The Temple Mount (Thursday, June 17th)

So I was wrong yesterday when I said that we were going to the Mt. of Olives. Today we went to the Temple Mount. It was quite a day. We left the school at 7:30 (it was already warm) and walked down to the western wall. The school that we are staying at is really great. It is withing in walking distance of everything here in the Old City. We had to go through a security check point to get on to the Temple Mount. For those of you who don't know, the Temple Mount is claimed as a holy site by both Jew and Muslims but is currently under control of the Muslims. On top is a very large plaza or courtyard containing some very important Muslim Holy sites. The first one you see is a Masque (I can't remember what it's called) that is still operational. The second building that you see as you come past a line of huge trees is the Dome of the Rock. This is a large building with a golden looking dome on top that enshrines a rock that the Muslims believe Muhammad stood on at one point and left his footprint on. It is an impressive building with beautiful Turkish tiles covering the outside. There is however a lot of tension over this site as it is most likely the site of the original temple that Salomon built for the Lord. (Although the Muslims would strongly disagree with this. They say that there is no archeological evidence that Salomon ever built a temple here which is technically true. It might have somewhat to do with the fact that they will not allow any explorations to be made into this claim. Even when the paving stones are pulled back to repair or replace plumbing or sewer lines, they will not allow archeologists in to the examine what is underneath and see what might be under there.) It is most definitely the site of the temple that was built by Herod that was standing in the times of Jesus. That temple was destroyed by Rome around 70 AD. At any rate the result is that Islam fights to keep the temple Mount in their control (they'd really like to have the west wall, ie. "Wailing Wall", and all the surrounding areas as well) and the Jews are anxious for the day when they can tear down the Dome of the Rock and rebuild the Temple of God.


From there we went down to the "Wailing Wall" area of the West wall. It was Thursday so there were several barmitzvahs (sp?) going on. I think for me seeing the barmitzvahs was even more moving than seeing the people praying at the wall. If you have never seen one of these celebrations you have no idea how much singing and dancing and shouting and just overflowing joy is involved!! The young boy (or sometimes girl - we saw one of those celebrations too but it's called something different) is escorted down the street under a white tent by family and friends who are all singing and dancing to music being provided by musicians who are singing and dancing along with them. I don't really know all that the ceremony involves. (We saw bits and pieces of several processions and the ceremonies that follow as we moved around the city.) It was so moving to see them celebrating their children like this!

After the "Wailing Wall" we went farther down the west wall to an area that has been excavated down to the street level of the time of Jesus and his Apostles. You can see where there used to be a grand archway (the Robinson Arch) that supported a stairway that lead up to the Temple Mount in Jesus' day. You can also see (and walk into!) shop fronts and the rooms behind that were originally part of the arch. The street in front of the shops has been cleared so that you can see how the road would have looked in ancient times but farther up on the road there is a massive tumble of unbelievably large, heavy building stones. These are part of the rubble of the temple that the Romans destroyed. Most of the rubble has been cleared away so that they could learn more about the city down around the base, but this pile of rubble was left as a reminder of the incredible loss that the people of Israel suffered on that day. It is heart breaking to think of the Jews of that day looking on in horror and anguish as the Romans torched the stones (to cause them to crack and crumble) and caused them to be thrown over the sides of the Temple Mount leaving not even one stone still standing. It almost made me want to cry and it made the scenes at the Wailing Wall, of people crying and praying and sticking prayers for Israel written on slips of paper into the cracks in the wall, so much more real and heartbreaking.

We also walked around to the south wall and saw another set of wide stairs that date back to the second temple era. The entrances to the Temple Mount from here have been paved in with stones but you can still see where the archways once were. The stairs where we sat to here our professor tells us about this area were stairs that Jesus and his disciples would have used and that Gimeliel (sp?) may have sat outside with his disciples to teach them.


I wish I could keep typing all night and tell you everything I've seen (I don't want to ever forget any of it!) but it is getting late and tomorrow is an early day. We are going to explore the region of Benjamin and I'm sure there will be much, much more to tell you when I get back!


P.S. I told you I'd tell you what that square white stone with a hole in it was used for today. Did anyone guess? It was a toilet seat :)