A long overdue trip to the Holy Land Part III

Day 4: And the footsteps in the Holy Land shall never be forgotten

First stop of the day: City of David (King), built in 1000 BC by King David

• If you have heard about the battle of Goliath and David, then you should know who David is exactly. A few years ago when I went to Florence, the Statue of David meant nothing to me. Now, I fully comprehend. 
• All of the city's foundations and structures are built using rocks and stones. If a city is destroyed, a new foundation has to be built on top of the original ones which explains why the City of David is at a much lower ground compared to the Old City today. 
• Fun fact: How to know if the remnants that you see belong to a rich or poor family? If you see a loo, then you are looking at a rich man's house. Apparently, during ancient times, only the wealthy can afford to have a toilet in their house! 
• City of David was built on a hill because it had a valley as natural protection, farming and also there were springs nearby to provide water. More often than not, we neglect the importance of water. However, a visit to Israel made me realised that the rise and fall of most civilizations can be attributed to the control of the water source. 
• The choice of the location was also due to a covenant that Abraham had with God. God had told Abraham where he wanted the Temple Mount to be located. 
• As we walked through the City of David (only remnants and a lot of archaeological work being carried out), we also went to the Hezekiah Tunnel or Siloam Tunnel where we saw how the water shaft system worked. The spring was outside of the city walls and in the event of a siege, one's enemies would first gain control of the spring and cut off the water supply to the troops inside the wall. Hence, a tunnel was dug to channel water from the spring into a reservoir inside the city walls to collect water. Despite now being 3,000 years later, we could still hear the water gushing down the water channels. The next question would then be: "Why didn't they build the city walls around the spring?" This was because the terrain around the spring was flatter and it would be easier for your enemies to attack. So they built the walls slightly further away from the spring which had a steeper slope and would made it difficult for enemies to attack. 

Second stop: Israel Museum - to see the model of the city of Jerusalem including how Temple Mount would look like if it had still been there. We also get to see the Dead Sea Scrolls which are writings about the Torah or the Bible.

• Dead Sea Scrolls were written by a group of religious men (no women was accepted into the group because they felt that women cannot be trusted) who were known as the Sons of Light
• Lived around the Dead Sea area which explains how the name "Dead Sea Scrolls" come about 
• This group of religious men copied the biblical text day and night because they decipher from the Old Testament that there will be war and they had to protect the scripts. They also engage in ritual baths to always keep themselves clean. 
• When the romans came, they hid the scrolls in a jar initially but subsequently merely dumped them into a cave, most likely due to time constraint. 
• It was a Bedouin nomad who was looking for his lost sheep who found the scrolls. 
• They are very well-preserved and protected in the Israel museum and are written in ancient Hebrew. According to the guide, there is not much difference between ancient and modern Hebrew and he can read it perfectly. However, when we requested for him to read it to us, he simply say, "yeah I will." and then digressed. 

Third Stop: Yad Vashem Museum (Holocaust Museum) - a place never to be forgotten 

I like the way the Jews put thought into everything that they design, akin to the Japanese people. You get to see a lot of trees being planted to show their appreciation and remembrance of the people who tried to save the Jews from the Nazis at the entrance to the museum. The design of the museum itself is one whereby you walk through a maze and you begin your journey in a gloomy hallway. The last stop in the museum is a room decorated like a library with a pit in the bottom and a mirror on top. The rooms have lots of shelves and there are thousands, if not hundred of thousands, of files labelled with the names of all the Jews who, unfortunately, were massacred or died during the Holocaust. The reason why they have a pit with a mirror is because these people who died were never given a proper burial, especially if they were victims of the concentration camps in Birkenau and Auschwitz because their corpse visited Poland just two years ago, everything about the Holocaust and whatever that happened in WWII was still fresh in my memory. Recently, I also read a book titled "The Berlin Boxing Club" which is related to the treatment of Jews in Germany during the 1940s. At the end of the gallery, you will get a bird's eye view of the city of Jerusalem and it is so that though the past was gloomy, the future is a bright one filled with hopes for this beloved city and home of theirs. 

As photography was strictly prohibited, I do not have any photos to show but everything that I saw, read and heard about will stay with me for the rest of my life. How the Jews were being cornered in Germany, sent to live in ghettos, shot to death, and eventually the Final Solution came about. I have admiration for the Jews because they are a race who has been through so much from ancient times, wars with the Babylonians, Persians, Romans, Moslems, Turks, and eventually Arabs, extermination by Germans who for no apparent reason simply hated them back then, etc. However, they stood strong and finally they get to return to their promised land. I am particularly touched by what the guide said, that they are not asking for abundant natural resources or vast land space but merely a small strip of land which is hardly visible from space, 500 km long and 130 km wide, a place promised by God to them and a place that they can call home. 

Biblical places that we visited:

• Church of Nativity in Bethlehem: Bethlehem is currently under the Palestinian control based on a peace treaty signed in 2000 between Israel and Palestine. Church of Nativity is believed to be the birth place of Jesus. To go to Bethlehem, we have to pass through a security checkpoint. You can see high walls and some barbed fences because there were constant attacks by the Palestinians on non-Arabs living in the area separating Jerusalem and Bethlehem before the peace treaty in 2000. I also saw graffiti of messages directed at the Jews and also Israel on the side of the wall that is in Bethlehem. I would say that though we were trapped in the hotel due to the snowstorm, we were very blessed while we were in Israel. Most of the places that we went to did not have long queues and we were able to see for ourselves the Star of Bethlehem, enter the Temple Mount area, etc. The reason why Christians connected Bethlehem to the birth of Jesus was because they believe that Jesus was a descendant of King David and when Jesus was born, 3 shepherds saw a star in the sky and it was known as the Star of Bethlehem. Honestly, that birth spot was really like a cave and you had to walk down a steep flight of steps in order to get in. 
• Fun tale: When the Persians invaded Israel around 600 AD, this church was not destroyed because they saw a mosaic painting of the three wise men and mistook it as the Moslem's three magi. Truth or not, I have no idea either. 
• Rachel, 1 of 4 wives (Sarah, Rebecca, Lia and Rachel) of Jacob is believed to be buried in Bethlehem
• Statue of St Jerome in the Courtyard: He gave himself a test to translate the biblical text from Hebrew to Greek and before he died, he managed to complete it. 
• Jerusalem cross: The cross in the middle represents Christianity or God and the 4 smaller crosses means to spread the faith to the 4 corners of the world.

Last stop for the day: Shabbat of a lifetime

• Shabbat means the 7th day of the week which is actually our Saturday! In the Jewish calendar, there is no Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc. but just the 'first day', 'second day', etc. The first day of the week is actually Sunday (yes, Jews work on Sundays) and Friday is the sixth day of the week. 
• Shabbat starts from 7 p.m. on Friday till 7 p.m. on Saturday because they believe that 7 p.m. on Friday is actually the beginning of a new day. Markets close at 2 p.m. on Friday so do all other stores. 
• Shabbat is a day whereby everyone is to rest and not do anything or use any new creation e.g. watching tv programmes, writing, calling, texting, checking emails, surfing the Internet, switching on the lights, not even push the buttons in a lift. 
• During Shabbat, lifts will stop at every level and all lights are pre-programmed to be turned on and off.  Food has to be cooked before 7 p.m. on Friday evening and kept warm and served during dinner. 
• Reason for Shabbat: It is believed that God created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th day so He wants people to rest, relax and spend time with their family during Shabbat. 
• Fun fact: What is Kosher? It is something like Halal but slightly different. Kosher means the food that is prepared involves having a slaughter house to slaughter the animals that are to be eaten, be it chicken, lamb, sheep, cow, etc. I think prayer is involved and the slaughterer needs to be a religious person and he or she has to kill the animal at one specific place i.e. the throat at one attempt. The blood then has to be drained since the blood symbolises the soul and salt is placed on the meat to extract all the blood. 
• Food that is Kosher: Fish with fins and scales, Chicken, Beef. 
• Food that is not Kosher: Dairy products e.g. not to mix lamb with goat milk because lamb is considered to be impure since it involves killing whereas goat's milk is considered to be pure since it does not involve killing. 

Personal thoughts about Shabbat: I honestly love this practice. We are all so busy with our lives in Singapore that we have simply neglected one of the many riches of life - to spend time with our family members and do nothing but talk and share our happenings in the week before. When I was in Israel, I did not have access to wifi during the first four days but instead of feeling disappointed, I actually gave my mind a good rest to be away from the games, messages, calls, emails etc. I enjoy the "ME" time and sis and I simply just lazed around. I did some personal reflections for the year, watched the news a lot and also slept a lot to recharge myself for the new year. Can we have Shabbat in Singapore too? There are too many things about Israel that impressed me. Remember I talked about the wifi and the Majulah Singapura in the previous post? This Jewish family that hosted us for the dinner has three kids, a girl aged 5, a boy aged 3 and an infant. While the parents were explaining to us the different practices during Shabbat, the stories of the guests that they had entertained over the last year or so, the young girl would always interrupt and ask lots of questions. In a typical Asian family or maybe is just my family, we would probably ask the kiddo to shut up or we would find a toy or gadget to keep her entertained in a corner. However, the parents did otherwise. They would give the young girl attention, answer her question patiently then return to whatever that they were talking about. At certain junctures, I myself found the girl to be a little disruptive but seeing the way the parents handled the girl made me felt a little guilty and perhaps also ashamed that we do not practice such habits to give a young child the opportunity to speak up. This is a lesson that I would take home with me and that in my classroom, everyone is free to interrupt and ask lots of questions while I am explaining something. I like it when my students ask questions in class but I would prefer them to ask me after I have finish explaining something rather than interrupting me and disrupting my train of thoughts. However, after this Shabbat experience, I should perhaps change my perspective with regards to this. 

Anyways, perhaps it is because this Shabbat experience is something new to me which explains why I enjoyed the dinner a lot. Maybe if I have to be constantly away from new creation, I would go bonkers eventually. Imagine having a burning question and no one knows the answer except Google. What would I do? It is also during such times that I really miss the times in Europe when the pace of life is much slower and I cycle around the city with my friends, go for picnics and strolls in the parks. I had no Whatsapp, Candy Crush, Subway Surf, Facebook or Instagram, etc. to entertain me but I wasn't less happy at all. In fact, I felt that I had more back then. 

And the footsteps linger, till tomorrow.