Jerusalem & Dead Sea Tour - Bein Harim Israel Tours
Shalom, Good morning!
5am alarm wakes both of us up
6:09- left room (goal was 6); walked to hotel lobby next door to wait for our tour bus
6:35- left lobby (goal was 6:30); got on bus with couple from California who were going to Galilee today; bus stopped & picked up bunch of others
»Did not bring coffee. Regretting it. 😩
7:09- Changed busses at the meeting point, got on bus #5 headed towards Jerusalem
7:28- bus pulled out; Frank (soft a, as in apple) is our guide (strong legs. Haha; rides his bike everywhere), Ravi is driver (brand new bus, only 1000km on it, why he’s a watchdog & doesn’t want us eating or drinking in it) Frank will now use this opportunity to “chew on our ear” - a very German translation
✨Jehovah Jireh ✨ - 8:11 stopped at Elvis Coffee Stop, 2 coffees, 1 croissant, $60 shekels
8:30- Arrived in Jerusalem
1:20- departed Jerusalem
Fell asleep on the way, must’ve been a deep sleep. I was not with it when we arrived. Kinda sassed mom. Had to apologize.
2pm- arrive at Dead Sea (-400 below sea level); 35% salinity
A very long walk down to the water. Huffed at mom on her chair choice. #cmoncourt She called me out on it. Had to apologize AGAIN. 🤦🏻♀️ Cooled off and the floating-without-trying-thing was neat. Took some core strength to stay out there. Rubbed down in mud & realized I was rubbing off my self tanner. Haha - hopefully the sun provided the real thing. Prayed that the Lord might heal my skin rashes should He want to in this Holy Land water.
3:45pm - Home to Tel Aviv - 1.5 hours
Read and fell asleep off and on. Felt great.
Also found out about the political unrest in the area. Guide Frank seemed to think all was well; a part of life.
5:30pm- Arrived at hotel; went to get dinner from a grocer down the street (meat, cheese, crackers, apples, water, & cookies)
7:45pm- Was just finishing my shower when the emergency alert system came on in the hotel asking us to move to the shelter on our floor. We quickly dressed and went there and the alert was in the all clear within a few minutes. The news says that a ceasefire has been agreed upon so hopefully that was the last of that! Please be praying things stay calm.
Headed to sleep now; up early again tomorrow for the Sea of Galilee day trip!
Tel Aviv - new city (1909), 500k residents / greater area 10mill “urban junk” - geographic & economic center of Israel; very expensive to live; growing rapidly
Jaffa- old city (5000 years old), road from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem used since Bronze Age, cedar wood from Solomon’s order brought to port then transported to Jerusalem; coastal plain was a bridge of agriculture and trade from Egypt to Mesopotamia; always controlled by big empires, Ramses II founded the gate- 14 centuries BC; this place has spent more time in war than in peace “never has come to rest”; buildings are made from porous sandstone
Hill Country - drove 3km through West Bank, no man’s land, then Shav Haggai - “gate to the belly”, one way into Jerusalem (prime territory to shut off access or shoot at like sitting ducks); “one who controlled this road, controlled Jerusalem”; all trees are planted, original landscape was barren due to goat herds, plants are especially thorny due to genetic changes to survive those goat mouths; Ottoman Empire began to plant trees to circumvent the requirements of not using land or it goes back to gov; chose pine tree - but needles are flammable & have often burned down; now they plant oaks or carob or pistachio or olive trees; often there’s an annoying Jewish aunt- instead of cash at bar or bat mitzvah, she says “I planted a tree in the holy land for you instead…”: road construction showed a rock cut grave, happens all the time, Israeli antiquities are first on any digging scene; everything is history here
Jerusalem- not in a trade route, in a rugged place, uninteresting place economically, relied on the road; wasn’t meant to grow, confined city, in 8th Century Assyria conquered north and refugees came to Judah/south to; same time king hezekiah to centralize worship because he needed money & when they came to Jerusalem, they paid their taxes; everything is built from white limestone “Jerusalem stone”, came from British law in 1800’s(?)
Old City- main structures from the Ottoman period, Sulemon the magnificent built the 2000 year old wall, Herodian remains of the temple, mumluk period, 14th century; after Roman destruction site was a dump
Took until 1960’s for pope to admit that without Judaism, Christianity wouldn’t be here; 6-7AD Islam came in fast and cleaned everything up and immediately built dome of the rock (on Herod’s foundation) and el axomis (now standing on stilts); 1948- Israel won war and became head of state and had part of Jerusalem until 1967 when they annexed the whole thing (now, many people are without a nationality, no passport); City of David - conquered by David from Jebusites, now run by a right wing religious organization
Jewish Quarter- excavations- 8th century before Christ, wailing/western wall, remains of 2nd temple built 30BC (destroyed 70AD by Roman’s); Rabbinical Judaism- developed alongside Christianity (does not mimic biblical times), Hurva synogogue - ruins, 1700’s, couldn’t pay their debts, Arabs burned down 30 years later, recently rebuilt
Muslim Quarter- Via Dolorosa (path Jesus took to the cross)
Christian Quarter (pics above) - Holy Sepulcher // Golgotha (*craziest story of the day came from here; be sure to read about Yarshenik under the people heading)
Armenian Quarter (did not visit that I know of)
Yarshenik - man in all black with a wooden cross found mom & me chit chatting in main room in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. He took us all around - walked us right into a Catholic chapel with a service ending, had us touch the rock where Jesus had his hands tied while he was beaten while saying the Lord’s Prayer, “no, in your head,” he said; then led us into the priests quarters where we got holy water for our foreheads, into the main room where hundreds of people were waiting in line & into the ray of sunshine; stood for a few moments with arms wide taking it in; he then led us into the altar room where Mary wept (but women could not touch the altar; seems a bit ironic), we repeated him saying the sign of the cross in Aramaic, then, he stopped a whole group and took us into the grave where he lit candles and touched our arms and forehead with oil, extinguished the candle in the tomb and then back to Mary’s altar where he rubbed it out in the original rock, as we left, he asked for donation of $50shekel but I gave him $20 // what the heck just happened?? Priest? Random man? Con artist? // totally worth it, whatever it was
(I’ll have to do a video about this so I don’t forget… Check out my insta stories for more video content… @courtneylee2020)
Hel (hill? Not sure on the spelling of this Hebrew word) - city built and grows and destroyed and repeat; created a hill over time; now an international archeological term - the deeper you dig, the further you go back in time // Armageddon Megiddo >> refers to this concept as well (*need more study on this)
Lunch - chicken shawarma pita & falafel pita on rooftop cafe (both delicious)
Ate with a couple from Boston who seemed to be there for work and fun. The Mrs. Wants to come back to explore on her own. The Mr. Very preoccupied with getting his email to work. He wanted regular Coke not the Coke Zero she picked for him. Accepted the chicken she also chose. He loved the spicy sauce. Woman next to mom lives in Serbia but immigrated there from Russia. She’s staying the night In Jerusalem and riding the train back to Tel Aviv tomorrow. Also a mother and daughter down the way from somewhere near enough to ride the train in from.
Fit:
Love y’all — shalom shalom
I absolutely love it!!! I put a reminder on my phone to pray for you two the day you left, prayers of safety and calm will continue! What an awesome experience, take in everything and every moment!