Jerusalem

Yesterday we left the Dead Sea early for a 2 hour drive to Jerusalem. What a difference driving from the desert to such lush green scenery outside the city. We passed lots of camels and sheep on the side of the road but didn't have a good opportunity to take any pictures.

Last evening we went to the home of a Jewish Orthodox family for Shabbat through Shabbat of a Lifetime. We did this 6 years ago and thoroughly enjoyed the experience so we did it again this year. No photos were allowed so we have no pictures to show you. We sung a song that I haven't sung in a long time called Shalom Aleichem (translated Peace be Upon You) which is traditionally sung on Shabbat. Click on the song name and listen to a beautiful acapella of the song in Hebrew and English.

This morning we were blessed to meet up with Ira and Gloria Brawer, good friends who live in Florida and have a ministry Heritage House - Restoring the Foundations. Click on the link to learn more about them and their ministry.


We spent the day in the Old City just wandering the streets and doing a bit of shopping. Ira and Gloria took us to Elia Photos which had amazing photos of Jerusalem dating back to the 1920s. This store has been owned by the same family for 3 generations - the grandfather who had taken the photos, then the son, and now the grandson. I am a huge fan of old photos and these really spoke to me so we are now owners of 2 of his photographs. Go to Elia Photos to see some of his work.

Here are a few pictures from today.

First view of the Old City (Jaffa Gate)

the Christian Quarter

corner of Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Zion Gate - the marks on the gate are from bullets from the 7 day war in 1967

view of the Western Wall

beautiful spices

the teas smelled delicious

Ann couldn't resist the dried fruits

the Old City at dusk


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mount Hermon Nature Preserve

Image
Yesterday we began our day visiting the Mount of Beatitudes. It was the one place along the Galilee that we hadn't been to. If it wasn't for all the tourists it may have been easy to picture Yeshua preaching to the multitudes on the hillside. We then traveled all the way up to Dan (the furthest most part of Israel) to the Mount Hermon Nature Preserve. I was driving north on 90, missed our exit, and I was glad the road ended ... otherwise we would have been in Lebanon. This nature preserve has ancient ruins of the temple of pan and beautiful hiking trails. The area is lush and green. Unfortunately, it is also surrounded by land mines left by the Syrians when they controlled the Golan Heights. There are areas sectioned off by barbed wire warning you not to enter. This water is the source of most water in Israel - leading down to the Galilee and in to the Jordan. Mt Hermon Springs
Read more

Old City Jerusalem

Image
Yesterday was a pretty special day. We got to spend it with Ari, our tour guide we had on both of our previous trips to Israel. It is said that touring Israel with Ari is like shoving a college semester in to two weeks. We met for coffee and Ari spent the next hour and a half explaining the history of Jerusalem and how the walls changed over the years. We have heard it before but it is always good to refresh our memories, especially since we would be spending the day in the Old City. Unfortunately, this is the only picture I took of Ari. Ari loves to draw maps - whether on paper or on his hands. This is the map of Jerusalem we took from him at the end of the day. It makes perfect sense to us and I'd be happy to explain the Old City to anyone using this map. Although Israel became a nation in 1948, the Old City of Jerusalem was not open to Jews to visit. It was under Jordanian rule and didn't become part of Israel until after the 6 day war in 1967. The Jewish sect...
Read more

The Sea of Galilee

Image
Although it's still overcast the sun was shining bright this morning as we ate breakfast on our deck. Ann made a friend, named him Wiggles, but we told her that she couldn't take him home! Yesterday we spent the day driving around the Sea of Galilee exploring the places where Yeshua walked. Our first stop was Magdela, the home of Mary Magdeline. Did you know that you cannot build before the department of antiquities checks first to make sure you aren't building on top of something significant. Well, the Catholic Church had plans to build a retreat on the Sea and found a first century synagogue and town. The retreat is being built around the ancient town. the site of the synagogue where Yeshua taught a menorah on the Magdela stone It was amazing to see the difference 6 years made. When we visited 6 years ago Magdela had just been discovered and wasn't even open to the public but Ari, our guide, got us in anyway. There was nothing but the uncovered sy...
Read more