Jeursalem

Monday, October 5th was an exciting day with lots of changes. The plan was a bus ride into Jerusalem to the western wall and other sites in the city.

Yes the bus ride was as planned, until we arrived in Jerusalem. As we approached the city the police informed the bus driver that the road he wanted to use was closed. A call to the Rabbi, who was to meet us in the western part of Jerusalem, did not help as the bus driver was not willing to take the route he suggested. The end result, we disembarked close to the “dung gate” on the Eastern side of Jerusalem. From there we went to the site of the Garden tomb and relaxed in the garden, waiting on our tour guide to come to the Eastern side of the city. This gave us the opportunity to visit the tomb which probably was Yeshua’s tomb.

From there we went into Zedekiah’s cave. Actually a massive underground stone quarry under the city. A huge area, we only went through a small part. Alhe stone was cut out without the use of metal objects or all our modern stone cutting equipment. The Rabbi told us that the stones were cut out by placing pieces of dry wood in the cracks and then soaking the wood. The expanding wood caused the sections to break loose so they could be rolled to the surface to build the buildings.

From there we entered the “dung gate”, this is all on the East side of Jerusalem, and walked through the old city of Jerusalem. Most of this area is inhabited by the Muslims and filled with their shops. The most amazing part of walking in this area was discovering the Jewish Yeshivas right in the heart of the Muslim areas that have been reclaimed for the Jews. We walked the “Via De la Rosa” as a part of the areas we traveled in what was almost like an underground city.

At one point we were in an area that placed us beside a very secluded part of the Western wall, not visited by many and were able to discuss, pray and observe a great deal without anyone around. Just our group of 16 with the Rabbi as our teacher. This was a very special time, to be at the western wall, without all the hectic activity normally associated with the western wall. We also went to the public area of the Western Wall, masses of people wedging in to get to the wall for prayer, to touch, to leave a prayer or just to say they were there. The Rabbi took the men into a study area by the wall where students were studying Torah.

Even though we spent most of the day in heavy Muslim areas at no time did we feel unsafe. Yes, the IDF was everywhere, but they too seemed very relaxed.

Our final adventure of the day was to observe the discoveries of the old City of David and looking across the valley to the Mount of Olives and down the Kidron Valley. It was a very full day.