I Think I'll Call it the Ascent of Annihilation, Instead

     Hi readers!  Sorry it has been so long since I've updated.  This week has been fairly busy.  I'll start with my field study on Sunday, go from there, and maybe you will see what I mean.
     Alright, so last week I got sick again for the 3rd time this semester - mind you, the semester has only been a month long thus far - and I ended up missing all my Wednesday classes.  Anything that was lectured on about our field study, I missed.  Meaning that, when we began our venture into Benjamin, I had no idea what we were doing, where we were going, or what I had gotten myself into.
     We started our morning at a lovely little mountainous area in the wilderness.  Whoever says that there's no beauty in the desert, needs to come here.  The sun had just risen, and the land was still cool from the night.  The ridge that we were studying on looked out over the expanse of the vast and dry hill country between Jerusalem and Jericho, towards the Dead Sea and the Rift Valley.  Our professor asked us to be silent for a few minutes and listen to the stillness that was out there.  I have to say that after spending a month in Jerusalem where the city is louder than New York City 24/7, that this silence was quite attractive.  Now maybe if I was wondering through something similar for 40 years, it may feel suffocating.  But when I'm surrounded by constant Israeli concerts, never ending traffic and car horns, and people singing and dancing and yelling all the time... It was quite peaceful in comparison.  It's certainly someplace special to go if you want to spend some time with God.
     Our next stop was the Ascent of Adumim, which is the Ridge Route following the Wadi (dry river bed) Qilt between Jericho and Jerusalem.  Little did I know, that we were going to walk the whole thing.  In the middle of the day.  From 9-11.  Just as the land was beginning to be hot.  A mountainous cliff on my left side and a dry bottomless river bed to my right.  It was one of those paths where one wrong step could lead to an untimely death or at least many broken bones and injuries.  The whole thing was horrifyingly terrible.  It wasn't necessarily physically challenging.  The whole path slowly descends and there are only a few places that are uphill, and it is a path so it's not like I was rock climbing or anything.  It was just so hot and stuffy.  When we started reaching the end of the road, the strata of limestone in the sides of the hills had started tilting from erosion so that they appeared to be moving diagonally up instead of from right to left.  One look at that and I thought the world was tilting, which gave me vertigo.  Because that's what I needed when I was soaked through with sweat, hot, and cranky (that's sarcasm, by the way.  I didn't need it).
     Once we reached New Testament Jericho - which is where the road led - we were to go to one of Herod's palaces that he built over the Wadi Qilt.  You know how Herod likes his desert palaces.  There was an easier but longer path that stretched around the palace and up inside of it.  But our professor decided it would just be easier to scale the steep hill, over the barbed wire fence, and into it.  By the time I got into the palace I was dizzy, tired, cranky, hot, and felt like I was going to faint.  I was literally fighting off tears and anxiety.  It was the worst moment of my life, no exaggeration.
     Next we went to Old Testament Jericho, which would have been a lot more enjoyable had I not still been dizzy.  I think the most fascinating thing that I learned at Jericho was that when they were excavating it, they found a base rock wall with a second wall on top made of mud brick.  Well the mud brick part of the wall seemed to have been destroyed from the inside of the city out.  Which doesn't make any sense.  If someone were attacking a city, they're most likely on the outside pushing the wall into the city.  But this wall looked as if it toppled forward, creating a ramp over the stone wall into the city.  This all sounds like what we have in the Bible - Joshua 6:20 "So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown.  As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city."  Pretty fascinating stuff.  Jericho is also in a place where earthquakes can certainly happen.  And who's to say God didn't create an earthquake at the exact time that the Israelite shouted?  This is the kind of story that illustrates how the people completely relied on God to help them.  Pretty cool stuff.
     After eating lunch and drinking an ice cold Diet Coke, I was feeling a lot better and ready to tackle the next several hours.  We made our way up the Eastern Plateau of Benjamin which is the home of places like Geba and Ai.  Just minutes after we got there, it started raining!  Which was the best part of my day!  Sadly, our lecture got cut short there because it was raining so hard.
     The last place we visited was Gezer, which is between Raamah and the coast of Israel.  This was my favorite stop of the day.  We sat inside the gate of the city, which had been fortified by Solomon:

1 Kings 9:15-17a "And this is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon drafted to build the house of the Lord and his own house and the Millo and the wall of Jerusalem and Hazor and Megiddo and Gezer.  Pharoah king of Egypt had gone up and captured Gezer and burned it with fire, and had killed the Canaanites who lived in the city and had given it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon's wife; so Solomon rebuilt Gezer."

Basically, Solomon had a bunch of wives.  One of them was one of the Pharaoh's daughters. When she married Solomon, the Pharaoh gave her the city so that she would be taken care of if anything happened with Solomon.  Gezer is very close to the coastline, and so acted as a buffer/alert city for the Western front of Jerusalem.  If any enemies came down the coast to attack Jerusalem, Gezer could warn Jerusalem.  Solomon, the wise man he was, fortified Gezer with a 6 chambered gate and casemate walls.  So, inside the gate are 6 chambers.  If anyone were to enter the city, the elders were there to watch.  Kind of like an ancient version of a check-point.  And if battle fell upon the city, extra soldiers were put into the chambers and could attack any enemies that may enter the city.  The casemate wall is basically a wall that's built around the city wall, leaving a small gap in between the walls.  So if an enemy brought down the first wall, they still had to bring down the second one, and they could put an army in between the walls for when if it came down.  Until then, it was used as storage.  I'm sure it also helped that the sun was finally setting and we were about to go home.  So it was really nice outside.  A nice Mediterranean breeze blowing through the air and cooling things down.
     Obviously, when we got home Sunday night, I was exhausted, but I had a two page paper due the next morning, along with a test and another one page paper.  So I was up late trying to at least get my two page paper done, only to get to class and discover that he decided not to take it up till Wednesday.  In between classes, I had to write my one page paper and study for my test.  That Monday night I had to work through 40 pages of my Hebrew textbook and get done with 5 exercises.  Tuesday I started work with my Field Education organization.  A nice place called Musalaha that woks on reconciling Christian Palestinians and Messianic Jews.  I'm really excited about working with them.  It turns out that they need a lot of office organization work done, which is something I love doing.  I get to reorganize their entire filing system!  And that excitement is not sarcastic.  The problem was that I couldn't remember where their office was, so I ended up walking 3 miles to get there.  On the way back, every time I tried to flag down a bus the drivers would smile, laugh, and wave back.  I didn't find it that funny.  So I had to walk the whole way back, too.  Yesterday, I was so tired that I didn't do a thing.  All that to say that this week has been really busy and I apologize for the delay in updates.
     This coming weekend we'll be gone for three days in Judah, the Shephela, Philistia, the Negev, and the Dead Sea.  So we'll be going to places like the Sorek Valley where Samson was from, the Elah Valley where David fought Goliath, Timnah, Socoh, Azekah, and Engedi where Matsada is at - one of Harod's desert fortresses, a place that David ran to when he was running away from Saul, and where the Jews took their last stand during the revolts in 70 AD.  I'm pretty excited.  I'm bringing my computer with me, but I don't know what the internet situation will be like for updates.
   

Antithesis of the Anti-climatic

     Today's field study flew by. Maybe that's because I spent most of it on the bus sleeping in between sites. But we had to leave by 7 AM. So I feel like a little napping is justified. It came and went in such a blur that I had to just now look at the photos I took to remember where we had gone.

     We started the day at ancient Shechem in modern day Nablus, which is in Samaria/ancient Manasseh. Apparently, these sights have only been open to non-Palestinians in recent years. This was our professor's second time going, because it's been closed for 13 years. So we were very blessed to be able to go. Unfortunately, since it's been closed and Nablus isn't tourist territory – because Israelis can't go, so it's closed to all Israeli tour guides (which is all tour guides) – the area hasn't been kept up or cleaned very well. That being said, the people of the city have started to try to make it look nicer, since tourism could potentially boost the economy in the area and Lord knows they need it. I thought Jerusalem was a dirty city till I got to Nablus. The Middle East believes that since public property isn't their property, then they don't need to clean it. And there are piles of trash everywhere. Anyways, back on track here. Ancient Shechem. I hate to say it, but one pile of rocks is starting to appear like any other pile of rocks. You really have to have a gift to be an archaeologist. I don't know how they can look at something like that and say, “Yes. This looks like it was a room. And this was probably a temple.” All I see is 2 feet high rocks that appear to be making a hedge in a specific pattern. They're able to go in and see that a 15 feet thick wall is probably that large in order to build up and have multiple levels; that a square of rock hedge makes an entry room; that if there are two walls on the right that create an inlet, then the set of rocks on the left probably was attached to a door that slid into that inlet. I don't get it, but God bless those that can. What I'm trying to say is that these sights are becoming less and less impressive to me, by themselves. What makes the sights interesting is seeing the sight in place of the geography in it. That I could stand in the destroyed temple at Shechem and look up and Mount Gerazim and Mount Ebal and know that is where the blessings and curses of the covenant were shouted. There is also a remnant of a standing stone inside what they believe to be the temple, which is probably the place where Moses placed an altar to the Lord; this is where Joseph's bones were buried; also see the story of Abimelech in Judges 9; and where Rehoboam, son of Solomon, had to go in order to be crowned King when the Kingdom was still united. So lots of good stuff happening at Shechem. Even in the dry season, the land looks very green and flat – not at all like Jerusalem. I can certainly see why people would want to live there.

     Then we went to the remembered sight of Jacob's well where – you guessed it! - there's an orthodox church on top of it. I guess it was fun to draw water from the well and drink from it, though. I'm sure several people were more excited than me. But, once again, we don't know if that's really place, there's a church on it controlling everything that is done in the well's presence (like it's some living Holy person), and it's not about the sight for me. Not that I don't appreciate having been there. I just don't see a reason to get all hyped about it.

     We made our way through a Samaritan village up to the top of Mount Gerazim – which was awesome. I guess the people there aren't used to seeing tour buses go through there. Which isn't surprising, with the roads through that village. I don't know what they do in Israel to train their bus drivers, but they are able to a bus through a place that I wouldn't take my car. The allies/roads going up to the top, were just wider than the bus... and there were sharp turns. Absolutely crazy. The same time we got there, the kids were beginning to be released from school and they all stood on the sides of the road and waved at us while we went up. I also think it's crazy that Samaritans still exist, they read the Pentateuch, and are waiting for a Messiah. They can tell from just the first 5 books of the Bible – Moses' books – that a Messiah will be coming for them. I don't know that I would make that connection without the Prophets or New Testament. The problem with the Samaritan villages is that they are a small, dieing group of people, since they can't marry out of their group and I'm sure many have converted to Christianity (a.k.a. The woman at the well – John 4). A few years ago they called out for 12 women of Muslim and Jewish origin to help them try to repopulate their group. They claim it's the only time they've every married/reproduced outside of their society. But they were having genetic problems, because of all the intermarriage. Anyways, the view from the top of mount Gerazim was pretty amazing and we stood up on top and reenacted the Bible by reading the blessing and curses.

     Afterwords, we went back down the Mountain into the ancient city of Samaria/Sychar where Omri and his son Ahab (Jezebel's husband) had moved the capital to there – it was in Shechem. Shechem was a good capital in that it was surrounded by natural resources – water and great agricultural land and was near all the major routes, but it was in the valley and not very well protected. This city sits on a highway leading to Moab, where they controlled an exportation of wool. Now Jezebel's family was Phoenician, and through her and Ahab's marriage, Sychar had a connection to the Coastal Plane where purple dye was produced. See what he did there? He had a monopoly on purple dye and wool. So he was controlling trade for the most expensive good – purple cloth, which was used for religious practices in Judaism and for religious and rich/important people. Due to Jezebel being the daughter of a past high priest of Ba'al, Omri and Ahab weren't the most religious kings and so were named evil in the sight of the Lord. But, economically, they were great kings. I found all of that pretty fascinating. The sight, just looked like a pile of rocks to me. I was kind of disappointed when I walked all the way up the stupid hill to find stuff that looked the same as everywhere else. Though, I was able to get a pretty sweet 360 degree view from the top that I will post another time.

     The last place that we visited was Shilo, which was the place where the Tabernacle was when the Israelite finally arrived in Israel. It was also where Hannah went to drop off Samuel to Eli. This was the most anti-climatic place. All it is, is green fields where they make guesses as to where the Tabernacle was and a bunch of rock walls and structures from the Byzantine area. It was lame sauce, and I was tired and hot.

In reflection, it was a decent day but certainly not the most exciting. Hopefully next trip will be better. We're going to Benjamin!

     Weeks here are pretty boring. It's been too hot to go out and do anything and I have had a lot of homework, since taking on Hebrew. It doesn't help that Judah's Exile and Restoration has 7 textbooks and we often have selected readings from like three or four of them per class period, plus a journal. I am all too happy to hang out in the library or the dining hall, in the shade, working on homework, benefiting from a fan and the breeze that comes in through the windows. I'll explore the city more when it cools down. Not even tantalizing pastries and bagels that are a 10 minute walk from me can pull me from this building. I pray for rain on a daily basis.

Sunburns and Sunglasses

     Well, it happened.  I got sunburned today.  I have a lovely v-neck t-shirt tan line and a nice looking farmers tan beginning, also.  Good stuff.  Oh!  And my sunglasses got stolen today.  All that aside, it was a good day.
     We started by leaving the school in a tour bus at seven in the morning and went straight to the Mount of Olives.  I guess a week or two ago, everyone hiked up it at four in the morning to see the sunrise.  I called them all crazy till I was standing there this morning looking into the horizon at the beginnings of the wilderness.  Beautiful beyond description.  So here's a picture (which I'm still not sure does it justice):

     We went to a few other sights to look over Jerusalem as well, but I've spent so much time overlooking that city that it wasn't quite as refreshing or exciting.  Then we walked down the Mount of Olives to the remembered sight for the Garden of Gethsemane.  I was happy to find it not so touristy and really well preserved.  The olives trees were gnarly!  No really.  The older olive trees get, the more gnarled their bark is (Haha, I crack myself up sometimes).  And the church that's on the site is beautiful.  Though I can't imagine trying to hold a church service there with all the tourists that were walking through and taking pictures.  Oh, that's also where my sunglasses were stolen.  Which I found slightly ironic and funny.  So at least I got a laugh out of it.

     After the Mount of Olives we went outside of Jerusalem to a site called Herodion.  Herodian is a mountain outside of the city, in the desert, that King Herod the Great decided wasn't tall enough.  So he had his workers cut the mountain next to it shorter and place all the stones from the now shorter mountain onto his mountain.  Herod liked to do a lot of things that made him feel like he was playing God.  Anyways, so he made this mountain really tall and shaped "like a breast" and then built a palace on it and had pools and "pleasure fields" or something like that (all according to Josephus) built around the bottom of the mountain.  So we hiked up this incredibly tall mountain to get to the top and look into his "pleasure palace" where he had bath houses, a grand dining room, where he held feasts that people ate at and drank at till they would throw up just so they could eat more, and often these feasts would entail Herod.  The theory is that he built this palace out in the middle of no where so that when he wanted to get away from the religiousity of Jerusalem, he could go be a pagan for a few days and house Roman officials.  I actually found it all pretty interesting.  And after hearing such a story, it's no wonder Herod died from having gangrene on... inappropriate body parts.  Anyways, then we went down into the cistern at Herodion, because, ya know, God forbid Herod runs away from Jerusalem and isn't spoiled with a decent water supply.  Seriously.  The cistern was huge!  We could have easily thrown a party down there.  And it was nice and cool. 

     Then we made our way to Bethlehem where we went to the Church of the Nativity scene - which I kind of felt the same where there that I did at the Holy Seplachur.  But, I guess that's just life in Israel.  When you find a Holy sight - quick!  The orthodox have to get together and put a church on it so that people can pilgrim there and kiss the Holy spots!  It's a little ridiculous.  But!  I did get to go to a place in Bethlehem called Stars and Bucks.  Which is the Israeli version of Starbucks - hilarious.  You can go there and get a Frope Chino.  Made my day.  And I have to say, that iced coffee here is way better than it is in the states because it still retains its coffee qualities while being cold, tasty, and not overtly sweet.  

     We ended the day Ramat Rachall, which may have been my favorite place.  It's a site, in between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, that was once of importance but they have no Biblical reference of it.  But it had to have been a large governmental site because of all the letters they found with seals from four major other cities.  The initials of this building (because Biblical Hebrew has no vowels) is MMST, and there are no places mentioned in the Bible with those initials.  What I liked about it, is that it shows that while the Bible is a history book, the history has a purpose for believers to know.  Because if it wasn't meant to be specific, then it would include many other things.  So seeing this site reminded me of the specificity of the Bible and it's purpose for believers, along with giving me a broader spectrum of Jerusalem - it's more than just a holy site!

Back to being Radical

Between my Judah’s Exile and Restoration class and switching into Biblical Hebrew three classes behind, I’ve had my work cut out for me this week.  I’ll be happy just to make it through Monday/Tuesday when everything is due.  Despite the heavy workload, I’ve still been trying to start and end my day by reading my Bible – a chapter of Genesis in the morning and a Psalms for prayer before bed.  Well today, since I have 200 pages to read in a book about the philosophy and history of hermeneutics, I decided to set aside an hour to read my Bible and dive back into David Platt’s book.  Hopefully, it’ll energize me to get the rest of my work done, and it’s actually something that I read in Platt’s book that encouraged me to start spending more time in my Bible and less time reading commentaries.

                In the 2^nd chapter of Radical, Platt continues to talk about his time with the church in Asia.  They had asked him to join with them just do lead a Bible study, so they met in the afternoon and talked late into the night about everything from “dreams and visions to tongues and Trinity.”  They asked him if they could meet again the following day – all day.  So when they met again, he read from Nehemiah 8.  When they adjourned to take a short break, they told him that they had never studied Nehemiah before and asked if he would stay for a while to teach them the whole Old Testament.  And when they got done with the Old Testament, he stayed to teach them the New Testament!  Day after day they would read the Bible from early in the morning till late in the evening, over 12 hours each time.  These people had such a craving for God’s word!  I know new believers in the states that don’t have that much of a hunger, let alone us believers that have been following God for years.  I had to ask myself, when was the last time I just picked up my Bible to read it and to learn?  I so often go to commentaries because they’re intellectual, they already have the answers to my questions written down, and they’re easier to read.  But why go to a secondary source when I have the primary source in my hands?  Isn’t that the best way to learn?  Not that secondary sources aren’t great, they often expand our viewpoint and help us to answer inquiries we may have, but it can never be as good as the real thing.  It really inspired me to start reading my Bible more.

                So my goal, while I’m here, is to start reading my Bible for an hour a day and then work my way up as my studies allow.  Thankfully, I’m really lazy… so it’s not like I’ll be putting my Bible aside to walk around Jerusalem all day.  And my Gameboy won’t charge and the internet is awful and there is no TV on campus.  All my typical distractions have been removed.  It’s interesting to see that without all this media and technology, I get more sleep, wake up earlier, and spend time with God.  I hope that when I get home next year, I can keep up these same habits.

Go Big or Go Home

     It's amazing how the Holy Spirit can work when you listen to it.  I'll try to make this story short.  When I decided to be a Middle Eastern Studies major and go to Jerusalem for a year, it was because I had heard my adviser, Dr. Crutchfield, read part of the Shema in Hebrew in our Old Testament Survey class.  There was something about listening to and speaking the words of the Bible in Hebrew that touched my heart in a way that I had never encountered before.  Well, through talking to previous friends of mine that had been to JUC and talking to Crutch (who advised me not to take Hebrew here because he had heard that the teacher was just okay), I decided to take Arabic.  But the longer I'm here, the more I realize that I have such a strong desire to be able to read the Bible in Hebrew.  I spend all my time in the Jewish quarter.  And, I'm sorry, but I could care less about modern politics.  I mean... that may be a bit harsh.  I do care.  But not like some people here.  You can tell that the people that want to work with the Palestinian/Israeli conflict truly feel a calling for it.  Where as I just want to study my Bible and understand God better in all of it's original context.  I like the Arabic class, a lot, but I never plan on using it.  So it hit me today, in my Arabic class, why am I not taking Hebrew?  And when I asked myself that question, I felt so heart-strikingly guilty that it was almost more than I could handle.  All of this to say, that I don't often listen to the Holy Spirit very well.  And it feels a little irrational to drop Arabic and jump into Hebrew a week and a half behind.  But I'm a military kid, and I know I've had to start classes mid-semester before.  There are also tutors for Hebrew.  So with a little help from some other students and God, I think I'm gonna do it.  Like I always so, "Go big or go home!" Right?

Israel - A Country of Life and Conflict

     I've officially been in Israel for over a week, and I'm still not sure the reality of it all has sunk in. Monday, I started classes and it was just like being back home at CIU – apart from the setting and people. I guess I mean it felt the same in that I still had to wake up earlier than I prefer and sit in a classroom, sometimes enjoying it and sometimes trying to not fall asleep.

     Class list for this semester:

          Judah's Exile and Restoration: This class is taught by a professor from Geneva that is here on sabbatical. He's... interesting, very nice, but he has a dry sense of humor and a deep monotone voice. And he often makes jokes that he thinks are funny and the students laugh just to humor him – it's a little awkward and tense. Though I'm sure we've all had college professors like this at some point. I blame my adviser at CIU for my feelings towards this professor because he set the standard for cooky professors and no others can match up.

          Physical Settings of the Bible: The class that will take me from “Dan to Beer-sheba” and all the known Biblical sights that are easy enough to walk or drive to. The concept of this class is fascinating and often even what we're learning makes the Bible come alive in a way I didn't think possible, that being said, my idea of fun is not walking in the desert heat in order to look at some stone walls from the 10^th century. Maybe this is just my laziness showing itself in a more prominent way than it could in the states. It also doesn't help that my professor is really perky, and, somehow, when I'm soaked through with sweat, aching, and breathing heavily with exhaustion, the last thing I want to do is have a blissfully happy woman teach me about geology.

          Ancient Egypt: I haven't really had a chance to grow an appreciation for this class, but I am really excited. I remember, when I was younger, the highlight of my youth would be watching the latest excavations of tombs of pyramids on the History Channel. I even dreamed about being an Egyptologist until I realized that archaeologists don't necessarily make a lot of money (funny how, at that age, I so quickly threw away something I loved for money.) Point being, we haven't really dug deep yet, but even learning about the Nile and how it effects Egypt excited me.

          Introduction to the Modern Middle East: Oded Yinon is the professor for this class. I'm sure that you can tell by his name that he's Israeli. This guy walks into the class lecturing and, when it comes to an end, walks out of the room lecturing. There is no introduction or pause for a breath, other than when the occasional student gets the gall to ask him something. Not only does he talk incessantly, but his accent makes him almost impossible to understand. I'm sure he made the class with some sort of structure in mind, but I have yet to find a method to his madness. Thankfully, the only assignment we have is to write a research paper. So I'll probably spend the rest of the semester just trying to figure him out. I'm sure I will have many more interesting stories about him.

          Arabic I: Probably one of my favorite classes. I get to take a bus twice a week into Bethlehem, and then walk from the check-point, through the city, to another college to take it. And I love the professor! Her name is Sallwa and she's a little crazy and spastic, but she's such a sweetheart. Our first class was like being thrown into the deep end of an Arabic storm, but I'm learning a lot, so I can't complain.

Other updates:

     I feel like I ought to comment on Bethlehem for a moment because, for anyone who hasn't been there, you may picture it different than how it really is. At least, for me, I pictured it as not too different from Jerusalem. You know, just an old city built upon years of ancient Biblical history. It's far from this. It's not like Jerusalem at all. Jerusalem is a bustling city, packed tightly together on top of a plateau and surrounded by valleys, full of markets and life. But Bethlehem is a wasteland where just a gust of hope remains in the air. It's a Palestinian city, and as soon as you cross into it's borders you're surrounded by a wasteland of trash. At least twenty taxis are there to convince you that they have the “best deal” for wherever you're trying to get to, and if you tell them that you don't want a taxi then they'll follow you until they finally get the point. The heart of the city has a wall running through it. I'm sure there's some political reason for this wall, but I'm sorry to say that I haven't done the research on it, yet. All I know is that this wall, which runs the length of the city, is covered in graffiti that say things like “This wall may protect the present but it has no future”, “Where is the humanity?”, “I was born Palestinian but I count myself lucky”, “Mexico loves you Palestine!”, “Free Palestine!”, etc. It's sad, fascinating, and it lights within you a flicker of hope. Even though it's not hope for your own culture, it makes you almost proud of something... humanity, maybe? I'm sure I'll think about it a lot more while I'm here, seeing as I pass it four times a week.

     Israel is full of this kind of life and strength, though. Last night I was lucky enough to walk on the outskirts of an Israeli protest – supposedly the largest one to ever occur. People gathered in all the main cities of Israel to protest for social justice. I heard there were about 50k walking in Jerusalem, and it was at least doubled in Tel Aviv. I found two things interesting about this: When asking the citizens what the protest was about, most of them didn't know, and the protest seemed to be a bigger issue than the Palestinian conflict. I found it interesting that most of them didn't know what the protest was about, because it made me realize just how similar people are no matter what their culture is. You can go to America and ask people why they voted for Obama or why they don't support gay marriage, and most of them can't give you a well thought out reason. After asking several groups of people, we were able to discover that the protest was about how expensive it is to live in Israel and the people want the government to do things like lower taxes and help out students, etc. What's more, is that this was a bigger issue to the people than the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. Where as, in America, we make this conflict such a big deal! But if you talk to Palestinians, they'll tell you that they just want peace. They would prefer their own state from it, but they really just want peace. And they can't run their own state without the Israelis anyways, because most Palestinians work for Israelis. On the opposite side, though Israelis need the Palestinians for labor (or at least that's what I've understood between class and talking to people – I may be completely off). But the Israelis are almost uncomfortable when you ask them about the conflict. Yes, they want peace, but they don't want to give anything up in order for it to happen. It's a very interesting dynamic to me.

     The last thing that I'll mention is the field study I went on today. We walked all over Jerusalem for 10 hours! It was a long day. First we went to the Holy Mother Zion, which is remembered as the place of Pentecost and the last supper. It's a really cute church and it's right by the school. I would go there to pray a lot, if it weren't being used for a mosque now. We walked through the city to the “broad wall” which is the wall that King Hezekiah fortified with the expected invasion by Sennacherib (Neh. 3:8; Isa. 22:9-10). Then we ventured out of the city and down the valley a little ways to the City of David where we saw what may be the rebuilt wall by Nehemiah along with the possible setting of King David's palace fortress – though there is no conclusive evidence for either of these suggestions. Still, it was neat to see. There was a toilet from the 10^th century BCE in an old house that had been built into the old city wall. From there we went to Hezekiah's tunnel which connects from the City of David to the Gihon Spring at the bottom of the city in the Kidron Valley. Definitely something I only ever need to do once. You actually go down into water and walk through the tunnel from the city down to the spring, some areas you have to hunch down because the ceiling is so low and your shoulders are almost always bumping the walls. Thankfully, I didn't get claustrophobic till we were on our way back up through the old sewage tunnel for the city – kind of gross. Between the narrow passageway and the lack of air flow, I got a little anxious. We also went to the Israeli Archeology museum where I was able to see King Herod's wall's and courtyard that he built outside of the temple mount, and I walked inside where there would have been market shops to buy sacrificial animals and such on the way to the temple. They left a lot of the rubble from the revolt in the streets where there are just huge boulders piled on top of each other in the streets, and you can see where they dented they ground and everything – some serious damage had been done. We then circled around the temple area to the southern steps, where Jesus probably taught his disciples when he spoke about things like the 7 woes of the Pharisees. Now, I know a lot of people would think that it's incredible to be in a place where Jesus probably preached but, honestly, it's something that's so unreal and unfathomable that I can't even comprehend it – and I was there! So yes, it was pretty cool, but it's still definitely beyond my comprehension. We finally ended our day at the Pool of Bethesda which, I found out, was not a pool in a recreational sense like we would think, but was used more for things like feeding sheep and cleaning them for the sacrifices. It was also used by a Hellenistic cult group that believed it could heal you which is why we have the story of the lame man by the pool (which he was probably more likely by a smaller pool by Bethesda) wanting to be put in to be healed.

I know that this is a lot, but it's been a busy few days. I'm sure I had many more thoughts that I haven't written about, yet. More to come!