| Submitted by: Mark Nowak United States |
| Submission Date: 11 February 2005 |
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At one point I looked up and my head covering fell off which had me scrambling for it for fear of getting in trouble at such a holy site. I could see lots of pieces of paper containing written prayers in niches in the wall as I went up to touch it. While we were in the area, a pilgrimage from Japan arrived at the Wall. Some wept when they reached it.
I saw quite a few male and female Israeli soldiers in uniform. Some seemed to be doing some touring of their own and taking pictures. I was surprised by how young many of them seemed. I particularly remember one young woman having her picture taken in uniform at the Dome of the Rock. Both and men and women enter the military at the age of 18 (with exceptions). Men serve for three years and women serve for two. However, for one month of every year men serve in the military until they are 50 years old. This allows Israel to build a huge army quickly when needed.
When we left the Temple Mount area, we were in the Muslim Quarter. We had to go through another metal detector that was maintained by more Israeli soldiers including another young female who I couldn't help thinking looked like a kid. It was strange to think of her using a machine gun. We walked down the Via Dolorosa (The Way of Sorrow), taking notice of the Stations of the Cross. Our path did not take us to all fourteen of them. We were told that the actual stations were some 15 or 30 feet below us because of how the city had been built up in the last 2000 years. I found the experience a moving one. The streets were quite narrow and filled with shop after shop. It was so crowded one of the wives in our group held onto my jacket from behind to keep from losing the group. One humorous advertisement I noticed was for the Holy Rock Cafe. It was quite a walk moving through such a throng of people. It ended at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where the last 5 stations can be found. There were more Israeli guards around.
Inside the church, we ascended some steps to reach the rock of Golgotha (Mount Calvary) where Christ was crucified. You could see it behind bullet-proof glass. There was also an altar there with a huge crucifix above it. We went down some stairs and passed the Stone of Unction where it is believed Christ's body was laid and anointed after his crucifixion. We then reached the Rotunda of the Holy Sepulchre where the actual tomb of Christ can be found.
We were told that six denominations of Christianity control the church, and at any given time just which has control depends on whose candle is lit. The six communities are the Roman Catholic Church, the Armenian Orthodox Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Egyptian Coptic Church, the Syrian Church and the Abyssians. Each own specific parts of the church, but the Stone of Unction and the Rotunda are commonly owned.
The tomb structure conceals the natural rock which can only be seen in the Coptic chapel to the rear of the sepulchre. We got in line to enter the tomb. It took a while, but we eventually got inside. The antechamber has a rock which is said to have been the rock where the angel who announced Christ's resurrection to women at the tomb sat. It is possibly all that remains of the stone that covered the entrance of the tomb. Inside there was also a priest or monk who regulated the flow of people through a low doorway into the actual tomb chamber five at a time. I was the first of my group of five to go inside. There was a marble slab above which there were several depictions of Christ and many religious decorations.
One of the other interesting things that occurred was that just before noon the Muslim call to prayer can be heard over loudspeakers. And at noon, the bells of a Christian Church can be heard. I think the bells we heard came from a Lutheran church. While walking through the Old City, we also came across the old Roman Cardo and spots where you could look down into the layers of Jerusalem and ponder just how much history had occurred here.
We had lunch at another cafeteria type place. By this time Shelley was getting sick of our less than thrilling lunch options. She walked off on her own and found something from one of the street vendors. After lunch, we were taken to a jewelry factory. I found this very annoying. Although Rami and Baruch did provide tourist video tapes for sale that they put together on the bus, it was the first time Rami had taken us to a store. He said that it was Globus' idea and not his, but it seemed likely he'd get some kind of kickback for bringing us there. I mostly hated it because it took time away from seeing legitimate sights. And most people who know me well know what I think of most jewelry -- expensive crap. However, a cool thing that happened while we were there -- the building was shaken by a sonic boom during the factory tour which was led by a female guide. We experienced several sonic booms during our stay in Israel. I sat on the floor and listened to some of the other men talk about their military service in World War 2.
Rami told us that Gehenna, a name used as a synonym for hell in the New Testament, is actually a real place. The name apparently comes from the Hebrew 'ge hinnom' which is the valley of Hinnom near Jerusalem where refuse was thrown. I've also heard that this refuse was set on fire. However, Rami told us that when Abraham came to the area, he found that this is where the people would burn their first-born children as an offering to their god. He said that the people were called Ge and that henna meant valley.
On our way to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem we were able to see the town of Bethany where Lazarus was raised from of the dead. The Church had a very small door -- you had to bend over to go through it. It was a Greek Orthodox Church containing mosaics in the floor and the Grotto of the Nativity. We lined up to go down the stairs to see the silver star marking the spot where Christ was born. From the Grotto we ascended some stairs which took us to a northern doorway leading to St. Catherine's Church where midnight Mass is celebrated by Roman Catholics on Christmas. There was a cave underneath the church Shelley and I wanted to explore, but it was full of people and we didn't have enough time. Outside the church was a statue of St. Jerome who had written the Latin Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Bible. Bethlehem is also the birthplace of King David. We then went to souvenir shop -- I didn't like the trend that seemed to be developing. Shelley and I left the store and walked the streets -- which didn't seem to make Baruch happy. I wanted to walk up the road to get a good picture of the fields of Bethlehem where shepherds might tend their flocks. After I got it, we walked the other direction up the street and took a few pictures of workers making wooden artifacts for tourists.
I learned the differences between the different license plate colors -- yellow was for Israel and other colors were for territories. Blue meant West Bank. I've been told that blue is for Samaria and Judea, Green is for Judea, black is for the military, red is for the police and white is for Gaza, the UN and important people.
After we got back to the hotel, I called Stacy who had to take care of something before dinner. It was over an hour later when she called me back and we made plans to get together for dinner. She was going to meet me in the lobby of my hotel at 7:15. We met up at 7:20 and decided to walk into town. Stacy had beautiful blue eyes and blonde hair pulled back in a pony tail and wore a dark coat, a red sweater and a long skirt. Although she was born and raised in the States, she was drawn to live in Israel. She walked pretty fast which was nice since most of our group didn't exactly move very quickly. We passed the bus station and walked to Mahane Yehuda Market, a very large produce market, and then Ben Yehuda Mall where we tried to pick a place to eat. We ended up taking a lot of time picking a place. It was while we were walking around that I noticed a bullet on the ground. When I picked it up, I noticed it was a live round. It looked like it might make a nice souvenir, so I put it in my pocket intending to show it to Rami the next chance I had.
We finally settled on eating outdoors at a place where we ran into people from my tour group which included Shelley, Naomal, Hiro, Dan and Glennis -- Dan and Glennis Ahern were a couple who had been married for 48 years and traveled all over the world. Dan was a retired fireman and had a great sense of humor. He was always telling me one-liners -- well, some were better than others. They had decided not to walk to the mall like I suggested. Glennis told our waiter to take good care of us because I was her son.
It was a fairly cool evening. I wanted to try something definitely local, so I had the shwarma (or however it's spelled) -- and some of what I think was humus that Stacy had ordered. We talked about what I had seen on my trip (now a pilgrimage), what it was meaning to me, the differences between Israel and the States, how Stacy liked teaching and why she decided to live in Israel. I pointed out all the apparent hardships I could think of -- the scarcity of water, terrorism, high cost of living, etc., but all those points in a way seemed to be reasons for her to be there. Life is more of a challenge, more meaningful, when your life is preoccupied more so with things that really matter. In contrast, someone in the States might be more concerned about whether or not a STOP sign should be placed at a certain intersection. An argument could be made that life is emptier without struggle. I walked her home afterwards. We were supposed to meet again to take a picture or two for Sara, but I never saw her again. I had my camera with me that night, so I very much regret not taking advantage of the opportunity when I had it.
I was back around 11:00 PM. I ended up falling asleep watching a martial arts movie.
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Wednesday, March 1
KENNEDY MEMORIAL, CHAGALL WINDOWS, KING DAVID'S TOMB
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Today was an optional excursion day. The morning started out on the cloudy side. I told Rami and Baruch about the bullet I found. I showed it to them at our first stop which was the Kennedy Memorial. Getting there involved a drive through a forest. The Israelis built a Memorial to JFK because he was the first U.S. president to send them arms. The memorial looked like a huge tree trunk cut at the top to represent his early death. There were 50 stripes coming down and from it all around it representing the fifty states. Each strip had a circular plaque for the state it represented. We were able to walk inside. There was only one guard, and as far as I recall, we were the only ones there.
Rami did a good job of talking me out of taking the bullet home with me -- airport metal detectors and the remote possibility of the thing going off on a plane and depressurizing it represented more responsibility than I wanted to take on.
We then went to see the Chagall Windows at the Hadassah Medical Center to the northeast of Jerusalem where they first showed us a movie about the kind of work they perform there. Our female guide told us about each window, explaining how Marc Chagall was the first to successfully use a technique for staining glass in which he painted on the glass. The twelve stained glass windows were in a synagogue in the hospital and arranged in a square pattern -- three to a wall. Since we were in a synagogue, the men all had to cover their heads with the paper yarmulkes they had ready for us. We had to change seats because you could only see six of the windows clearly at a time. Each window represented one of the twelve tribes of Israel. No pictures were allowed because the hospital owns the copyright for the works, so I spent too much on postcards to get my own copies of the images -- the proceeds went to the hospital. |
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