JERUSALEM 7/2/12

The day finally came, that we go to Old Jerusalem. What a treat to be in city with so much biblical importance. Can you say live the history of the bible? It's only a 40 minute drive from Tel Aviv. At first glance your taken back by the size of its walls. There HUGE!!! The visible part is only a section that still runs deep into the earth. The next thing that hits you is that it's OLD. Then you realize, man there's a ton of people here. There are Jews, Christians and Muslims all trying to connect to their past.

We walked in through the Jaffa Gate and after a few hundred feet the shops start. There are shops in every nook and cranny this old city has. All kinds of souvenir shops, religious relics and more. Once we get past a few shops we go toward one of the most famous spots of all Jerusalem for Christians, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The church is built over the area called the Golgotha the site where Jesus was impaled on the stake. It's also over the spot where his tomb was. And they say they have a piece of the rock that served as a door and that the angels removed for his resurrection. It is astonishing the amount of people and the devotion they demonstrate these relics.

 We now visited the holiest place Jews. When you climb down the stairs toward the Western wall you are impressed with it's grandeur. After you through a checkpoint, they check your bags, you go through a metal detector, you can walk up to the wall. Now remember this is Jewish territory now, so women are in one section and men in another. Jewish men are supposed to cover there head with at least a kip pah or skullcap. So we walked to the wall and took some pictures, what else can you do there. But if you look carefully every nook and cranny has a paper with a prayer in it.

While there, we witnessed several Bar-Mitzvah, the coming of age rituals for Jewish boys. But since men and women are separated by a fence, the Bar-Mitzvah were being held close to the fence of the women side, so the women could peer over the fence at the ritual. Then men would take off to what looked like a room next to the wall.



We then moved to the second holiest site for Muslims, the Dome of the Rock, which by the way was built over the temple mount. Now here things get very interesting. We are now in Muslim territory, and dress is strict. So Leti and my Mom, although wearing pants and sleeved shirts, too much of their arms were showing. The good thing is, that they came prepared. Leti had her shawl and my Mom had another long sleeve blouse to put on. If they didn't they would have to buy a shawl for $20 shekels. Once inside you have a mosque then there's the Dome of the Rock. It's colors and design are very vibrant. The golden dome is quite a sight. I tried to get in, even though I knew you have to be Muslim to get in a mosque, and guess what? I didn't get in. Ohhh well!