Monday, June 4, 2012

Evening in Jerusalem




 We went out in the evening

 to the Western Wall plaza


we had some time to look around


Man & Women part


 beggar

 amazing how many kids were up late


here you see the bridge we took in the morning
to get up on temple mount


washing hands ceremoniously


we went for a tour with Nadav
first an explanation how mount Moria was prepared 
for the second temple, to make it large enough for Herod's plans




We go inside


 Looking down to "street level"
2000 years ago



Another model, it's a bit different
different angles and sizes of the courts



 we will be walking on the outside of the wall



We start where there is a giant stone
weight is estimated as 660 metric tonnes
how did it get her? nobody knows


It's as big as u bus and fits exactly
like it was made to be here

 Herodian stones, for sure

 we walk on

 stopping occasionally
Nadav explaining where we are


I think the dent in the wall is from the crusaders 

 going up

 It changes here


we're back to cistern hiking
this time in Jerusalem


Water at the point where we turn and
 walk back to where we started

 we walk around the plaza a bit more
we didn't see any of the young boys' Bar Mitzvah
but did heard the noice just before we arrived at the wall


It was much more difficult to keep track of our group
we didn't wear our packs

We went back to the hotel for our last night in Jerusalem
what a full day this has been


Afternoon with Herod


We had taken our passports along but
there were no people at the check point


We could see where we were going
to a man-made mountain
called Herodion


We got out at the foot of Herodium


walked around this pit

 That gave a good impression of how big it is

 Marble columns on the edge Island in the middle


Nice view


going in:
What it it?
By now we confidently guessed "a swimming pool"

It is huge about a soccer field in size
It reflected the Herodium upper palace


The bus dropped us near the top
we looked back down on the swimming pool
part of the lower 40 acre palace complex


Looking inside towards the big tower that used to stand 12 stories high
It was so high herod could see inside the temple complex in Jerusalem


 Came past some Roman leftovers
Ballista, catapult stones, could be flung 3/4 km
 

We entered in the side of the mountain, tunnels had been dig in here
for water cisterns and escape routes for when the Zealots were here


took the stairs


and came up inside the crater of Herodium



there was a Mikvah from the Zealot time
and where Zealots lived there should also be 


a synagogue, we sat down (in the chief seats)
to listen to a long lesson on Herod the Great
There is so much to tell

Start with the Maccabees 167BC defeated the Greeks
first time in 400 years Jewish control
around 63BC squabbles because the Maccabees were now Hellenistic

This is the time that Herod was born
Father Idumean mother Nabatean

 about 40BC Herod becomes governor of Galilee
because of his father Antipater, 
a brilliant fighter, tax collector and Roman citizen 

In the south there is a struggle between
Hyrcanus and Antigonus

Hyrcanus offers his beautiful granddaughter Mariamne 
to Herod as wife for Herods help against Antigonus

Antigonus still almost wins, Herod escapes 
comes back with Roman army
smokes rebels out of the caves at mount Arbel
(when they come up for air, he "hooks" them and make them fall)
brutal siege of Jerusalem
Herod takes the throne in 37BC
the Jews hated this half Jew Herod the Great

These where intense times
Herod was a contemporary with Cleopatra and Mark Anthony
and Jesus

Herod loved Herodium 
This is where he spent his time

There were hot baths and a garden

 looking to the east
is the Judean wilderness


with little settlements the size of Bethlehem in his days 

 The darker blue on the right where air and land meet 
is the dead sea



On the other side is where Bethlehem is



Earlier in our trip we visited a cave
it's bigger then it looks

It was where shepherds would keep their sheep at night


 manure on the floor


blackened ceilings from years of fires


a humble place for a baby to be born

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.  He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.  While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born,  and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.


 wise man who came to see Herod
and asked this paranoid man 

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem  and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.

Herod had been looking over his shoulder all his life
he was threatened by: Rome, the Jews, Temple Authorities, Herodians, Cleopatra, Nabateans, Partians, Pagans, his own family, his health

but there was something else,
this was my memory verse:

Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.
 The Lord said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb,
    and two peoples from within you will be separated;
one people will be stronger than the other,
    and the older will serve the younger.”

Herod was from Esau, Jesus from Jacob
Herod did everything for himself
Jesus did everything for others


We went through the checkpoint


This time it was occupied by soldiers
but we had no problems

 We went next to Yad Vashem
fits right into a Herod day
this happens when Herod like people are in power


you end up with death and destruction for the Jews

we need to remember the Holocaust
but also live out the lessons we learn from it

Rien and I grew up in the Netherlands

family lived through the brutality of the war
we read a lot about it and still
it's amazing how this ever could happen
so much evil done

yes there were people that helped the Jews
but there were far to few righteous gentiles