Walls of Jerusalem

The walls of Jerusalem are a wonderful place to get and know the Old city, and also the people that live within it. Today was a free day, so we got a sack lunch at breakfast and then we got to do whatever we wanted for the rest of the day. We all have TONS of reading to do for our classes (over 150 pages), so we knew that we were going to have to make time for that today, but our priority was to get out into the city! So a group of us all left at about 930am and started out towards the Old City to walk the ramparts.

Starting in Jaffa gate, you can take a walk around all of the walls surrounding in the Old City, except for the parts that are around the temple mount, so you have to take each section on it's own. 8 shekles ($2 ish) to get up there, and alot of time! The city itself is about a mile square, and so you end up walking almost 4 miles to get around the whole thing, but it was worth it. Not only does it give you the chance to see all that is in the Old city from a new angle, but also the things that are right outside the wall. We went on the southern circut first, which takes you from Jaffa gate to the Dung gate, which takes you down by the Armenian Quarter. Alot of the wonderful churches that I want to be able to see while I am here were in this part of the city, as well as many neat graveyards. Walking on the walls themselves and just thinking about how it would be to have to defned the city itself was really cool. The walls are so thick in places and you can just imaging being shot at, or shooting, through the wall.

The Dung Gate is the entrance to one of the most seen walls in Jerusalem, the Western or Wailing Wall. You have to go through security (a metal detector and search) to get to the wall, but when you see it for the first time, it really is a humbling place. It is separated into a women's and men's side, and the man have to be wearing some sort of head covering in order to go near the wall. They actually have little yamaka's for people to use if they don't have one, so we each got one and went in to see this holy site. It was not very crowded today, the womens side was much more crowded, but they also dont' have as much wall space. To see all the Jewish men, young and old (6 to 75) at the wall, praying, some ricking back and forth as they did so, and many just touching the walls and praying, was an awsome sight. Along with the head coverings there were some who had wrapped themselves with a long tether and had put on thier phylacteries. When we asked one of the men what the wrapping was for, he responded, "we do not know. We do it because Moses told us to." I really respect all the those faithful Jewish followers who worship at the wall withso much faith. It is neat too because on the mens side are a few caves and there are little libraries inside of them. I don't know exactly what books were there, it was all in Hebrew, but I think that they were mostly prayer books, as well as some actual scrolls of scripture. Again, as we left, I felt a humbling awe at the things that I was able to witness there.

To get to the northern half of the wall, you have to walk back through the city to Jaffa gate, and so off we went. The other side was interesting because you actually got to look into peoples yards that lived in the Old City and see what thier life was like. To call it a yard is not really right, but these people have really made this place home. There were even a few schools on the upper levels of the city, and a dirt soccer field with a buch of school kids playing. It was neat to have this little window into the lives of the people that we are going to meet every day here.

We ended near the entrance to the Dome of the Rock, which only Muslims now can enter ( i hope they change that while i'm here!) and so we left out of Lion's gate and headed down to the Chruch of all Nations and the Garden of Gethsemane. There is a Greek Orthodox church down there that own a place that is belived to be one of the places where Mary was lain after her death. Not being as popular, we actually waited in line to see the inside of the shrine. We then went to the Church of All Nations itself, which has a rock in which they belive Jesus prayed before he was arrrested and betrayed. This is a very quiet chruch and none of the noise from outside was able to penetrate this holy place. Next to the chruch are some of the oldest olive trees that still stand in the area. One can only wonder if one of them could somehow be related to the tree that we all respect and love.

The rest of our day was spent in study. We did have to give our legs and our skin a rest (don't worry, i have been wearing my sunblock!). The only other activity that we had was watching the Israeli Opera who came to the center for the JC's concert series. It was a wonderful performace to say the least. Anyway, I have to get going. We have a first feidl trip to go on today, and I don't want to be late! Love you all!