Day 31: Thursday, May 22, Jerusalem

Kids run through the street with waste wood they have collected. That night was a festival (I forget which one) where everyone burned bonfires. All day, kids were running through the streets with scrap wood. This team had a wheeled cart typical of the narrow Jerusalem streets and announced their presence by continually blowing a whistle so they wouldn't have to stop their careening through the streets.

Today was our first day in Jerusalem. The old city is just like you might imagine it in Jesus’ time, except that the “Shalom Y’all” plaques and made-for-tourist shofars in the closely-packed stores are garishly lit by electric lights. The narrow, stepped cobblestone streets are all the size of a back alley. There is an Arab Quarter, Christian Quarter, Jewish Quarter, and obviously that leaves one quarter that I’ve forgotten about. (Google has reminded me that it is the Armenian Quarter.)

A sign on the Via Dolorsa.

This is the parallel parking test that Israelis must take for their license.

It’s hard to tell the difference between them. Almost all of the Old City has been taken over by hawkers calling you into their shops. Some are overeager, some are creative: one advertised his shop as the “5 and a half stop on the Via Dolorosa.” As we went by, another guy acted like he was dialing a phone and pretended to have a conversation with Barak Obama, asking him if he wanted a Michael Jackson t-shirt (all for our benefit). The alleys are stepped, so there are two narrow ramps at each step just far enough apart so that you can pull a handcart up the steps. When one person slipped on a step and landed on his tailbone, a store owner who had been sitting down got up laughing and congratulated him, saying “you are number 7 today! Come shop in my store,” with absolutely no transition.

School kids released from captivity.

All of this happened as we walked the Via Dolorosa. It was interesting, but there were a lot of stops that aren’t in the Gospel account and therefore I didn’t know anything about. We saw lots of Catholic pilgrims who sang a certain song at each stop.

One of the main stops of the day was a Jewish bookstore that doubles as an idea forum and place for religious discussions. The two proprietors are twin brothers that, though 50, couldn’t look any more similar, even down to their matching beards. He talked for a while about Christianity and Judaism, then took questions. It was fascinating, and once again I wished I had a mini digital audio recorder. Some highlights:

Light from an oculus in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the last stop on the Stations of the Cross.

-He said that you don’t have to Jewish to be “saved” under Judaism. (I put that in quotes because its meaning when used in Judaism is only similar to that when used in Christianity. Jews do not believe in a fallen nature, and therefore there is no need to be saved from inherent sin.) You only have to “love God with all your heart.” That does not mean that you have to love the Talmudic God with all of your heart; monotheists who live an ethical life qualify. Without having asked this explicitly, it seems to indicate that dedicated devotees of Islam also are “saved” so long as they are ethical (which presents an interesting bind if you believe that Islam calls the killing of infidels legal and desired).

-He made the interesting (and I think true) observation that few Christians want to claim a denomination these days. Denominations are a whole different discussion, but it was an interesting point, particularly since Jews claim that there are no denominations and only three “styles” of Judaism – Orthodox, Hasidic, Reformed – but there are definitely different strands within those.

It is perfectly legal to drive your tractor down this road. Just leave the tiller at home.

-Christians frequently talk about the “burden of the law.” He said there is no “burden,” because there is no greater joy than to obey God’s laws if you love him. This also hinges on the Christian view of the sin nature: Christians believe it is impossible to meet all of God’s laws on your own and that they are there to point us toward our need for salvation; Jews believe that it is possible to meet the requirements of the law. “The whole Rabinnic culture about how I can serve God more than he demands,” hence the extra man-made laws that are considered on par with the laws of the Torah.

-The afterlife: Jews believe that there is eternal separation from God, but that it’s only for the worst of the worst and your soul just ceases to exist. You get snuffed out of the cosmic candle, if you’ll pardon me. Everyone else is in the presence of God, but for some that is a burning feeling as God looks at their sin, and for others it is incomprehensible joy.

-He talked about how Jews dislike Christian proselytizing. He said he sometimes feel’s like someone’s project. In his words, “Christians are not called to pass out tracts, they are called to be tracts.” True to a point, but unlike Judaism, Christianity believes there is specific revelation (as opposed to general revelation) required for salvation.

One of the things I found most interesting was how well he talked in Christian lingo. If he had used a bunch of Judaic lingo we wouldn’t have understood it, particularly the nuances. I definitely realized that Christian lingo can be a huge barrier to conveying Christian ideas, even if it helps us debate those ideas internally.

He, and many others that I have met, strongly dislike Olmert. Olmert is currently in the middle of a scandal about possible bribery.

After that we went to the Temple Mount. I was told that this was no small item. Our tour guide had never been on the Temple Mount, and he was so excited that he dressed up in slacks, dress shirt, and tie. For him, this was his chance to get as close as allowed by Judaism to the original site of the Holy of Holies. We went through rigorous security and were then allowed on the Mount. The place itself is just a large flat square. On one end is the al-Aqsa mosque, where Mohammed is said to have been transported overnight from Medina before ascending to heaven. Up a few steps is the Dome of the Rock, which is not actually a mosque. Jethro wouldn’t go very near the Dome of the Rock, because it is believed to approximately rest on the site of the Holy of Holies. No Jew is allowed in the Holy of Holies or the area of the temple immediately surrounding it, so since Jews don’t know exactly where that is, they just avoid the whole area. The Dome is an ornate building. Since we weren’t Muslims, we weren’t allowed in either building. I was surprised to find young Arab kids playing soccer and some Arab families just hanging out up there. Overall, it was anticlimactic in the sense that you couldn’t do anything except wander around and see the outside of the buildings up close, but on the other hand it was quite amazing to be standing on the site that housed the actual temple and is now the holiest site of Judaism, the third holiest site in Islam, and the center of contention between the two.

The Dome of the Rock as seen from the outer courtyard of the Temple Mount.

I forgot to mention that last night (or technically today because of the time) we went under the Wailing Wall and against that western wall of the Temple Mount. In doing so we stepped back through all of modern history and onto the street level. Jews pray at the Wailing Wall because it is the closest accessible point to the Holy of Holies. Under the wall you can get even closer, so when we went (at 11:30pm), there were Jews in the tunnels praying at the closest point.

Note the ridged cuts in the stone. This is called Herodian stone because it was a standard feature of Herod's building projects. The Temple Mount is another engineering feat. Herod shaved off one hill, built up a valley, and filled arches in with rubble to support the top.

Outside at the Wailing Wall, it wasn’t nearly as crowded as you typically see it in pictures, but at the same time I was surprised by the number of people praying there at 1am on a weeknight/morning.


The Wailing Wall at night. Note the fence dividing the men (left) from the women (right).