Home Stretch

March 14, 2008 - end of the day

As long and exhausting as this trip has been, it's also gone by rather quickly! Hard to believe we head back to Phoenix tomorrow night already. We only went three places today, so this one should be short.

Temple Institute. If you want to get eschatological shivers, go to this place. It is the group working feverishly to get all the implements ready for the Third Temple. The guide explained how they don't know yet exactly how they're going to get the Temple built (there is the small matter of the Dome of the Rock and not wanting to start World War III), but they want to have everything ready for when construction starts. What they've done even so far is remarkable. The blue of the high priest's tunic comes from a special kind of snail, and it takes hundreds (if not thousands) of the slimy little suckers to make a very small quantity of dye, so in ancient times only royalty (and priests) would wear the color.

All of the things made out of gold, silver, gold-covered acacia wood, etc. as instructed in the Torah are all being done the same way now.

There is one thing the high priest wears that I thought was amazingly insightful (God gave all the instructions–go figure)... the garments the High Priest wears are incredible. His office is unique. It would be easy to get a fat head and start fancying that his position had something to do with his own merits. To help deter this kind of thought process, the high priest also wears a solid gold crown (more a thick band than imperial crowns you might see in the West) with one simple phrase inscribed on the front of it in large letters: "HOLY UNTO THE LORD." The only reason he is decked out as he is is because he is going to be in the presence of God. The splendor of what he wears has more to do with Whom he serves than who he is.

Maybe that ought to be an accessory in places in the U.S. where people still get almost more decked out for Easter Sunday than their high school kids do for the Prom?

House of Caiaphas. This is where Jesus underwent the first of several kangaroo courts (there are apparently all sorts of laws that were broken in the way the "trials" were held, including time and location). Underneath the site is a place believed to be the remains of a sort of prison, where Jesus was probably held at some point of their deliberations. The place was dry, but dark and foreboding... I can just imagine a soon-to-be crucifixion victim sitting there, having a lot of time to anticipate a pretty horrible fate.

Garden Tomb. This is the other site besides the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where there is a decent amount of archaeological evidence suggesting Jesus was buried. It is certainly a little easier to imagine, away from the over-the-top ornamentation and wall-to-wall people at the Church. But the presenter at the Garden Tomb probably said it best... "It could have been here that Jesus was buried, it could have been where the Church of the Holy Sepulcher now stands, but the point is, wherever He was buried, He didn't stay buried long." Amen.

I think that's one reason I have been so awed by Jerusalem as a whole, but somewhat less so about individual sites... there is just too much speculation sometimes to know for sure if they are indeed the places they commemorate... too much history built over the place, more built over that, and still more again... but the most important thing is, they happened. And they happened in this city... in this region. It is amazing to walk the same streets, even if it's a different level of the same streets.

Infidel! Or man, at least...

An old beggar woman in the square where we ate lunch yesterday came around with her hand out, and I gave her a few coins that I had. Well, indirectly. I started to hand them to her, and she backed away a little bit and pointed to the ground. Fortunately I'm not completely dense, so I figured out what she wanted. I put the coins on the ground, where she then stooped over to pick them up. Apparently that got old for someone her age, because I noticed the next guy from whom she got some coins put them in the corner of her veil at her direction... that way there was still no direct contact, but she didn't have to bend down to pick it up, either. I asked our Arab tour guide if it was because I was a man or because I wasn't a Muslim, but he said it was because I was a man. I guess she can't touch a male outside her family without being made unclean in the process. I don't know the exact regulations.

To be honest, I've gotten really tired of spending 7 to 10 dollars for every lunch... which is usually a falafel and a drink, so I took off by myself in the Old City to go find some bread and fruit on my own. I did indeed get something like lunch for about 9 shekels, or approximately $2.50, and didn't even get lost on the tiny winding streets, thank you very much!

The only dark spot on the day was Giselle taking a tumble on some uneven stairs at the Garden Tomb, but other than being sore, happily she didn't break anything. With all those uneven ancient stone steps and walkways, even harder (I venture) than cement, it could have been worse.

That about wraps it up for today. Hard to believe we're heading home tomorrow night.