We went to a Synagogue during one of their Friday night services to welcome in the Sabbath. The men and women were separate with a veil dividing them. In the middle was their prayer leader who had a shawl. It was mostly the Congregation singing or speaking portions of their prayer book some of which was directly from the Torah (like the shema). Sometimes all stood and once we turned and faced the other direction - though I can't remember the significance of that at the moment. There was a short sermon given in hebrew about the color red and during it I picked out the words Thanksgiving and America. Anyway that was pretty cool.
On Saturday we observed Sabbath - which of course is an exception for this area. I went out to the Old City and just walked the streets this afternoon. And I talked to my family this night after a fireside given by Elder Larry S. Kacher. Loved it!
The next day we went on a tour first through the Wohl Museum which is in the Jewish Quarter. It shows 3 nice ruins of homes during the 2nd temple period. These excavations are inside the Old City and also present pottery from that time period. Next was the Burnt House which was altogether similar to the Wohl Museum. It presented a movie of the period of destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. It showed that Jerusalem was destroyed and sieged in parts.
Next we went through the Jerusalem Archaeological Park which is a massive archaeological dig on the other side of the western wall on the corner. I saw the mikvahs that travelers would use to ritually purify themselves before going toward the temple as well as steps leading up to two points of entry on the southern side. I had already walked the bottom portion of this flight of stairs during the Hezekiah's tunnel tour. But we were there at the top where a closed three arch gate was visible as well as a visible corner of another gate series. Well there was also some ruins of Byzantine dwellings nearby as well as ruins of an Umayyad Palace. But more interesting to me of course were the unearthed entire plaza sections which were there during the time of Christ. It's certain that Christ - his diciples - and Paul walked on these plaza stones. Amazing - truly.
Afterward we were not picked up I went with a group to shop around. I went on the light rail out a couple stops. Asia Rikard insisted I try a Jelly Filled donut and I am glad I did the man even let us make some of the donuts ourselves.
Next was a Free Day ☺!!! Katherine Redd organized a trip to Tel Aviv which was awesome. We went around Jaffa and saw a tree in an egg suspended in the air. Also in Jaffa I saw a Egyptian gate which I have no idea why it was there! We went to the beach between Jaffa and Tel Aviv and went to our knees in the sea. We threw around a frisbee and Cameron McCord made a really impressive arched sand castle. We were walking through some shops and some people bought souvenirs. Further into Tel Aviv we stopped at a restaurant and I had Chicken Schnitzel which was awesome but I tried the other dishes - their being: Risotto; Spinach Ravioli; & white sauce spaghetti. So delicious! We saw the plaza overlooking the beach in Tel Aviv and were basically picked up there. Man that was Fun!
And just today we had the Kotel Tunnel tour. Were we went to the Western Wall and then proceeded north under the Muslim quarter but along the wall of the Temple mount. We saw a section of Robison's arch also saw a filled in arch which used to lead to a Jewish Synagogue under the Temple mount. There were prayer rolls in these Herodian walls just like at the Temple mount. The Romans of course destroyed the temple and threw off the wall stones on the plaza and road below. The most northern section actually had to be dug out so that the temple mount would be flat therefore the bedrock actually came up to where we were eventually. And we exited at a part of the old city I had passed probably a dozen times! Haha. Anyway it was way fun - Have a good one!
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