Thoughts On [insert religious topic(s) here]

Only two more days left with the group. This has been an amazing experience with the other 37 pilgrims from Anona. I have seen myself grow so much over these days and I look forward to being in classes with them in the future as we continue exploring our faith together.

Today we spent the majority of our time in the Jewish quarter of the Old City. A little background: Jerusalem today is a bustling modern city covering a many square miles. It has mass transportation, modern roads and modern buildings. The Old City is the part of Jerusalem found within the walls of the old city, hence the name Old City.

The Old City is divided into four sections called quarters; Jewish, Muslim, Armenian and Christian. Each of the quarters has a different flavor and that’s what makes the city so unique. Four different religions live within one square mile of each other. On the eastern side of the Old City is the Temple Mount with the Western Wall, the Southern Steps, and the Dome of the Rock.

We started our journey at the Western Wall, entering the city through the Dung Gate. Sounds pretty don’t it? The Western Wall is a well-guarded area under Israeli control. It is the only remaining wall from the original temple mount. Israelis and Christians consider the place one of high reverence. We planned on singing some praise songs at the wall so Jeremy brought the backpack guitar and I brought a mini-amp to power an iPod. I was questioned by a guard about the amp, but he finally let me through after I showed him how it worked. Jeremy was stopped with the guitar and not allowed in. They said that four days earlier, Rabbis had decided that musical instruments weren’t allowed at the wall. Knowing that I’d have a chance to see the wall with Jac’line many more times in the coming days, I went back out and took the guitar from Jeremy.

I sat by the checkpoint for a bit waiting for them to come back out. After ten minutes I grabbed my camera, the guitar and headed up the stairs leading to the Jewish quarter. I went looking for an opportunity to shoot the wall and temple mount from a high vantage point. If any of you have seen the case that the backpack guitar in it, you can imagine how sketchy I looked running up stairs with it and a camera. It looked from afar like I had a rifle case on my back. Opps. I didn’t get confronted, but I managed to get some neat shots of the Dome of the Rock.

The Dome of the Rock

When I came back down, the group was still at the wall so I sat beneath an olive tree by the gate to the wall and played the guitar a bit. It was a great centering time for me, but apparently it was also a photographic moment. Many tourists stopped and took pictures of me playing. After another 15 minutes Richard found me and led me to the rest of the group. They had been done for a bit and were looking for me. We got back together and headed for the Southern Steps.

The Southern Steps are the place where Jews entered the temple back at Jesus’ time. Presently, the steps are in various forms of repair. Many of the original steps are still visible but the majority has been cemented into new steps.

The Southern Steps

At the Southern Steps Jac’line talked a bit about the power of this place that we were at the foot of the old temple. While we were there, Jac’line invited me to share “God of This City” with the group. What an amazing song to play at the steps to the old temple. It was an emotional moment for many of us, recognizing the history in this place.

We boarded the bus for a quick ride up to the top of the Jewish quarter. We entered through the Zion Gate and experienced the Old City for the first time. There are no roads, just alleys with buildings on the left and right going up for two or more stories. There are restaurants and courtyards scattered around as you walk. The atmosphere was electric. People bustled about; Jewish children biked through the streets with their long tendrils and head coverings on tricycles; Jewish students studying at the rabbinical school played guitar and cajon at street corners.

Jewish students playing on a corner

Our first stop in the city was lunch at one of the many restaurants on the street. I was able to get a falafel and coke for 20 shekels ($6) which is the cheapest lunch I’ve had all trip. I’m going to enjoy staying here and finding different places for lunch and dinner every day with Jac’line. Yay for eating cheap.

As we moved down the street after lunch, Ruthie led us to the actual house of Caiaphas, the high priest who questioned Jesus. With many of the locations that have holy significance, I’ve stated that they are the “supposed” site or are “probably” the site. In this case, archaeological and historical evidence has proven that this is Caiaphas’ house. The ruins of the house were located under a museum. We entered the museum and headed down stairs to the ruins. Why was it underground? Well, much like Tel Megiddo, the city of Jerusalem has been built upon and older layers are underneath newer ones. In an effort to preserve this site, they built a museum over the site.

I’m thankful that they did this because the site, which was first excavated in 1970, is in excellent shape. Caiaphas’ house was enormous in the standards of the day. It had at least three ritual baths, a large courtyard (where Peter denied Jesus) and mosaics over all the floors. Many of the mosaics and walls are intact despite being burned down by the Romans in 70 CE.

Immediately after seeing Caiaphas’ house, we went a block down to the Burnt House. This building was also located below ground like the previous one, but it is a special site in its own right. When the Romans began to suppress Jewish revolts in 66 CE, they did so with an iron fist. They burned entire towns and villages, killing all the inhabitants they found. At this ruin, archaeologists found remnants of burnt items but the powerful item they found was a skeletal hand grasping an iron rod. The site has produced a movie of their interpretation of what happened at this house when the Romans burnt Jerusalem in 70 CE. While the movie was a bit far-fetched and badly acted, the sentiment of a religious group losing the core of their religious practice-the Temple-hit me hard. I started wondering what would happen to the Christian faith if we couldn’t baptize or have communion for 2000 years. How would our religious practice have to adapt to deal with these changes both practically and theologically? This is what Judaism has been confronted with ever since 70 CE. In my opinion, their reinterpretation of Torah and the Talmud has been powerful, sustaining their faith without a temple being present for sacrifice or atonement according their laws.

With this on my mind, we went to the Temple Institute, an organization raising money to build the Third Temple. The many display is the artifacts from the Second Temple described in Ezekiel that they have had recreated exactly according the scriptural specifications. The rabbi explaining the artifacts to us had great passion for rebuilding the Third Temple, raising the money to have these artifacts commissioned and creating blueprints for the temple. Red flags went off in my head however when he started talking about sacrifices. My first thought was “Whoa! There aren’t enough animals for every Jew to come to the temple at Passover and sacrifice one of them.” From there, the idea of building a third temple started becoming downright ominous. In order to build the third temple, the Dome of the Rock would have to vanish-either naturally or unnaturally. If THAT didn’t start war between Jews and Palestinians, the Jews would still need to reclaim the entire temple mount from the control of the Palestinians. I came to the conclusion that this rabbi’s vision could only come to fruition if there was a large scale war over the mount by two of the world’s largest religions. Yikes! Jac’line and I are going to meet him for coffee this weekend and discuss his vision a bit more. I’m interested to hear it fleshed out and I’ll let you know how that goes.

Well, this certainly isn’t my last time in the Old City. I hope to spend many many hours here when I’m in Jerusalem. It was refreshing to run into people my age speaking English. I had some great conversations and was beaming at the end of the day. IT was a contemplative day, but that only made it better. I can’t begin to describe how excited I am to spend two weeks with Jac’line. It’s going to be amazing.

Archway in the Jewish Quarter

When we got back to the hotel, we had a devotional led by Jeremy. The devotional was recorded for Jeremy to potentially use in his video montage for ordination as a Deacon. He led us all in remembering the powerful memories of the last few days. He did an great job speaking and refreshing everyone from a long day. He got a hug from every single person in that room. All the church members on the trip were excited for him. Great Job Jeremy!

Shalom,

Mat