We started our grand tour of Jerusalem in the Garden of Gethsemane, which is mostly covered by a massive Jewish cemetery now, but several groves of trees and churches built to commemorate Biblical events. The cemetery itself was interesting because Mokhoul explained several Jewish burial customs to us, such as the custom of placing stones on the tombs of the dead so that they can bring them to the temple when messiah comes. Gethsemane was my first taste of the bittersweet pill that is commemorative churches. These churches are beautiful and truly spectacular buildings, but as we toured these churches I found myself profoundly distracted by the spectacle of everything. Also really irksome was the various orthodox church’s habits of selling “holy” things inside the church. One particularly irritating moment came when Dr. Haddad went to take a brochure from a visitors stand and a nearby monk wouldn’t let her have it without a donation. I’m sorry, but what the heck!? That’s just disgusting. If it’s a church it’s a church, if it’s a store it’s a store. DON’T MIX PROFITEERING WITH RELIGION!
Ranting aside the churches were astounding, with frescoes, paintings, mosaics, and golden adornments hanging everywhere. Putting aside my concerns and misgivings about the place of decadence within places of worship, I was very impressed with the beauty of it all.
After we finished in Gethsemane (which Moukhoul explained came from the words for “Olive Press”) we headed into the City of David region of Jerusalem to trek through Hezekiah’s tunnel. This tunnel was built by the Israelite King Hezekiah to bring water into the city of Jerusalem and represents a tremendous feat of engineering for 800 BC. Using oil lamps and hand tools the Israelites managed to carve a tunnel which took us a good 40 minutes to walk through straight through the mountain Jerusalem is built on. The tunnel itself was straight out of Indiana Jones. Rock walls and about mid-shin depth in most places flowing through the bottom of the tunnel really made the tunnel spectacular. We came out near the Pools of Shalome, where Jews had traditionally washed before walking up to the temple.
Speaking of the temple, our next stop was the Western Wall, or as Americans call it the Wailing Wall. This wall is the closest thing to the Temple that modern Jews have, and as such security was tight. Inside the barricades we found that many families were celebrating Bar Mitzvah’s at the wall while others prayed fervently with hands on the wall. The area near the wall was divided into two sections, one for men and one for women, but women were tossing candy over the wall at their sons celebrating Bar Mitzvah so the separations weren’t as strict as the ones we’d seen in Muslim areas. Also, before men could go to the site, they had to don a kippa (aka a yarmulke).
After we ate lunch we decided not to spend the 45 minutes to an hour waiting in line to get into the area around the Dome of the Rock. Instead we visited several places along the Via Dolorosa, but in all honesty I was so worn out that a lot of the impact of these places didn’t strike me as much as it should have. We visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is the supposed sight of Jesus death and burial. The church itself is spectacular, but my experience there was again tempered by the problems I have with the profiteering and almost panhandling going on within the church.
Following this we bid farewell to Moukhoul and thanked him profusely for his kindness and willingness to show us around his country. From then until 7 we had free time, so we started by meeting up at an Israeli Starbucks analog, ordering coffees and iced mint lemonades and discussing the plan. We ended up splitting into groups, with Brenda, Dr. Haddad, Jennifer, Hannah and I headed up onto the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem and walked around to the Western Wall while Sam, Ben, Zach, and Fletcher took a nap under some trees. The rest of the group went shopping in the Muslim Quarter Bazaars. For my part, walking on the walls was definitely the best choice. The view was amazing and the people watching we did on the walls were the best way to end the day in Jerusalem. On the way back to the meeting point at the Jaffa gate, we bumped into several members of the other Covenant group that was in Israel at the time, but everyone I knew was apparently napping back at Jerusalem University College.
We came back to Bethlehem for another night at the Angel Hotel before heading to Jericho the next day.
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