Israel, Day 2 Jerusalem
- At October 15, 2023
- By Jessica
- In Travel
0
Some Fun Facts about Israel:
- The cherry tomato was developed by the Agriculture Faculty of The Hebrew University
- Israeli banknotes have braille markings on them
- Hebrew is the only dead language ever to be revived and spoken by an entire nation
- Neither Jews nor Arabs allow cremation. There are lots of cemeteries in Israel, including The 600 year old Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. It is the oldest, continually used cemetery in the world. It is close to but outside of the Old City. It is said that when the Messiah comes those buried in Mount of Olives will be the first to be resurrected and the first to enter the third temple.
The Old City is not a ruin but a vibrant place with lots of people still living there. Jews are not allowed to live amongst the dead, which is why the cemeteries are outside the cities.
The walls of the Old City were built by the Ottoman Turks 500 years ago. We like this picture showing the wall, the Israeli flag, and an Ottoman minaret. Note the crescent moon on top.
After breakfast, which included more halva, our first stop was the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Christian Quarter.
This is where Jesus was crucified. A cave next to the crucifixion site was his tomb. His body was laid out on a slab called The Rock of Anointment that still exists, where Christians pray, and rub, and touch convinced that by doing so a part of Jesus enters them.
Jerusalem, Israel's capital, is rich in history, religion, culture and diverse peoples. Jerusalem is the spiritual epicenter for the world's three major monotheistic religions- Judaism, Christianity and Islam. During a walk through the Old City, the heart of Jerusalem for guests of all faiths, one can hear Jews praying at the Western Wall, church bells ringing from Mount Zion, and the wail of the muezzin, the Muslim call to prayer, from the El Aksa Mosque (El Aksa = the Edge). (There seems to be several ways to spell this. This spelling is Arabic.) This is the mosque that has been in the news of late as the site of recent troubles between Arabs and Jews.
Throughout the generations, empires have battled to become Jerusalem's gatekeepers. A visit to Jerusalem is like a walk through history books of humanity. The labyrinth of underground tunnels reveal secrets of the past.
Every alleyway seems to have a story, mostly about Jesus's journey to the crucifixion site.
The New City houses The Knesset, Israel's parliament, the surrounding government buildings, high-tech parks, renowned universities, luxurious hotels, chic cafes, award-winning restaurants, and state-of-the-art museums, all contrasting vividly with the Old City.
The Old City of Jerusalem, formerly a British mandate then, after 1948, Jordanian, was occupied by Israel during the Arab-Israeli war of 1967 and later annexed, a move not recognized by much of the world. The international community largely believes the old city should be given back to the Palestinians as their capital and the Israelis should get the new city. Not gonna happen and we saw why....the most sacred monuments to all three religions are basically, and sometimes literally, on top of each other.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is just the latest battle over ownership and land in a city that has been invaded and captured scores of times in its history.
Even a small monastery on top of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, built in multiple phases beginning in 325 AD by the mother of Constantine the Great, St. Helena. Ethiopian Copts and Egyptian Monks are fighting over ownership, sometimes violently. This bit is from today's New York Times.
To keep the "peace," a Muslim holds the key to the church.
There are four "quarters" in the Old City. Christian, Armenian, Muslim, and Jewish. The Muslim Quarter is the largest. It looks like one big souk.
The Armenian Quarter is small. If you're wondering why the Armenians are included at all among the big three it's because they claim to be the first country to accept Christianity 301 AD. The Egyptians claim the same.
The Jewish Quarter
Four Jewish Sephardic Synagogues were built in the 16th Century but were destroyed along with the entire Jewish Quarter by the Jordanians in 1948. These synagogues were restored after 1967. The cantor sounds like a muezzin, very different from Ashkenazi cantors, since the Sephardic took so much from their Arab cultures. Men and women were segregated and separated by a screen. The rabbi and cantor face the men and have their backs to the women.
The Western Wall aka the Wailing Wall is among the most holy places to Jews. The Western and Southern Retaining Walls of King Herod's second temple were destroyed by the Romans. The Muslims built The Dome of the Rock in 692 AD on the exact spot where both Soloman's and Herod's Temples once stood. The Dome of the Rock is the third holiest site to Islam after Mecca and Medina.
The Garden of Gethsemane is where Jesus prayed all night and was arrested. (Will send picture tomorrow)
In his will, Oskar Schindler directed to be buried in Israel. His grave is the one listing to the right.
Still digesting all the info heard and sites seen today. It is a privilege to experience so much history.
