One thing I'm discovering here in Israel is that it's much harder to keep track of the day of the week. My American mind is used to weeks that start on Monday and culminate in a peaceful Sunday involving church, and some down time or relational time afterwards. Not so here. Shabbat starts Friday night and goes until Saturday night. While many churches still meet Sunday morning, many Messianic congregations actually choose to meet Friday night or Saturday morning. Additionally, since all of Israel shuts down for Shabbat, Friday night very much has the feel of the end of the week. Saturday is calm and peaceful, a slow day of rest and time for thought (unless we have field study that is). Sunday starts the work week, giving it very much the feel of and American Monday.
This morning, having no school obligations, I had the opportunity to join in a local church. I chose to accompany four other students to a congregation called Jerusalem Assembly. It is a mixed church, Messianic Jews along with many internationals. As a result, the service is run dually in Hebrew and English. Nearly all of the singing is done in Hebrew, but much of it is more Western music (and the English translation is provided at the bottom). All announcements are done in both languages (usually the pastor translating himself). For the actual sermon, the pastor preached and the worship leader translated him.
It was a fascinating service for me to participate in. While nearly the whole service was translated into English, the service itself was far more "Jewish" than anything in which I have yet had the opportunity to participate. Even the sermon, instead of following a much more Western pattern of text, major points built off from it, conclusion, followed a more Eastern pattern of meandering exposition and finally back to the text. It was an incredibly interesting experience for me. I also continue to find that while the customs may be different, God is the same. It's an awesome experience to be able to go anywhere in the world and still find other believers with whom I can join in worship!
One thing that I really loved about Jerusalem Assembly was the community feel of the congregation. They are clearly involved in each others' lives and not just on Saturday morning for a couple hours. Nearly every day of the week they have some sort of small group, prayer, or fellowship activites going on. In addition, following the service nearly all of them made their way into a fellowship hall for a simple meal together. We shared a lentil soup, pita and humus, and some dessert breads along tea and coffee. It was really nice to sit and eat a meal together and meet several members of the congregation.
I was noticing that it's such a diverse and interesting group of people who come together. I'm struck by the fact that only Jesus would bring together such a group. There were Israelis, Americans, Germans and I'm sure several others. There were short-term students, long-term students and immigrants, and residents of Jerusalem. They have an Israeli pastor and an American worship leader. Every generation was represented. I saw the young, Western students with little concept of the dynamics of the land and a Holocaust survivor who is well acquainted with what it means to be a Jew.
All in all it was a wonderful morning of worship and an awesome cultural experience. Now I'm settling in to enjoy a few more hours of Shabbat before heading into the start of a new week. Tomorrow it's off to Samaria for another full day field study. More on that tomorrow night. Hope everyone is enjoying the start to their weekends! When you go into church tomorrow (if you do), remember that we are the body of Christ, more diverse than we can possibly imagine and called to love and nuture one another. Find someone to engage, and really see them. Church isn't a place we come to every week; it's a place we create when we invest our lives together with the lives of our brothers and sister. I guess I'm learning something from my Jewish brothers and sisters.
Love,
Kristin
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Field Study and Cookies
This week continues to fit into the schedule that I beginning to develop. Sunday we went out on field study, this time looking at the land of Benjamin (and it major entrances). We started by going to the Jerusalem - Jericho road and looking out into the wilderness. It continues to be incredibly interesting to look at passages of Scripture in light of the imagery upon which the authors were undoubtedly drawing. From the Jerusalem - Jericho road we got back on the modern road and went down to Jericho. Looking at both Herod's palace and the OT site of Jericho was pretty awesome. Taking Jericho as a point of entry (for Joshua at the Conquest) makes so much when you see the barren country around and then the beautiful green in Jericho. One thousand gallons of water a minute (Jericho spring) can be a pretty good incentive in a country like this!
From Jericho we drove up some very windy, very narrow roads (those who have driven the coastal highway of California may have some appreciation for what I'm talking about) about 4, 000 feet into the hill country of Benjamin. We drove through the Central Benjamin Plateau, stopping at Nebi Samwil to try to get a view of the area. Unfortunately it was raining and rather cloudy so we didn't see much. Finally, we made our way to Gezer. There is a gate there that was built during the reign of Solomon. I continue to be in awe of the fact that I'm looking at stuff that I've read about in the Bible. It's always been sort of a true "fairy tale" world (I know it happened, but never thought I could see it). Seeing these places is a little bit like finding myself in Cinderella's Palace, only more awesome!
Apart from field study, life and JUC continues on. I have been going to class, doing reading (well, most of it), and going out around the city. Monday night, I discovered that one of the guys here brought a deck of Rook cards with him. While this may not mean anything to most of you, Rook is a game my family has played since before I was born. I was kind of excited to get in on a game.
Another JUC tradition is Wednesday cookie night. Justin and Mandy (the student activities coordinators), bake cookies for us in the afternoon. Any students who want to go over and help are welcome. Yesterday, I went down at 4:30 and spent the afternoon baking oatmeal raisin cookies with them. It was a lot of fun, since I enjoy both baking and good conversation. At 8:30, most of campus takes a study break and comes out to the patio for some cookies and glass of milk. It's a pretty fun tradition, both for the cookies and just another chance to get everyone together and hang out for a few minutes. Besides, I'm learning that you can end up in some really interesting conversations over cookies :)
Now it's back to the rhythm of classes and work, at least until tomorrow at about 3:30. Then it it time to put away work for the week and enjoy a Shabbat rest. Speaking of work, I should get back to mine. I'm off to my first Arabic exam in about an hour and should probably go over my flashcards again. Hope everyone is having a good week, and I'd love to hear from you!
From Jericho we drove up some very windy, very narrow roads (those who have driven the coastal highway of California may have some appreciation for what I'm talking about) about 4, 000 feet into the hill country of Benjamin. We drove through the Central Benjamin Plateau, stopping at Nebi Samwil to try to get a view of the area. Unfortunately it was raining and rather cloudy so we didn't see much. Finally, we made our way to Gezer. There is a gate there that was built during the reign of Solomon. I continue to be in awe of the fact that I'm looking at stuff that I've read about in the Bible. It's always been sort of a true "fairy tale" world (I know it happened, but never thought I could see it). Seeing these places is a little bit like finding myself in Cinderella's Palace, only more awesome!
Apart from field study, life and JUC continues on. I have been going to class, doing reading (well, most of it), and going out around the city. Monday night, I discovered that one of the guys here brought a deck of Rook cards with him. While this may not mean anything to most of you, Rook is a game my family has played since before I was born. I was kind of excited to get in on a game.
Another JUC tradition is Wednesday cookie night. Justin and Mandy (the student activities coordinators), bake cookies for us in the afternoon. Any students who want to go over and help are welcome. Yesterday, I went down at 4:30 and spent the afternoon baking oatmeal raisin cookies with them. It was a lot of fun, since I enjoy both baking and good conversation. At 8:30, most of campus takes a study break and comes out to the patio for some cookies and glass of milk. It's a pretty fun tradition, both for the cookies and just another chance to get everyone together and hang out for a few minutes. Besides, I'm learning that you can end up in some really interesting conversations over cookies :)
Now it's back to the rhythm of classes and work, at least until tomorrow at about 3:30. Then it it time to put away work for the week and enjoy a Shabbat rest. Speaking of work, I should get back to mine. I'm off to my first Arabic exam in about an hour and should probably go over my flashcards again. Hope everyone is having a good week, and I'd love to hear from you!
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Another Week Goes By
It has occurred to me that I've been a rather delinquent blog writer of late. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the busier and more involved that I get here, the less I remember to write about it. This week has been an interesting combination of feeling like I'm starting to settle in and feeling very homesick. It's not all that surprising though. Three weeks is long enough here for me to start to build some relationships and put down some roots, but also long enough away for me to start to realize how much I care about and miss people that are back home. An interesting combination.
This past week I've continued to fall into the pattern that I imagine will define the rest of my time here. Classes when they are scheduled, homework when I'm free and no one else seems to be (or everyone else is also doing homework), and going out exploring or errand running or just for fun any time that a group is free. It's been a nice week for getting out as we have had warm weather and very little rain. I can't say as this is a good thing for Israel (they are in a drought), but it makes exploring much more fun.
Classes continue to go well. I'm starting to really fall in love with my Cultural Backgrounds of the Bible class. It's fascinating to me to learn about and discuss the lifestyle of the people who lived and wrote the Bible. Many of the ideas are not entirely new to me, but they are coming alive in ways and details that I have never really understood before. Recently we have spent a lot of time talking about identity and where it comes from. Far from being and individualistic society like ours, the culture of the Bible valued the family above all else. It makes sense of a lot of the stories and the imagery within the Bible as I am really coming to understand what that means.
Apart from class, I've had a lot of fun getting out and exploring this week. I went on a bit of a scavenger hunt to find a camera repair store in the New City. While I'm still rathered annoyed that my camera needs to be fixed, it was pretty fun going out with a couple of the girls here and trying to find the place that I needed to go. We also discovered a cool little coffee shop with relatively cheap cappuccino. While this may be entirely unexciting to some, I happen to really like good coffee, which is also very expensive here.
Later in the week, I also went on an outing with 8 or so students from the school over to a place called the Garden Tomb. This site is one which resembles what the place of the cross and the tomb that Jesus was buried in may have looked like. While many scholars question the validity of the place (and they themselves do not even claim that this for sure was the spot), it provides a place that helps people to visualize what the tomb and the surrounding garden may have looked like. It fits much of the Biblical description of the crucifixion site and the tomb, lending it a very authetic feel.
Finally, I continue to fall in love with the JUC tradition of Shabbat (Sabbath). Every Friday afternoon as many as want to gather to play ultimate frisbee at 3:45. We play until about 5:00, when we all head back to the school to shower and get ready for dinner at 6:00. For Shabbat dinner the dining room is rearranged to give it a very community feel (tables all around the outside of the space so that we all can see each other). Then we all eat a Shabbat meal together, including the traditional lighting of the Shabbat candles and the Shabbat bread and wine (grape juice). Just following dinner, at 7:30, as many as want to come together in the student lounge for Vespers, an evening worship service. And while there is nothing official following Vespers, it is quickly becoming tradition here for a bunch of us to hang out afterwards playing games or going out into the city for a little bit. It's just a really nice evening of fun, community, worship, and relaxation, and I love it.
Today was a bit of a downer as I missed a pretty cool field study to Jericho due to being very sick. I'm hoping that a good night's sleep will get me well enough to be able to go out on the field study scheduled for tomorrow. And on that note, I'm off to bed to try to get that sleep.
This past week I've continued to fall into the pattern that I imagine will define the rest of my time here. Classes when they are scheduled, homework when I'm free and no one else seems to be (or everyone else is also doing homework), and going out exploring or errand running or just for fun any time that a group is free. It's been a nice week for getting out as we have had warm weather and very little rain. I can't say as this is a good thing for Israel (they are in a drought), but it makes exploring much more fun.
Classes continue to go well. I'm starting to really fall in love with my Cultural Backgrounds of the Bible class. It's fascinating to me to learn about and discuss the lifestyle of the people who lived and wrote the Bible. Many of the ideas are not entirely new to me, but they are coming alive in ways and details that I have never really understood before. Recently we have spent a lot of time talking about identity and where it comes from. Far from being and individualistic society like ours, the culture of the Bible valued the family above all else. It makes sense of a lot of the stories and the imagery within the Bible as I am really coming to understand what that means.
Apart from class, I've had a lot of fun getting out and exploring this week. I went on a bit of a scavenger hunt to find a camera repair store in the New City. While I'm still rathered annoyed that my camera needs to be fixed, it was pretty fun going out with a couple of the girls here and trying to find the place that I needed to go. We also discovered a cool little coffee shop with relatively cheap cappuccino. While this may be entirely unexciting to some, I happen to really like good coffee, which is also very expensive here.
Later in the week, I also went on an outing with 8 or so students from the school over to a place called the Garden Tomb. This site is one which resembles what the place of the cross and the tomb that Jesus was buried in may have looked like. While many scholars question the validity of the place (and they themselves do not even claim that this for sure was the spot), it provides a place that helps people to visualize what the tomb and the surrounding garden may have looked like. It fits much of the Biblical description of the crucifixion site and the tomb, lending it a very authetic feel.
Finally, I continue to fall in love with the JUC tradition of Shabbat (Sabbath). Every Friday afternoon as many as want to gather to play ultimate frisbee at 3:45. We play until about 5:00, when we all head back to the school to shower and get ready for dinner at 6:00. For Shabbat dinner the dining room is rearranged to give it a very community feel (tables all around the outside of the space so that we all can see each other). Then we all eat a Shabbat meal together, including the traditional lighting of the Shabbat candles and the Shabbat bread and wine (grape juice). Just following dinner, at 7:30, as many as want to come together in the student lounge for Vespers, an evening worship service. And while there is nothing official following Vespers, it is quickly becoming tradition here for a bunch of us to hang out afterwards playing games or going out into the city for a little bit. It's just a really nice evening of fun, community, worship, and relaxation, and I love it.
Today was a bit of a downer as I missed a pretty cool field study to Jericho due to being very sick. I'm hoping that a good night's sleep will get me well enough to be able to go out on the field study scheduled for tomorrow. And on that note, I'm off to bed to try to get that sleep.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Archaeology of Jerusalem Meets Everyday Life
Apparently my blogging is going to be of a bit of a sporadic nature. But that's how it happens sometimes. I just wrote another one last night, so you might want to check it out first and come back to this one later (although I guess it doesn't matter all that much). Anyways, I just had a really cool morning that I can't resist sharing!
This morning, as every Friday morning, I went to Archaeology of Jerusalem at 8am, a bit tired and wondering again whatever possessed me to think that taking a class from 8-11am at the end of a week would be a good idea. I think I just got my answer. First, as I've said before, my professor is one of the leading archaeologists in Jerusalem. He's very well known, and it's been said of him that he knows personally every cave in and around Jerusalem (and I don't doubt it). Just listening to him in class proves the man knows more at 60-something than I could ever hope to know in about 4 lifetimes. He just stands there and lectures, and I sit there thinking, I can't write fast enough to put down what he's just casually talking about. He brings notes, but only looks at them about once every 1/2 hour. It's mind boggling.
Today in class, come about 10:30 he's calmly lecturing about and old wall from the Hasmonean dynasty that has been found and excavated in several places. He gives us the framework for where it runs and talks about the importance of the discovery, just as he has with every other archaeological find that we've talked about for the last 2 1/2 hours. And then, with the same, even tone that he has been using for the entire class, he suggests that maybe we wouldn't mind going to see it. Wouldn't mind?! Of course not!
He starts walking out of the room like this is a normal thing to do in the middle of a lecture, and we all jump up and follow him. What else are we going to do at a moment like that? Very calmly he walks outside, across the courtyard and points out the wall of the school. That's bedrock, he says, the bedrock that the Hasmoneans carved into a tower of their wall. Suddenly I realize that the wall I've been walking by every day for two weeks on my way into the main building is part of a roughly 2,200 year old tower. The original. Then points out where under our basketball hoop the stones from the original tower were put into the new building.
As if it's nothing, he states that we might want to go see where the rest of the tower goes. So he walks up the stairs inside the building, stopping to point out where you can see the bedrock carved as the southern wall in the stairwell. He keeps going, right into the office of the director of the school (Dr. Wright) and stands there showing us the bedrock and where it has been carved to look like tiling stones.
Going back downstairs, he proceeds to take us on a line through the school, going from section to section showing us how the old wall literally runs right through our school. Apparently it also goes back into the cemetery that is attached as well. Another original tower is back there, along with some ritual baths (we didn't have time to go see it today, but I plan to very soon). He also took us right outside the school and showed us how the wall ran out of the school and kept going into the Greek Orthodox seminary next door.
Finished with his little object lesson for the day, he calmly walks back into the classroom, looks back down at his notes, and finishes his lecture in the remaining 5 minutes of class. Meanwhile I'm sitting there thinking, what?! I'm living in a building built upon and incorporating a 2,2oo year old wall?! Sweet! Every time I go in and out of the building with my room and the dining hall, I'm passing the guard tower of this wall. I'm sitting on and touching and living in stones that pre-date Christ! Needless to say, this place continues to blow my mind.
So I know this probably isn't nearly as cool to read about as it was to experience, but I felt need to share, so here it is. Hope you enjoyed it!
This morning, as every Friday morning, I went to Archaeology of Jerusalem at 8am, a bit tired and wondering again whatever possessed me to think that taking a class from 8-11am at the end of a week would be a good idea. I think I just got my answer. First, as I've said before, my professor is one of the leading archaeologists in Jerusalem. He's very well known, and it's been said of him that he knows personally every cave in and around Jerusalem (and I don't doubt it). Just listening to him in class proves the man knows more at 60-something than I could ever hope to know in about 4 lifetimes. He just stands there and lectures, and I sit there thinking, I can't write fast enough to put down what he's just casually talking about. He brings notes, but only looks at them about once every 1/2 hour. It's mind boggling.
Today in class, come about 10:30 he's calmly lecturing about and old wall from the Hasmonean dynasty that has been found and excavated in several places. He gives us the framework for where it runs and talks about the importance of the discovery, just as he has with every other archaeological find that we've talked about for the last 2 1/2 hours. And then, with the same, even tone that he has been using for the entire class, he suggests that maybe we wouldn't mind going to see it. Wouldn't mind?! Of course not!
He starts walking out of the room like this is a normal thing to do in the middle of a lecture, and we all jump up and follow him. What else are we going to do at a moment like that? Very calmly he walks outside, across the courtyard and points out the wall of the school. That's bedrock, he says, the bedrock that the Hasmoneans carved into a tower of their wall. Suddenly I realize that the wall I've been walking by every day for two weeks on my way into the main building is part of a roughly 2,200 year old tower. The original. Then points out where under our basketball hoop the stones from the original tower were put into the new building.
As if it's nothing, he states that we might want to go see where the rest of the tower goes. So he walks up the stairs inside the building, stopping to point out where you can see the bedrock carved as the southern wall in the stairwell. He keeps going, right into the office of the director of the school (Dr. Wright) and stands there showing us the bedrock and where it has been carved to look like tiling stones.
Going back downstairs, he proceeds to take us on a line through the school, going from section to section showing us how the old wall literally runs right through our school. Apparently it also goes back into the cemetery that is attached as well. Another original tower is back there, along with some ritual baths (we didn't have time to go see it today, but I plan to very soon). He also took us right outside the school and showed us how the wall ran out of the school and kept going into the Greek Orthodox seminary next door.
Finished with his little object lesson for the day, he calmly walks back into the classroom, looks back down at his notes, and finishes his lecture in the remaining 5 minutes of class. Meanwhile I'm sitting there thinking, what?! I'm living in a building built upon and incorporating a 2,2oo year old wall?! Sweet! Every time I go in and out of the building with my room and the dining hall, I'm passing the guard tower of this wall. I'm sitting on and touching and living in stones that pre-date Christ! Needless to say, this place continues to blow my mind.
So I know this probably isn't nearly as cool to read about as it was to experience, but I felt need to share, so here it is. Hope you enjoyed it!
Pictures from top to bottom:
- outside wall, just beyond the gate; the bottom part under the arch is bedrock which was carved into a wall of the tower
- inside the building, the first stairwell; directly in front, under the railing is more carved bedrock, remains of the southern wall of the tower
- looking from the stairwell back at the entrance to the building; on the right is more carved bedrock, with the remains of stairs going up to the top of the tower (you can see them way in the upper left-hand corner of the bedrock wall)
- outside wall, under the basketball hoop; the lowest two rows of stones are stones that fell down from the original Hasmonean dynasty wall and were reused in the building of the wall of the school
Thursday, February 10, 2011
A Week in A Day
A week in a day sort of describes what my life feels like right now. During my "regular life" back in the States there is normal routine and a familiarity to most everything that I do. Here, nothing quite fits the mold that I have. So basically, almost everything is a learning experience, and simple things take on a whole new element. I mean, imagine my surprise the first time I put the hot chocolate mix in hot water and it tasted nasty. It's supposed to taste good :S That's when I learned that here, you mix it with milk. Everything about life is like that. I have to learn my way around a new city and new customs. It's awesome and challenging and incredibly interesting, and tiring all at the same time.
Well, one of my weeks in a day happened on Sunday. As I referred to last time, we headed out on an all day field study. In the morning (7-noon) we focused on the Old Testament sites in and around Jerusalem (well, a few of them). We started by going to the Broad Wall (part of Hezekiah's Wall) and discussing the implications of where it is. The really condensed version is that it really messes up the theory of several archaeologist who claimed that the city was never any larger than the City of David (Eastern Hill) until the time of the Romans. From there we moved down the Western Hill into the Central Valley and onto the Eastern Hill (City of David). We spent time talking about some of the archaeological finds there, and then we spent a significant amount of time underground in the water tunnels. We went right up to Hezekiah's Tunnel but didn't actually go through it, since it takes quite a bit of time and would be quite cold at this time of year. You get pretty wet, and February is not the ideal month for doing it. But I fully intend to go back later and go through it.
We ended up at the Pool of Siloam, and then headed back through the sewer tunnels, home to lunch. Sounds like a great combination, right?
After lunch was New Testament focused. We went to the Western and Southern Walls of the Temple. Sitting on the steps of the Temple was pretty cool. It was an awesome feeling to realize that I was sitting and learning on the same steps that we can assume Paul sat on and learned from Gamelial (he was known to teach there with regularity) and the same steps that Jesus more than likely taught from. That's a lot of history! It also gave me just a tiny taste of how it must grate at the Jews that they can't go onto the grounds of the Temple. Standing at the wall and realizing that there's no way that I can ever go walk the grounds of the Temple was a bit of a frustrating feeling. How much more so if you still consider it to be the centerpiece of orthodoxy!
We also saw a small house that still exists from the Byzantine era. It was amazing to me how many people used to live in two very small rooms. It certainly lent a whole new meaning to no privacy.
After the Temple area, we went to the Pool of Bethesda, where Jesus healed the lame man. It was a really interesting experience for me, as this was one of those places where being there completely changes the way you look at the story. The pool is actually about 100 feet deep. Suddenly it makes very good sense why someone might be a bit hesitant to try to get into the pool without help. If you get in and don't get healed, you're not coming back out! Additionally, when archaeologists excavated the site, they found the remains of an Asklepion, which is a temple dedicated to the Greek healing god, Asklepius. So basically, when Jesus walked up to this guy, they were standing next to a Greek temple for healing. The stirring of the waters that John mentions may actually be in reference to a tradition surrounding the Asklepion. And when Jesus asks him if he wants to get well, what he is probably actually saying might be said something like this today, "Come on, man! Don't be stupid. Don't you know this god can't do anything? But God can, so get up and walk!" And later we see the man in the Temple, so clearly he knew where his healing had come from (and that he was now allowed back into the righteous of his society).
We finished our day on the roof of the Austrian Hospice, one of the tallest buildings in Jerusalem. Being able to look out over the city and see so many of the things there was a cool perspective. It really sums it up in a visual picture when you see the Dome of the Rock, just right of that (in the horizon perspective) a major Jewish synagogue, and right of that the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. There's a strange feeling to being in Jerusalem that I don't quite know how to describe. It's this land where the holy meets the horrific. The worst and the best of humanity has played out on these streets. Here we crucified our Savior. Here some of the most beautiful churches and traditions stand in commemoration. And here we hate our brothers and carry on centuries of tradition of persecution one against another. Nothing about the situation is simple here. Nothing.
Well I think that's more than enough for now. I'm learning so many things, both about Biblical and historical geography and culture and about current culture and situations. Every day is an adventure here, and I relish the opportunity to continue having my horizons expanded and my world opened up.
Thanks for taking the time to read, I'd love to hear your thoughts/what's going on in your own lives, and good night from Jerusalem!
Kristin
Well, one of my weeks in a day happened on Sunday. As I referred to last time, we headed out on an all day field study. In the morning (7-noon) we focused on the Old Testament sites in and around Jerusalem (well, a few of them). We started by going to the Broad Wall (part of Hezekiah's Wall) and discussing the implications of where it is. The really condensed version is that it really messes up the theory of several archaeologist who claimed that the city was never any larger than the City of David (Eastern Hill) until the time of the Romans. From there we moved down the Western Hill into the Central Valley and onto the Eastern Hill (City of David). We spent time talking about some of the archaeological finds there, and then we spent a significant amount of time underground in the water tunnels. We went right up to Hezekiah's Tunnel but didn't actually go through it, since it takes quite a bit of time and would be quite cold at this time of year. You get pretty wet, and February is not the ideal month for doing it. But I fully intend to go back later and go through it.
We ended up at the Pool of Siloam, and then headed back through the sewer tunnels, home to lunch. Sounds like a great combination, right?
After lunch was New Testament focused. We went to the Western and Southern Walls of the Temple. Sitting on the steps of the Temple was pretty cool. It was an awesome feeling to realize that I was sitting and learning on the same steps that we can assume Paul sat on and learned from Gamelial (he was known to teach there with regularity) and the same steps that Jesus more than likely taught from. That's a lot of history! It also gave me just a tiny taste of how it must grate at the Jews that they can't go onto the grounds of the Temple. Standing at the wall and realizing that there's no way that I can ever go walk the grounds of the Temple was a bit of a frustrating feeling. How much more so if you still consider it to be the centerpiece of orthodoxy!
We also saw a small house that still exists from the Byzantine era. It was amazing to me how many people used to live in two very small rooms. It certainly lent a whole new meaning to no privacy.
After the Temple area, we went to the Pool of Bethesda, where Jesus healed the lame man. It was a really interesting experience for me, as this was one of those places where being there completely changes the way you look at the story. The pool is actually about 100 feet deep. Suddenly it makes very good sense why someone might be a bit hesitant to try to get into the pool without help. If you get in and don't get healed, you're not coming back out! Additionally, when archaeologists excavated the site, they found the remains of an Asklepion, which is a temple dedicated to the Greek healing god, Asklepius. So basically, when Jesus walked up to this guy, they were standing next to a Greek temple for healing. The stirring of the waters that John mentions may actually be in reference to a tradition surrounding the Asklepion. And when Jesus asks him if he wants to get well, what he is probably actually saying might be said something like this today, "Come on, man! Don't be stupid. Don't you know this god can't do anything? But God can, so get up and walk!" And later we see the man in the Temple, so clearly he knew where his healing had come from (and that he was now allowed back into the righteous of his society).
We finished our day on the roof of the Austrian Hospice, one of the tallest buildings in Jerusalem. Being able to look out over the city and see so many of the things there was a cool perspective. It really sums it up in a visual picture when you see the Dome of the Rock, just right of that (in the horizon perspective) a major Jewish synagogue, and right of that the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. There's a strange feeling to being in Jerusalem that I don't quite know how to describe. It's this land where the holy meets the horrific. The worst and the best of humanity has played out on these streets. Here we crucified our Savior. Here some of the most beautiful churches and traditions stand in commemoration. And here we hate our brothers and carry on centuries of tradition of persecution one against another. Nothing about the situation is simple here. Nothing.
Well I think that's more than enough for now. I'm learning so many things, both about Biblical and historical geography and culture and about current culture and situations. Every day is an adventure here, and I relish the opportunity to continue having my horizons expanded and my world opened up.
Thanks for taking the time to read, I'd love to hear your thoughts/what's going on in your own lives, and good night from Jerusalem!
Kristin
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Week 1 - Adjusting
Tonight concludes my first week here in Jerusalem and at JUC. It has certainly been a week of firsts and adjusting. I had my first week of classes. Physical Settings covers the basic geography of the land and how this helps us understand the Bible. One of the best parts of this class is field study. Tomorrow morning we will be heading out at 7am (midnight for everyone on East Coast Time) to do a full day field study of Jerusalem. I know we will be starting in the City of David, and perhaps headed over to near the Temple Mount after that. It will be a long day, but I'm really looking forward to everything that Dr. Wright will teach us about Jerusalem!
In Cultural Backgrounds we learn about the social setting of the Bible. The focus of this class is culture. Basically, in order to understand the Bible fully, we need to understand the culture that created it. We will spend this semester looking at the basic framework that will allow us to better interpret the small details. My professor refers to this as onion-ology. Don't bother to look it up in a dictionary of theology - you won't find it! The term was created to mean the study that focuses on small, everyday details, like the price of onions in the marketplace.
For Arabic, I travel into Bethlehem twice a week. In some ways I think I get as much of an education from this aspect as I do from the class. Learning some basic phrases in Arabic has been really cool, but it has been equally eye opening to travel back and forth between Israel and Palestine and to see the differences and the attitudes of each side. Bethlehem is a much more Arab culture than Jerusalem. While there are plenty of Arabs within Jerusalem, the culture is a bit more subdued. In Bethlehem shopkeepers are much more agressive in trying to sell their products and taxi drivers will pretty much chase you down the street trying to get you to take their taxi. It is also a much poorer area and not nearly as well kept up as Jerusalem.
In addition I am taking two other classes, History of Church in the East and Archaeology of Jerusalem. Church in the East is pretty much what it sounds like. It looks at church history but from and Eastern perspective, rather than the Western approach that I've always grown up with. Archaeology is also more or less what it sounds like. However, it will be a very interesting class in many ways. My professor is one of the leading archaeologists in Israel and absolutely brilliant. He is also Israeli, and he teaches like it. What that means for us is three hours straight of lecture, no break from 8-11am. What it also means is my entire grade for this class is riding on one final exam, which I've heard is pretty difficult. In addition, he doesn't give assignments. Rather, when he tells you about archaeological finds and major excavations, he just assumes that you will go look up more information until you are familiar with the subject. That is his weekly assignment. I'm sure I'll learn a ton, but it will certainly be an interesting experience.
Outside of class I've pretty much just been adjusting to life at JUC and life in the Middle East. There are so many new things to remember and customs to adjust to. First of all, women don't have exactly the same status that they do in the U.S. I have to be very careful when I go out about how I dress, how I act, and who I am with. I pretty much can't ever go out anywhere along, especially not at night. And for many places and areas, the girls really need guys to go with them in order to be safe. I'm also learning not to make eye contact and simply to ignore men if they start talking to me...very weird for an American who has spent their whole believing that the polite thing to do is smile and say hello.
Adjusting to the time zone and getting plenty of good sleep remains a bit of an issue. I'm starting to get there, but that has certainly been part of my week of adjusting. There has also been the normal adjustment of getting back into classes after 5 weeks without school.
Perhaps one of my favorite parts of the week was last night. Friday sundown to Saturday sundown is Shabbat (Sabbath) and pretty much everything shuts down here. The start of Shabbat is tradionally celebrated with the Shabbat meal, and JUC honors this tradition. Every Friday night we have dinner together with the traditional lighting of the Shabbat candles, the blessings, and the bread and wine (or grape juice in our case). We rearrange the whole dining room to feel very family style and all just enjoy a time of fellowship. Shortly following the Shabbat meal we have Vespers, which is a time of worship usually followed by some sort of message or sharing. In general, Friday night is just a time for worship and fellowship. It was a really nice way to end the week and spend time together as a community. Following Vespers a bunch of us continued to hang out and play games together for the rest of the evening. I think Friday nights might become one of my favorite times here at JUC :)
Well, I guess that's my week in review. Now that Shabbat is over, I'm off to finish a bit of reading for class before I head to bed. I'm guessing with an 11 hour field study tomorrow that I probably won't feel like doing it then. I hope you all are having a great finish to your weeks!
In Cultural Backgrounds we learn about the social setting of the Bible. The focus of this class is culture. Basically, in order to understand the Bible fully, we need to understand the culture that created it. We will spend this semester looking at the basic framework that will allow us to better interpret the small details. My professor refers to this as onion-ology. Don't bother to look it up in a dictionary of theology - you won't find it! The term was created to mean the study that focuses on small, everyday details, like the price of onions in the marketplace.
For Arabic, I travel into Bethlehem twice a week. In some ways I think I get as much of an education from this aspect as I do from the class. Learning some basic phrases in Arabic has been really cool, but it has been equally eye opening to travel back and forth between Israel and Palestine and to see the differences and the attitudes of each side. Bethlehem is a much more Arab culture than Jerusalem. While there are plenty of Arabs within Jerusalem, the culture is a bit more subdued. In Bethlehem shopkeepers are much more agressive in trying to sell their products and taxi drivers will pretty much chase you down the street trying to get you to take their taxi. It is also a much poorer area and not nearly as well kept up as Jerusalem.
In addition I am taking two other classes, History of Church in the East and Archaeology of Jerusalem. Church in the East is pretty much what it sounds like. It looks at church history but from and Eastern perspective, rather than the Western approach that I've always grown up with. Archaeology is also more or less what it sounds like. However, it will be a very interesting class in many ways. My professor is one of the leading archaeologists in Israel and absolutely brilliant. He is also Israeli, and he teaches like it. What that means for us is three hours straight of lecture, no break from 8-11am. What it also means is my entire grade for this class is riding on one final exam, which I've heard is pretty difficult. In addition, he doesn't give assignments. Rather, when he tells you about archaeological finds and major excavations, he just assumes that you will go look up more information until you are familiar with the subject. That is his weekly assignment. I'm sure I'll learn a ton, but it will certainly be an interesting experience.
Outside of class I've pretty much just been adjusting to life at JUC and life in the Middle East. There are so many new things to remember and customs to adjust to. First of all, women don't have exactly the same status that they do in the U.S. I have to be very careful when I go out about how I dress, how I act, and who I am with. I pretty much can't ever go out anywhere along, especially not at night. And for many places and areas, the girls really need guys to go with them in order to be safe. I'm also learning not to make eye contact and simply to ignore men if they start talking to me...very weird for an American who has spent their whole believing that the polite thing to do is smile and say hello.
Adjusting to the time zone and getting plenty of good sleep remains a bit of an issue. I'm starting to get there, but that has certainly been part of my week of adjusting. There has also been the normal adjustment of getting back into classes after 5 weeks without school.
Perhaps one of my favorite parts of the week was last night. Friday sundown to Saturday sundown is Shabbat (Sabbath) and pretty much everything shuts down here. The start of Shabbat is tradionally celebrated with the Shabbat meal, and JUC honors this tradition. Every Friday night we have dinner together with the traditional lighting of the Shabbat candles, the blessings, and the bread and wine (or grape juice in our case). We rearrange the whole dining room to feel very family style and all just enjoy a time of fellowship. Shortly following the Shabbat meal we have Vespers, which is a time of worship usually followed by some sort of message or sharing. In general, Friday night is just a time for worship and fellowship. It was a really nice way to end the week and spend time together as a community. Following Vespers a bunch of us continued to hang out and play games together for the rest of the evening. I think Friday nights might become one of my favorite times here at JUC :)
Well, I guess that's my week in review. Now that Shabbat is over, I'm off to finish a bit of reading for class before I head to bed. I'm guessing with an 11 hour field study tomorrow that I probably won't feel like doing it then. I hope you all are having a great finish to your weeks!
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