I don’t think it is possible for me to put all the amazing stuff that we do on here. It is simply incredible. I start typing and image how incredible all this is and get even more excited. I hope it is as entertaining for you to read as it is for me to write.
Yesterday, Sunday (but not our Sabbath), we had a full free day to wander around the city freely. All 80 of the students decided to meet up and walk the walls of the old city together. So we all broke into smaller groups and went our ways (we exchanged money 75$ to 278 Shekels at 1:3.71) then wander our way to the wall. I found someone named Chris Meldrum who recently graduated (but not officially until this ends) as a classics major. He has done lots of traveling already in Rome and Egypt and knows how to run a guidebook. So with him as a guide we dished out 8 shekels ($2:16) to walk the 500 year old walls of Jerusalem. In comparison I could spend $2 to buy a burrito in Provo, a cheap burrito.
You can’t walk to whole wall, the part around the temple mount or al-Haram al-Sherif, is closed off. The remaining portion had a hole blown in it my a visiting German kaiser who wanted to drive into the city. So essentially the wall is in two parts divided at Jaffa Gate (check your bible maps). We did the southern section first. that circumvents the Armenian quarter and ends at the Western Wall. The wall is one of the funnest stone ruins I’ve ever explored and probably far older than any I’ve ever explored (in the European perspective anyway). They are in great condition because they work pretty hard to keep them up. Yet they are also very unwatched compared to historical sites in America. There were no guards and I didn’t see a single camera. It is all open air (of course) and there are houses build right up against the wall. We even ran into a soccer field where one of the goals was right next to a tower wall.
The whole wall is a little over two miles but since it was broken in two pieces we did half, jumped off at the Western wall, then had to cut across the city back to the starting point to do the other half.
We had to pass through metal detectors to reach the Western Wall, the first time we’ve had to do that since the airport. We were only there for a moment but as we stood there a few rain drops began to fall. All those Jews in their black hats and coats haven been coming daily since access was achieved 40 years ago. They mourn the same thing that Daniel mourned, the same thing that Lehi feared, that Christ predicted, that Nehemiah tried to undo. The abomination of desolation. Through all the dust of history and the complications of nations and religious loyalties and all the things that separate me from that building I still feel a sense of loss when I stare at that wall. Why were we not pure enough to keep this gift from God? I’m not sure I appreciate how great a gift that temple was but it was THE house of God. Today we have 130 houses of God, each one beautiful and sacred. Yet for some reason that long destroyed temple is unique above all other sacred sites in the world. It belongs to all mankind regardless of politics or religion just as the moon belongs to all the world beyond the imaginary lines man has drawn across it.
O aJerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that bkillestthe prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often cwould I have dgatheredthy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye ewould not! Matt 23:37
On the other end of the wall, on the other side of the temple mount the battlements simply ended in a 20 ft wall topped with barbed wire. They have very specific rules regarding entrance to al-Haram al-Sherif that we have not yet negotiated. Eventually we will. It is absolutely beautiful though. Today we visited various vistas around the city and gazed at it from all angles. It was spectacular. I hope dearly that I can get closer.
Of the three religions (an interesting concept as within each of those religions are countless branches) that cohabit this city I have visited the most sacred site in all the world for two of them. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre where Christ made Christianity possible and the last remaining wall of the ancient Jewish temple. Both of these sites are held in sacred remembrance by millions because of what happened there 2000 years ago. The final site, the Golden Dome of the Muslims, also marks a sacred event from the depths of the past. Between the three faiths and a single square mile we have the holiest spot on earth for 3.8 billion souls, all depicting places where God descended to interact with man in his most sublime manner. For the Christians through His Son, for the Jews through His House, and for the Muslims through His Prophet. These are perhaps the most direct interactions with God that any of these faiths ever experienced.
Not the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, this is the hill that protestant Christianity calls Calvary, near the Garden Tomb
Let us reason together. In the LDS tradition our most sacred spots are the temples of God, where we are oriented concerning our place in the universe and creation. We are more perfectly taught our destinies and our obligations in order to achieve them. There we make covenants directly with God. It is the spot where we connect to heaven, where we experience divinity. Do you understand the difference between a living Church and a dead one? Are we worshiping the past interactions with a now silent God or do we rejoice in a God that still speaks to us?
The most sacred spot on the earth, for you, is where God speaks to you. Where he gives you evidence of his existence and love for you.
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Those are my sobering thoughts for the day. I am sunburned, sand colored and the teachers have announced that we do in fact have classes and those classes do in fact include homework currently signifying about 200 pages that need reading. Plus, I got assigned to be a FHE father and I need to come up with a lesson for tonight. Things will quiet down a little this week now that we are introduced to the city, we have a pretty intense class schedule until Friday when we will observe sabbath at the Western Wall.
Spectacular pictures.