After the breakfast we made our way to the conference site. I had my first of two presentations that I needed to make. This one was on mindfulness. I was asked to be on an expert panel on the topic where I just responded to questions from the audience and moderator. Although I have done a few research studies on this topic, it is not one that I am super passionate about. The panel and my comments did get a favorable response though and I got to see some of the researchers that I collaborate with that I haven't seen for a while.
After attending some of the conference we were off to visit the old city of Jerusalem. Our first stop was the room of the last super. The walk from the conference site to the old city went through a quiet planned community that was really pretty. I wasn't very impressed with the last super room. Basically, it is just the spot where they think the last super might have taken place. So a church was built on top of it and we got to go into an upper room in that church. So maybe it was in the same location, but we don't know what the room actually looked like. Also, there were tons of people in it with tour guides loudly talking in several different languages, so it was difficult to feel the Spirit or anything there. This was a big change now that we were in Jerusalem. Whereas in the other places that we visited we were one of only a few people around and we had lots of quiet moments, in Jerusalem there were tons of people (tourists and locals) and we had to specifically look for times where we could just sit and ponder on the events of Christ's life.
Right below the room of the last super they have King David's tomb. I don't think the Jewish people really believe that King David is inside of it, but it still seems to be a pilgramage place for them. Outside a Jewish individual offered to walk us inside and he gave me a kippah to wear while I was inside. Rebecca and I had to separate again since there were male and female viewing sides. When the man brought me to the tomb he told me to touch it and take pictures of it. Then he asked me for money. When I told him I didn't have any money to give him he snatched the kippah off my head. I quickly made my way out of the room since they had lots of signs indicating that the heads of males needed to be covered in this area.
We next went to Caiaphas's house. This is supposed to be the spot where Christ was taken for his secret Jewish trial that shouldn't have taken place at night. Caiaphas was the Jewish High Priest in Jerusalem at the time. This is also thought to be the site where Peter denied Christ for the third time and the cock crowed afterward. Again, another huge church was built here so we didn't spend very much time looking around. It was a pretty building though.
These buildings were all outside of the main walls to the old city. The old city is pretty cool. It is surrounded by these huge walls with just a few (maybe five or so) small gates to get into it. Some of the gates could fit a small car (and we definitely saw them trying to crowd in), but others were just for walking in. We wanted to go to the Western Wall first, and so we entered the city by the Dung Gate. I guess the Dung Gate was the one that they historically used for their garbage spot, hence the name.
The Western Wall was just inside this gate. We had to go through a security check point to see the Western Wall, partially because it is the most sacred site to the Jews in the world and partially because there have been a number of conflicts here between the Jews and the Arabs. As we approached the wall I had to cover my head again, but they had paper kippahs that they were giving out to all of the men. Rebecca and I also had to split up. There were many people praying at the wall and some bar mitzvahs that were occurring. The bar mitzvahs were interesting because of the split between the men and women. It seemed like they would do some parts of the ceremony with just the men and then they would travel over to the divider where all the women were crowded peaking over. They would then lift the boy up to the top of the divider so the mother and other women could see him and kiss and hug him and say their own prayers. We were glad that we made it there at an especially crowded time with a few bar mitzvahs occurring all at once. In the wall there were also lots of tiny prayer papers. I guess people write their prayers on these papers, role them up small, and then shove them into the cracks of the wall. It is amazing that the wall has stood up for thousands of year with all of the wars and now prayers it has been through. This wall is one of the original supporting walls for the temple that was originally built by Solomon. The actual temple spot is now owned by the Arabs and is a sacred spot to them (It is the spot where Abraham, a prophet in both religions, took Isaac to sacrifice him, and where they believe Mohammad traveled to commune with heaven). The Jews will not go into the temple spot even when it is open to the public because they do not want to accidentally walk on the location where the Holy of Hollies used to be (they do not know exactly how the temple was situated). So they stay outside the wall and worship there. The Jews also believe that this is the spot where all creation started.
After the Western Wall we wanted to find the Lion's Gate. This was one the other side of the old city. Julia had read about it in one of her history books and so she gave us a special assignment to go there. It is also thought to be the spot where Pilate presented Christ to the Jews to see if they would release him and where he was flogged and began his journey carrying the cross. The old city is a maze! None of the roads were straight and the majority of them were very skinny just enough room for walking. Then the buildings were all a couple of stories tall so you couldn't look up to see any landmarks to try to orient yourself. Added on top of that, there were sections that you couldn't go into because they were part of the temple mount and only open to the public at certain times (We tried a few times to get onto the temple mount but because of Ramadan they only had it open to the public a couple hours during the week. Each time we tried to go there police would stop us, say it was closed, and give us a new time when we could visit. But, when we would show up at that new time it was still closed and we were told to come back at a different time). So we got lost in the old city a lot, but that was okay because we were not in any rush and we were able to just enjoy our time looking around.
We eventually did find the Lion's Gate and saw a few churches that were built on the site where Christ was beat.
Also in this area were the Pools of Bethesda where Christ healed the lame man who couldn't make it into the water on his own. That was closed so we just had to peak at it through a window that we found.
As we were wandering around we also came upon the site where they believe Christ was held prisoner by the Jews over night. A church was built on top of this place too, but they had stairs to beneath the church to what they think was the original prison. I am not sure if this one was open to the public, but we followed a Greek group in that were doing some sort of religious services there, so we got to see it all.
We then just wandered around a little more through all of the markets that were in the Arab portion of the city. This section was particularly crowded, we were told because of Ramadan. After wandering around we made our way to the Damascas Gate and then the garden tomb.
We both felt like the garden tomb was the best part of Jerusalem. This tomb is situated just outside of the old city walls. And even though there is a lot of hustle and bustle all around, they have this garden closed off and it was very quiet and peaceful there and both Rebecca and I could feel the Spirit while we were there. Many of the Christian religions do not recognize this as the site where Christ was crucified and buried; however, some of the prophets in our church who have visited Jerusalem have said that they believe the garden tomb is the correct spot.
There was a tour guide who walked us around and told us about the history of the garden and the evidence that supports the possibility that this is the actual site. We first saw Golgotha or Calvary where Christ was crucified. The guide showed us the hill with the skull in it, but told us that he was probably crucified down where they buses are rather than up on top of the hill. She told us that at the time the Romans wanted to punish their prisoners down by the walkways so that those who passed by could easily see them and the pain that they were experiencing.
The guide also showed us an ancient wine press in the garden that dates back to the time of Christ giving support to this actually being the garden of a rich person back then.
And then we got to see the tomb. It was really neat and Rebecca and I found a spot to sit, eat a few snacks, and just ponder for 30 minutes or so.
This is inside the tomb where Christ's body was probably laid.
An example stone that would be rolled in front of the tombs. They think that the actual one was a lot bigger in order to cover the door for this tomb.
Just like the pictures that we grew up seeing in the scriptures.
After seeing the garden tomb we made our way back to our hotel and then out for dinner.
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