Israel Part II: Traditional Shabbat and a Dance Party

As promised, I am now delivering to you dedicated Blog readers...Israel, Part Deux.  

I left you last some time during the day of December 29th.  This was a BIG day for us, and I actually left out a couple stops we made after our tour.  Cory and I decided we hadn't seen quite enough that day, so we trodded on to King David's tomb and the room where the last supper took place.  I loved the last supper room because it looked just like I had always imagined it to look.  You could just picture the banquet table strung out through the long hall, and picture Jesus enjoying himself with his disciples.  That pretty much wraps up that whirlwind day...so lets dive into December 30th!

We woke up and met (Room situation:  Can't afford private rooms+Muslim Hostel+no co-ed rooms=Cory and I having to stay in seperate dorm rooms) at 7:30 and set out to the Dome Of The Rock.  This huge, gold domed Mosque undoubtedly lights up the landscape of Jerusalem.  As the name suggests, this dome covers a rock that is pivotal to both Jewish and Muslim faiths.  It was on this rock that Abraham was said to have prepared to sacrifice Isaac and where Mohammed is believed to have ascended into heaven alongside Allah.  This is a big and.  To me, this place represented the conflict in the Holy Land as succinctly as anything else could.  This was the Jews holiest site.  This is the Islam's 3rd holiest site.  Yet this glaringly magnificant reminder sits for all to see, that the Muslims aren't going anywhere.  The city feels as if it is at a stale-mate.  This beautiful dome that sits on the Temple Mount is only open to Muslims, so Cory and I just sat outside pondering this space.  It is undoubtedly holy.  This is where God was said to have gathered the dust to create Adam.  You could feel the palpable energy in that land. We sat there, trying not to make assumptions or judge any one party involved with this tension...while also trying to conceive how this has all come to be this way.  We desperately wanted to talk to someone who lived there, and could give us a real perspective.

Temple Mount

After we left the Temple Mount, we headed up up up to the Mount of Olives.  According to the book of Zechariah, this is where God will start to redeem the dead when the Messiah returns on the Day of Judgement.  In order to get a good place in line, people have tried to get buried as close as possible.  There are about 150,000 graves there.  Aside from being the worlds oldest continually used cemetary, there are many churches and sites just around there that were pivotal in Jesus's journey to the cross.  We took a short walk from the Mount of Olives to Mother Mary's tomb, the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus was arrested.  What I loved there was the gnarled and ancient 2000 year old olive trees.   It blew my mind to think that those trees were there, on the day that Jesus's journey to the cross began.  To me, it was amazing.  

Olive trees that saw Jesus

View from the Temple mount, with the cemetery in the foreground

After we made our way down the steep slopes of the Mount of Olives, we decided we hadn't quite walked enough before noon (this day has to hold the record for most steps taken by a tourist) so we headed waaay across town to the bustling Mahane Yehuda Market.  This market was jam packed with the most beautiful fruits and veggies I could imagine.  As it was a Thursday, and all the Jews were preparing for their Friday Shabbat dinner, it was especially chaotic.  People were buying huge supplies of food to see their families through Sabbath.  It was fun to see this dynamic market place in action, and to give us more of an idea of what modern day Jerusalem looked like outside of the ancient old city.  At the market we stocked up on  hummus of course, with plenty of green peppers, onions and fresh, hot pita bread to dip with.  The hummus in Israel was unlike any I have ever had and it is now my culinary life quest to make hummus that compares to theirs.

Delish pizza from the market.   The man that sold it to me really wanted to take a picture of me with the pizza.

Through the miracles of Couch Surfing, we had been in contact with a woman who lived in Jerusalem named Marianna.  She didn't have a couch for us to stay on, as she was a student in a dorm, but she offered to meet us for a drink so we had a real live person to give us the lay of the land in all the craziness.  That night we met up with her in the hub of the new city, Zion Square.  She guided us to a bar close by, where we splurged and bought one beer, and the bar to our delight supplied us with some FREEBIES!!!  We didn't think this existed in Israel, the land of the 10 dollar box of cereal.  They brought us out popcorn and a Hookah to puff on while we talked.  I was already calling this encounter a success.  Marianna was amazing, of course.  She is from Russia, but has lived in Jerusalem for 9 years.  She is a language student and was brilliant as far as I could see.    She chatted with us for 2 hours, and answered all of the questions we could muster.  She then asked what we were doing for New Years tomorrow.  We looked at each other in embarrasement and said "absolutely nothing."  She then invited us to her Orthodox Jewish sister's family Shabbat dinner...to which her parents were flying in from Moscow for.  After that, she said she'd bring us to a big party her classmates were throwing for New Years.  Jackpot. 

We were so excited for our big night in the real world.  She gave us the address to her sister's house, and the next night we headed out. The taxi driver couldn't even drive down many of the streets as the sun was down, Shabbat had begun, and many of the extremely orthodox neighborhoods block off their streets for traffic during these 24 hours.  Luckily, her sister didn't live in this kind of neighborhood, as the taxi could drop us off right outside.  We ran with our heads down in the pouring rain up to their doorstep, not having a CLUE what to expect.  What we found inside was her sister, with her head covered and a long velvet house coat on working fevorishly to finish dinner.  She had a beautiful, welcoming smile and spoke impecable English.  Her mom and dad were in the kitchen helping, and their sweet little boys were sitting on the couch with their tiny yamikas on reading Curious George.  We chatted with Marianna until Jake, her brother in law got home from Synagogue.  He looked about 20 years old, and not as nearly orthadox looking as I had expected.  He came in with his oldest child Elisha, who was a gorgeous and gregarious little girl.  Talking to Jake, we realized there was nothing to be intimidated by in this home.  They were SO normal.  I was expecting not to be able to relate to them on very much, as they were "Orthodox", and we are so not, but it was the complete opposite.  Jake grew up in Brooklyn, NY...so he obviously spoke perfect English.  Little Elisha was born in the states, so she also was fluent.  They all had incredible senses of humor, which delighted us, as it was rare to encounter people abroad that understood English so well that they could understand nuances and humor.  As we started dinner, he light headrtedly explained what traditions they upheld leading into the meal.  We sang songs in Hebrew out of a book they handed us.  Jake lead the songs, and it was hilarious to hear Cory and I mumbling our Hebrew bashfully in the background.  After about 5 songs, we all got up to ceremonially wash our hands before dinner.  We poured water from a jug on each hand twice.  Then we sat down and Jake broke off a piece of special bread and handed the rest of the massive loaf around the table.  That was the end of the ushering in of the Sabbath, and now they happily told us it was finally time to eat!  And eat we did.  

Course after course of amazing, healthy, and obviously Kosher food spilled out of the kitchen.  Cory and I were trying to soak up every vitamin and nutrient we could, as we never knew how long it'd be till we could afford another.  We stuffed ourselves, as any good, starving travelers would.  We continued on with interesting, and enlightening conversation with the whole family.  Turns out they are ALL math professors, except Marianna.  Gulp.  So smart.  Usually, nothing makes me sweat more than math minds, but it was totally different with these folks.  They were so down to earth and funny, I didn't even give it a second thought that they could think me under the table.  Jake, at 29, was actually the youngest professor EVER in Jerusalem.  But whenever proud little Elisha would bring out the article with Jake on the front stating this fact, both mom and dad would tell her to put it away...and that it really didn't matter.  She persisted and hung it up on the wall by the table.  I can not say enough how much this dinner meant to Cory and I.  We felt no longer like tourists or travelers, but guests. We got to ask all the questions we had, and Cory and Jake had a great, in depth discussion regarding the conflict as he saw it.  It was really more than we ever could have hoped for or imagined coming into this trip, and gave us a human context for everything we saw.  Thank goodness for the hospitality of strangers.  

Eventually we said our goodbyes, as it was time for the rowdy little ones to get tucked in.  We then caught a cab with Marianna and headed back to the center of town to our New Years party.  Prior to this, we had purchased our favorite Polish Grass Vodka (introduced to us by our best booze buddies, the Loyas, of course) Zubrowka, for the eve.  Being that you can't even buy this in the states, and it cost about as much as a pack of beer in the liquor store there, we were anxious to crack it open.  The party was upstairs, in a flat in the center of Jerusalem.  We couldn't believe the location.  The party was huge, and we met so many great people there.  As the night and alchohol consumption progressed, people started to shout..."WE LOVE AMERICA!!!"  everytime they saw us.  Marianna had also picked up another couch surfer name Julio, who was in town all the way from Madrid.  We had a great time talking to him, and overall just had a blast.  Because it was a party full of students, almost everyone spoke perfect English.  Let's just say, we got lucky on that one.  Eventually, as the party wound down, we headed out on our short walk back to the Damascus Gate, feeling an overall sense of gratitude for the evening.  Once again, reaching out to a stranger ends up saving the day.  We are so grateful to Marianna for taking a chance on two hooligans like us.  

Although we hadn't gotten home will about 3 am the night before, the persistant travelers in us couldn't be supressed.  We had more to see.  The next day we headed to Bethlehem.  It was only about an hour drive from Jerusalem, but it is a part of the West Bank, so we knew there was a chance we could get caught up at a check point for a while.  Everything went speedily, and we entered into the Palestinian territory with ease.  We didnt have a huge agenda for this day trip.  Mostly to see the obvious...Jesus's birthplace.  We ducked down to enter through a tiny hole-in-the-wall door to the church where the manger once was.  There was a massive gathering of people waiting to get in.  We waited our turn, and entered this below ground sanctuary.  There we were greeted with more beautiful, ornamental decor similar to the Church of the Holy Seplecure.  We found our way to the front of the crowd, where we were able to touch the place where Jesus was said to be born.  From there we made our way to where his manger once was and had to hurridly make our way out as the crowds were growing.  The rest of our day here was fairly uneventful.  We fell in love with the delicious Shwarma there, which is a huge, hot crepe wrapped around about 1/2 pound of lamb, vegetables and sauces.  Mmmmm.  So good.  We were mystified that our Lonely Planet offered the advice to travelers to make Bethlehem the home base for your trip instead of Jerusalem.  That might be the worst advice ever given.  We truley couldn't imagine why anyone would want to spend more than a day there, let alone call it home base!  This seemed insane, as this place had a fraction of a fraction worth of sights to see as Jerusalem.  We again must agree to disagree with Lonely Planet.  

Outside the church that is on Jesus' birthplace.  Watch your head!

Inside the church

We stayed two more days in Jerusalem until we headed onto the Dead Sea and Masada.  The remainder of our time in Jerusalem was basically wandering through the insane streets of the old city, wondering HOW 40,000 people of such opposing beliefs can coexist within these walls, and how WE have been so blessed to experience it all.    The words to sum up our time there would be astonishment and gratitude.  

And on that note...if you have made it to this point in this infinite blog, I am again both astonished and grateful to you.  Thanks for stickin with me through all of our journeys!  Next time, it will be a whole lotta floating on the Dead Sea, and what it fels like to get water with 33% solid substance  in your eyes.  Ouch!  

Talk to you soon!