Tips and Tidbits

Tips

Tip #1, in case you haven't discovered this, clicking on any picture in one of my blogs will enlarge it and give you the option of scrolling through the rest of the pictures in that post.

Tip #2, if you have any questions about my trip here I would be happy to answer them through email!
I do try to include information that I think will be interesting to all of you, but I am not sure what you would like to know so please don't hesitate to ask!

Now for the tidbits! 

In this post, I would like to give some information and random pictures that did not fit in the categories of my last two posts. 

For instance, for the first two weeks, we did not have access to a laundry facility. Therefore, I did all of my laundry by hand in the tub and hung it on the patio to dry. Thank you Mom and Autumn!

We are required to wear "longies" in order to visit some holy sites. This means we must dress in a way that our heads, shoulders, elbows, and knees are covered (and everything in between). It was suggested that ladies bring a large scarf and a wrap-around skirt for this purpose, and I, being the obedient soul that I am, did exactly that. I found that this made me as much of a scenic attraction as the building we were viewing, and had to patiently undergo my picture being surreptitiously taken.

I also found that it can be hard to keep a scarf wrapped when standing on top of a roof where the wind is blowing. It is actually because of the wind though that I was wearing my scarf instead of a hat and I found that a scarf can be a preferable method of shielding one from the sun and 90 degree heat. By the way, I have only burned slightly since coming here.

 

We have seen so many extraordinary places so far, and I have enjoyed every day and garnered quite a list of favorite places. I wanted to mention three of my favorite places so far, excluding sights within New and Old City Jerusalem. 

One was definitely Hezekiah's tunnel.  This was one day that I had no camera, but this website gives the necessary background information on the tunnel as well as a virtual tour: Hezekiah's Tunnel.

My second favorite place was the escape tunnel at Susya. My family will be able to enjoy (or suffer through) the videos that I took of my passage through this tunnel, but here is a picture of the entrance:

 

It was pretty awesome to be walking around above ground looking into this underground community. 

Third, I loved Beth She'an. We stopped there on the way to Jordan. Being in Beth She'an made it easy to visualize this as a Roman city, though it has changed hands numerous times through the centuries. 

The model

Above is a view of the city portrayed in the model. This view is outlayed opposite of the model  because we are looking at the earthquake-ruined city from the far hill which in the model has a small building on it.

 

 

Yeah, those were my favorite places so far. 

Also, I thought that y'all might like to see some Israeli wildlife. We have seen over 10 different kinds of animals / birds so far (not including insects). Regardless, here they all are! ~

 

   

  

 

  

 

 

  

Whew! So I know I am making you work for some of those. I'm sorry I don't doctor my pictures before posting, but I guess that means that you'll have to look as hard for some of those animals as we do! Dr. Fruchtenbaum does not slow down for animal sightings -

The Van (the women in the van): "Awww!! Puppies!!!" 

Dr. F: "Puppies are not part of a Biblical geographical tour!"

Now that we have our longing to see a shepherd, with sheep and goats, quenched, we are on the hunt for camels. I'll let you know when we find some!

Highlights of Week One, Jerusalem - Part Two

Dr. Fruchtenbaum likes to close evening lectures with a Rabbi joke 

so let's open with some humor, shall we?

These are the "hip" Israeli / Hebrew sayings. Sabbaba?

Okay, in this blog I would like to give you some broad brush strokes, as well as some specifics. Let us start with the specifics:

THE DOME OF THE ROCK

(Also fondly referred to as the "abomination" by some of us)

I really don't have any more or better pictures of this site because, quite frankly, I didn't really want any pictures of it, though it is a very beautiful and impressive building. 

I do have plenty of postcards of this building though, so if anyone would like one just let me know ;)

THE WESTERN / WAILING WALL

Of course, this was a must see, and was also an amazing experience - women on the right, men on the left, and back away from the wall when you're done. 

This wall was part of the Herodian temple that Jesus taught and healed in! But still, just a building. This day was special for making me realize that - those streets "that Jesus walked" - that I was so eager to walk after him, were mostly buried under hundreds of years of rebuilding. And even if he had walked that street, so what? Millions of people have walked the streets since then. 

The important thing is that Jesus was here. He died for the sins of the world - He is risen - He is returning - And I am so privileged to commune with Him every single day.

GENERAL SCENERY

I'd like to switch topics now from specific and important places to general scenery of Israel. 

I came here, expecting to find a beautiful land. I thought, "It must be beautiful somehow, if this the land God gave to His chosen people and precious possession." However, honestly, my mind was full of arid scenes, like the following:

  

(See the shepherd?)

And even some pure desert:

Wilderness of Ephraim and Judah

Sea of Galilee on left horizon

However, what I have discovered is that Israel is indeed a land of intense beauty and of variety, deserts not excepted:

 

Sometimes I even find myself wondering if I am really in Israel,
or back at home in the Adirondacks:




I think the most beautiful scene yet is where we are now - on the shores of the Sea of Galilee:

Highlights of Week One - Jerusalem, Part One

Shalom from Jerusalem!

Y'all have no idea how many places we've been and seen this week! We do so much during the end of  the day that it's hard to keep it all straight.

Our schedule is: breakfast at 6:30
                           devotions at 8:00
                           departure 8:15
Then we walk and walk and walk and WALK, until around 4:30 usually.
                            dinner 6:30
                            lecture 7:30
                                               after lecture.............CRASH!


I am going to be very brief and hit the highlights for this week. Everything we see here is still new and exciting, but we have been to a lot of well-known places this week also. I cannot cover them all because my camera ran out of battery a couple days this week. I am so thankful to finally be able to charge it with the help of a friend here. Now I'm praying that the camera has enough memory for the whole trip.

First Night's Menu:

All of the meals served at Mt. Zion hotel are Mediterranean buffet style like this. We certainly are not starving. *Note of interest: This is a kosher hotel = cannot mix dairy and non-dairy. We have dairy for breakfast and no dairy at dinner. I don't know how they make the desserts.

We called the first day "Grave Day."

HEROD'S FAMILY TOMB

I think this tomb is a great example of a 1st century tomb. You can see the round stone behind the entrance that would have been rolled to close the tomb. 

HOLOCAUST MUSEUM - YAD VASHEM

(cried through the whole thing)

We were not allowed to take pictures in the actual museum, so these are pictures from the surrounding grounds and building. 

Janusz Korczak refused sanctuary for himself when the SS came to annihilate 

the children in his orphanage. He died with them instead. 

Train car used to round-up Jews. Imported from Europe.
New Israeli Defense Force soldiers finding shade underneath the tracks.

Statue memorializing Jewish insurrection and 
resistance during the holocaust.

Tomb to the six million.

Maybe my favorite part of the holocaust museum was the memorial to the children. Inside a pitch black room were lit 6 candles, each representing a murdered million. However, fragmented mirrors from floor to ceiling of the building split the flames into millions of tiny, surrounding points of light. This was beautiful. It was also one of the most sobering and frightening exhibits for me. 

GETHSEMANE

    

We were informed by Arnold that the "Garden of Gethsemane" would have actually been a large area of olive trees that were specially grown so their oil could be used in the temple. Only a small part of this "garden" remains today but it is beautiful. The olive tree pictured at bottom right was very interesting to me. As the tree gets old, new shoots grow from the tree to keep it alive.

GARDEN TOMB

- Golgotha -    ...........................

Many of my pictures from this trip turned out blurry, but it was a special trip. We were allowed to enter the tomb though our guide is skeptical that this was indeed the place of Jesus death and burial. We later visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher which is believed to mark the accurate place of Jesus crucifixion and 3-day burial. I do not have any pictures of that trip and am kind of glad. The Catholic Church has desecrated the spot with their "sanctification."

Okay - That's the end of Part One! My next post will come soon with some of the serious/famous places that we've been as well as more basics on life in Israel......such as hand washing clothes!