Monday, July 7, 2008

Holy Christian City (Eric Dropkin & Becca Steinman)










JULY 7, 2008

Chapel of the Ascension
Today, we began our tour at the Chapel of Ascension located on the top of the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives, where the church is located, is holy for all three monotheistic peoples: Jews, Muslims, and Christians. All believe that the Mount of Olives has a part to play in the return of the messiah. The chapel itself is a beautiful place with a famous footprint located inside the church. This footprint is where some people believe Jesus ascended to Heaven. There used to be two foot prints but it is believed that the other was stolen as a relic. A reason for this is because Christian have made pilgrimages to sites containing relics in order obtain penitence and thereby be relieved of purgatory. In the late 4th century the Byzantines erected the church, but then in the 7th century the invading Muslims destroyed the church. Muslims usually left other holy sights alone but this church was an exception. Then the Crusaders rebuilt the church and later Saladin came into power and turned it into a mosque. You will see the color green all over mosques. This is because the color green represents the prophet Muhammad. The structure of the church is circular and used to have its center open to the sky to allow for Jesus' return to earth, but when it was turned into a mosque, a dome was erected to cover the open space. The building is circular because the holy site is on the inside, whereas in most other churches, the altar faces east; this faces inward toward the holy site of Jesus’ footprint. For more information, see http://www.sacred-destinations.com/israel/jerusalem-chapel-of-ascension.htm

Mount of Olives Cemetery
We continued out tour with the Mount of Olives Cemetery. There are an estimated 150,000 Jewish graves located here, including some dating back to the First Temple period. Between 1948 and 1967 the Jordanians were in control of the Mount of Olives and desecrated the cemetery. They would use the tombstones for building roads and steps. See the tour report The Jordanians even constructed a highway through the cemetery. In the cemetery we looked at the mass grave of the Jews who had held out during the siege on the Old City. Due to not being able to get anything in or out, they had to bury their dead within the city which some consider a huge sin. Later in 1967, their bodies were dug up and reburied in the Mount of Olives Cemetery and given IDF status post mortem. There was the grave of a 10-year-old boy who used his knowledge of the city alleyways to send messages back and forth. We were also able to see graves of soldiers, young and old, even the grave of the Rabbi.

The Jewish Settlers House
After going to the Mount of Olives Cemetery, we continued our tour by going to a neighborhood next door. Within the area of the Mt. of Olives, the houses are almost all exclusively Muslim. We were very lucky to get to see the home of a Jewish settler. The house was bought by a Jewish family in secret using off-shore brokers so the owner could claim no knowledge of the sale of his house to Jews. Whenever a house is sold to a Jew in an exclusively Palestinian or Muslim community, the high price paid for the house is usually accompanied by a plane ticket. This is because if the person selling the house does not flee the country, he can be killed because his neighborhood feels as if selling a house to a Jew is betrayal. In this case, the original owner did not use his plane ticket and he was found stabbed to death 10 days later. The Jewish settlers living there have their own security with guards posted around their home. The State pays for the security that we saw. This dates back to when Sharon was Minister of Housing and decided to pay for protection of Jews who had purchased homes and moved into the Muslim quarter of the Old City. This has translated into the state of Israel paying for all security for families that move into Muslim neighborhoods. We were able to sit and listen to the settler tell us about living in the neighborhood and how important his home is to him. He has one of the best views around! He overlooks the whole Old City and it was a breathtaking sight!

Dominus Flevit Church (The Cry of The Lord)
From the Jewish settler’s house, we continued our Journey down the Mount of Olives until we reached the Dominus Flevit Church. It was used as the second signal point to announce new months. The Pope built church 2,000 years after death of Jesus. He decided on this location because the church is located at the same height as the height of the second temple. Once they started digging they found remains of an early Byzantine church. The mosaics on the floor are intertwined with the originals that they found. The architecture is built to resemble a tear, and it faces west instead of east. Because the church is rarely used, the services are lead by pilgrims and very rarely lead by clergy. Here we also saw old gravesites. When a person died, usually within 24 hours, the body was put in a cave. A year later the bones were collected from the cave and then placed in boxes and buried. We were able to see many of these stone boxes and even a cave where they were found. For more information, see: http://198.62.75.1/www1/ofm/san/TSdomin.html

Garden of Gethsemane
We continued from Dominus Flevit Church to the Garden of Gethsemane (derived from the Aramaic words for "olive press"). The Garden of Gethsemane is located at the foot of the Mount of Olives. This is the place where it is believed that Jesus and his disciples prayed before the night of his crucifixion. This is also where the Church of All Nations was constructed. The church was built by donations by many Christian nations—thus the name. In the church there is no artificial light. The only light that is used is from the windows. Light imitates the sorrow. Here too a Byzantine church was found on the spot they chose and the original mosaics are integrated into the current design. From the Garden of Gethsemane we could see the Golden Gates through which it is believed that the Jewish messiah will walk . However, the Muslims built a cemetery in front of the Golden Gates because it is believed that the Messiah will not be able to walk through the cemetery because it is not pure. Therefore, this should stop the coming of the Jewish Messiah.

Via Dolorosa
We continued our tour by visiting the Via Dolorosa. Many people believe that this is the same path that Jesus walked on his way to his crucifixion carrying the cross on his back. The problem is that the city was destroyed after Jesus walked, so the route is not the same. The path goes through the Muslim quarter, so you have a Christian road surrounded by Muslim buildings. However, there are 9 sites on the Via Dolorosa, which are part of the 14 Stations of the Cross. The other 5 are found where the Via Dolorosa ends, at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Today pilgrims come from all over the world to walk the Via Dolorosa.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre
We concluded our tour by ending at Stations 10-14 at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Here each of the Eastern denominations and the Roman Catholic church (know here as the Latin Church, and represented by the Franciscans) has their own area to take care of within the church. Because of how holy this place is, there are many arguments about territory inside the church. There was a fight over the last step leading up to the room where Jesus was cleaned. However, it is not any domination that holds the keys to the church. It is a Muslim family and the keys have been passed down through the generations. Each denomination holds a ceremony to lock the doors. Because of the issue of territory within the church, in the nineteenth century the Ottomans implemented a status quo agreement, freezing in perpetuity the division of space and responsibilities within the Church. During this time, a group was using a ladder to renovate the outside. Therefore, the ladder was included in the status quo and the ladder is still sitting there today. It is now known as the Ladder of Toleration. We continued by touring the church. Everything was so beautiful with many pieces of art everywhere. We viewed two mosaics near Golgotha (the site of the Cross): both the crucifixion and the binding of Isaac, which Christians view as prefiguring the sacrifice of their Lord. We also saw parts that remained from a Byzantine church. Constantine changed the Roman Empire in the 4th century with the major support of his mother. She at the age of 80 came to search for holy sites of Jesus. She used a mix of faith and politics to uncover the different Christian holy sites. She looked for where pagan statues believing that the Pagans were trying to cover up holy Christian sites. She went into a cave and found 3 crosses. After she placed a dead boy on one of the crosses and the boy was resurrected, she came to believe this is the crucifix that Jesus was nailed to. We were able to see all of the different denominations within the church and were able to marvel at all of the history and beauty. For more information, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Holy_Sepulchre