Israel Day 8 – Full Day in Jerusalem

Today was our first full day in Jerusalem. Here are some pictures: https://plus.google.com/photos/115544123164287975321/albums/5761726037763508785?authkey=CKjs4fbz6MOBsQE

During the morning our goal was to walk the Via Dolorosa, or the traditional route Jesus took once he was arrested at the Mt. of Olives and taken to see Pilate. Accordingly the bus dropped us off at the ridge of the Mount of Olives. We took many pictures of Jerusalem from this traditional place, from the ridge to a Jewish Cemetery below the ridge to Dominus Flavet (the church of tears). At Dominus Flavet we saw tombs that were unearthed from the first century. We read from Luke 19, Acts 1, and Zechariah 14.

We walked from there to the Garden of Gethsemane where we saw the ancient olive trees and the Church of All Nations.

We continued down hill entering the Old City through the Lion's (St. Stephen's) Gate. Just inside the gate we went past St. Anne’s Church to see the Pools of Bethesda. We walked down into the pools where we saw the five covered colonnades (John 5). Next we went inside the St. Anne's Church. This is the traditional birthplace of Mary (as recorded in the apocryphal Gospel of James) and the home of her parents Joachim and Anne. We sat in the church and John explained to us the acoustics of the church. The ceiling holds the sound for eight seconds. We sang Allelujah and then Amazing Grace – and heard our voices singing back to us. The sound was very beautiful.

We continued to walk the Via Dolorosa, stopping at several "stations" of the cross to remember Christ's journey to Calvary. We stopped at the Church of the Condemnation and the Church of Flagellation then continued down the road to the Ecce Homo Church where we went down stairs to a Roman floor that has been uncovered. It was supposed that this was the place that Pilate used as his seat of judgment because it was close to the Roman fortress of Antonia, however, the seat of Judgment has been uncovered near the Jaffa Gate. The area we visited is thought to be the marketplace during the time of Emperor Hadrian. Part of the triple arched entrance still exists as an arch over the street.

We continued down the Via Dolorosa to see the places that Jesus fell, the place he met his mother, the place where Simon the Cyrene helped him carry the cross, and the location where Veronica wiped his face. (of course none of this is known for sure, and in the case of Veronica, it is not even Biblical).

We followed the Via Dolorosa past the Coptic Monastery and to the entrance of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. We did not go in, that would wait a couple of days. Instead we went to the Muristan marketplace and ate lunch. After lunch we exited the Old City through the Jaffa Gate and rode the bus to the Israeli Museum.

At the Israeli Museum we first saw the scale model of Jerusalem during the second Temple period. The various areas of the city were explained. Then we went into the Archaeological Museum, where Shlomo explained that this museum is equivalent to the Smithsonian. He showed us a couple of exhibits, and then told us we had 20 minutes to see the rest of the Museum. Impossible!! I tried to snap pictures as fast as possible. This is a place I will need to return in the future without a guide limiting my time.

Following the museum we went to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial.. Shlomo shared stories of his family from a book he has written, “Legacy Interrupted.” We saw the Hall of Remembrance which was very visual, and the Holocaust History Museum, which was a picture of anti-Semitism and the sufferings of the Jewish people leading up to and during the Hitler era. The museum showed how they piled discrimination with persecution with torture and death. It showed the movements of the German army to annihilate the Jewish people, even as they were losing the war.

After a time of reflection, we went to the motel and ate dinner. Then Chelsea and I went to Ben Yehuda Street to go shopping. I found a Mezuzah and a Kippah, and was able to bargain for both. We saw a group of Syrian protesters march down the street. We walked back by the Orthodox neighborhood on the Street of the Prophets.