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| Geographical Trip Around Jerusalem Perimeter
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27 June, 2008
Shalom,
I am sitting in a classroom and the mosques around the city are currently in their sixth minute of blaring their loudspeakers calling the people to prayer with various chants and hymns. It is a stark contrast from where I was a few hours ago, in the heart of West Jerusalem which is nearly entirely Jewish, and you would not hear these mosques calling. For most of the country, it is another typical Friday afternoon in a cloudless sky, hot summer day in Israel. For the Muslims, however, it is also Friday, but for them, this is especially important: the Sabbath for the Muslim faith.
The Jerusalem Center is perched on Mount Scopus, which literally makes up the border of Israel proper as it is known and the West Bank, which here is referred to instead as Palestine. Out the east door, our main entrance, we enter Palestine, and all the signs and billboards are in Arabic, and we are surrounded by Palestinian villages and Muslim followers. The Hebrew University is next to us, which is a Jewish university, which is unique for the area. In our half of the city, we have a large number of the 2.4 million Palestinians of Israel's 7 million people. Also, of note, the Muslims in our area are Sunni Muslim, which is the largest predominant group of Muslims, and are not of the same fundamentalist views of the Shiites. Shiites make up Iraq, Afghanistan, and Sunnis are the simply said, the rest.
Now I'll simply throw in some information about the Muslim faith since I am in an area that could probably be mistaken for any other Muslim city, from Istanbul to Tehran. The Muslims are called to prayer five times a day, called the Azan. The call to prayer is heard at dawn, at midday, about the middle of the afternoon, just after sunset, and at night fall about two to three hours after sunset. The repeated phrase is simply translated to "Hasten to prayer." Responding to this call on Friday afternoon, praying in the mosque, and making the pledge to Allah, is the only thing need to become a Muslim. Therefore, if I respond to this call right now, I would be, in the eyes of Allah, a Muslim.
In case you wonder what is said, as I have, this is a copy of the prayers that are sang:
They say this chant, and then sing various hymns and call people to prayer, and keep in mind that this process takes about 20 minutes (it's still going as I speak, which is 100 minutes, almost two hours of the entire day, every day, each day, dedicated to religion) because each word often seems to take about 30 seconds to chant.
"Allah u Akbar, Allah u Akbar
-- Allah is Great, Allah is Great
2-Ash-hadu al-la Ilaha ill Allah - Ash-hadu al-la Ilaha ill Allah
-- I bear witness that there is no divinty but Allah
3 Ash-hadu anna Muhammadan Rasulullaah
-- I bear witness that Muhammad is Allah's Messenger
Ash-hadu anna Muhammadan Rasulullaah.
-- I bear witness that Muhammad is Allah's Messenger
4 Hayya la-s-saleah - Hayya la-s-saleah
-- Hasten to the prayer, Hasten to the prayer
5 Hayya la-l-faleah - Hayya la-l-faleah
-- Hasten to real success, Hasten to real success,
6 Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar
-- Allah is Great, Allah is Great
7 La Ilaha ill Allah
-- There is no divinity but Allah"
Anyway, let's move to what we did today.
I woke up this morning at 6:30am, quite awake, which was 5:30pm in Hawaii and 9:30pm in Denver. I have been quite awake so far today, and seem to do pretty well with jet-lag. I had my first breakfast which consisted of french toast, a somewhat different tasting sort of cottage cheese, grapefruit, and grapefruit juice. Israel does not import any of its fruit or vegetables, which means that everything we are eating is grown right here. I then picked up a sack lunch and two bottles of water (in Hebrew, which is always a neat experience in a new place).
We then drove to our first stop, Nabi Samwel, in West Jeruslaem (Jewish side), which is the tomb of the Prophet Samuel. The location is unique because it acts as both a mosque and a synagogue. We saw Muslims and Orthodox Jews arrive in their religious clothing and enter their respective areas. As an Orthodox Jewish synagogue, men and women are separated. I put on a kippah "key-puh" (we usually call it a yarmulke "yaw-muh-kuh" in America) so I could go into the synagogue, and say the Torah and Moses' seat where the Torah is read. Nabi Samwel (Arabic) is on the northern edge of the city. From it to the north, you can look across the land of Benjamin and into both Israel and Palestine and north towards the land of Ephraim. A Jewish settlement has been built in the Palestinian area, a phenomenon becoming far more common over time. To the north, you could see to the Palestinian city of Ramallah, a location we often hear in association with political unrest on CNN. To the south, we could see the land of Judah and almost to Dan in the west. It smelled like pine trees.
Next, we went to Mar Elias (place of Elijah), which is a Greek Orthodox monastery and is one of many built by the Orthodox and Catholic churches in the city. From there, we had an incredible view of Bethlehem and the infamous partition wall which is built two miles into Palestinian lands and is highly controversial as many see it as a copy of the Berlin wall. We could also see into Palestine, and a settlement that was beautiful and elegant and clearly for elite wealth of 50,000 people in a walled community. It is a Jewish settlement, built by Israelis who technically had no permission to build it, and should Palestine revolt, these people could find their homes in jeopardy. The land was hard and white, chalky almost, and I played with limestone and ants in stifling heat, trying to put roll up my sleeves as far as I could and still get away with it. The reality is that both Tel Aviv and even Jerusalem are far more westernized than I was inclined to believe, and few if any people would find wearing shorts for example even remotely offensive. I simply don't say anything, and on the up-side, less beetles crawl on me in pants. The ground was pretty deserted, but the shrubs and many olive trees were holding on. It smelled like fennel seeds.
After the monastery, which had obviously lost a few windows to recent vandalism, we traveled into the heart of West Jerusalem and to the famous Ben Yehuda Street. The West side is far more wealthy than the East. It had more of a European feel, and Jewish pride is strong, with flags and banners waving from stop lights, signs, and people's homes and cars. The streets are wider and the landscape work in Jerusalem is incredible. Beautiful limestone walls and gardens filled with olive trees, flowers, small pines, and other shrubs decorate the areas, and roundabouts are common, although driving laws (or lack thereof) seem somewhat intimidating. A vast majority of billboards and signs are only in Hebrew, and my favorite was for Kung Fu Panda being advertised in Hebrew. There are also many posters with what appears a rabbi with his hand raised as if about to address a crowd and Hebrew written on it, and this one can be found all over the place. Interestingly enough, in Palestine, a similar poster but of a Muslim clergyman and the Islamic star and moon symbol mirrored the Jewish poster but was clearly for Muslims and the writing in Arabic. I want to know what they mean. We passed the main stadium and Jerusalem mall, a location I have now discovered can be accessed easily by cab, and somewhere I want to visit. There were children walking around to and from school, teenagers wandering around in parks, and business people scattering about their works before the Shabbat. There is truly a neat feel to West Jerusalem.
We then went to Haas Promenade, built on a hill that Jews and Muslims believed was cursed for 3,000 years for a good reason; I just can't recall it as of now. The point is that they didn't like it so a Christian was who not afraid of the curse came in and turned it into a beautiful terrace and park overlooking Jerusalem from the south. It is very beautiful, and the entire city can be seen.
Last, we went to the Augustus Victoria Ascension Church, operated by Lutherans and built in 1888 by Kaiser Whitmer who envisioned Jerusalem a more Christian city and wanted a beautiful church for worship and a belfry to compete with the mosques and synagogues of the area. The bell tower is a beautiful building and from it you could see all the way past Jerusalem to Bethlehem, more of the parition wall recently built by Israeli troops, and all the way through the Judean wilderness and to the Dead Seea and past the Dead Sea into Jordan, where we will travel in a few weeks. I am also told we will hear the bells on Sunday, which is when Christians will have their Sabbath. We hold ours on Shabbat; From Friday at sunset until Saturday. The group sang on the stage in the chapel of this Medieval church scattered about with murals and statues of Christ, and it was a neat experience, until someone insisted hymn 27 be sang, and I bit my tongue (quite literally) to keep from saying anything and wandered out discreetly to take in the German architecture of the outside of the Church. I enjoy hearing The Spirit of God, I Believe in Christ, and Be Still My Soul as they pertain to Christ, in His city, and leave it at that, but leave Missouri to Missouri.
We then returned to the Center, where we saw several Palestinian couples taken wedding pictures. They wore beautiful western white dresses and tuxedos and looked as if they had been working on perfecting their looks for about three weeks, and it showed. It was one time when Muslim women looked into our eyes and smiles, not concerned about the message the direct contact might otherwise suggest, for it was quite obvious what was happening.
I then got my laptop and retreated to the sixth floor to write. The center is terraced, so it's not simply one floor on top of another, but diagnoally out, which makes every floor's views unique and unobstructed. We will then have dinner, which hopefully will be somewhat more fulfilling than our fish, potatoes, and a larger version of cous-cous and strange lemon, cream style pie we had last night. That's about it for the night, and tomorrow will be Shabbat, followed by a trip to visit the Old City in the walls, and a stop for fallafel apparently.
Tota, that's all for now! |
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Posted by cbarlet on 2008-06-28 12:42:53 | Rating: | Views: 61
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