israeli war for Independence. Briefly, the British left Palestine on May 14 1948. The same day David Ben-Gurion declared the state of Israel and 7 Arab armies; Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Lebanon, and Sudan invaded Israel. There were numerous UN truces and partition plans spaced throughout the fighting, but the war ended throughout 1949 as separate cease-fires were signed between Israel and the individual Arab countries. It was also during this time that the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) was formed. In the end they had 65% of the original British mandate with Gaza controlled by Egypt and the West Bank controlled by Jordn. In this war over 6,000 Israelis were killed, 1% of the population. That is a lot, if that was the US, that would be over 3 million people. After the war the population of Israel climbed from 600,000 to 1.5 million within a short while. This caused a lot of hardship for everyone, but they are remarkably pulled through and are a rather modern country as a whole today.
We also went to the Garden Tomb. This is the other possible location of the death and burial of Jesus. There is some evidence that seems to show the possibility of it, but as was mentioned in the last journal, the Holy Sepulchre church seems the most likely. However, this was a much more peaceful place to reflect on and think about the death of Jesus.

The place Jesus might have been buried.

We then had several presentations after dinner tonight which I will briefly summarize here. First was the importance of the Temple Mount. The temple mount, and Jerusalem as a whole, is important to 3 major religions of the world; Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. It is only the 3rd holiest city for Islam, but this is where they believe Muhammad ascended to heaven to talk with god before spreading it around the world. For the Jews the Temple used to be here. For Christians this is where Jesus was, his death and resurrection, the birth of their religion.
The Topography of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a city located on a hill, rather two ridges. It isn't built in a valley like many cities to create ease of access and trade, but up high to allow for defense. It wasn't built all the way up though, it was built a little lower down because of access to water without having go outside the city walls. They dug a shaft down to the spring, however, David and his men climbed up this shaft to take the city from the Jebusites. Jerusalem has slowly expanded, Solomon pushed it up the ridge in the construction of the temple and Hezekiah pushed it out to control another ridge and more water. Eventually the city grew suburbs outside its walls which the Romans later tried to enclose with more walls.
The walls of Jerusalem ties into this. The original Jebusite city (though it was probably 3000 yr old at that point) was about 10 acres which David expanded to 15 when he took it. When Hezekiah expanded the walls it grew to contain the western ridge, to protect it from invading Assyrians led by Senacherib. It was then destroyed and the rebuilt by Nehemiah to a size not much larger than David's city. Hasmoneans expanded again and Herod built water storage systems and more walls. While Jerusalem has changed hands many times since then, the wall locations (even if they've been repaired and rebuilt) have pretty much stayed the same. There have been a few large stones as part of a wall at a low level that are 6000 years old, they are from far before the Jebusites, who it was is unknown, though this place was inhabited at least as early as the time of Abraham, this is where Melchizedek resided.
The Mt. Zion presentation also tied into this, Mt. Zion is basically the location of the temple mount. Mt. Zion is where David built his palace and put the Ark of the Covenant. Solomon built the temple further up the ridge, but at a place called Mt Moriah. There was been confusion about what is Mt.Zion. The southwest ridge has been called mount zion, partly because the Romans took over the real mount in thier conquests and Christians were looking for elsewhere to worship. Today the southwest gate is called the Zion gate. But, the southeast ridge is where the original mount Zion was.
Our final presentation was on American religious views of the Arab-Israeli conflict. There are many different views depending on ones beliefs, there were even different views within denominations. Jews (though not all do) and evangelical fundamentalist christians tend to support the state of Israel the most. The Christian view comes primarily from the relatively new theology of dispensationalism. This hold there are 7 dispensations, time periods, where God deals with man differently. 5 have already passed, and the 7th is the millennial reign of Jesus and for that to occur it is believed the Jews must be back in Israel. So, the founding of a Jewish state is rather exciting. Some Christians though are more of what is known as liberation theology, it is more of a peace movement, and they tend to be more sympathetic to the palestinians, this primarily includes Catholics and Unitarians, among a few others.b Overall, there is a strong view towards peace and even pressuring Israel to compromise, compared with the hardline/hawkish view. The compromise view in young American Jews is driven a lot because of their lack of baggage from previous wars and influence by liberal thinking on college campuses which tend to be more oriented in that manner.

Israel Trip: Day 7

We started the day going up to the top of Mount of Olives. From there the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock can be clearly seen; we did this partly because the Temple Mount is currently closed because of the recent demonstrations.

The Temple Mount with the Dome of the Rock in the center

The Dome of the Rock has a dome covered with real gold donated by the late King Hussein of Jordan, costing 30 million English pounds. The rest of it is a bluish structure since it is covered in ceramics. The Eastern gate could be seen in the Temple Mount wall.

Eastern Gate is in the Center

The eastern gate is closed and has been since the Byzantine era. In 614AD the Persians came in and destroyed churches and since the population of the area had been decreased the gate was blocked up. Shortly thereafter, the belief started that this will be reopened when the Messiah comes. As an added protection the Muslims have put a cemetery in front of it to bock the messiah since Jewish priests can't walk through a cemetery. However, to be safe, in case they are wrong, since they are so close, those buried there will be the first to be resurrected. It is actually for this reason there are Jewish and Christian cemeterys on Mount Olives very near the Eastern gate. Near the Dome of the Rock is the Al-Aqsa mosque. This is reportedly where Muhammad landed when he made the jump on his wonder horse from Mecca to here, he then dismounted and went and prayed at the rock, under the Dome of the Rock, and ascended to heaven where he spoke with god before coming back and preaching it to the world. Near there is Domitian Abby, this is traditionally where King David is buried and the location of the last supper.

We then started walking down Palm Sunday road, this is where Jesus purportedly came on his entrance to Jerusalem. While probably not exactly, it is likely it is near there because the landscape hasn't changed much since then. Along the way we came to the Church of Dominus Flavus. There we primarily talked about the burial process. Sarcophagi were used by other cultures in this manner, but the Jews would dig a grave in the solid rock for a family, and it would be reused. After several years the bodies would have decomposed to a sufficient level the bones would be placed in a stone box called an ashuary, this would be there permanent place for the remains, the tomb could then be reused.

Tomb entrance in the back with Ashuaries in the front

It is interesting to note by the size of the boxes, they are too short for many modern day people's femur bone to fit in it, so they were smaller people back then. Our walk from there ended at the church at the Garden of Gethsemane from yesterday.

We then got in the bus and headed up to the Lions gate, once we got off the bus and were walking there we noticed on the old walls the star of david decoration. Mishi said that at the time it wasn't the star of david, but simply a geometric design, it evolved over time to the meaning it has today, as did the swastika or pentagram. It started in the middle ages as a derogatory symbol for Jews, but they have embraced it and it is the Jewish symbol known around the world today. The Lions Gate was built by Suliman the Magnificent in 1517AD. According to legend he had a dream about two lions tearing each other (or him?) apart and his seers told him it meant he should rebuild the walls of Jerusalem if he didn't want that to happened to him so he did and he put the lion symbol on the gate. In all reality the Lion is just a symbol of power and royalty, as it is known all around the world. This gate is also called St. Stephens gate, though it doesn't mean much since it was built far after the stoning of Stephen.

From there we entered into the compound of St. Anne's church and saw the remains of the pools of Bethesda. The pools of Bethesda were originally built as a water supply for the vast number of pilgrims coming to Jerusalem several times a year for different holidays, since water is scarce in this region the locals didn't want to give up there personal water supply to these pilgrims. Bethesda was one of three locations built for this purpose. This was the location of the healing of the lame man by Jesus on the Sabbath and riling up the rabbinical establishment over it. This was really very much an internal conflict. This was a young rabbi making decisions about the sabbath and what could be done on it, this was a decision reserved only for the highest rabbis. They were worried about his freedom in teaching that was different from the establishment. On this sight a church was built by the Byzantines as they were looking for any site to build a church on that was connect to Jesus. They built a basilica over the pools, while they weren't functional, they were still accessible.

Pools of Bethesda

Also at this sight is St. Anne's church, it is a crusader structure and is named after the traditional mother of Mary. Here is one of the few sculptures in the world with Mary as the child rather than the mother, though she has an adult's face as Jesus does in the classic iconic work of religious paintings of the virgin Mary and baby Jesus.

Mother of Mary and Mary

It is one of the most impressive crusader structures in the country, and in doors has very neat acoustics with an interesting echo. We had the opportunity to sing in there, which sounded neat. The church is currently run by a French organization called the White Fathers, they also do other work around the world. After visiting there we stepped outside, it was fascinating to hear the singing coming from inside still, but to then hear the muslim midday call to prayer sounding across the city. It was an interesting dichotomy and coexistence.

From there we began the walk of the Via Dolorosa. This is latin for the way of agony/grief/sorrow.

Walking down the beginning of the Via Dolorosa

It is the traditional route that Christ followed from the Praetorium to Golgotha. This path is about 20-30 feet above an old road below it, so except for height much of the path is probably close to what it was, thought the early church didn't attach a lot of significance to it so there isn't much old tradition to follow, the current route was developed by the Franciscans. This route assumes the Jesus was judged at the castle of Antonia on the NW corner of the Temple Mount, though the location of the Praetorium is argued. It could be at the castle of Antonia or Herod's Palace. There is pavement along the castle of Antonia that would have worked, while none has been found near Herod's palace. Though it is also thought Pilate might have liked the spaciousness of Herod's palace since he was used to living at Caeserea Phillipi on the sea.There are 14 stations, or locations, along the way commemorating the events in this walk of Jesus.' This idea of stations originally started in Europe by the Church for those too poor to journey to the Holy Land, it was a way for them to remember and follow along. However, when they did come to the Holy Land they expected these stations to be there, so they were created. There are 9 stations along the route and 5 in the church of the Holy Sepulchre.

The first stop is where Jesus was condemned to death, each station along the road is marked by a discus with a roman numeral indicating the number. The 2^nd station is when Jesus takes up the cross, it is marked by two Fransiscan chapels; the chapel of the condemnation and the chapel of the flagellation. The 3^rd station is when Jesus falls under the cross the first time, this station is more of a devotional type station, it isn't based on an event that is known for sure, but rather an Old Testament passage. It is at a corner in the road near a Polish chapel. The 4^th station again is a devotional type station and is where Jesus meets his mother, there is a small Armenian chapel here. The 5^th station is where Simon the Cyrenian is forced to carry the cross, this is in the Bible. It is marked by a Franciscan oratory before ascending steeply to Golgotha. The 6^th station is another devotional stop where supposedly Veronica wipes the sweat from Jesus' face, there is a small chapel and altar there. The 7^th stop is also a devotional stop where it claims Jesus fell for the second time. There is a Roman column in a Franciscan chapel to mark the spot. The 8^th station is where Jesus consoles the women of Jerusalem. This is in the Bible and is marked by a Latin cross on the wall of a Greek monastery. Again another devotional stop for the 9^th station where it is claimed Jesus fell for the third time. There is a Roman column there to mark the spot. Near is the apse and roof of the the church of the Holy Sepulchre. The 10^th station is the first of the five within the basilica church of the Holy Sepulcher. It is where Jesus is stripped of his garments, though this particular action is based on an old testament passage and is more devotional in nature. To mark it there are stairs leading up to a small chapel. The 11^th station is Jesus being nailed to the cross, there is a shrine here to commemorate this. The 12^th station is where Jesus died on the cross, it is marked by and ornate Greek altar over the place where Jesus cross was. There is also supposed to be a large crack in the bedrock there from the earthquake after he died. The 13^th station is when Jesus is taken down from the cross, is marked by a large stone where Jesus was purportedly laid after his death. Finally is the 14^th station where Jesus was laid in the tomb, it is in its own chapel under the main dome of the church of the Holy Sepulcher, it is really the focus of the entire basilica.

The location of the church of the Holy Sepulcher is primarily here because it is the purported burial place of Jesus. While the Garden of the Tomb is another possible location of his burial site, it is highly likely this is actually where he is buried. It was outside of the city walls at the time of Jesus and was a quarry at the time. Other tombs have also been fond in this area. Services have been held here since before the time the Romans conquered Jerusalem. Also, the Romans built a temple to Jupiter here in an effort to discourage Christian services here. The Christian population wasn't dispersed like the Jews when the Romans took over, so they have been able to be around to keep traditions alive. These facts all strongly point to this being the actual place of his burial. It was during the time of the Byzantines that the church was first built. St. Helena, mother of the current Byzantine ruler, wanted to see the place of Jesus' burial and when she came to this tomb she had workers dig away all the rock from the sides of the tomb and leave the tomb standing as a piece of rock with the tomb inside all by itself. Then the chapel and basilica were built around it.

Chapel in the Basilica with the tomb remains inside

It was destroyed in 1009 and the rebuilt be the crusaders in 1099. It was later destroyed again and then rebuilt by the Franciscans in 1555. It is today controlled by 3 sects of Christianity; Catholic, Armenian, and Greek Orthodox. Sadly they are rather contentious with each other, they each have their own portion of the church to use and times for services and worship, but there is a lot of tension between them. In fact, a Muslim holds the key to the church so they don't have to figure which one of them gets to. The family of the key holder passes down the job within the family from father to son.

The Muslim Keeper of the Church Key(Right)

There is a classic story of this tension, one of the monks saw a broken tile and told his assistant to get it fixed, when it got fixed the other two sects were angry for not being consulted. It went all the way to the Israeli government who told them to take out the fix and put the old one in. However, once they had all been consulted later and agreed together, it was again fixed. Another story, there is a ladder above the entrance that has been there for 150 years. The ledge it is on is owned by one, the window by another, and the ladder by the third. The other two wouldn't let the third use their property to get it. Though now with this in particular, it seems as though it isn't a big deal now, but is left anyways, this is partly because in a recent issue of Biblical Archeology Review (BAR), there is a picture of it moved to a window next to the original one, then moved back to its original window. The division among the 3 sects is rather sad. Certainly there is merit in understanding and debating theological issues that aren't essential to salvation, and those things should be sought out with all effort, but having such division within essentially the same claimed religion with similar basic beliefs is sad.

Entrance to the Holy Sepulcher Church with Ladder on Upper Righthand Window

The pilgrims that come here often come for a very religious experience. When we went into the church it was interesting to see people getting down and rubbing the rock while praying where Jesus' was purportedly laid, or burning incense. They are coming for this religious high or trying to take years off purgatory, it was an interesting feeling. Coming from a protestant background it is a little different for me in that we place little importance on icons and locations, but for me this was just a historic place to see in awe for the age and historicity and engineering of the place, and also thinking that is very close to where Jesus walked and died probably, but it wasn't a religious experience so much. I know that God is the same and accessible anywhere in the world, the location is irrelevant. It has been very interesting going to these religious sites on this trip; I find them fascinating because of their age and history behind them, but not in a particularly religious way, religion isn't about emotions.

We went back down to Ben Yahudda street, I somehow was put in co-charge with Colin, which worked out alright. We got everyone down and back safely. While walking down there we talked for awhile with a security guard in front of the Mount Zion Hotel restaurant. It was interesting, he emigrated from Washington state to Israel about 10 years ago. He lived for a few years in College Station, so he kind of knew where Tyler, TX was which was neat. We then did some shopping and found some Texas A&M Keepas and then had coffee at the same coffee shop, quite enjoyable.

A lot of Pita Bread going down the street

Israel Trip: Day 6

OK, so here is yesterdays actually, and again no pictures at the moment because I'm just trying to get it up and the internet here is rather flaky. Hopefully pictures in the future.

Jim/Hopps

Today we started at the Western Wall area. This is directly to the west of the Temple Mount. There is an old wall we went through dividing the old city (though it is more appropriately the walled city, since the oldest parts are outside of those walls)from the new city, it was the dividing line of Israeli-Jordanian control from 1948-1967 when Israel retook the old city in the 6-day war. There were skirmishes here and there are still bullet holes in this 500 year old wall.

Then we to the Western Wall, where we could also see the temple mount and Dome of the Rock. The temple mount has been rebuilt many times, Solomon's temple was the 1^st Israelite temple, once it was destroyed in 586BC by Nebuchadnezzar, Nehemiah rebuilt a temple in 516BC, though it was far less impressive. King Herod realized a larger temple was a need in his kingdom to help keep the population happy and under control. The temple he built is known as the 2^nd temple period. This is when the Temple Mount was built, it is a large flat area for the platform that enlarged the current mount using retaining walls, that is where the western wall came from, it is a portion of the western edge of the retaining wall. Of course, this temple was destroyed in 70AD by the Romans, a mere 90 years after being started. The western wall, also known by some non-Jewish as the wailing wall, is a holy place to pray. It was called the wailing wall because of the earnestness of many of the petitions brought there. While we were in the western wall tunnel and the western wall, all the men had to have a head covering on. The prayer area is also separated into mens and women sections.

Near the western wall is the western wall tunnel. It is a tunnel that has been, and is being, excavated that is under and near the western wall. Most of the tunnel goes through a series of arches that were part of a mameluke construction placed up against the western wall hundreds of years later, but excavating underneath it, under the city (muslim quarter), allows much of the western wall to be exposed and seen. The western wall is an amazing feat of engineering, one of the blocks we saw was about 3m deep, 1.5-4m tall, and maybe 20m long, all dry fitted very well. The ability to do this is still amazing today. When we were down there we saw an area where many Jews were praying, and some youngsters were singing. This area is special to pray in because it is as close as possible to where the Holy of Holies was. The excavation in this area is trying to go deep to discover items from the 1^st temple period, since when subsequent temples were built they would have cleared the site, rather than building on top like a Tel, the debris might have been thrown to the side, which is where this excavation is, so they hope to find such artifacts.

As we were driving to the Mount of Olives we passed a graveyard of British soldiers from before WWI to WWII, of many ethnicities and religions. It is still run by the British today.

We then came to the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives. It isn't a garden actually, as it was an Olive Grove. The name in Hebrew means Olive Grove of Olive Press. There are still olive trees here, one of which is nearly 1700 years old. It is kind of interesting, here is a place that makes olive oil which is used for anointing people, Jesus is the Messiah, the anointed one, and he is praying here.

There is a church here that was built about 100 years ago, it is built on the remains of an old Byzantine church, it was funded by many different countries and each dome in it is dedicated to each country, some of which don't exist anymore. The USA is represented there with the seal of the United States.

The Mount of Olives is East of Jerusalem and overlooks the Temple Mount. It belonged to the tribe of Benjamin. IN about the 12^th AD century it became a popular place of prayer, there are many churches built on it today, including the church at the Garden of Gethsemane at the bottom of the mount. There was also a large Jewish graveyard there, which sadly was desecrated when it was under Jordanian control from 1948-67, though there have been efforts to restore them. There is also the tomb of the prophets on the mount, traditionally this was where Malachi, and several other prophets were buried, though there is no proof of that. It is also thought Mary might have been buried on the Mount of Olives. It is also where the Lord will return according to Zechariah.

The City of David is the original location of Jerusalem when David first took it over, it is far smaller than the current Jerusalem. There are many remains here, some 6000 years old, from before David even. Here is where the old Jerusalem water system is, including the famous hezekiahs tunnel. The spring in the Kidron valley is what fed the city, using a shaft and tunnel system it was made accessible to the city without going out of the walls. Hezekiah's tunnel was built in 701BC to aid in protection from sieges. It is 533m long and winding, it is thought it was built in the winding manner to follow some sort of natural fault or dissolution. It used gravity to allow water to flow into the city into Hezekiah's pool. The workers started at two separate ends and met in the middle, it took probably 6-7 months to build. It is approximately 6ft high most of the way, with some variation, numerous false starts and imperfections can be seen along the tunnel. We were able to walk through the tunnel in water ranging from mid shin to knee depth. It was a lot of fun to do that, though it made me think about the workers who built the tunnel. That is not something I would have wanted to do, a lot of work to dig through solid rock, and haul it back out as it was being dug.

The end of the tunnel is near the pool of Siloam. This is from the time of Herod, not Hezekiah (whose pool hasn't been found yet). Originally a newer Byzantine pool was the pool of Siloam, but within the last few years a new pool has been found that shows differently, it is more consistent with the style of Herod's time. This is where Jesus healed the blind man by rubbing mud on his eyes and telling him to wash. Sadly, only part of the pool has been unearthed, as the rest lies under gardens controlled by the Greek Orthodox church and they haven't given permission to dig there. Hezekiah built a large wall extension to include another ridge, the western ridge, into the city. All 3 projects were necessary to be done together, the wall enclosed the pool location and the pool needed the tunnel, they were all interdependent. The task of Hezekiah to build the tunnel, the pool, and the city wall expansion of his time was amazing, both from an engineering and leadership aspect.

We finished the evening by going down to Ben Yahudda (spelling?) street in Jerusalem after dinner. We shopped around a little bit and then had some coffee in a nice little cafe and relaxe a bit.

Israel Trip: Day 5

So, here is what happened yesterday, hopefully I'll get todays uploaded later tonight, we'll see though.

First we started at Megiddo, this tel is the location of nearly 20 ancient cities built at one time or another on top of each other. The location it is built on overlooks the Jezreel valley, it is in a place that is very difficult to defend and commands an overlook of the entire valley. It is at the foot of the Carmel mountains. This is also thought by some to be the location of the final battle of Armageddon mentioned in the book of Revelation. This was a strategic location to guard because it was on the Via Maris, a primary trade commercial rout along the sea from Egypt up into the Mesopotamia area. While a city was there for several thousand years, its importance went away when Alexander the Great came along and brought the Greek empire to combine all of the Israeli area and Egypt. Megiddo was now just a fort in the middle of a kingdom, rather than being a major watchtower on the edge of a kingdom guarding against the incursion form other kingdoms. When it was first discovered an infamous archeologist by the name of Schleman started the excavation, unfortunately he didn't care about being careful and just peeled off the layrs destroying evidence and not keeping records. Thankfully, he ran out of money when he was only through the hellenistic remains on the very top, and a team from the Chicago University was able to take over the excavation site and do a more careful, thorough job.

A model of Tel Megiddo

An impressive feature of Megiddo is its water supply, the spring was outside the city and so going out to get water was rather dangerous if it was under siege, so a shaft was cut downward and over to the entrance of the springs and the old entrance walled up and camouflaged. Cutting that far down and over and hitting the proper water level is impressive, and it remains unknown today quite how it was done. This is similar to the more well known Hezekiah's tunnel in Jerusalem.

Descending into the shaft to access the spring

Another interesting aspect of its design was the pedestrian entrance, it was a set of steps that turned at right angles several times to allow soldiers posted there to see if people coming into the city had weapons, basically a security checkpoint kind of thing.

This was a C-130 that flew overhead at Megiddo

We then jumped ahead in time to the holding camp of Atlit. This is on the coast north of Tel Aviv.

Barracks at the Atlit Museum

After WWII there were many displaced persons, many of them Jews. They either couldn't, or wouldn't return to their homes. They were kept in displaced persons (DP) camps in europe while it was figured out what to do with them. Many of the Jews wanted to migrate to the US or Palestine, this put pressure on the British, who were in charge of the Palestine mandate at the time, to let more Jews immigrate there. However, they didn't want to because this increased tensions with the Arabs. So, Jews would try to smuggle themselves into Palestine, a way used to get large numbers through was by means of boats. When the British caught them they would put them in a holding camp such as Atlit, or at later dates in camps on Cypress. Atlit would have been rather terrifying since it resembles a concentration camp in many ways in appearance, though they were treated nicer. Going from one camp to another, in their own land, would have been quite traumatic. The Atlit museum is a portion of the camp dedicated to remembering this time and struggles the Jews coming to settle Palestine had to endure. It is also a way through which people can find and connect with family members that might have been separated at that time. While Jews were being kept at Atlit the Palmach, an Israeli paramilitary group, worked to rescue some of them The biggest of the rescues they snuck several Palmach fighters in posing as Hebrew teachers to warn the refugees fo the impending rescue and sabotage the sentries weapons. They broke out 200+ refugees and while they were escaping they were going slowly because of the refugees and the British had started chasing them, when they got near to Haiffa the entire Jewish population had turned out and essentially absorbed the refugees preventing the British form finding them and returning them. Another major incident regarding the return of Jews was the incident of the Exodus, a ship overloaded with refugees attempting to get past the British, but it was caught and returned. This was seen in the media around the world and helped put pressure on the British to let more Jews in to Palestine. The camp museum has several reconstructed barracks and a restored, but original, disinfectant building.

Something I noticed while there is the group before us, it looked like some IDF people in it. One girl had a weapon slung over her back, while she had uniform pants on, she had just some sort of long sleeve shirt, I assume she was on duty, but I haven't had a chance to ask Mishi if that is normal to be on duty without full normal uniform.

The IDF Soldier with the weapon in apparently not full uniform

Bet Shemesh is near Jerusalem, it is a tel of 7 acres and its name is suggestive of pagan gods worshiped there. It is on the edge of Philistine territory and Judea. It was here that the ark of the covenant was returned after the Philistines captured it, but when it gave them problems, they put it on a cat and let the oxen go, this is where they brought it back to the Israelites. Current day Bet Shemesh is not on the location of the original tel.

Finally, we stopped briefly in the valley of Elah, this is where David and Goliath fought. Our primary purpose for coming was to see a new excavation, about 2 years old, of a city named Shar Arin.

Shar Arin in the Elah Valley

It is a fortified city, again near the edge of the Judea, Philistine border, and it is dated back to the time of David. It's significance at this point appears to be that it might help validate David as more than either a small tribal chief or non-existent character, but as the important figure he is portrayed as in the Bible.

We also talked about Jerusalem a bit because we are heading there for most of the rest of the week. In Old Testament times it was different from other major capitals in that it wasn't on any major trade routes or waterways. It didn't mean much until David took it from the Jebusites to be his capital, one without an specific tribal ties. Jerusalem was far smaller at that time, about 10 acres. In the New Testament time it was near 400 acres in size with 50,000 people living there. A large part of its economy was from pilgrimages there for the high holidays.

Now, this evening we have made the ascent to Jerusalem where we will be as our base of operations for the next several days.

Israel Trip: Day 4

So, since this might be rather long for many of you since this is practically my entire daily journal for school, so here is a brief summary. Today we went Tabgha (Feeding of the multitude), Zippori/Sepphoris (A place near Nazareth), Gideon Springs, bet Shean (Where Saul was killed), and the Jordan River. Now, here are the details, with hopefully a few more pictures today.

Today we started by going to Tabgha, this is where the feeding of the multitude is believed to have happened. From the time of the 7^th century AD this was the traditional place of the feeding of the 5000, though it probably isn't where it actually happened. The first basilica built here was in the 4^th century and then a byzantine church was built in the 5^th century. The current church is a reconstruction from the 80s overtop the 5^th century church, this is one of the best reconstructions of a byzantine church anywhere.

The inside of the reconstructed Byzantine church.

An interesting thing I noticed today and this week is that many of the tour groups here are more than just interest or academic trips, for many it is a pilgrimage. Some of the groups are led by people in “monk robes” and some have kind of religious things draped around their neck. At the monastery at the sermon on the mount many people crossed themselves with a dip from the holy water . At tabgha, people were kneeling and praying there and lighting little candles. While I guess it could be neat to pray in a place like that certainly there is a religious aspect to a visit to the holy land, I'm not sure how I feel about the religiosity these people attribute to it; it seems to focused on the works aspect of things, the pilgrimage. While perhaps they don't all think this, and maybe some are just doing it because that seems to be the thing to do, it was something that has crossed my mind.

From there we went Zippora/Sepphoris, near Nazareth. Current day Nazareth is not quite where the old town of Nazareth was, today, Nazareth is a largely muslim town. Zippora is probably a town that Joseph would have done work in since Nazareth was a rather small town. While the translation of Joseph's job is a carpenter, he was probably more of a stone worker since there isn't a lot fo wood to work with in Israel, certainyl he might have had to make frames and such out of wood, but most structures and even furniture was made from stone. Mishi made an interesting point, Jesus probably came to work with his father when he was young, and if he wasn't working with him he might have spent time listening to and talking with the large number of Rabbis there. This could have given him some experience which allowed him to speak with authority at the temple in Jerusalem as a boy, besides the supernatural element. Also in Zippora are the extremely well preserved remains of a floor mosaic in an eating room of a well off house. When it was first discovered it was removed by rolling onto sticky sheets around large drums and taking to Jerusalem to be cleaned and reassembled and brought back to the site. It consists of 1.5 million stone pieces from 23 different colors.

The incredibly preserved mosaic.

This eating room from the same time as Jesus presents a different picture of the last supper than Leonardo Da Vinci in his last supper painting. Rather than being along a single large table they would have been sitting on couches on three sides around the outside of a rectangle with their feet sticking outward. This would have allowed Jesus better access to wash their feet rather than under a table. Also, they wouldn't have had plates and silverware, but bread and food on a little low stone table every few seats. This mosaic here though does have the “Mona Lisa” of mosaics in that there is a figure of a lady with a slight smile and eyes that seems to follow form any direction. All together this was a work of art. We saw the rest of the town, we went to a building that had a different mosaic design for every floor's room. It was likely the house of a mosaic artist and used each room for living, but also for demonstrating the different designs that he could do. This was a neat place to see because of the old roads and building remains, it felt rather majestic in a way. It was rather impressive, on one of the main roads you could see ruts worn in the stones from chariots and wagons using them so much.

Ruts in the stone rode from Chariots and Wagons

We stopped briefly at the Gideon Springs where God narrowed down Gideon's 32,000 men to 300. Specifically, how they drank from the water, whether lapping from their hands and paying attention, the 300, or bending down and drinking straight from the stream. While it may not have been exactly 300, perhaps more of a symbolic number, it still wasn't very many for going against 135,000 mideonites (the modern bedouins). One of the first training bases for the Palmach, an Israeli paramilitary fighting group before the formation of the state of Israel, was also located here.

Cave beginning of the springs, the spring is much smaller than it used to be.

Then to Bet Shean, this is a well preserved and excavated city south of the Galilee area. In Bible terms, this is where the headless, naked, bodies of Saul and his sons were hung on the walls after being defeated and killed in a battle with the Philistines. This was a rather large city, and most of the walls and large buildings have been found. There was an amphitheater, hippodrome, and 7500 person theater.

An overview of Bet Shean, we started basically in the center near the theater.

The hill at the center is where the temple was located, there are remains of 15 cities there and items from Roman, Greek, and Egyptian influenced temples.

Looking out over the main buildings of the city and the center hill where the temples would be

Also in this city were Roman public baths and latrines. The latrines were interesting in that it was a whole line of stone toilet seats right next to each other over some running water, no privacy at all. There was then a small stream of water running in fton of the seats for cleaning oneself. It's interesting that this didn't phase the Romans, I guess it is part of their rather decadent culture.

The public toilets being demonstrated.

The toilets were really quite comfortable, as I tried them out. :-D

Trying out the "toilets." Surprisingly ergonomic. :-)

An earthquake destroyed most of Bet Shean as we see it today, the collapsed pillars and buildings. This was also very interesting to see, the majesty of the former roman city and road running through it with pillars and columns collapsed along the side.

Collapsed pillars in Bet Shean

Finally, we went to the Jordan river, the place commemorating the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. It isn't the actual place since it happened on the lower Jordan, but rather a place remembering it and for tourists. We were able wade in the river as well.

Me in the Jordan River

In the evening we had a brief presentation of the different faces of Judaism. It is hard to characterize a Jew by ethnicity or religion. Many different categories of Jews from different areas; main divisions are the Sephoric from the Spain area, and the Ashkenazim from Europe. Other areas came from remains after the Babylonian captivity or having moved to Africa or other regions. As for religion, there are those who are orthodox, or more relaxed (conservative and reformed/liberal), and secular Jews (those who don't care about the religious aspect, but perhaps attend synagogue on high holidays). Secular Jews make up over 50% of Jews worldwide and in Israel. Typically, one is considered a Jew if ones mother was one. As for the law of return t o allow Jewish immigrants back to Israel, they ironically follow rules similar to the Nazis, if your grandfather was a Jew you are counted as one, this is partly because if you could suffer for being a Jew under the Nazis you were welcome in Israel.

Jim/Hopps