"Living in a mysterious world"

Things here have been well. I'm staying very busy, and keeping my days quite full. Still getting settled in for the year, and have already finished my second week of ulpan classes. I was talking with my roommate, Paul, about how I feel I've been here for a long time when really it's always been two weeks. He agreed. Though it's only been two weeks, they've been two very busy weeks which makes them seem longer.

Last week we, the Overseas students, went to southern Tel Aviv to an area called Old Jaffa/Yafo. Jaffa is the oldest part of Tel Aviv, being approximately 3,000 years old to Tel Aviv's 58. It served as a port for many civilizations through out that period, from the Egyptians to the Turks to the French to the Arabs and now the Jews. It still has a large Israeli Arab population, compared to other parts of the city.

Old Jaffa sits on a hill, overlooking the Mediterranean. It has a Catholic church and monestary, which is run my a formerly-Jewish priest (though the Jews still consider him a Jew because once a Jew, always a Jew). There are also gardens on top of the hill, and a smattering of restaurants and shops. Many of the shops in Old Jaffa are artisans, creating everything from paintings to metal sculptures.

The photo gallery of Old Jaffa can be viewed by clicking here.

Sunday was another group trip, this time to Jerusalem. This trip was a little surreal. The only things I really knew about Jerusalem going into the trip was what I had learned from the Bible, and this is clearly not the most up-to-date Frommer's Guide of modern Jerusalem. Therefore I didn't know what to expect, exactly, upon my arrival.

One of the things that you must remember when in the Middle East is that Europe doesn't have anything on the Middle East. Through excavation, they've determined settlements in Jerusalem as far back as 3000 BCE; over 5000 years ago. There's a line from a poem that says: "No one has ever seen Jerusalem naked". What it means, essentially, is that they've never gotten to the bottom. Everytime they think they've reached the last layer, they find more archeological evidence.

Case in point: Jerusalem has been trying to build a badly needed lightrail for years. The problem, though, is that every time they bulldoze to lay the track they end up unearthing something and there has to be an archeological dig. They can't help but find history.

Our tour consisted of one of the oldest neighborhoods in Jerusalem, houses built in the early 20th century for poor Jews to live in for free in order to save money and get on their feet. The entire area is pedestrian, as the streets were build before cars were invented and none of the streets are wide enough for cars, which is fine as no cars could get through the gates anyway.

Most of the day was spent in the Old City*, the oldest part of Jerusalem. The Old City is divided into four quarters: the Jewish quarter, Muslim quarter, Christian quarter, and Armenian quarter. We toured the Jewish and Christian quarters, but the Muslim quarter is only open to non-Muslims at certain times and the Armenian quarter is always closed to outsiders.

Pictures of the neighborhoods and the Old City are in this gallery.

The Old City contains some of the holiest sites of the worlds three main religions: the Western Wall and Temple Mount for Jews; the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque for Muslims; and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Christians. As all these are in a 0.9 square mile area, you can imagine the tension that exists. It could, literally, trigger World War III if someone did something stupid.

Though the Jews and Muslims are at odds over the Temple Mount, the Christians don't get off easy either, though. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is run by six different Christian sects, and is the holiest site in the world for Christians. It is also the most dilapitated church I've ever seen, the reasons for which are explained in the Wikipedia article (I saw that ladder!). We did see the Armenians in action, though, and their monophonic singing was amazing! For what the church didn't have in style, it made up for in acoustics.

We started the day in the Jewish quarter, going through the museum about the Temple Mount and seeing the ruins around it. The city was filled with soldiers, as Sundays are the days in which the soldier receive Jewish/religious instruction and some of them were at the Old City. The city is also filled with shops, synagogues/temples/churches, and homes. While many people come to tour it, there are a sizable number of people who live in the Old City.

Following the museum, we headed through security and to the Western Wall. The wall itself actually has no significance to Judiaism but it is as close as Jews can safely come to the Temple Mount and has become a holy place to the Jews.

If you had told me a year ago that I would be standing at the Western Wall in Jerusalem wearing a kippah, I would have asked you what you were on and why you weren't sharing. Yet there I was, head covered and surrounded by a religious practice I knew nothing about. People were praying feverently, stuffing written prayers into cracks, and kissing the wall. As a non-Jew, it seemed terribly voyeuristic. While most everyone else was there for a religious experience, I was there purely as an observer and tourist. I took my look-see, then headed back to my friends to guard out backpacks while they did their thing.

It was the first time in my two weeks that I truely felt disconnected from things. In Tel Aviv, which is mostly secular, I always felt a bit like an outsider: I don't speak the language, I don't know the customs, I get lost easily, and I'm not Jewish. That never bothered me that much though, any more than it did being a Protestant in predominantly-Catholic France and not speaking the language. The Western Wall, though, really drove the point home: I was not, in any way, a part of what was going on. This was a culture, a religion, and a history that wasn't mine.

This brought two things to mind: what was my culture and history? While individual Jews likely can't trace their ancestors back to the First Temple's construction in the 10 century BC, the history of the Jewish people as a whole is something they can connect to. My ancestors came from all over Europe, and we're still not even sure from where; my last name is British, my family is predominantly German with some Irish thrown in as far as we can tell, and the records are non-existant after my great-great-grandparents.

Are my ancestors Jews who converted to Christianity, Romans who worshipped the pantheon gods, or barbaric nomads who were wondering through unconquered lands? I have no idea. It was something that I had never thought about but yet couldn't ignore as I stared thousands of years of Jewish history in the face. These people know who they were, and where they came from.

While I couldn't connect with the people or things around me, it did give me a greater sense of history. I was staring at a wall that is 3000 years old. Really think about 3000 years worth of time. Think about everything that's happened for us to be where we are, and to be who we are. It really gives the world and civilization a frame and drives home how long we, as humans, have been on Earth. Now think about the fact the Earth is 4.5 billion years old. Bizarre, isn't it?

The day ended with a quick walk through the market in the Christian quarter, then back to the Jewish quarter for dinner. We had a Roman style dinner, which meant the same food we'd been eating for two weeks (hummus, kebabs, pita, diced veggies, etc.) but served to us by people wearing togas. Very filling, and needed after walking in the heat all day.

So that was Jerusalem, quick and dirty. We're already trying to plan a trip to go back. British Dan studied at Hebrew University last year for a semester, so he's very familiar with the ins and outs of the city. Hopefully we can make it back and get a feel for the modern city that is Jerusalem.

*I'm using Wikipedia as a quick reference for everything I'm talking about, as going into detail of everything there would take hours. I highly, highly recommend finding a good documentary about Jerusalem and it's history if you're interested in the subject as Wikipedia is by no means an authoritative source. Just the Old City itself is fascinating, and steeped in ancient and modern history.