Israel Day 11 and 12: Free day, studying, test, homework, and free time!

Yesterday (Friday) was a free day for our class, which means it's time to study for the test the next morning. Before studying though, we got to go on a field trip that Dr. Richter had arranged for us. I'm not quite sure who initiated it, but we were invited to Hebrew Union College to go on a private tour of the Skirball Museum. When I inquired the day before what was at the museum, Dr. Richter replied, "Old stuff!" That's good enough for me, so off we went to the Skirball Museum.
Either we're getting a bit more used to walking up and down hills, or the walk was not as bad as expected because we arrived 20 minutes early.

The Museum did indeed contain lots of old stuff. They had quite a few artifacts (mainly potter) from Tel Dan, Tel Gezer, and Tel Aroer. I was excited to see some real pottery up close and personal. At almost every antiquities site we've been too, we've seen scads of pottery shards, but alas no full pottery pieces. Whatever little museums may be attached to the sites typically have only contained reproductions. It was awesome to see so many jars, vessels, and other pieces made out of pottery. They even had a bathtub and a pottery sarcophagus! The best part was that we could touch just about everything. The professor who led our tour commented that it was all just rock and fired pottery. The only way we could really damage any of it is if we smashed it.

The tour of the Skirball museum was Skirballrific, but it wasn't long before studying for the upcoming test became a priority. It's hard to believe that it was only on Monday that I was sitting down to take a test. I'd love to say studying was fun, but it's still studying so...

A group of us had planned to take a study break after supper (I know, supper is also a study break) and head to the Wailing Wall to see what it was like just before the beginning of Shabbat. We had been told it was worth the time to go see all of the people gathering to worship, pray, and celebrate the beginning of Shabbat. We made it there about 7:45 (45 minutes or so before sundown) and it was pretty packed. There was a heavy military presence, but many of them seemed to be there to also celebrate. We made our way over to the wall that separates the rest of the area from the Western Wall to watch what was going on. We stopped at the women's side first because we heard a lot of singing. Groups of women were standing in circles dancing and singing very jubilantly. It sounded beautiful and was an awesome sight to watch. After a few minutes, we wandered over to the men's side to watch the happenings. Two guys were being carried around on shoulders and the rest of the activity closely mirrored what was happening on the other side. It was like one big worship party!

Two things I found really fascinating were watching what the men were wearing, and watching the teenagers and young adults. There was a wide range in the clothing the men wore from jeans and t-shirts to suits and hats to even fancier clothes. Some guys looked like they were wearing black silk bathrobes. I joked that I needed a field guide to understand what different outfits mean. Really though, it's not totally a joke. I think I need to do some more reading on modern Judaism.

The young people were really interesting to watch. It seemed that they were at a major social event. In reality, they were. After all, many of us find church to be a social event. It was just surprising to see "kids" who were 18 and 19 standing there in clothing that is fairly western, but with semi-automatic weapons slung over one shoulder.

After a trip to the Western Wall, it was time to mosey back to JUC and get back to studying. After class and our test today, I did a little bit of homework, took a nap, and then went to the Old City with Joel Bonner to wander around and buy some snacks for our next trip. We each got a variety of dried fruit and enjoyed looking in the various shops. It's so cool to only be a 10 minute walk (if I'm taking my time) from the Old City. It'll be nice to have a lot of next weekend to shop and explore it some more.

The Lights Festival and Bar Mitzvahs

The night we came into Jerusalem, we saw all kinds of lights around the wall of the Old City, and lots of music and people and a generally festive atmosphere. When I asked what was going on, Dr. Wrights replied that it was one of the last days of the Lights Festival (not to be confused with the Festival of Lights). He said that it's something that they tried last year that was so popular that they decided to do it again this year. Basically, they just lit up the Old City inside and out and people came to walk through. I really wanted to go to it before it ended, but was too tired until last night.
After supper last night, several of us went down to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to explore and see the main highlights after most people had left. Then we went back up to Jaffa gate, and Mark and Taylor headed back to JUC. Christy and I decided to stay and wander around the Lights Festival. There were a few street performers with light up costumes outside the city walls, but it was inside where the magic was happening. We The city was divided up into several routes, and we picked the orange one because it cut through the Armenian Quarter and then meandered into the Jewish Quarter where it looped around. The Jewish Quarter is the one we were the most comfortable with, plus we knew that there were searchlights set up on the Mount of Olives that we really wanted to see.
It was awesome! The atmosphere was quite festive. It was wall to wall people and many of the food vendors and little restaurants were open. If it weren't for the fact that I was still full from supper, I would have gone nuts with the food. It all smelled so amazing.
One of my favorite things was a building with lots of arches that had animations projected onto it. The animations made it look like the bricks were moving, the walls were crumbling, and that little green smiley face ghost looking things were zipping about the inside. It was a very entertaining 4 minutes.
Then we got to a terrace that overlooks the Mount of Olives, the Western (Wailing) Wall, and the Temple Mount. The searchlights on the Mount of Olives were all synchronized and made all kinds of cool patterns in the sky. Sometimes the even changed to different colors. It was awesome! Finally it was time for us to make our way back to the Zion Gate so we could head back to school. It was like swimming up stream trying to get past all of the people. It was quite an experience.
The whole time we were walking through, I kept trying to figure out just why they had started doing the Lights Festival. My theory is that they're making up for the fact that they don't have Christmas and Christmas Lights. When I mentioned this to Dr. Richter, she just laughed, but I think it has merit.

Today, we visited the Western Wall and it was a very busy place. When we were there a couple of days ago, it was much more subdued, so we were all curious about what was going on. There were drums, shofars, flutes, clarinets, and I'm pretty sure I also heard bagpipes. It turns out that Tuesday-Thursday are the big days for Bar Mitzvahs, and it's pretty common for them to take place at the Western Wall. We got to spend some time watching, photographing, and videotaping the events. When I went down to the wall, there were multiple groups of men and boys with big scrolls that were participating in the Bar Mitzvahs. You could see moms, aunts, grandmothers, sisters, and other women hanging of the women's side watching the events and cheering on the boys. It was an fantastic! If I ever get a faster internet connection here, I'll upload some video clips of it.
That's all of the major excite for the past few days. I'll probably post another impression report in a few minutes.

Israel Day 2: Tour of the Old City

Today, we did a 4.5 hour walking tour of the Old City. During this time, we just barely scratched the surface of it. Thankfully, the location I'm staying at is only a 5 minute walk from the Old City, so I'll get to spend some of my free time there. One of my course requirements is to write an impression report of the half day or day trip we've done each day. Below is the impression report I wrote for today. It's not great, but it gives an idea of what we saw.

I was unsure of what to expect going into the Old City today. I’ve been in the Old City of Quito, Ecuador, and I’ve been to St. Augustine and other old North and South America cities, but nothing as old or historical as this. Because of this, I had no idea what to expect.
I was actually a little disappointed upon entering the Jaffa Gate because I had the feeling that I had seen this kind of thing before. It felt a lot like going into the Castillo de San Marco in St. Augustine, FL. This all changed when we started really going into the Old City to meet Shaaban, a shop keeper in the Christian Quarter. Walking to his shop, I felt like I was in another world. All of the colorful fabrics hanging from above reminded me a little bit of the Disney movie Aladdin. It was like another world. Everything is so close together that it was a bit darker than I expected, and felt very crowded, even though there really weren’t many people about.
I’m always interested in the smells of new places, and a friend had even asked me to describe what Israel smelled like. Up until this point, I hadn’t noticed anything particularly remarkable, but then we went through the district in that quarter that sells spices. What an aroma! The best word I can think of to describe it is pungent. The smells of so many different Middle Eastern and Mediterranean spice blended together to form an aroma that was almost overpowering. It was fantastic.

Before long, we had made our way to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This is one location of which I’d seen hundreds of pictures, read many accounts, and even seen videos. I was not sure what to expect, but I honestly was not that excited. When I walked in, part of me was thinking “This is it?” I understand the historical and spiritual significance of this location. After all, tradition has it that this is the location where Jesus may have been crucified, buried, and resurrected. But it was fairly dark and seemed much smaller than I anticipated. At least that’s how it seemed until Dr. Rasmussen started showing us some of the smaller chapels off to the side. He then pointed out the locations of some of the monasteries to it. These locations were far more peaceful and really felt more reverent to me. I felt somewhat uncomfortable in the rotunda, but I felt almost at home in some of those side chapels. It makes me very excited to go there for church on Sunday. I also just want to spend much more time exploring that particular church.

The dome above the rotunda at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

One of the two major highlights of the day for me was visiting Bethesda and St. Ann’s Church. This location was just amazing. There were very few people which made it seem like we had the place to ourselves. Singing as a group in the church was a very moving time for me. It was only then that I really started to fully realize that I’m in Jerusalem. Then heading out of the cool, airy church to explore Bethesda was an adventure. When Laurie found a set of out of the way stairs that led down to a small pool of water, it felt like we had hit the lottery. We actually saw water at Bethesda!

At the Pool of Bethesda. The actual pools were to the left and right of this image. You can see a little bit of one on the left side.

The second major highlight for me was standing above the wailing wall and seeing so many people there praying at the wall with the Dome of the Rock in the background. It was just a beautiful sight to behold. The angle of the sun caused some very dramatic shadows, and the Dome of the Rock absolutely glowed under the sun. It was breathtaking. This is another location that I can’t wait to go back and spend some more time at.

The Dome of the Rock and the Wailing Wall

The biggest thought I had today was that three weeks is simply not enough time to spend in Israel. I need to stay here a year to even begin to see everything!