The Land of Milk and Honey

On the Palm Sunday Road into Jerusalem

Hi all,
I had the good fortune to take a business trip to Israel as part of the acquisition of the company I work for, Merced, by an Israeli software company called NICE Systems. I went and spent the week in Tel Aviv for the Global Sales Kickoff, and also had a chance to visit Jerusalem while there! In sum: Amazing. As in the "Amazing Grace" kind of Amazing.

South Tel Aviv

View from the hotel room

I stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel along with a couple dozen of my colleagues from the USA, right on the Mediterranean promenade in Tel Aviv. Got a couple of nice runs in along the coast.

Old Jaffa

One of the afternoons we had a team building exercise with some of the other folks from around the world. It was a combination of scavenger hunt and team building activities such as drumming, chess, and cooking in and around the old town of Jaffa.

Alleyways in the old town

Jaffa port waterfront

Challenging the expert at chess...and losing!

Cooking Shakshuka - a delicious tomato and egg concoction

Then on Friday we had a company tour to Jerusalem. It was such an Amazing (see above) experience, when we had some additional free time before the flight on Saturday I went back for some more Grace!!

Temple (right), City of David (foreground), Old City (left)

I won't recount everything, but we started at the Israeli Museum, seeing the Dead Sea Scrolls and observing a scale model of Old Jerusalem to help get our bearings. It is amazing to imagine what the Temple there must have looked like!

Herod's Second Temple

Temple Mount with Al-Aqsa Mosque

 We then went to the Western Wall on the Temple Mount. The history of this spot is incredible, and the source of an unbelievable amount of holiness and strife. Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Mount

Western (Wailing) Wall

We were allowed to go into the sacred area wearing yarmulkes, and the tradition is to write a prayer on a piece of paper and wedge it in the wall somewhere. I didn't get a good picture of this, but because this section of the wall is closest to where the Holy of Holies used to be when the Temple was still standing, God actually is there.

Of course now the Dome of the Rock stands on the site of the old Temple; this is the spot where Mohammed went up to heaven to meet with Moses and Jesus. Talk about some serious holiness!

Dome of the Rock (background), Western Wall (foreground)

Damascus Gate

We also spent some time walking around the Old City, from the Western Wall to Damascus Gate. The streets are super-narrow and packed with people.

Market on Main Street: Souk Khan El-Zeit

Hommos and Falafel with fresh, I mean FRESH, bread

I could spend weeks just sampling the bread!

 

Once in a while, Israeli soldiers would walk past

Under the street level, remains of the old Roman roads can be seen here and there.

Then we saw many of the Christian sites, starting with the Mount of Olives.

View up the hill with 2000-year-old olive trees

We walked up the hill for the view of the city, and to see the Chapel of the Ascension: where Jesus ascended. His footprint still can be seen in the bedrock!

Then we descended down the Palm Sunday Road, where Jesus rode triumphantly into Jerusalem so long ago. Now the Dome of the Rock stands on the site of the Temple, but from the model you can imagine what a sight this must have been!







Further down we visited the Church of St. Mary Magdelene, the home of the Russian Orthodox church. It is situated in a beautiful garden on the mountainside, in the cool shade and off the busy streets.

Continuing down the road at the bottom of the hill is the Garden of Gesthemane and the Church of All Nations, where Jesus prayed the night before his crucifixion.These trees are >2000 years old and would have stood witness to Jesus' prayers.

Inside the Church of All Nations - Domes of Mosaic

Mosaic of the same

The rock Jesus prayed on in Gesthemane

Entrance to Mary's Tomb

Finally, at the very bottom of the Mount of Olives, is Mary's tomb.

Next, we walked the Via Dolorosa, the Way of the Cross. This also happens to include the fourteen Stations of the Cross - not the figurative ones, but the ACTUAL route Christ walked the day of his crucifixion.

Ceiling of the Chapel marking the spot where Pilate sentenced Jesus

Wall Jesus leaned against along the Way

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Stairway to Golgotha

The actual rock of Golgotha

Altar on the site of the Crucifixion

Down the stairs again, mosaic above the Stone of Unction

The spot where Jesus' body was embalmed

The Tomb where Jesus was buried and rose again

Into the Sherut, private buses driven by Arabs on the Sabbath

Overall, an Amazing trip. Every Christian, Jew, and Muslim should visit Jerusalem. It is a dynamic, spiritual, and richly cultural city that could become the symbol of Grace for man, instead of division and strife...