January 12, 2019
Upon arrival at Tel Aviv Airport, I took a shared taxi (sherut) to Jerusalem Bus Station (1). I had a nice walk to drop off my bag where I was staying. The city was very quiet; I did not even hear a radio playing (2), no shops were open, and there were few cars in the streets. They seriously observe the Sabbath in West Jerusalem.
A half hour stroll led me to the Old City. Upon entering the New Gate, I noticed some shops were open and more people were about; I was in the Christian Quarter.
I wended my way through crowded covered street markets to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified. The rock at Golgotha is enclosed in glass but there was a hole in the glass that allowed you to reach down and touch the rock. The small altar over the hole was designed to require you to kneel to touch the rock. The tomb from which Jesus rose is also purportedly in the Church.
Holy Sepulchre Church is generally considered to be the holiest site in Christianity. In an unusual display of ecumenicalism, the site is shared by Roman Catholics and various Orthodox denominations. Judging by the manner in which people were crossing themselves, the crowd in the Church when I visited was mainly Orthodox (3).
Walking through more crowded street markets (and through a security scan) brought me to the Western Wall, the holiest sight in Judaism. The wall supported the Second Temple, destroyed by the Romans in response to a Jewish insurrection in 70 C.E. There were a large number of people praying at the wall (and a heavily armed police and military presence), with separate sections for men and women. Ablution stations were available for ritual washing of the hands.
I left the Old City and walked (along very quiet streets and past large cemeteries) to the Mount of Olives to the east. The Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed on the night he was betrayed by Judas, is located here, but the exact location is in dispute.
Climbing further up, there is a Franciscan Chapel. While enjoying the view. I overheard the leader of an America religious group pointing out the East Gate of the Old City as he explained the gate's role in his eschatological beliefs (4). The Pater Noster (Our Fathet) Church, built at the site where tradition says Jesus taught his disciples the Lord's Prayer, is near the summit and displays the prayer in a wide variety of languages.
The Chapel of the Ascension sits at the summit of the Mount of Olives, the highest point in the Jerusalem area. Christian and some Islamic teachings (5) say this is the place from which Jesus ascended into Heaven on Pentecost. There are altars in the Chapel for various Christian denominations and a mehreb (niche in the wall) signalling the way to Mecca.
The Mount of Olives afforded a good view of the sunset over Jerusalem; some Chinese Christians sang songs while the sun set.
Walking back as evening fell, I could easily discern the Christian Quarter of the Old City even from outside the city walls: Christmas trees, and lighted reindeer and candy canes were visible above the walls and through New Gate.
I also passed from East Jerusalem to West Jerusalem. The city had been divided from 1947 to 1967, with a small no-mans land in between. I sensed the divide walking along the north wall of the old city as Sultan Suleiman St became Schlomo ha-Melekh St: Arabic store signs and commercial vibrancy early Saturday evening in mainly-Palestinian East Jerusalem, short walk through a quiet stretch, then Hebrew store signs and a slowly-awakening feel as Shabbat ended in West Jerusalem (5).
(1) Being the Sabbath (Shabbat), the trains and busses were not running. I had anticipated this would mean the shared taxis would fill up fast (a) on Shabbat. However, I did not consider that El Al (the Israeli airline) does not fly on Saturday, so few passengers were arriving. After about 45 minutes, there was a bit of a surge, and two sherut left simultaneously.
(a) Like furgon (buses in Albania), sherut leave "when full."
(2) This was especially noticeable when I heard some music from an apartment I was passing. What I initially thought was a radio playing was actually people singing.
(3) The manner of making the sign of the cross differs between the Western Christian tradition (e.g. Roman Catholic and Protestant) and the Eastern Christian tradition (e.g. Orthodox). The differences relate to how the fingers are held and which shoulder one touches first (left in the Western tradition, right in the Eastern tradition).
(4) His version of the end times goes something like this: the Book of Daniel (b) said the world would end in 490 years, there were 483 years between Daniel and Jesus, leaving 70 weeks (c). Jesus' ministry was 69 weeks, leaving only one week left, but this final week is on hold (d) until the Jewish state makes a deal with the Anti-Christ (the European Union), who will broker a peace deal between the Arabs and Israelis (e). Once the peace deal is reached, the clock will start again and Yeshua (Jesus) will return, blast open the East Gate (which was closed by the Moslems to fulfill Biblical prophesy), and re-enter Jerusalem in Triumph (f).
(b) The Old Testament Book of Daniel, together with the New Testament Book of Revelation, are the go-to books for end-times predictors and from which the group leader (Bible in hand) quoted liberally
(c) No, the math does not work for me either.
(d) "We are living in a parentheses" was how he phrased this gap.
(e) "Yes, the Anti- Chirst will win the Nobel Peace Prize" he asserted.
(f) It surprises me that people predicting the end times tend to believe every word of the Bible is literally true, yet they still try to predict the last day. According to the gospel accounts, Jesus stated that no-one except God the Father (not even Jesus himself) knows when the last day will be (Matthew 24; 36).
(5) West Jerusalem began to come alive as shabbat ended: empty buses (labelled route 0) and empty trams (destination marked as "Depot") rumbled through the streets positioning themselves to recommence service; they soon began taking on passengers as shops and cafés re-opened.
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