Day 14, Israel 2023

Today was our last touring day of the trip.  Tomorrow morning, we will board our tour bus for the airport, leaving “bright and early.”

I am still on my one-day Facebook suspension for God-only-knows-what.  Facebook probably does not like posts about Israel.  Who knows?  I certainly can’t determine what they are all upset about.  Regardless, the upshot of this latest development is that it will take me longer to get the pictures up for the end of the trip.  Thanks for your patience, and please, pray Facebook doesn’t suspend me permanently.  The social media really does drive a lot of traffic to my website.

Our last stop on our two-week tour was the Mount of Olives. We went up to the summit in front of a hotel, and looked across the Kidron Valley at the Eastern Wall and the Eastern Gate specifically.  Then, we walked down the Mountain to a site called Dominos Flevit.  It is a church, run by the Roman Catholics.  We went there for three reasons.  The first I want to highlight is that the Ossuary of Simon Peter Bar Jonah was found to have been entombed here in either 66 or 67 CE, in a section of the cemetery that had been used between 30 and 70 CE.  Simon Bar Jonah was how Simon Peter (or “Peter”) was known.  AND, the ossuaries of Mary, Martha and Lazarus were found next to him.  A chiro was found near SPBJ’s ossuary.  A chiro was an X with a P in the middle of it.  This was the seal of Peter used by the Roman Church, in the early years after it got going.

The Catholic Church had for centuries asserted that Peter was buried in Rome, but the truth of the matter is that Peter never even WENT to Rome, much less died and was buried there.  When James the Just (the same one who was half-brother of Jesus and who was the first “bishop” of the followers of Jesus, and who also wrote the book of James in the Bible…) was murdered, Simon Peter returned from Babylon and took over that position until his own martyrdom in either 66 or 67 CE.  He was killed during the first war between the Jews and the Romans, that same war which included the destruction of the Temple and that ended at Masada.  As a friend of mine put it, he died with a sword in his hand and his tzit tzit on the corners of his garment.  (My friend was quoting the historian and church leader, Eusebius.)

Well, this is probably more history that many of you want, but one of the experts in this matter was on the trip with us.  He related to the group that the ossuary was discovered by two Jesuit archeologists in the Christian section of this cemetery in 1953. In fact, they discovered about 500 ossuaries, in about 70 caves.  The Pope at that time traveled to Jerusalem to see the artifact and agreed wholeheartedly that it was the ossuary of Peter.  At that time, he asked the men to hold off on publishing their discovery until Rome could “manage” how it would be announced and so forth. They were told by the Church of Rome to “keep it quiet”.  Well, Rome “buried” it, if you’ll pardon that atrocious pun… An article was written by the Church about the ossuary, and the remains within, in 1958.  Essentially, the article covered the discovery up.  At that time, Rome had had plenty of time to roll this out and “put their spin on it”, shall we say, but at that time nothing had been announced.  Nor has anything been announced in the years since.  Furthermore, the ossuary has been confiscated by Rome, and when you inquire about it, you are told that it is being kept in a “secret location”.  Apparently, when it was found, it had been vandalized, resulting in the stone of the ossuary having been cracked.  It’s taking Rome quite a while to restore it, isn’t it?  See, the Roman Church has a vested interest in Simon Peter, “the first pope” as they call him, being buried in Rome.  To suddenly declare otherwise would be admitting to having made a huge mistake.  It would be both embarrassing AND costly.

The most recent photos of the ossuary of SPBJ were made in 1961, UNTIL one of my friend’s associates, a renowned archeologist and biblical historian held the ossuary in his hands.  Color photos were made at that time.

Reason #2:   In that same church complex, Dominus Flevit, is believed to have been on the location where Jesus stopped on His way to Jerusalem and spoke the words we find recorded in Matthew 23:37 - - -

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it.  How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing!”

And, the third reason we went there today was to discover the location of the Red Heifer offering.  Now, mercy me….I could write pages and pages on this topic, but I will restrain myself, for your sakes…If you want more information, you can search my blog for the topic “red heifer”, and previous posts I’ve written about it will show up in the search.

The red heifer offering is not one of the regularly-performed offerings that took place in the Temple, on the altar.  Instead, there were several differences.  There were only 9 red heifer sacrifices recorded in the history of the Jewish people, from the time the Lord God commanded it be done, in Numbers, chapter 19 to the time the Temple was destroyed the last time, in 70 CE.  The rabbis say that when the 10th red heifer appears, and the 10th red heifer offering is made, Messiah will come.  Curious statement, isn’t it?

At any rate, there are many machinations going on today to prepare for the next red heifer sacrifice.  Why does that matter?  Because you can build a building and call it the next Jewish Temple, but without the ashes of that red heifer, offered on a specially prepared altar on the slope of the Mount of Olives, the Temple cannot be put into operation.

Here are just some of the restrictions that make this offering exceedingly difficult to carry out:

The heifer must be purely red, with absolutely NO white hairs at all.

The heifer must not have been ridden, led or touched inappropriately, or it will be disqualified.  The same goes, of course, for it getting any disease and so forth.

An authoritative Sanhedrin must be in place, as well as a High Priest, who can certify the red heifer as meeting the extensive list of conditions.

The priest who slaughters it must be at least 17 years old and have been raised his entire life in a corpse-free environment.  That condition alone, and all that is done to achieve it, will absolutely boggle your mind….

So, the actual spot where the red heifer offering was made has been determined by surveying the land, finding remains of the necessary mikveh and other structures.  But, most importantly, the location must be high enough up on the mountain to allow the priest to see from that location through the Eastern Gate and then straight into the Eastern doors of the Temple.  What’s tricky here is that there is a lot of debate about where the Temple was actually located.  Most authorities agree it was located on the spot where the Muslim Dome of the Rock stands today; that is not a unanimous agreement, however.  And, where the Temple stood dictates where the Red Heifer Offering would have taken place.

If you are more interested in this fascinating topic, The Temple Institute has a downloadable book called, “Mystery of the Red Heifer”, by Rabbi Chaim Richman.  Check it out!

After we left Dominus Flevit, we walked down a very steep and narrow road, past the entrance to the Garden of Gethsemane, to meet our bus.

For the rest of the day, we shopped, ate, laughed, reminisced, re-visited our favorite parts of the area around our hotel and/or the Old City of Jerusalem.  And, we packed, which was quite the feat, given all the shopping that was done by our group!  My goodness….I was a “lightweight”…

Tonight, after dinner together, we each received a certificate from our tour group, certifying each of us as a Jerusalem Pilgrim!

What a blessing these last few days have been!

Day 13, Israel 2023, the second Shabbat of the trip

We got up early this morning and headed out to the Great Synagogue of Jerusalem, which is within walking distance of our hotel.  What a privilege!  I was so excited!  On the Sabbath (Shabbat) cars do not run in the Jewish areas of the city.  It is very quiet, and people often literally walk down the street, IN the street.  Well, we went into the synagogue, and I sat in the women’s section, the balcony, with the other women.  Based on my experiences at Synagogue Lavi, I was better prepared this go-round, but something I was unprepared for was the gorgeous prayers that were sung at the beginning of the service.  The men were led by a cantor, and they all faced the “ark” (the cabinet that contains the Torah scrolls) as they sang.  I got tears in my eyes, several times.  I did NOT do a good job of knowing when to stand and when to sit, but like I did at Lavi, I just watched the Jewish ladies and did what they did.  Beautiful service!  It lasted a couple of hours.

Afterwards, we walked over to The Baptist House, a complex that has been here for several decades, and is owned by some arm of the Baptists.  They got in when access was easier and land was cheaper and have maintained a presence here all this time.  They were kind enough to host us, to provide us a place for the sabbath lunch, which our tour leader had catered in.  

Then, we came back to the hotel or some went shopping and so forth for the rest of the day.  A couple of friends and I walked into the Old City and explored the Christian quarter (where the booths are maintained by Christian Arabs) and of course through the Jewish quarter, to the Western Wall, where we prayed a few minutes again.  I was struck, again, by the many children here in Jerusalem.  It really hits you how Americans are not reproducing at a very high rate, when you see “the average” young, Jewish family.  Most of the time, they have 4-5 kids.  It’s lovely!

On my way around the Christian quarter, I was sort of looking for a shop of a famous artist I heard about, Victor Lepejian, who specializes in genuine Armenian ceramics and pottery.  I had given up on finding it, when I was on the final leg of the walk (if you’ll pardon the pun) near the Jaffa Gate.  And, I passed by this shop, glanced through the door and thought “that elderly gentleman looks familiar”…. (I have perused his website, in the past). I glanced up at the threshold and saw the name “Vic” and just had to ask him.  Indeed, it was the famous Mr. Lepejian!  I talked to him for about five minutes, but then had to catch up with my friends.

After dinner, more shopping and visiting with friends and so forth.  This has been such a wonderful trip!

Usually, you can find photos on my Facebook page.  But, I have to tell you this - - - Facebook is throttling me. Earlier this week, I was suspended for an hour.  I have no idea why.  Then, just as I started to write this post, I went onto Facebook, and I realized that now I’ve been suspended for 24 hours.  It’s really alarming, because they may take down my page entirely.  Again, I have no idea why, unless they just don’t like the content I am posting from Israel.  Y’all please pray that that does not happen, because most of the traffic to my blog comes from posts I make on Facebook.  :(((

So, if you don’t see Day 13 photos for a few days, just know that I will be doing my best to get them up there.  

One more day to report on, and then Day 15 is a 26-hour travel day.   I won’t be posting about that grueling journey, LOL!  Who would want to read about that!  

Day 12, Israel 2023

Today, we spent all morning at the Israel Museum, which is over near the Knesset, the “Congress” of Israel.  Our first stop was a huge model (1000 meters square) of ancient Jerusalem, as it would have been in 66 CE. The model is a memorial, constructed between 1964-69 by the owner of the Holy Land Hotel, who built it as a legacy.  When it was begun, Israelis could not go into the Old City of Jerusalem.  This is because it was in the country of Jordan at the time.  But, by the time the model was finished, the Six Day War had concluded nearly 2 years earlier, and the city of Jerusalem had changed hands.

The wall of the city was built in three sections.  The first section was constructed by King Solomon.  Herod the Great built the second section, and King Herod Agrippa I built the 3rd section, which was north and northeast of the Temple complex.  When the Romans attacked, they broke through the newest section of the wall, as it was not as well-built as the older sections, despite being newer.

It was great to see in one large model the many places we have visited this week, or the ruins of them, at least.

There are a few inaccuracies in this model:

They have a tomb marked as David’s Tomb and it is not.  His tomb would have been in the city of David, not in the upper city. Same with the Tomb of Huldah in front of the Southern wall.  Excavations have occurred in that area, looking for a grave, and none has been found.  Huldah was a famous Jewish prophetess, who lived in the 7th century BCE, around the time of King Josiah.  In Judaism, she is regarded as one of the seven women prophets, and reportedly descended from Joshua as well as being a relative of Jeremiah.

Another error in the model is that one gate of the Southern face’s triple gate is missing.  When they made the model, they did not realize that the sacrificial animals went through one of those gates of the triple gate.  Archeologists have since learned that this is true.

On the south side there was a single gate in the city wall, the Essene Gate.  In 25 BCE the Essenes withdrew from the Sanhedrin, along with the disciples of Hillel the Elder, to Qumran. This coincided with the period that the faction called Shammai took power on the Sanhedrin and enacted the 18 Edicts.  We don’t even have a copy of them, but those extraneous “burdens” as Jesus called them, were reviled by the non-Shammai priests as well.  Note what He said in Luke 11:46 - - - 

“Woe to you as well, experts in the Law!  You weigh men down with heavy burdens, but you yourselves will not lift a finger to lighten their load!”

The story of how the House of Shammai took over the Sanhedrin is a sorry tale, and you can find it in the “Shabbat Chapter 1” section of the Mishnah and also in the Tosefta.  Those who wrote these documents described that time as “a day worse than the Golden Calf” incident, which is very heavy indictment.

But, back to the model.  I’m getting off-track, as usual….

The pools of Bethesda were on the eastern wall near the north, just above the temple complex. The name “Bethesda” means - - house of healing.  The infirm could not enter the city walls, and for this reason the pool was outside the original city walls.  Many miracles of healing occurred there.  The pool is referenced in John 5:2.  Just below those miraculous waters was Birket Israel, the Sheep Pool, as both of these were near what was called The Sheep Gate.

Also north of the Temple Complex is where Jeremiah’s Grotto was located in the past.  Our tour leader believes this is the location of the Crucifixion.  It has also been called Place of the Skull or Skull Hill.  This is actually one of the three peaks of Mount Moriah, the other two being where the Temple was located and … well, I can’t think of it right now.  I’ll come edit this post and fill it in later.

The Royal Stoa was a portico at the Southern end of the Temple complex although, another inaccuracy, it did not have a tile roof, though it is pictured with one on the model.

Ok, so after we finished outside with the model, we went inside to what is called the Room of the Book, which is where we saw fragments of (replicas) and learned about the Dead Sea Scrolls.

There has been some controversy over the years whether or not they were written in Qumran or if they were written in Jerusalem and brought there? Regardless, they were written in  the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century BCE.  

The Dead Sea scrolls contained fragments of every Tanakh book, except the Book of Esther.  Apparently, it was controversial back then also.  There was great discussion, years later, as to whether or not to include Esther in the Tanakh canon.

Fragments from 1 and 2 Maccabees were found there among the caves of Qumran as well.  There were some others found, books that did not make it into the final Tanakh, 24 books.  Only the Ethiopian Church has included the Books of Enoch in its canon, but it was found as a Dead Sea Scroll.  

Before 1947, our oldest scrolls were from the 10th century CE, a Codex (moving from parchment, cut into segments and glued onto actual pages).  The Aleppo Codex was the oldest, found in a synagogue in Aleppo, Syria.

The Aleppo Codex is very accurate, down to the vowels, as accurate as humanly possible.  This Codex is here at the Israel Museum.  The Aleppo is missing some books, because in 1948, the Muslims set that synagogue on fire.  Most of the Aleppo Codex was saved, but not all of it.

A second codex, the Leningrad, is slightly younger.  This one is in … you guessed it, Leningrad (Russia).

(Andrew Roth shared about a 464 BCE date for an Aramaic scroll that is older than the Aleppo. It contains 4 of the 5 Torah books, but some in the 500s CE fill those gaps. A 550 CE manuscript of 1 and 2 Maccabees was found in Aramaic as well.)

Here is an old article from New Yorker magazine, which our guide said was a great source for the backstory of the Dead Sea scrolls.  Many miracles brought the scrolls to light back in 1947 and the years following.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1955/05/14/the-scrolls-from-the-dead-sea

There is also a follow-up article, written a fourteen years later by the same reporter.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1969/03/22/i-the-dead-sea-scrolls-1969

After we left the Room of the Book, we went on a whirlwind tour through another part of the museum. I could have stayed there all day!  See all the photos on my Facebook page, Resplendent Daughter Ministries.

We left the museum a little after noon and rode on our bus to the Mehane Yehuda, a large Jewish outdoor market, colloquially called “The Shuk”.  This evening Shabbat begins.  So, as we were there in the final hours before the market closed for Shabbat, it was VERY busy!  We stayed and shopped for about an hour and a half, and then went for a walk back to the hotel.  

Despite our excellent guides, the seven of us in our group got lost.  We went a little out of our way, but we made it.  Surely was a hot walk, however.

Tonight, in just a little while, we will have the Kabbalat Shabbat service, a brief service that initiates the celebration of Shabbat, and then dinner.

Day 11, Israel 2023

 We stopped at a high hill peak, called modernly “The Promenade”, south of the Temple Mount, and looked across a big valley to see the view of Mt. Moriah, where the Dome of the Rock mosque is today.  The Bible tells us Abraham journeyed to Moriah with his son, Isaac, to sacrifice him on the altar.  They had journeyed from the South, from Beersheva, through Hebron.  As we stood there today, and looked across to the Dome of the Rock, we were looking at the SW corner of the wall, with the Southern wall going to our right and the Western wall going to our left, generally speaking, sort of “2:00” and “10:00”, if we were standing at “6:00”.

The Midrash gives a lot of commentary about the Akedah (the sacrificing of Isaac), information that is not in Scripture.  For instance, most modern-day followers of Yeshua will be surprised to learn that the Midrash says that Sarah and Avraham discussed the sacrifice of Isaac, on the trip, and she said “absolutely not”.  But, Avraham got up early on the 3rd day, he “rose”, which means he slept, did not spend a sleepless night, and went on to the mountain top with Isaac. At the foot of the mountain, when he told the servants to stay behind, he also told them “we” will return to you.  This is evidence of his great faith in God, trusting that He would provide a sacrifice.

But back to Sarah … When Sarah discovered that they had gone on to Moriah, she died.  

The Midrash goes on to say that after Avraham and Isaac came down from the mountain together, the servants who had journeyed to the foot of the mountain with them told them the sad tidings about Sarah.  When Isaac got word his mother had died, he separated from his father for the next 22 years.

So, despite the fact that Avraham “passed the test” of faith in God, it was a very costly incident in the family of Avraham, Isaac and Sarah.

This may cause you to wonder what Midrash actually is.  The religious works with the highest authority in Judaism is the Tanakh, which Christians call the Old Testament.  But, there were also many rabbinical interpretations of how various parts of the Tanakh, specifically the 613 commandments, were to be carried out in actual practice.  This information was communicated to the people via the priests, who took great pains to preserve it, as each generation of priests trained the next.

However, the Romans threw a wrench into this centuries-old process.

Yochanan Ben Zakkai is known as the founder of Rabbinic Judaism.

He was a pacifist and told them to not fight the Romans.

After the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE, along with all its records, the Oral Law began to be written down.

Ben Zakkai snuck out of the city in a coffin and told the Roman big-wig Titus that Titus would soon become Emperor.  He said that if that happened, he, Titus, would grant a favor to Ben Zakkai.  Titus did become Emperor, and he did grant Ben Zakkai a favor.  The favor asked for was for Zakkai to be allowed to establish learning academies in Tiberius.

Now, very oddly…..There’s almost a parallel story about Josephus!  So, it appears that someone is borrowing from someone else’s story.  More importantly, if not for those academies which were protected by the Romans, Judaism would have likely died out.

During this period, they had this hope they would NOT have to write it down, because they hoped to get the Temple back.  This is the period between 70 CE and Bar Kochba Rebellion.  Lots of patriotic fervor and nationalism going on.  

The religious documents produced in these years became the Mishnah and the Talmud.  But, you still don’t know what a Midrash is, do you?  Midrash is a word from the word “drash” - - to investigate thoroughly.  The Mi on the front of the word indicates “place of”.  So, Midrash is a record of discussion, hashing out the Oral Law along with the Tanakh, the ongoing struggle to live it out in daily life, making application of it to daily life.

So, the earliest oral law is the Brit Chadasha, the New Testament, because it was complete by the end of the first century CE.  Yet, what we call the Midrash was not written down until 180 CE.

After we left that place, we went back into the Christian quarter of the Old City and visited Christ Church.  The first Christian churches in Jerusalem with either Coptic Christian, Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox or Armenian.  The Protestants did not even begin to establish a presence in the Old City until the 1800s.  Christ Church is officially affiliated with the Church of England, but it was founded by a Jewish bishop who converted to Christianity.  So, it has been a Church of England branch a little on the odd side…even though it IS the oldest Protestant church in the Middle East.

At any rate, inside the church is a model of the Temple complex, constructed by Conrad Schick, an architect of 19th c. Jerusalem.  We spent several minutes exploring this model, which was very informative.  

It was a gorgeous day in Jerusalem today, not too hot, and with a nice, dry breeze.  We sat and heard more teaching as we sat in the Christ Church courtyard.  At one point, I glanced up into the tree overhead and saw some beautiful lemons growing up there.

We shopped for a couple of hours in the Jewish Quarter and had lunch there.  Around 2:00, we left to go to a holy site called Rachel’s Tomb, Ramat Rachel in Hebrew.  We are told in Genesis 35:19 that while Rachel and Jacob were journeying from Bethel toward Jerusalem, Rachel began to labor, giving birth to Benjamin.  She died as he was born, and this occurred at Ephrath, that is Bethlehem.  So, today, the site known as Rachel’s Tomb butts right up against the huge concrete wall that divides Bethlehem from Jerusalem.  It is an austere sight.  The wall was erected some years ago, because there were so many rockets fired into Jerusalem from that Palestinian area.  Now, there is a huge, ugly wall, but there is peace.

Women and men, but especially women, love to pray at Rachel’s Tomb.  Many of them are said to pray for children, especially women who have trouble conceiving.

The next place we visited today is called Migdal Eder, or the Tower of Eder, and is mentioned in Genesis 35:21.  After Rachel died, Jacob camped here.  

This was also recently determined to be the hillside where “shepherds watched their flocks by night”, as mentioned in Luke 2:8.  You know, in the story of the birth of the Savior.  There are the ruins of towers there, because (and this is not widely known) the shepherds would watch over their sheep from these watch towers.

Jerusalem is four miles to Migdal Eder.  Any animals found within 4 miles of the Temple, were deemed the property of the Temple.  The Levitical shepherds took care of them.  And, these were Levitical (Sadducees) shepherds at Migdal Eder.  Well, I could really dive into the Christmas story here, but I will restrain myself!  However, if you want to read a very interesting take, an Messianic Jewish take, on that wonderful story, with an emphasis on the Star of Bethlehem, I want to recommend you check out the teaching website of one of the teachers on our trip, Andrew Roth.  Here it is:  onefaithonepeopleministries.com

We went back to the hotel from Migdal Eder, where the view is amazing, by the way.  I could just envision a huge supernova exploding into the skies and then the skies filling with angels!  After we got back, I went shopping on Ben Yehuda Street with a couple of friends. There was so much street music!  It was like a carnival!  Then, it was dinner and fellowship activities the rest of the evening.

Day 10, Israel 2023

 Day 10

We started our morning on the Southern wall of the Temple.

Animals were brought in through the Southern Wall of the Temple, up a ramp in just the right incline, through what is called the Triple Gate.  The animals were taken into a large room adjacent to that entrance, where they were kept apart from the people until time for their sacrifice.  The steps leading up to the Triple Gate were more narrow, because there were fewer priests and Levites than the rest of the people. 

On toward the Western end of the Southern Wall, you can see evidence of the Double Gate.  The steps leading up to the Double Gate were much broader, because this was the “main entrance” into the Temple for the common people. 

There were a shops at the base of the Southern Wall, as well as the base of the Western Wall.

Tour of the Western Tunnels 

From there, we went around to the Western Wall of the Temple complex, to take a tour of the ancient tunnels beneath the street level adjacent to the Western Wall.

On the western wall of the temple complex, there was a large long ramp that extended from the wall all the way over across the Tyropoeon Valley, the most Eastern of the three valleys that have “cradled” Jerusalem for millennia.

Beneath the ramp were a series of 17 vaults/arches, which supported the weight of the bridge. The foundations of the bridge were laid on the ruins of structures from the Second Temple Period.

The 17 openings, vaults, are visible in re-creations of the southern façade of the bridge, which connected the Temple Mount with the Upper City, the Jewish quarter of that day. The level of the bridge was at the same height as the level of the Temple Mount. 

The Tyropoeon Bridge was first built during the Second Temple Period, sometime between 20 BCE and 20 CE.  The width of the bridge was doubled in 30 CE.    The bridge also  functioned as an aqueduct to bring water for the needs of the Temple, as well as a direct pedestrian approach from the Upper City to the level of the Temple Mount. This water system was still functioning when the British conquered the Land in World War One, although the bridge was broken in the course of the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. It was later restored, apparently, in the second century, when Jerusalem was made into a pagan city called Aelia Capitalina, by the Romans.

Built into this wall at the bottom, was the large building where the witnesses came in to assist the high priest in declaring the New Moon each month. That was just one of its uses.  It was a very opulent building, which included a very open area and what looks to have been some sort of gymnasium.  It has been variously called the Herodian Building, the Hasmonean Building, the Freemason’s Building.

The building was lavishly decorated with many pilasters, ornate columns which were set into the walls.  Some of the pilasters were fountains.  Water flowed out of the top of the pilaster and rushed down the column to a trough at the bottom.

{I have posted a photo of one of these pilasters on Facebook.}

Other possible uses:

Counting Hall of Jerusalem

Council Chamber of the Sanhedrin

      Originally, the Sanhedrin met in one of the four “corner towers” of the Temple proper.  But, after the death of Yeshua, sometime around 40 CE, they moved their meeting location to an alternate spot.  This is believed by some to be the new location.

Also on the tunnels tour, we saw on of the 170 ancient mikvot that have been excavated in the Temple area.  This one was destroyed by the British archeologist, Charles Warren, during his excavations.  He was a great archeologist, to whom we owe very much.  It’s just a shame that his using dynamite to blow a hole into the ground did this much damage.

This particular mikveh was not very deep.  It is theorized that it was most likely used to purify dishes for holy use in the Temple.  

We also saw a very small Roman theater, built after the destruction of the Temple, saw a great model of the Temple complex over all (which I understand much better after having been on this trip), and another newly-discovered section of the Western Wall, the Kotel. This particular section of the Western Wall is underneath the men’s section on the outdoor plaza.  This underground sections was hidden for 1700 years.  We are now privileged to stand before them.  Visitors have placed notes in this section of wall, much as they do on the Plaza.

Yesterday, we did not have a chance to finish our tour of the Davidson Museum complex. They gave us another opportunity to come back and finish our tour by going up onto the  southern steps of the Temple.  These are the same steps I was talking about at the beginning of this post, but when we first looked at them this morning, we were pretty far away, looking at them across a distance.  This time we got to see them close up.  

On the way to the Southern steps, we  saw a wall of the Akra Fortress, in that area, a fortress that was built by the Seleucids and played a significant role in the Maccabean Revolt of 166 BCE. This was the revolt that formed the Hasmonean Dynasty.

Goodness, though, it was SO hot up there on those steps!  I was dressed modestly, in long pants and a shirt that reached my elbows, and I just got very overheated.  When we returned from that area, I had to sit for a moment and have some water.

One of the artifacts we saw was the top of the southwest corner of the Temple, where the House of the Trumpeting was located.  These tops of the wall had fallen down when the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE.  This place is described in the Oral Torah, the Mishnah, Tractate Sulkah, as the location of the Temple crier who announced the opening and close of the Shabbat with the blast of the shofar (a Jewish “trumpet”).

Because of the addition of the Southern Steps tour, we really did not have time to have a decent lunch.  At 2:00, we had a scheduled tour in the City of David, the name for the royal palace complex that lies just below the Temple Mount.  I mean, you can walk from one to the other in 10 minutes, but the Temple Mount is at a significantly higher elevation.

Before King David came on the scene, the area of Jerusalem was inhabited and controlled by a people called the Jebusites.  The Jebusites were one of the 70 “nations” mentioned in the Table of Nations in Genesis 10.  So, they had been around for a while.  They began to control this area in about the 8th century BCE.  

Canaan was under the control of the Egyptian Empire.  Things were all hunky-dorey until the Jebusites began building a city on Mount Moriah.  When walls were erected, the Egyptians did not like this and threatened to destroy the city.  So Egypt sent their gods to do this on their behalf, since they were several hundred miles away.  “How?”, you may ask?

Egyptians wrote more than 200 curses against the Jebusites rulers of Jerusalem, and this fear and intimidation tactic kept the Jebusites and their capitol city of Jebus loyal to Egypt. It was rather unorthodox, but effective.

This continued on through the period of the Judges, in the Bible, until King David defeated the Jebusites.  See, oddly enough, when the Hebrew people came into Canaan to conquer the land, Jerusalem was not made the immediate capitol city.  The invading Hebrews were first headquartered at Shechem, then at Shiloh, then at Hebron.  It was not until David became king that he moved the center of power to Jerusalem, and that was not until he had reigned for more than 10 years away from Jerusalem.

At first, archeologists thought that the City of David (David’s palace and governmental center) was inside the walls of the Old City.  These city walls were built by Suleiman the Magnificent, the ruler of the Ottoman Empire (1400s CE), and the same dude who blocked up the Eastern Gate (a double gate) of the Old City so that the Messiah cannot come through it when He “arrives”.  (As if that would stop the Jewish Messiah, whose name is Yeshua/Jesus, by the way…). 

Incidentally, many of my readers know that Herod the Great in the last century BCE greatly expanded the Temple complex.  But, he only expanded on the North, South and Western sides.  He did not add on to the Eastern side of the Temple complex at all.  I did not realize that until today…learning so very much on this trip!

Well, I apologize for all my rabbit trails….Let me get back on track.  In the 2nd half of 19th century, archeologists began to discover that City of David was not inside the city walls that Suleiman had erected.  In that day, there was a neighborhood built on top of the ancient site.  There still is, to some extent.  

Right up against the City of David is the Kidron Valley, the eastern-most of the three valleys that run through the hills Jerusalem is built upon.  This area is densely populated on both sides of the Kidron Valley where flowed, in Temple times, a vigorous river that carried water from the Temple Mount down to the Dead Sea.

One of the first stops on our City of David tour is an excavated pile of ruins called 

The Large Stone Structure (maybe the remains of David’s Palace?).  But, they aren’t sure; and so, they hedge their bets, LOL!

The structure is 100 ft E to W by 75 ft N to S.  That is huge, by the standard of houses of that day.  It is certainly the SIZE of a palace.  And, by the style of the artifacts, archeologists have determined that 3000 years ago this house was built.

Then, we went on around the bend, and we analyzed the ruins of what appears to be an administrative building, which would make sense, because David’s “offices” would surely be near his “home”, right?  And, in Jeremiah 36, Jeremiah says that the administrative offices were “southeast of the Temple Mount”.

After that was the tour of Hezekiah’s Tunnels.  I really should have gone on that tour, but honestly, I had been overcome with the extreme heat earlier, and I did not think I could face another two hours underground.  I know.  I should be ashamed of myself!  I wanted the information and the learning, but I simply.could.not.

That was the end of the official day.  I went back to the room and RESTED.  Whew!  Then, tonight, the weather was so nice and cool!  Weird.  I just love it here. LOL!

Day 9, Israel 2023

{As usual, photos for today’s adventures can be found on the Resplendent Daughter Ministries Facebook page.  Enjoy!}

Our first full day in Jerusalem began with a trip to the Temple Mount, a place where I had never been in this city.  Our tour guide, Joseph Good, is one of the foremost experts on the ancient Jewish Temple, in the world.  He was pointing out all kinds of things, but it was dicey because there are certain restricted areas in to which non-Muslims cannot go.  The  Temple was 22 stories high; Dome of the Rock is 2/3 the height of the Holy Temple. 

The entire Temple Mount is controlled by The Waqf, a Muslim agency that keeps everyone following their rules on a Muslim holy site.  One area of rule-dom is how women and men are dressed.  Modest dress is required.  In some cases, certain ones of our party were put into long skirts, and some of those were men!  It was a little over-the-top, in my book, but whatever.  The main thing was we got to go, and it was amazing.  Praise God!

No trees can be found at the site of the temple, unless they have been planted in later years by the Muslims. The Torah is really explicit when God says “you shall have no trees near my altar.”  This prohibition is mentioned three times.

Next was lunch.  I shared a burger with Jaye, and her husband, Andrew, had his own fare.  Around this time, I bought a head covering, because you have to wear head coverings so often in religious sites.  I also bought myself a new betrothal ring.  My former one had absolutely worn out to the point that it broke!  It was a ring I wore every day.   Let me explain.

In Jewish marital rites, the betrothal is roughly equivalent to an engagement period.  But, the betrothal is as binding as an actual marriage.  In fact, the ring is not given at the wedding; it is given at the betrothal!  And, the Jewish bride wears the betrothal ring on her right index finger.  So, finding one I liked today, I bought it.  The verse on the ring, in Hebrew, is Song of Songs 6:3 “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.”  The ring and the verse remind me that as a member of Jesus’ Bride, I am betrothed to Him.  And, the wedding will be when He returns to get His own beloveds.  Hallelujah!

Allright, after lunch, we went to tour a museum called the Davidson Institute.  It was lovely, and I wish we had had more time to see more of it.  The museum is located very close to the Temple complex. 

We got to see another synagogue, the Hurva Synagogue, in the Jewish quarter.  This synagogue has a long and storied history of hardship, including multiple destructions and re-buildings.  The current building was re-built 13 years ago.  It is a beautiful place.  One of the features is in the top of the cupola.  There is a narrow catwalk around the perimeter, with amazing acoustics.  If you stand directly across from another person, that person can hear you whisper from 30 feet away.  Astounding.

The Burnt House was our next stop.  This is a second temple home that was situated in the opulent Herodian quarter of the Upper City. Excavations revealed burnt wooden beams and other house components. Apparently, it burned down in the great fire that the Romans started in Jerusalem after the Temple’s destruction in 70 CE. An inscription on a stone weight found during excavations indicates this house, apparently belonged to a family of high-ranking Temple priests, mentioned in the Bible.  This is believed to be the home of Caiaphas; and, the Palatial Mansion next door (6000 sq ft in size) is believed to be the home of Ananias, his father-in-law.

Ananias was a contemp of Hillel the Elder, in the first half of the first century CE.  Ananias had five sons and one son-in-law, Caiaphas.  Both were instrumental in the illegal trial of Jesus and His resulting death penalty assignment by the crowd.  Pinchas was the last High Priest (when the Temple was destroyed), and Josephus described him as “a clown”. Pinchas was Ananias’ grandson.

We had a complication this afternoon when our “ride home”, the bus, was delayed for an hour and a half coming to pick us up.  That was frustrating, but we got through it.  And, after we got back, we had dinner, followed by shopping, visiting or whatever else we wanted to do for the rest of the evening.

Day 8, Israel 2023

It was another beautiful morning in Dead Sea, Israel!  The funniest thing happened this morning before we bade the beautiful area good-bye.  I woke up in such a fog….slept great, but had a hard time getting going.  So, I was sitting on the little settee, drinking my coffee, minding own business, trying to become human…The next thing I know, a pigeon comes walking into the room, through the sliding glass door off the balcony!  (We were on the 11th floor.)  I tried to be chill, because I certainly did not want to startle it into flying around the room.  Fortunately, after a few seconds, it just turned around and waddled out!  HAHA!  

Our first stop today was Masada National Park.

In the first century CE, Masada, a high plateau near the shore of the Dead Sea, was the Southern home to the Judean king, Herod the Great, who had it built around 35 BCE.  Despite or because of its remote location, it had to be a very efficient operation.  Huge storehouses for food and weapons were necessary, as well as the ability to produce some food and make some weapons as needed.  Water, of course, was also necessary.  To provide enough water to sustain a population of hundreds and perhaps over 1000, numerous cisterns that held a total of 11 million gallons of water were constructed, along with elaborate water channels. Evidence of all these processes can be found at Masada, in addition to a synagogue, a Western and a Northern palace, a couple of swimming pools, a governmental center, the commandant's quarters, a special area for raising doves and more.

I had been at Masada back in 2018, but like many of the sights I am seeing again on this trip, there are some changes and enhancements.  One was particularly intriguing.  Inside the ruins of the synagogue, there is an area of that structure known as the geniza.  A geniza is the room in the synagogue where marred scrolls or Torah pages go after they have been decommissioned.  It is believed to be a bad thing to simply destroy such holy documents.  So, often, they were stored in an area where they were respectfully kept indefinitely.  But, regardless, in this area of the synagogue ruins, you can find a legit Hebrew scribe.  He sits there and copies Torah.  He will do a commissioned work for you if you strike a deal with him.  One figure I heard kicked around was the entire book of Esther, for $4500.  At any rate, I made a photo of him working, and it can be found on the Resplendent Daughter Ministries Facebook page with the other photos from today.  But, back to the history lesson - - 

It took the Romans about four years to subdue the Jews of Palestine.  They burned the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, but Masada was "the last holdout" of The Resistance, also known as the Sicarii, a splinter group of the Jewish Zealots.  In Greek, Sicarii was translated into Iscariot, a famous biblical figure being Judas Iscariot.  It was not just soldiers who lived there at that time, but also their wives and children.  The Romans built a ramp of dirt and stones, outside the western wall of the fortress.  Using this device they were able to breach the fortifications of the Jewish soldiers.  Although the Zealots fought valiantly, it became plain that the Romans would be overrunning the encampment the next morning.  Sadly, the leader of the group asked that each soldier kill his wife and children before killing himself, and the last remaining soldiers drew lots to see who would be "the last man standing".  A group of lots has been excavated, and it is believed that these were the lots used for this purpose.  Although this is disputed, it is said that almost 1000 people died.  When the Romans arrived the next morning, they found only a couple of women and children who had been spared.  

In the first years of the new Israel, from 1948 CE to 1967 CE, the Israeli Defense Forces inducted their new soldiers at Masada, making certain they knew the history of that place.  A motto became “Masada will never fall again!” Later, after the Six-Day War, when Jerusalem had been regained by the nation of Israel, the induction ceremonies began to take place at the Kotel (the Western Wall).

In the fifth and sixth centuries, Byzantine monks inhabited Masada.  It was extensively excavated in the 1960s by Israeli archeologists.

After leaving Masada, we went to a factory for the number one body care company in Israel, Ahava.  They shared about how they make their products, and some of us shopped.  (I did not, because I sell similar products from another company, but I won’t get into that here, lol.)  It was a nice diversion.

The next place we went was to the En Gedi Nature Preserve. “Ein” in Hebrew means “spring” (not the season).  It is not far from Masada and is on the way to Jerusalem.  This is the area where David hid from King Saul.  There are many caves and streams in the area, and you can envision how David could have crept up on Saul in the cave while he was “covering his feet”, as described in I Samuel 24:3.  This is a Hebrew idiom for using the toilet and having a bowel movement.  (Source: Mishnah, Tractate Yoma, Chapter 3). It was a moment when David could have easily killed Saul, and taken the throne from him.  :)

Instead, what David did was cut off the edges of his garment (his tzit tzit).  Later, when David showed Saul the portion he had cut off, Saul realized how close he had come.

By the 1960s hunting had almost wiped out the ibexes population of the En Gedi. A few hundred ibexes now live in the reserve during the day they wander the level areas and at night they ascend the cliffs to find a safe place to sleep. Ibexes are still endangered in Israel and worldwide. The population of ibexes in this reserve is now one of the largest concentrations of the species in the world.

The high mountains are for the wild goats; the rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers. 

Psalm 104:18 

Ibexes are small wild goats that also resemble deer.  Coney is another name for rock badger; and I saw both of these. Foxes and bats and tiny rodents also roam the reserves. 

We walked to the Lower Falls.  They were super large, but in this region, floods and landslides are common. People asked about climbing to the Upper Falls; but, they were an hour away, each way, and it was too hot today - - not recommended for us to go.

The pools of En Gedi team with life, freshwater crabs, marsh frogs, and black freshwater snails are found here, as well as various species of dragonfly, revealing the balance to freshwater ecosystems. 

The reserve was once rich and vegetation typical of hot, well-watered areas. The extinction of most of these plans led to a decision to re-introduce them. Since 2009, thousands of rare trees and shrubs have thrived.

After we left the nature preserve, we began to ascend to Jerusalem.  Everyone was very excited to arrive!  It felt great to unpack and know it would be our last time to do that on this trip.  We have had very nice accommodations.  Then, it was off to have dinner and that was my day.  My roommate went shopping after dinner, but I did not go.

Search for McClintock-Strong’s Cyclopedia article on the Dead Sea, if you are interested in reading more about the area.  It’s a great article!