Another beautiful day on our trip. The weather has been warmer than usual, with most days ranging from 80-85 degrees. We did have one day that was near 100 (if I converted the celsius correctly) but the air is very dry. Most days there has been a light breeze which makes the temperature very comfortable, especially when standing in the shade.
Today we visited temple mount. This is the area of Jerusalem where the original Jewish temple was built on Mt. Moriah. This is the site where Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son Issac (4000 years ago) and is the holiest site in the Jewish faith. The original temple was designed by King David and built by Solomon 3000 years ago. The original temple was destroyed in 586 b.c.e. by the Babylonians and rebuilt in 518 b.c.e.
At the time of Jesus, the 250,000 Jews from throughout Israel would come to visit the temple 3 times per year. The Romans destroyed the Second Temple in 70 a.d. during the Jewish rebellion. Later when Moslems occupied the city they build a mosque named Dome on the Rock on this site and Mohammed is purported to have ascended to heaven from this site. This part of Jerusalem was under the control of Jordan until the six day war in 1967 when Jerusalem was reunited under Israeli rule. The Dome of the Rock is still controlled by Jordan, even though it is miles from their border and Jordanian soldiers patrol the area.
From temple mount we walked over to the eastern side of Old Jerusalem to the "Beautiful Gate." This was the gate through which Jesus entered the city from Bethany and the Mount of Olives. Our driver took us to the top of the Mount of Olives for a view overlooking the old city and then we walked down through the oldest Jewish cemetary in the world until we reached the Garden of Gethsemane. In the Garden there are several old olive trees, some maybe 1000 years old. (It is doubtful there are any from the time of Christ)
After lunch we toured new excavations along the Western Wall. As I wrote earlier, the Western Wall is what remains of the second temple and is a very sacred place for Jews. In the last few years excavations have found the original level of this wall which runs about 1800 feet along the edge of Mt. Moriah. The original Western Wall was 16 stories high is built with immense blocks of limestone; in the lowest course each rock is about 11 x 11 x 43 feet long and weighs over 600 tons. In my estimation, the engineering to built this is about as spectacular as the building of the pyramids in Egypt.
Next on our itinerary was the church of St. Anne. This is church that was built by the crusaders in 1136 on the site of a former Byzantine chapel, purportedly built in the place where Mary's mother was born. While many churches were destroyed after the crusades, this church was preserved as an Islamic seminary. The church has fantastic accoustics so our group tried out a few songs. The church of St. Anne is built near the pools of Bethesda. These were ritual purification baths designed for the Jewish pilgrims coming to the temple 3 times per year. The ruins of these pools are many feet below the current level of the city.
Our final stop of the day was a visit to the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, another church built by the crusaders around 1100 a.d. Here we visited Pastor Fred Strickert, who had recently moved to Jerusalem from Waverly, Iowa where he had worked at Wartburg College. He and his wife had lived in Jerusalem a number of years ago and now accepted a call at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. He gave us some background information on things that the Lutheran Church was doing in the Middle East, including a hospital to serve the Palestinian community.
While most of our evenings have been free to rest and relax, this evening we were visited by Pastor Samuel Fanous, a Palestinian Christian who is an Episcopal priest. We were introduced to him by Dave and Alice Anderson, members of our church who lived in Israel for a year about 10 years ago. He gave us the perspective of what is like to be a Palestinian living in Israel and some of the hardships they face. He also gave us hope for the future since he is involved with a group that is educating Jews, Moslems and Christian children, teaching them how to live together.
As you can see, a very full but educational day. No wonder I am tired at night.
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