Most of the people you meet on the streets of Jerusalem would not look out of place in Chanute. They wear the same kinds of clothing and shoes as we do, comb their hair the same way, and most speak at least some English. But there are many, and varied, exceptions.
For instance, everywhere one looks are young people wearing rifles on slings over their shoulders. The explanation, we were told, is that all Israeli young people must have two or three years of military training, and they must keep their rifles on their persons at all times during their training years. So it is not uncommon to see a boy and girl flirting at bus stop, the rifles on their backs so much a part of their daily wear as to be unnoticed. But the guns are ready, if an emergency should spring up.
Also seen on the streets are some Jewish people whose particular beliefs call for certain styles of garments. There are men with long black coats and matching flatbrimmed hats, others with black coats and bats trimmed with rich glossy brown fur, men who wear long curls of hair in front of their ears, and many others whose only peculiarity of dress is a three-inch flat skullcap anchored to their hair with a pin or clip.
There are many Arab people whose dress varies according to their ancestry and beliefs. The women often are dressed in black, with a scarf of black or white. over the head and sometimes covering part of the face. The dress of the Arab men in Jerusalem, is not so remarkable, consisting mostly of dark-colored pants, shirts and jackets. Some, however, wear a darkcolored version of the cloth head-coverings typically seen on desert Arabs.
On our first full day in Jerusalem, we visited the Temple Mount area. This seems to be the center of interest for most Christians, even though they may understand very little is left from the time of Christ. But what remains is precious and must be seen and experienced.
Our first view was of the "Wailing Wall," more correctly the "Western Wall." This is the place which is almost invariably portrayed on television, whenever anything about Jerusalem is in the news. The Western Wall is a portion of the wall which surrounds what is known as the Temple Mount. To give a little history, the Temple of God was originally built on this hill in Jerusalem by King Solomon about 950 B.C. It was destroyed in 587 B.C., and rebuilt on a lesser scale about 516 B.C..
Shortly before the time of Christ's birth, King Herod the Great carried out a large rebuilding of the temple. At that time, he ordered a wall built which enclosed the upper portion of the wall on which the temple stood. Then, or later, the surface at the top of the hill was leveled to make it flat. It was Herod's temple that Jesus, Paul and the other New Testament figures went into. But nothing of that temple remains today. Even the upper part of the wall around the Temple Mount was knocked down. But we can find a few places where we can walk on, or touch, the stones that Jesus would have known.
The lowest tiers of stones in the wall of the Temple Mount are said to be those laid by Herod's men, and some of the steps leading up to the eastern side of the Temple Mount are also said to date from the time of Jesus. These steps would have been those used by Jesus and his disciples as they went to and from the Mount of Olives, the slopes of which rise only a few hundred feet to the east across the Kidron Valley.
The only other spot in Jerusalem where we were fairly sure of walking in Jesus' footsteps was on the stone paving which leads up the slope of Mount Zion, which lies outside and just to the southwest of the walls of the Old City. Of course, the walls of the Old City have been changed many times over the centuries, and are not at all to be considered as being the walls in place in Jesus' day.
But to Christians visiting. Jerusalem, there is a special magic in standing or sitting on the steps at the east side of the Temple Mount, looking across the valley toward the Mount of Olives. Even with all the living and dying in the centuries since the time of Christ, there is a feeling of being able to glimpse across the years that beloved figure coming and going "about his father's business."
Day 4 Return to Israel start page Day 6
