I can't tell you how happy I am to be here in Jerusalem. It's Amazing. Friday night we went to the Western Wall... the wailing wall... where the Jews go to pray, but especially to welcome in the Sabbath... or Shabot. I wrote my prayer on a piece of paper [which is illegal on shabot... whoopsie! my friend got yelled at for writing... that's considered work. Taking photos is also not allowed- no use of electricity] and shoved it into some little crack in the wall. I sat in a little chair amongst a bunch of Jewish women [there is a big partition among the men and the women at the wall] and said a prayer and then walked away. It was a beautiful experience, we met these jewish girls and sang songs and danced with them to welcome in the sabbath. Jewish people begin the sabbath on sundown friday and it goes until sundown saturday.
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| This is a photo of the men's side |
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| The Western Wall |
While in the city i bought two scarfs and a little pouch that's embroidered to keep my shekels in... like a money pouch. I also ate my first meal out... a Shwarma! It was SO good! :) It was like a big chicken burrito. ... sometimes they put it on pita. anyways, i had a good day and a great time with the girls i was with... i think they're my friends now! haha
A couple of days ago we went to the Temple Mount. It is such a beautiful place, amazing to think that it was once the site of the temple in Jerusalem- a place where Jesus spent much of his time.
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| Me in front of the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount. |
Today we went to Zedekiah's Cave. The cave is most famous for being a stone quarry at the time of Herod the Great- but there is actually no evidence for it... welcome to the Holy Land! [lots of claims, no evidence]. Another legend is that the cave was a hiding place of King Zedekiah (a 6th Century BC Judean king
) dating back to at least the 11th Century AD. At that time, Biblical commentator Rashi wrote that Zedekiah tried to escape from the troops sent by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar to besiege Jerusalem. Raddak added that God
sent a buck running along the surface on top of the cave as Zedekiah was
walking down below. The soldiers chased the buck and arrived at the
exit of the cave just as Zedekiah was coming out, enabling them to
capture and blind him. Thus was born the legend and name of “Zedekiah's
Cave”. (The considerable distance between Jerusalem and Jericho — about
13 miles (21 km) — reflects the legendary nature of the story.) -Thank you Wikipedia!
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| Me, Annie, McKenzie & Rachel at the cave's entrance |
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| Annie, myelf and Rachel inside the cave... the water you see trickling down the wall is called "Zedekiah's Tears" |
After the cave we ventured to the Pools of Bethesda, a pool of healing spoken of in John, Kings and Isaiah. It is specifically known for Jesus' healing miracle in the pools.
Here is what biblewalks.com has to say about it:
Ruins of twin
pools [are] in the north side of the old city, close to the Lions gate.
These pools supplied water to the temple during the times of the
first and second temple (until Herod). There are references in the
old testament to the "upper pool", which may have been the name of
the northern pool.
Adjacent to the pools were
baths and a healing center. These baths are the site of the healing miracle of Jesus in the pools of the
sheep market, which was also called "Bethesda".
Later, a Byzantine
basilica was built over parts of the pools. The Crusaders built a
small chapel over its ruins, and later a larger Basilica nearby
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| Looking down at the ruins. Since the Old City is so built up... original structures are a whole level beneath the current city. |
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| Entrance to one of the pools with Laura... notice the poppies! I love them. |
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| Group photo outside of the church, Byzantine basilica and Crusader chapel outside of St. Anna. |
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