New day, new guide. We are off with Phil - who is a bit dramatic in the telling, entertaining and knowledgable...but may be a bit scattered. The bus drivers and guides all sort of know each other - we have even picked up a hitchhiker and given a ride to a vendor. The guides here sort of have to mention the vendors that we pass - unspoken rule- that they will give a little pitch for the stuff that we are walking by. And there are a lot of vendors!!
We are off the itinerary for various reasons - Shabat, guide change, avoiding lines, etc. It is a very busy busy town. Lots of busses - lots of tour groups - all speaking different languages, etc. Actually our first church on the Mt of Olives the Church of the Ascension, but I am pretty sure we are going to see another place where they believe Jesus may have ascended from tomorrow. The grounds were surrounded by walls that had the Lord's Prayer in all different languages - so cool to see and hear different groups in front of their walls saying the Lord's Prayer in their language.
This was a modesty day - which means that shoulders and knees should be covered - yesterday one of our travelers was given a big old skirt to wear because they did not think her pants were long enough.
Our second church was the Dominus Flexit- the Lord Wept - He wept here on the Mount of Olives because he knew that the Temple was going to be destroyed.
We walked further down through the Mt of Olives, following in Jesus's footprints, to the rock where Jesus threw himself on the ground - the rock is in the Church of Agony. All of these churches are so beautiful - the ceilings are all vaulted and amazing mosaics or stained glass.
We next went to the St. Peter Gallicantu - the House of Caiphus - where Jesus was arrested and Peter denies that he knows him. Jesus told Peter that he would deny him 3 times before the rooster crows.
We had a nice lunch in a Monastery today - beautiful room - and then we went over to the church where the nun told us to come on in and take a look - again a beautiful church - and the nun said we could write down any names on a slip of paper and they would pray for us! The Mar Elias Monastery is dedicated to the prophet Elijah.
After lunch we went to the Israel Museum - filled with Antiquities from all different eras from this area. It had a special exhibit for the Dead Sea Scrolls - so cool to see the actual (and some replicas) scrolls (or pieces of them) that they found in the caves that we saw earlier in our travels at Qumron. We also saw the parts of the Aleppo Codex which as the oldest written copy of the Torah - sort of the master copy of the first 5 books of the Old Testament.
Our final stop was a sobering one. We went to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum....it was packed full of artifacts, large photos, testimonials, etc all documenting the horrors of the Holocaust. We will never forget. There was a very moving building dedicated to the memory of just the children of the Holocaust. There was also a section to honor those who risked their own lives and those of their families to help the Jews escape. We ended the museum trip with the reminder that we should Remember the past, Live in the present and Hope for the future.
Comments
Post a Comment