Category Christianity

Nov 13 2010

Harp players in Ben Yehuda Street, Jerusalem

Whats this big crowd today on this popular precinct?

Often there are musicians and entertainers of alsorts, but today this was a bit different.

This group of harpists, I think they are Christians from various different countries, were doing some playing for charity.  There are about 15 of them with instruments of different sizes, there are handheld symmetrical ‘Davidic’ (ie: like the one King David owned) harps and the large floor standing ones, they have various different sized hollow bases to provide a different type of tone.

I didn’t hear them playing much as they were mainly giving a talk about their charity they were raising support for.  The music was nice and very different.   I had to leave to go to my church worship event.   Later that day I was planning to see some Blues guitar at a club in downtown Talpiyot later that evening.

Interesting fact I read this week; the Marx brothers, the Jewish New Yorker family who did music and comedy,  the most well known being Groucho Marx, one of the pioneers of modern sarcasm and grease paint moustaches, his older brother Harpo Marx left his famous harp to the State of Israel when he died in 1964, although I have not been able to find out where it is stored.

Nov 12 2010

Along Hevron Road – from Jerusalem to Bethlehem

After my trip to Rachel’s tomb I took some pictures on the way back….

The white sign shows a welcome to Jerusalem

New house construction in progress.  This was stopped for a while during the building freeze which was during talks with the Palestinian Authority.

Houses are far to expensive here, new builds all around the country are necessary to provide for growing Jewish and Arab families. (its common for both types of families to have 5-10 children)  Other cities like Karmiel pay about 40% less rent for a similar apartment than Jerusalem residents do.   I don’t think of the houses as a settlement, but as part of the regeneration of the sovereign nation of Israel.   There is a new school, police station and shops in this district when I went there about 2 month ago.

I stopped outside this church on the Hevron Road.   Its a Greek church, and has very pretty gardens.

Everyone had just left when I arrived, I spoke to priest who had tradition Greek Orthodox Christian garb on, asking if I could look around but he said he was just locking up.

There are Arab Christian families on the way back to their cars.    I am not sure if these Arab people live the main west part of Jerusalem or if they come across the border that is about 2Km down the road where I have just come from.

Left: There is small cafe and plenty of picnic tables, and looks like a nice place to fellowship with people after the service.   I need to come back here another time I think.  Right: Poster for Taybeh, a Palestinian beer, on a table in the garden.

Nov 8 2010

Visit to Rachel’s tomb

Its a while since I have done some exploring of places from the bible.  As I am at the end of the my second season I thought I would make up for lost time and see some places.

The weekend before last I try to get to Rachel’s tomb which is on the Israel/Palestinian security gate that goes between southern Jerusalem and Bethlehem.   This was something of a ‘ballagan’ (Hebrew for chaos, I am not sure if I wrote the Romanised spelling right 🙂 ) as I spent ages finding it, and seem to get different answers from everyone I asked.   I gave up and went home, and came back the following weekend.

This time I was given a different method to get into Rachel’s tomb.   At one specific gate into the border, intended for cars.  I had my passport checked along with this Asian-Canadian girl who was also going this way I was chatting  to.

I was asked by the guards, “are you a Jew?”  in which I replied no I was a Christian. “But you don’t wear a cross?” I was asked.   Maybe I should get one I guess.

I was told I could not travel by foot the 100 yards or so through the border, but he pointed to this blue Subaru driven by a religious Jew and told me to get in, I said I don’t know this guy, do you know him?   “its ok, he is a Jew, just get in!”   I was kind of shocked that the guards asked me to get in a stranger’s car, but I did it anyway and so do this girl.  The road winds in a sort of S shape in between the tall concrete walls of the Israeli/Palestinian border.   Unlike other parts of this wall as its so well guarded there is no graffiti here.  After only a minute of a very short ride, the car stops right outside Rachel’s Tomb.

In the historical building itself, the building is heavily disguised in concrete being sandwiched in between the high security walls.

Once in, I don’t see much historical information in English outside the tomb itself.   Inside there is a longish corridor and then a partition which guides men and women into separate parts of the room.

When I go in its full of Orthodox Jews praying reading the scriptures, one of the reminds me I should have a kippor on, so he lends me one, and I decided to sit on a chair and pray for a bit.   It doesn’t seem right to take photos or explore a bit, so I leave.   The room feels the same as the archway next to the Kotel.

I was a little disappointed, as there was not much to read on history.  There really isn’t anything of interest to casual tourists.   Nevertheless its was exciting to see another place of the bible and see religious Jews visiting who value its sacredness.

Back outside, behind this unusual looking wall is some quite pleasant public toilets and a car park.

I take a wander down a short road which goes to a dead end to another vehicle sized gate.   There is construction work here, but in an empty square of land here nestled between the two security walls, so neither housing for Jews or Palestinians, more like extra offices or facilities for the border security.

On the way out of the border, I realised there was a bus service.  This bus does’nt go right through the border, instead it goes just to Rachel’s Tomb, thus not requiring a lengthy security check to get back.   There isn’t any kind of queueing, instead everyone just piles on, I let the women holding babies go on first.   I am not allowed to use my normal (Egged) bus pass for some reason, so it just requires me to pay 4.20 Shekels for this ride.   Religious women make up the majority of folks on this bus ride.   I can only get off about 1km away from the border, necessitating a short walk back to collect my bicycle.

I was reading this passage in the bible which talks about this place.  Genesis 35:16-21  16 – “Then they moved on from Bethel. While they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and had great difficulty.  And as she was having great difficulty in childbirth, the midwife said to her, “Don’t despair, for you have another son.”  As she breathed her last—for she was dying—she named her son Ben-Oni.   But his father named him Benjamin.   So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).  Over her tomb Jacob set up a pillar, and to this day that pillar marks Rachel’s tomb.  Israel moved on again and pitched his tent beyond Migdal Eder.”

This particular place is the centre point of news this month as the UN, Palestinian Authority and the Turkish Prime Minister have been saying the Rachel’s Tomb is a Mosque, see www.israelnationalnews.com/News/news.aspx/136173

I saw this quote from Christians Standing for Israel blog on Rachel’s tomb:- “You don’t have to be a Biblical scholar or a learned archaeologist to recognize the long-standing and incontestably Jewish nature of Rachel’s Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs. Arguing otherwise is akin to asserting that the earth is flat, Elvis is still alive and the moon is made of cheese, and that is how the Palestinian claims should be viewed.”

Because of the not so conventional method of passing through security, I can’t offer any advice on how to get through the border, you will need your passport and its a simple case of heading south from Hevron Road from Jerusalem southwards.   There is not a huge amount to see so I think its best left for bible history adventurers to do as something on the way to or from Bethlehem.  Right: coaches arriving from the Jerusalem side.

Tip:  if you want to converse with anyone, Jew or Arab to find directions to Rachel’s tomb, try pronouncing it like the French, ‘Raquel’  there is a better chance they will understand you.

Nov 3 2010

Riding to work – commuting Jerusalem style Part 3

first bit –  second section –  Third and final

…continued

Turn right from Jaffa Street…

At the top of this street is a Russian-Orthodox church dedicated in 1872 by Prince Niklai, it served a religious centre for Russian pilgrims in late 19th century.
The road turns to the left past the police station.Here, I am looking directly behind me I can see the police station, there are lots of police officers and soldiers here, so I didn’t do any pictures of the outside as I don’t think this would be popular.

I took this pic with my phone months ago.  The police station has its own outside mini archeology site, this looks like part of a plumbing system, but actually its a pillar on its side.  Not sure which age this is.

This part of the police compound was also originally owned by Russians as you can see from the Cyrillic writing top right.

This is an opticians, one of the nice modern buildings I have seen.   The outside stairs makes it a little bit lego like 🙂

This roundabout has a takeaway, a corner shop and a bakery that is popular with our office.

Turn left by the tree and up the drive way, and I am at work….

first bit –  second section –  Third and final

Oct 30 2010

Parcel bombs from Yemen to US

Just heard in the news about alerts that parcels containing explosives from Yemen were bound for a synagogue in Chicago in the United States.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11654390

It would appear from a lot of news stories, that this was a bit of an amateurish attempt at terrorism and this was a test run, to analyse security on delivery and logistics companies like UPS.

I think Muslims and the media that says that try to convince 9/11 Mosques are a good plan, have questions that need to be answered here.

I know people who worked for an IT company in Portsmouth UK, 7 years ago that did some overseas installation work all over the world including Yemen.   It sounds like shipments from this country are likely to be suspended.    What kind of impact does this have on people in Yemen with ordinary businesses that want nothing to do with terrorism?

Yemen is a poor Arab country, nestled between the polar-opposite economies of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.  With strange things happening this month in the news like ex UK PM Tony Blair must be hugely embarrassed of his sister in law Lauren Booth who is ultra pro-Palestinian and become a Muslim recently as already an apologist for Iran and Hamas.   Shouldn’t spokesman in Yemen and other the Arab countries, regardless of what they think of America, Israel and Judaism, ought to be condemning these attacks, as this is only going to hurt the reputation and economy of their own nations?  This is a good opportunity to do some PR work for Islam and shun extremism is it not?

Yemen had a sizable Jewish community, but its one of a few countries that is now more or less a void for Jews as they all moved to Israel or America, in the same way that other Jews from the other mostly Islamic Arab nations had faced hardship.

But in recent years, Yemen has some people coming to Christ.  http://islamdom.blogspot.com/2007/10/2000-converts-to-christianity-in-yemen.html Please do pray for Yemenite people to see ‘dreams and visions‘ and find Jesus, and for those who who already believers to be safe from persecution.   Of course Israel and the west, US and Europe are likely to be on higher alert, so pray for terrorism activity to be exposed and stopped.

Oct 22 2010

Jerusalem Knights – outdoor holyland theatre

I ventured out to the old city at around 10pm after an event at my church…

The flags hung on the road signs here originally got my attention last week, so I decided to take a look, this event is a collection of actors dressed up in costumes in different parts of the old city.

The exact era they are meant to be representing I am not quite sure, as there is none of the posters or dialogue spoken by artists in English.

Its all quite exciting though, the costumes look great, and there is people swarmed into the alleys of the old city following the signs and flags that point to the path to short distance snaking around the street corners to the next artist.

There are Jews, Arabs, Christian pilgrims and foreigners of all sorts here watching what is going on.

The actors and artists are princesses, slaves, musicians, poets and all kinds.

This lady on the left is dressed up in a Covent Garden-esque style as a fountain statue, she is holding a hose pouring water into a bowl below.  There was a kid running around which I was secretly hoping she could ‘accidentally’ put her finger on the end and spray him with water but alas no. 🙂   This musician here could do an older instrument, this guitar looks a bit too modern.

Here the usual traders in the old city are doing business, albeit with a few extra twists.  There are of course the fruit juice squeezer stands and the lounges with strong coffee and smoking pipes, but the young Arab lad with this large metallic teapot on wheels caught me eye, especially when it was not tea or coffee, but this (the name escapes me) particularly pleasant middle east beverage made from hot milk, coconut, cinnamon and lots of sugar = 10 Shekels (UKP1.85)

This fella looks fresh out of a Victorian novel.   Right, the fountain in the centre looks nice illuminated in blue at night.

This was quite a nice evening walk, I may try and bring some friends out here next week as its on every thursday night in October.  If you are around Jerusalem this month check it out.

Oct 22 2010

Dead Sea Scrolls go online

Read something quite exciting on the BBC news today,  its rare they say anything positive about this part of the world,

Israel’s antiquities authority and Google.co.il are putting the Dead Sea Scrolls online.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11594674

The text in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic.   I am guessing Google will include their excellent automatic translation tools in as well.

You can also see the Dead Sea Scrolls museum in Qumran by the Dead Sea.

Oct 13 2010

King David Museum, Hezekiah’s tunnels and Silwan troubles

At the weekend I went around the outer parts of Jerusalem’s old city walls.   Outside of the dung gate, is the south east corner, you head around the corner to see Absalom’s tomb and the Mount of Olives.

Here there is a junction which contains a volatile mix of neighbours.   On the corner is an archaeological dig, containing artifacts that date from King David’s time.   On the same street this is the entrance to the Arab town of Silwan.   This is a much troubled district, and the name Silwan often comes up when there is news of conflicts in this city.

On the news this week you may have seen a picture of a car with a boy in the air upside down in the air having being hit by a car in Silwan after stoning this particular motorist, it seems the Subaru driver sped up or swerved to avoid being hit by the youths.   Seems strange there happened to be someone with a camera who did such a perfect shot of this moment.  http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=190682

A few houses from the corner is this Arab shop with political message outside.

About 3 or 4 more houses across is The City of David museum which has a cinema with a 3D film of biblical history of this place and a guided tour of the buildings and a chance to go under Hezekiah’s tunnels.  I went here last year its well worth a visit.   The tunnels are a mile long of walking – in complete darkness; and, upto your knees in water. 🙂   I didn’t get a picture of the exact front part of this as there armed guards in front.   But looking through the windows you can see the nice decorations outside.

Looking behind back to the old city walls and there are about 40-50 soldiers in uniform getting off a bus.  (not visible, but just around the corner)  Glancing back to the museum front, there is a lone security guard, armed, but unusually (that I have never seen someone holding a handgun out of a holster) he has a pistol in his hand.   Again, I glance down the street to see a group of Arab kids gather outside a shop.  There is nervousness on both sides and the police and army are on alert from recent troubles.

Below you can see the green flag which has a logo representing Israel’s national parks and historical places.  Heading down this street as a foreigner to see the museums is safe but because extra security measures in place, but just a short distance down here, not past the museum where this barrier is.   Beyond this there are rowdy children throwing rocks at the fence where the historical digging is, there is rubbish everywhere and some of the cars look vandalised.

But here in the unpredictable middle east, throwing rocks can be a prelude to starting a war where each side retaliates.  This is one of the many contested bits of property here, ironic given the historic sites and archeological digs that showed who lived here long ago.

I can’t emphasise enough “pray for the peace of Jerusalem” and I do feel sorry for the Arab people that live here and are given different messages by different authorities, I hope and pray that Arab people will find their way out of darkness of the regime that governs them (Hamas and Hezbollah)  into the loving arms of the Father.

Oct 8 2010

Worship event on the Haas Promenade

The Haas Promenade, close (1.5km uphill from my house) also known as the peace park had a special event on the sunday before last.

A worship event was on with several churches and Christian organisations jointly together.   There was a speech by the Mayor of Jerusalem, and one of the city’s chief Rabbis, and this was filmed on God TV.  There was speakers from different Christian charities here and also a few Arab believers too.

This was a really good event, although I had to leave part way through, as it overlapped with the normal service at my regular church at 6pm.