Jerusalem

Monday, 9/14

Today is our first day at the kibbutz. We woke late, 6:45 or so and rushed to get to breakfast before 7:30. Katy joined us and we all had breakfast together. We saw Dori on the way to the dining hall after he had dropped Naya off at school. What a small and intimate community! Breakfast was really really good: hard boiled eggs, cucumbers and tomatoes, sour cream, yogurt, bread and (I had) Nutella on the bread (yum!). There were also cereals, tuna, feta cheese... all very healthy. By mistake I got some turkish coffee but I really like it!

We met with Dori and Kenny (our guide) at 8 and left in Katy and Dori's car for Jerusalem. We first stopped after ½ hour at Em Karem, a small village that had been Palestinian before the 1967 war, but then came into Israeli hands. It was both Arab and Jewish and had a very old/new/ancient/ quality to it. Kind of arty, kind of poor, that type of dichotomy.

Jerusalem is huge - like any metropolitan city, there are loads of outlying areas, suburbs, lots of traffic, high-rises and basic urban ugliness. The real difference is in the people themselves. We drove through Arab neighborhoods and then into the orthodox Hassidic neighborhood and naturally the people are hugely different by dress and identification. Kenny is meanwhile giving us a non-stop history lesson throughout the whole day. It was amazing because his history lessons were the glue that connected time and place to experience and made it one whole continuous story.

We stopped at a couple of overlooks to the old walled city - built as it is today in 1500's by Suleiman the Great, a Turk. The City of Jerusalem had been conquered a total of 39 times in its history and the walls built, torn down and rebuilt 17 times (?). It all runs together after a while! The walled City is amazing and looks like all the photos you have ever seen of Jerusalem.

We parked by the Jaffa Gate (one of the 4 entries to the old City) and entered the old City. Filled with tourists and pilgrims of course. The stones on the ground vary in age - some new, some old from the middle ages and some from the time of the Romans and King Herod (the King who was in power at the time of Jesus' death). We entered and first went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the most holy shrine for both Armenian Christians, Roman Catholics and Greek Orthodox Christians. It is so ancient and amazing and there were many many Christian pilgrims touching stones, standing in line to touch the bedrock where Jesus was crucified, etc. It is the site of several of the last stations of the cross from where Jesus was nailed to the cross, died and was taken from the cross as well as his supposed burial place. So it is a very holy place full of ancient and divine energy. However I tried, I did not feel the power of this place and I was kind of disappointed as I wanted to, I was open to it, but it did not seem to be there for me. There were so many people all crowding around any site and pushing their way to get to or experience whatever was there, it was very empty to me. Interesting, fascinating, but spiritually empty. What I wanted to do but did not, because of time or just confusion, was to visit the site of Jesus' praying in the garden before he was betrayed and taken by Roman soldiers. Kenny said it is a very beautiful site, and you can easily imagine the biblical events happening there whereas with the crowds and chaos in the church, it's hard to imagine these events.

So on we went into the Suks, the Bazaars. Wow, is that amazing!!! First the Arab quarter bazaar - The shopkeepers are incredibly aggressive and if you even look like you are interested, they jump on you like vipers. I did not like that at all and it was very hard to not get angry or frightened or both. I finally gave up even pretending to look at anything and let Katy and Dori handle it. Trouble was there were lots of cool things to look at!! Clothes, jewelry, spices, soaps, you name it. I have never seen anything like it. Narrow alleyways with vendors stalls-- tiny, no larger than about 6 x 8 at the most one after the other by the hundreds. I wound up buying a tunic I loved and later on a necklace that I let Katy haggle for me. Everything by American standards is very cheap. My necklace was the most expensive item at 50 shekels and that equals about $12.50. I bought souveniers for friends and Colin - really cool items, like Hamsas, soap, jewelry, etc.

We ate schwarma at a little cafe which was barely OK, but no matter, on we went to other sites. We came out at one point overlooking the Al Aqsa Mosque, the Dome of the Rock, and the Western Wall. Oh my gosh, what a site!! It was very amazing and I really don't have words for this. All I wanted to do was pray at the Western Wall (actually the retaining wall built by Herod and it is on top of the walls of the Second Temple) and go into the Muslim temple. However, this being Ramadan, we could not go into the Mosque. But we did go down and got to pray at the Western (Wailing) Wall. Men and women are separated and in the unequal way of Judaism, the men get a big portion of the wall and the women just a little bit. No matter. I was primed and ready to go.

I was so eager to pray at the Wall because I knew in that mysterious way, that this was my site, this was the place. Women must cover their heads which I did, and Katy and I walked to the wall. It was crowded with other women and school girls reading their Torah and praying at the wall. But they were so short I could stand behind them and put my hand on the wall and begin to pray. It was very very powerful. I don't know how to explain it. Of course the weather was warm so the stones were warm, and you could see all the prayers that had been written on bits of paper and stuck into the margins of the ancient stones. I had my prayer for Colin as well that I wrapped up and stuck into the wall. When there was more room, I moved closer and put my head against the wall and closed my eyes. I began to pray. The warmth of the wall and the energy of millions of people praying, reaching out to God, feeling that presence of Holiness, became my reality. I felt the swaying of so many generations before me, the “wailing”, the chanting of prayers and I loved it. I loved the Wall, being there, resting my head against it, praying, being connected to hundreds of generations of humans before me and all that were to come, part of this Whole, reaching out in love, supplication, reverence. I did not want to leave. I wanted to just rest my head on the warm stones and just stay there, resting in God.

When I left the wall, reluctantly, I backed up as you are not supposed to turn your back on the Wall for a period of time. I met up with Katy and we backed our way for a distance until we observed other women turning to walk away. We met up with the men and continued our tour.

We saw some soldiers on a teaching outing. They were at an overlook with their teacher and one of the soldiers, an African-American young man, came over to where we were standing and listening to Kenny give a history of that particular spot. He told us that their teacher was giving an alternate story to their group in Hebrew. He was from LA and had been living in Israel for 9 years and in the Army for 3 or 4. Strange. But the “alternate reality” stories are such part and parcel of the Holy Land experience and Israel in general. What reality would you like? The Roman Catholic one? The Russian Orthodox? The Armenian Christian, the Greek Orthodox, the Evangelical Christian, Muslim or the Jewish? They all have their own version of reality and of history.

I asked Kenny why it was if the Jews were waiting for a Messiah and Jesus was a Jew, they didn't accept him as the Messiah. His answer was interesting. The short version if that the Jews were not waiting for a “person” to be the Messiah - they were waiting for the Messianic Age when all Jews would be returned to their homeland, all the tribes would be reunited. So they could not accept a person as the Messiah because that was not their Messianic expectations. Whereas the Christians put all their faith into this one person as the Messiah. I find that personally interesting because I am certain Jesus said at one point or maybe more that it is my Father and not me that does this and he intimated if not outright stated that those that believe can do as much or more than he. Jesus was not angling to be seen as the One - he was trying in his teachings to point to the One. The One God. The One Reality. But people began to worship the “finger” instead of seeing where the finger was pointing.

We ended this amazing day back at Revadim, playing with Naya until bedtime. She is such a beautiful child - so bright and full of life, it is a joy to behold her and I know it is lots of work to keep up with that level of energy!!!

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