From the depths of Hell to the peaks of Zion and beyond

Shabbat Shalom (though technically Sabbath is over now, but it was Sabbath a few hours ago).

Sorry about the lack of blog yesterday, but I was exhausted and couldn't stomach any more writing.

Yesterday was a fascinating day devoted to learning about and seeing much of Jerusalem. Our first stop of the day was at a viewing platform from which every picture of Jerusalem seems to have been taken. As I stood there, I remarked to one of my friends that I could not believe that I was there. I have seen the pictures, and now I am taking the pictures. It was completely breathtaking, and I could not look away, even when the guide started taking about buildings that were beind us. I could not believe that I was actually looking at Jerusalem. A city with so much importance, history, and significance because of its past residents (like David and Jesus). I could not believe it and just had to stare.

After we left the viewing platform, we went up into the city by way of the Valley that's name is connected to the word for Gehenna, or Hell. Looking up into the city was daunting, and realizing that thousands of years ago it was even deeper makes you wonder how anybody could ever conquer the city. All along, we could watch the walls of the Old City coming closer and closer.

Our eventual stop led us to taking pictures of the walls before we headed into David's Jerusalem. Our guide has us time how long it took us to walk from one side to another, and it was about 45 seconds for me, indicating how skinny the city itself actually was. As if that wasn't enough, we went and walked on platforms over the ruins of what they have good reason to believe was actually David's palace. Even a few years ago, they had not been allowed to excavate more than just the outside wall, but they managed to buy the property and excavate much more of the house. You could still see the rooms and walls of the house.

As cool as David's palace was, it could not be topped by Warren's Shaft. I have been excited to see Warren's Shaft since even before I knew I was coming to Israel. It is fed by the Gihon spring and it how the city got to its water source. More importantly, however, it is possibly how David managed to conquer the city, by sending a man up the shaft to open the gates. We looked down into Hezekiah's Tunnel, but it has water almost up to your waist, so we passed on traveling through. That was fine with me, because, as I discovered in the last leg of the trip through the shaft, the final part is a narrow tunnel that looks very much like a cave. I do not like caves, in fact they are my phobia, so walking through the tunnel was fairly frightening for me. I was practically running at one point to get out, and I was not the only one. Looking back, however, it was completely worth it, because I got to see Warren's shaft. I got to see the place that might have been integral to David's conquering of Jerusalem, starting its history as the capital of Israel. It was so cool.

We left Warren's shaft and proceeded to Mt. Zion to see the traditional site of the Upper room and David's tomb. Our guide pointed out that this site is a conglomeration of the three major religions of Jerusalem. It has Judaism, with David's tomb, Christianity, with the Upper room, and Islam, with a minaret on top of the building and various Muslim decorations throughout (because they took the site and made it a mosque, as they were prone to do). We didn't get to see David's tomb because we got there too late and the Sabbath was approaching, but otherwise, it was neat to be there. I ended up in discussions about the importance of pilgrimage, even if we can be pretty sure that where you go is not the actual place that it happened. The need for connection to Jesus is more important to many than the need for authenticity. The place is symbolic, and thus is good enough.

As we walked down the cardo, with its broken pillars, I ended up in a discussion with another friend about how you can worship even when you don't know what the words mean, which turned into a discussion of what a pastor/minister/priest does for the congregation (such as sacraments). The discussion continue later at dinner and evolved into a discussion of the role of pastors in various denominations, ending in me pulling out my Book of Discipline and showing the rules of the church, our social principles, and essentially explaining the United Methodist Church. It was quite an interesting prolonged discussion that included much Bible, tradition, experience, and reason :).

We left the cardo to visit the Western Wall. We were given 45 minutes to people watch, visit the wall, pray if we wished, basically take it all in. First I watched as sundown approached and the wall area grew more and more crowded. I noted the outfits, some of which I had only read about in Chaim Potok's The Chosen. I had seen some of these outfits throughout Israel, but there were more ultra-Orthodox Jews than I could imagine. Many wore all black with long black coats, black hats (either of fur, shaped sort of like a top hat, or a yamaka). SOme wore black pants, black tights, or white tights. Some groups dressed this same way but with a tan coat. There were also many soldiers, and many Jews who were apparently less orthodox, all crowding forward to the wall. The men's side was larger than the women's, and it filled much faster. In the end it was completely packed on both sides, but still more full on the men's side. Also, on the men's side were many tables for Torah reading, while the women's side had one. At one point, I went into the women's side, and it was fairly early on just before Shabbat began. About two to three rows of women were up by the wall. I probably could have touched the wall if I really tied, but I didn't want to push. Along the divider between the men and women, a handful of women were standing on chairs watching over into the men's side. Many were very obviously tourists, so it upset me a little. Later Professor Arnold said that this happens in normal synagogues when women watch over the wall to see their son's Bar Mitzvah. I stayed by the wall for about 10-15 minutes, and then I left. To exit, you have to walk backwards without turning from the wall, if at all possible. I did so and turned to walk normally when the woman beside me did. Apparently, the men's side was eventually so crowded that it was impossible to walk out backwards.

We returned to the hostel for Shabbat dinner, where we had the blessings over the bread and wine (here grape juice). And with that, the day was over. My discussions with my friend continued into the night, then I went to bed. I will write about today later, so for now,

shalom.