Jerusalem- A Day in the Holy Land (31 March)

Shalom from Jerusalem, friends and family. This blog entry begins where the last one ended- arriving by bus to one of the most famed and historic cities in all the world: Jerusalem. Israeli's claim it as their capital, Muslims claim the Temple Mount within the city confines as their religions second most sacred location, and Christians from across the world flock to this holy location to see in person the place in which their savior and Messiah, Jesus Christ, is said to have been condemned, crucified, and, ultimately, ascended to Heaven. All told, Jerusalem holds tremendous relevance for the world's western religions, as well as representing the heart of one of the most contentious, significant political dynamics today in the form of the Arab-Israeli Conflict.

Entering this sacred place felt surreal. Jerusalem, our tour guide reminded us, is located atop a mountain, and, as we cleared a pass leading into the city, the Golden Dome of the Temple Mount (perhaps Jerusalem's most heralded image) came immediately into view. I remembered this site from numerous books, articles, and friends' descriptions and felt almost in awe as I saw it for myself. The expressway into the city was a wide, four-lane highway, but our leader informed us that, during the War of Independence (the name used by Jewish Israelis to describe this war), the road utilized by Israeli soldiers was a far thinner, something of a one-lane trail not navigated easily by anthing much more than, well, a small vehicle or animal. It seemed remarkable that in the various hills through which we traveled, historical battles dating to Biblical times had taken place, and I reveled in their beauty and significance.

Our bus pressed on to its first stop, the Mount of Olives. Mount Olives offers a picturesque look out over the city. Before we debussed, our driver took us to a spot where we could see all the way (looking east) into Jordan in the distance, as well as, if we looked hard enough, the Dead Sea (also to the east and a site we plan to visit in the coming days). There was an eery sense of excitement being able to peer into another country, which, in essence, represents another world relative to Israel. As is becoming more and more apparent, Israel proper is incredibly small. For example, Ramallah, where we travel this evening is no more than 15 kilometres from the center of Jerusalem. 15 KM! I could jog that in no more than 1.75 hours! Moreover, our trip from Tel Aviv was all of 60 KMs, and the Gaza Strip exists no more than one hour to our west. Egypt is not far from there and Syria and Lebanon to the northeast and northwest, respectively. It truly has hit me just how centralized I am in the midst of the pre-eminent political contest stoking the modern world. The Arab-Israeli Conflict brings to the fore a clash of cultrues between Islam and Judhaism, as well as a broader battle of ideas between the goliath of the 'West' and cultures working restlessly to preserve their strong cultures while evolving progressively into a new era. It was with these thoughts on my mind that I followed my group to the Lion's Gate, which was our entry point to Jerusalem's 'Old City', which, in many ways, represented the heart of the day's visit.

A Few Words about the 'Old City' and Jerusalem, more generally:
Jerusalem's Old City is divided up into four quarters and, at less than one-half mile in square area and the home to over 30,000 residents, is an incredibly dense piece of land. The four quarters host an Armenian population, Christian population, Jewish population, and, constituting by far the largest portion in terms of population, a Muslim population (roughly half the district's population is Muslim according to our guide). Jerusalem itself was once a moderately-sized city. When the War of Independence took place in 1948, Jordanian forces ramshackled the Jewish portion of the Old City. At this time, the entire population of Jerusalem did not exceed 250,000, whereas, today, it has well over 700,000 inhabitants. Geographically, Jerusalem, again, is situated atop the Judean Mountains and rests just over 2,000 feet above sea level. It's temperature is slightly cooler than the temperate climate of Tel Aviv, and our guide informed us that, on a day or two per year, snow comes to, and entirely shuts down, the city. He informed us, moreover, that, on these days, children greatly enjoyed a respite from school. I chuckled and looked to Alicia, saying, 'not nearly as much as their teachers!' The official stone of Jerusalem is limestone, and the official tree of Jerusalem, Israel, and the Jewish people writ large, is the olive tree, which lined the roads as we made our way into the Holy City.

We began by visiting the Church of Flagellation and Church of Condemnation, wherein Jesus is told to have been beaten by his Roman captors (recall Mel Gibson's raw account of this scene in 'The Passion of the Christ') and condemned to die by Pontius Pilate, respectively. The Church of Condemnation was not much to look at, but many folks were inside praying intensely. I had a seat with Alicia and took a good look around the historic locale. We pressed on, then, with our group, through many of the Old City's Four Quarters.

Our next stop was the acclaimed Western Wall. Thinking back to my class on the Arab-Israeli Conflict, with Dr. Bernard Reich during my sophomore year, I felt particularly excited to visit this site. For Jews, the Western or 'Wailing Wall' represents a site of tremendous significance because it surrounds Judhaism's holiest site, the Temple Mount, which is also the second most holy location for Muslims (Mecca in Saudi Arabia represents the 1st). For Jews, the Temple Mount is said to have been the place at which God gathered the dust he used to create Adam and begin human kind. Two temples have been built there throughout the ages, and a third, according to the Tradition, should be built in the future on the sites most holy site. For Muslims, the Temple Mount is claimed to be the place from which the prophet Muhammad ascended to Heaven to recieve instructions from God on beginning and spreading the Islamic Faith. It now houses two incredibly significant mosques for Muslims: the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Muslims control the area of the Temple Mount itself, though both the Israeli Government and Palestinian Authority claim authority over it. Still, with the area in Muslim hands, the closest that Jews can now get to praying at their holiest site is the Wailing Wall. Hence, its incredible significance to the religion.

Now, when we begin to get into the nitty-gritty of finding a meaningful, workable solution to the Arab-Israeli Conflict, one must understand that dealing with incredibly dense sites, such as those of the Temple Mount and Western Wall, and deciding which people, faith, and governments should control what, is absolutely necessay in order to please all parties. Again, this area is incredibly small- strikingly small- and to think that so much of the world's political contention stems from this particular area gave being there an incredibly powerful feeling. I stepped softly in approaching the Wall, placed a temporary, cardboard Yamukka atop my head, came to the Wall, said a short prayer, wrote a note, and stuck it one of the walls many cracks (there are thousands of these tiny notes filling the Wall). I took particular interest in observing the young Orthodox Jewish men who were engaged in intense prayer at the Wall, rocking back and forth in what is referred to as...I forgot the name of this motion- friends, help me out! As in a Synagogue, women and men are separated at the Wailing Wall, with women heading to an area on the right as you approach the wall and men to the left. Also, we happened to be there on Monday, a day on which Bar Mitzfahs are celebrated (along with Thursday) in Israel. We witnessed many happy, singing, dancing crowds pass through, and a cool thing was that everyone was throwing candy at each other within these parties, leaving small children delighting in their ability to take a bag and snatch up the spoils. I, too, took away a piece of candy that had gone astray. Good times at the Wailing Wall.

From here, we made our way through the Jewish and Christian quarters. Eventually, we came to one of the day's highlights, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (before this, we visited the Room of the Last Supper, which was in a building, the bottom of which was, at one time, a Jewish Temple, at another, a Christian sanctuary (note the use of it by Christ and disciples), and, later, was transformed into a mosque by Muslims. This place, I feel, powerfully characterizes the claim and importance of all three major Western religions to sites in the Old City. To put it plainly- each religion had literally built a site of worship on top of another. Faiths were stacked, I was floored, and we moved on). The Church of the Holy Sepulchre for several reasons. First, and perhaps foremost, this church is built on an area that used to be referred to as Golgottha Hill, at which Jesus is said to have hung from the cross, alongside Barabbas, and died to save mankind (according, of course, to Christian Tradition). As we entered the Upper Room at Golgotha, wherein you can literally situate yourself in the very space where Christ is supposed to have hung roughly 2,000 years ago, I thought of my fellow teacher, Mrs. White, whom, before I departed, literally begged me to take a picture in this cherished spot. I made sure that my friend and traveling mate, Amy, captured a photo of me placing my hand in an open space in the Upper Room (supposedly, I was touching the space where Jesus hung). It was a powerful experience, and Alicia later informed me that she felt a huge amount of heat pulsating through her entire body during the whole experience. Interesting stuff, to be sure.

From here, we went downstairs and approached a small, heavily-adourned structure, which, I learned, suppsedly covers the space wherein Joseph of Arimathea's family tomb, which housed the body of Jesus after Mary took it from Golgotha. Our guide explained that, in the time of Jesus, only wealthier families had family tombs. Jesus, being far from wealthy (remember the whole 'eye of the needle' thing), had no such family tomb, which Joseph provided for him. Now, the originial itself, our guide emphatically explained, was long gone (like so many of the other locations along our tour). It had been destroyed in one of the many battles in what is now the Old City. However, after a battle mostly destroyed the large rock into which Joseph's family tomb had been built, a ruler from antiquity (forget the name) ordered that tomb itself be preserved, due to its historical relevance to Christians. Still, in fighting that ensued in years to come, the whole of the rock, including the tomb, was destroyed, leaving nothing physical of this sacred space. Still, somehow, the site of Jesus' laying has been discerned and a massive line had formed to visit the sacred room. We skipped that and made our way towards the Jaffa Gate, from which we exited the Old City (another quick observation from the Church of the Hold Sepulchre- it's a pretty large church, most of which is controlled by the Greek Orthodox relgion, with smaller sections controlled by Catholics and Armenian Christians. Also, wondering why Armenians had established a quarter in the Old City, I asked my guide, to which he replied that it was 'simple'. Apparently, Armenia was the first country in the world to adopt Christianity as its state religion, giving it a strong connection to the Holy Land. Moreover, he suggested that another factor possibly leading to the attachment was that, according to the Bible, Noah's Ark landed at a spot that is located in modern day Armenia. Interesting stuff).

My key reflection from this day deals more with the current political significant than the area's historical relevance (two elements, which, of course, are inseperable). It seems that each of the three traditions that lay claim to portions of Jerusalem's Holy City do so for valid and good reasons. Still, with that being the case, I conclude that, because each tradition has valid claim to part of the Old City, no one faith can validly lay claim to all of the old city. Particularly with respect to Muslims and Jews, each side must realize that the other will never totally relent on its claim to Old City sights, and, if there is to be peace, each must compromise and find a solution that allows maximum access for each religion to the sites of greatest importance to them. This is, undoubtedly, an incredibly vague pronouncement on my part, but even winning acknowledgement of it has proven difficult for the most acclaimed international diplomats and political leaders. In a place of such physical beauty and historical significance, the world should hope that leaders of these warring sects can find a way to transcend the differences that divide them and unite over their beautiful, rich traditions. I feel privileged to have experienced that land at the heart of such global significance. It was a treat spending a day in the Holy City.

Cheerio,

--Daniel

P.S. Later today, we enter the West Bank, traveling to Ramallah with Anwar, Alicia's Palestinian friend and a director for a micro-lending non-profit organization based in Ramallah with six branches in the West Bank and five and Gaza. Our trip should change from this point on- I look forward to making observations about the ways in which it does.