Ten Days in Israel - Part III

Following is part 3 in Mom's Ten Days in Israel. In light of the current events enfolding there, Mom offers the following organization for those interested in helping Israel: International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.

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[Note: The places toured on June 24th are sometimes not in the order we toured them, but more in the sequence of historical events, so as to make it "flowing" for the readers.]

Shalom and onward!

Saturday, June 24 ~ Christian sites tour ~
~ A truly somber and reflective day ~

Our day started with a visit to the Pool of Bethesda, in Jerusalem. Bethesda means, "house of mercy," and reported as the site Jesus healed an invalid man (John 5)...

...drove to the top of the Mount of Olives, overlooking Jerusalem, where Jesus often brought his disciples to teach and pray (Acts 1)...

...walked up through the ancient walls of Jerusalem, ending in the Upper Room. The Upper Room commemorates Jesus' Last Supper with his apostles before his death (Luke 22).

...walked the historic Palm Sunday road. Palm Sunday is the day we remember Jesus' "triumphal entry" into Jerusalem, exactly one week before his resurrection (Matthew 21). Palm branches were laid on the road, as Jesus rode a donkey into the city...

...walked down to the Garden of Gethsemane (John 18), an extremely moving experience. The Garden was Jesus' favorite resting place. It was here where He waited and prayed...,it was here where He suffered for the sins of the world...,it was here where He was betrayed by the disciple Judas; and it was here where He awaited his arrest the night before He was crucified...

...visited The Sisters of Zion Church, where Jesus was whipped before mockers....

After, we visited the Church of All Nations which is located right next to the Garden.

We drove to St. Peter in Gallicantu, site of Caiaphas, the Jewish high priest's house where Jesus was taken after his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane.

We went to the traditional site of Calvary, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This site commemorates Jesus' crucifixion.

We visited The Garden Tomb. The Garden Tomb has two chambers cut out of solid rock. This site coincides with the Gospel accounts of where Christ was said to be buried. We paused for a brief prayer in remembrance of Jesus Christ's saving death (Luke 23)...

...and this is where we ended this very moving day....

[Note: The places toured on June 25th and the 26th are pretty much in the order taken.]

Sunday, June 25 ~ Jerusalem New City ~
We attended a very comprehensive and interesting lecture by Knesset member Prof. Arieh Eldad. After, we took a VIP tour of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. A lecture followed regarding Israel's evolving democracy, and later met with representatives from various sides of their politics.

We drove by the architectural wonder of the Supreme Court on the way to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum--a memorial to the six million Jews murdered during WWII.

We visited the Shaare Zedek Hospital, a 500-bed facility located in the center of Jerusalem. Our visit started with a moving presentation on how the hospital copes with terror. We saw how they respond medically to mass disasters, and how they save the lives of heart attack victims through pioneering techniques.

We also had a glimpse of some of the happier aspects of their work, such as, bringing close to 11,000 babies a year into the world!

Their Weinstock Family Department of Emergency Medicine is a major addition to Jerusalem's emergency preparedness infrastructure, due to its superior design, and centrally accessible location. This state-of-the- art facility provides the most modern and effective trauma and emergency treatments.

The support the Medical Center receives from their worldwide network of friends is most important, since they receive no government funding. Shaare Zedek celebrated the hospital's 100th anniversary in 2002.

A brief visit to the Jerusalem College of Technology followed. This college was founded in 1969 and has grown into one of Israel's major academic institutions of higher education, specializing in high-tech engineering and industrial management. They grant academic degrees in:

~ Physics and Medical Engineering
~ Physics and Electro-Optics Engineering
~ Electronic Engineering
~ Industrial Engineering and Management
~ Software Engineering
~ Computer Science
~ Managerial Accounting and information Systems
~ Technology Management and Marketing

We visited the Synagogue of the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Ein Karem, located in a beautiful setting near Jerusalem. There we viewed the Chagall stained-glass windows, installed in 1962. The windows represent the twelve sons of the Patriarch Jacob, from whom came the Twelve Tribes of Israel, and depicts Jewish history, its tragedies and its victories.

Monday, June 26 ~ Jerusalem Old City ~
We started with a visit to the Shrine of the Book, home of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other rare ancient manuscripts. This Dome-like building covers a structure which is two-third below the ground and is reflected in a pool of water that surrounds it.

Then on to the Western Wall (known as the Wailing Wall to most), and saw the massive foundation stones in the Kotel tunnels. I was even able to write a message/wish/prayer and insert it into one of the many, many crevices throughout the stones. This is a ritual for most locals, and a "must" for tourists as well. People from near and far go and pray next to the wall, while laying their hands upon it. Yet, another very moving experience!

The Western Wall site is also a popular place for the celebration of the "coming-of-age" events for young adults. These are usually celebrated at the age of thirteen, and are known as Bar Mitzvahs (male) and Bat Mitzvahs (females). Bat/Bar Mitzvah in Hebrew means "son/daughter of the commandment". This means a boy/girl has reached adulthood and is fully responsible for his/her morals and religious duties--becoming a full-fledged member of the Jewish community. On this particular day, there were many such celebrations. The celebrant is hoisted on the shoulders of their father. The families enjoy the tourists joining them on their respective processions and can even participate--a really joyous occasion! Singing takes place and we even get to throw little individual-wrapped candies for all--a fun thing to do, and ending this day of much sight-seeing on a very happy note!

To be continued...don't miss my "final episode" coming up soon....