Qumran National Park, Bethlehem, Shepherds' Fields and Jerusalem

 Shalom Shabbat!  On Shabbat, Jews are not supposed to do anything that "creates" (just as God created the world on the 6th day and on the 7th he rested) - so they cannot press a button (they have special elevators that stop on every floor so no one has to put a button), they cannot cook (they prepare ahead of time), nothing that is work, no flame making, no switching switches, etc.  and it all begins at Sundown the night before.  Lots of things are closed on Shabbat.  

Our first stop was another National Park (Israel - the size of NJ, has 55!) which is the site of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (1947)- a couple of Shepherds lost a sheep or two and were looking in the local caves (which dot the sides of the mountains) - they threw a rock into a cave and heard a pot break.  They went in and discovered a couple of large sealed jars.  They got professionals involved and found that the pots contained scrolls, written in Aramaic.  The scrolls which included books of the Old Testament and community rules, etc.  They searched in other caves and came up with all kinds of scrolls - It turns out that the scrolls were works copied by Monks that hid them in the caves to preserve them.  Until then our only copies of the Old Testament were from...these dated 2000 years earlier than that....so they compared the texts we had been using to these older texts thinking that it would show that they writings had been corrupted over the years (like playing telephone) what they did find that the copies were 98 percent correct.  An amazing discovery!  

Next we Ascended into Jerusalem with people on the bus reading the Psalms of the Ascent.  Psalm 120-134.  We stopped at Mt. Scopus - we were shocked to discover that it was COLD out and raining!!  (Yesterday, by the Dead Sea, it was in the mid 80's- today it was in the 50's)

We got another lesson clarifying some of the political and geographic information on the West Bank.  Bethlehem, which was our next stop, was in the Palestinian territory of Israel - our guide, an Israeli needed to file paperwork and let the govt know that he was coming to this area- Israeli's are not allowed to enter the area.  We had to have a special guide for just this town.  Johnny was great, fast talking and fast walking!

Our first stop was a gift shop which featured Olive wood carvings.  When you enter the building, you took an escalator down and Joy to the World was playing - once in the shop, they gave everyone a gift and told us all about the wood and the sculptors.  All pricing was in American dollars - they did not really want our Shekels (which by the way, I find fascinating that they use Shekels, the same money as in Jesus's time). Anyway, they served wine and tea and gave us plenty of time and space to spend our money.  (Christmas is coming Wozniak family!).

Our next stop with Johnny was the Shepherd's fields - (there are still Sheep and Shepherds on these fields).  We went into a church and sang Oh Come all Ye Faithful - beautiful acoustics...

The Fountain at the location of the Shepherds' Fields

The caves at the site of the Shepherds' Fields - 

The Chapel at the site of the Shepherds' Fields

The Shepherds' Fields - I think you can see Bethlehem in the distance

Going into the Chapel at Shepherds' fields - we went in and sang O Come All Ye Faithful - beautiful acoustics!

The Chapel Ceiling and a tableau in the Chapel

This is where the Angels told the Shepherds to Be Not Afraid...for on this day a Savior is Born...can't you just hear Linus reading the scripture?  They found the baby laying in a manger - by the way, they say that it was not a barn where Jesus was born, but a cave....this was our next stop - of course there is a church built over the site of where the cave was, and there are two different churches (The Church of the Nativity) built over the cave, both claiming they have the actual site.  We did get to go into one and see the cave.

The church of the Nativity (3 demonimations share it)

  

Then on the Jerusalem.  We went into Old Jersusalem and went into the Holiest Site in Israel for Christians, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  This is the site where Jesus was crucified, his body was taken off the cross, washed  and was laid on a beautiful piece of marble and prepared for buriel as they would a king.   (last 3 stations of the cross on the Via Doloroas) He was then taken to a place nearby and laid in a tomb.  The tomb is enshrined inside this church.  Thousands line up to enter the tomb, to see where he was laid.  

We finished the day - a very long one - by walking through the markets of Old Jerusalem - the area is divided into 4 Quarters - The Armenian, Jewish, Muslim and Christian.  We will be in Jerusalem for 4 days and have time to go back and shop later!