Jerusalem: The Holy City

We are up early this morning so that we can be in the line up to get into the dome on the rock as it is only open for 3 hours in the morning for non Muslims to enter the site. There is huge security going into the site and we have to line up and wait for over an hour in light rain to get through security. Women must cover their heads and there are both Israeli security and Muslim security everywhere. Non-Muslims cannot enter either the temple or the dome. We walk around the court yard which takes up a sizable amount of the temple mount. A man puts his arm around his wife for a photo with the dome in the background. Immediately out of nowhere a temple security man comes and separates them for it is improper for them to touch one another up here.
The dome covers the spot that Muslims claim Mohamed was taken up into heaven although the Koran does to actually specify this as the site. Underneath this site is likely to be the remains of the inner sanctum of the second temple of Judaism and access to this has been denied and it is a point of great contention .

We move off the mount and walk through some parts of the old city and head to the western wall sometimes referred to as the "wailing wall", though this is not the preferred term for Jews. There is a small section of the wall that is partitioned off that women can go to but the majority of the wall is for men only. All different strips of Judaism visit this wall, make prayers and supplications and place slips of paper between the rocks. With head covered I go to the wall to pray and to leave prayers of hope for peace and healing in this broken land. Again there is an energy that moves me and stirs something within- perhaps simply a connection to a lot of history, perhaps something more. A few bar mitzvahs are underway and they happen near the fence partition so that the female relatives can stand on chairs and peer over and throw sweets.

From here we head to the archeological dig that has unearthed different parts of the temple dating back to the time of Herod and through to the year 70 when the temple is razed to the ground by the Romans . You can see spots they have unearthed where the walkway is smashed from the large temple stones that were pushed over the edge and remain there in piles as well. Stones in this temple are up to 9 times the size and weight of those that build the pyramids. A marvel of construction. There is a huge sense of the loss and grief that accompanies this loss of the temple. The stones seem to cry out still and is an embedded source of grief for Jews in this part of the world. We head round to the front steps where it is likely that Jesus at some point with the rest of the crowds each year, would have made the journey up to enter the temple and perhaps either listened to passionate teachers or perhaps taught himself a time or two . It was customary in Jesus day for jews to come to the temple about three times a year so it is likely he was here quite a number of times in his life. What we do know is that on his last journey to this temple he created enough of a ruckus to get himself into trouble with the authorities (more on that when we take the holy week walk around the mount and temple grounds ) .

After a lunch break we head to the Shrine of the Book and the Model of the ancient city and temple at the time of Jesus.This is a massive model that really puts into perspective the size and scope of the old city and the temple . The shrine of the book contains some of the fragments of the books found at Qumran including a complete 7meter long scroll of Isaiah . It's truly amazing to see it and some of the actual jars that preserved these so well for 2000 years. They also give us great insight into the life and beliefs of the Essene movement that Jesus may have had a connection to and been influenced by at one time.

Back at the Hotel we meet up with one of the founding rabbi's of the group Rabbis For Human Rights. He speaks to us of their involvement with Palestinians, the army, the court system and other justice groups to work for justice and peace in this land . His parents were both survivors of the holocaust and he knows first hand how that trauma continues to shape the ideology of Israel. He speaks of a rise of conservatism in the youth of Israel and he does not see any short term or easy solutions either. The group is made up of over 1000 rabbis from different sects in Judaism including orthodox and ultra orthodox. Each has also encountered resistance from their congregations at times and almost all of them have been imprisoned at least once for demonstrating against unjust actions of the state.

Another full day with much to reflect on and integrate. It will be good to have an unstructured day to wander around the old city and beyond tomorrow.