Jerusalem Gate

We docked in Haifa, Israel at 6 am and the first of several long days had begun. Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel and the third largest in the country. It is a major seaport and located about 60 miles from Tel Aviv. But our ambitious destination and agenda for the day was Jerusalem and Bethlehem, about two hours by bus. After clearing Israeli immigration and tightened security over previous destinations, we were greeted by our guide Joseph who related ...

... received a personal honour &#8211; &#8220;Geleela&#8221; &#8211; which entails wrapping the Torah after the Torah reading. The Gabai (person who, among other duties, assigns the various honours) tapped me on the shoulder to make the offer. I suspect he thought I was in deep prayer with me eyes closed at the time. In truth, however, I was in deep sleep, having slept 4 hours the night before and run 3 1/4 hours that morning. <br><br>We left before services ended, having already put in our ...

... fun, a hobby. He took my sketchbook and took out his mobile. Soon after calling somebody, a police car arrived and he handed over my book. I tried to ask if there was a problem while the policemen in the car flicked through the pages. They smiled, handed it back to the first policeman and asked where I was from before driving off. The first policeman then assured me that there was no problem before scrutinizing each of my pictures and asking questions about it. Finally he gave it ...

... society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews. Later to become CMJ. Their vision was for the return of the Jews to Palestine and for mass conversion of Jews to Yeshua the Messiah. Over the 19th century CMJ had helped to put a voice to a Jewish state being established in Palestine. The mass conversion of Jews to believing in Yeshua the Messiahs did not happen, but that Christ Church now is home to an Anglican church and a Messanic ...

... up and meet his family). As the cabbie refused to use the meter or come down on his price for the ride, we got right out and flagged another one who did. A half-hour later, David greeted us, two of his four young children (ages 2 to 8) in tow. We met his other kids, playful and dressed in their holiday best, and his wife Karen, just home that very day from an extended stay in the hospital, and yet happy and hospitable (if it were me, I'm sure I'd be happy to be home but ...

... approached The Wall of Tears (Stena Plachi)I felt that it was without a doubt holy. men were on one side, women on the opposite. Whats known about his wall is that people, civilians, anyone can write down they're pray and put in in the cracks of the stone wall. It is believed that God answers these prayers and wishes and so everything in relation to the wall is sacred. For me personally, I found that b/c I do not fully believe, that I shouldn't write anything. We took ...

... long line of tourists, probably from Kenya, waiting to leave Egypt. We are given a free 14 day visa for the Sinai area only of Egypt. We ask them to stamp outside of our passport and then do, it just took about 15-20 minutes to get it done. When our bags went through the scanner, the guard asked about Len's silver pen, he really wanted it, but did accept one of my plastic Canada pens instead. We went out to the mini van/bus area. Here you can wait in ...

... the boys all had a similar look - short hair with slight sideburns, knitted cippah, work shirt, tzitzit hanging out, etc. And almost all had glasses. Each religious group in Israel conforms to its own stereotype.<br><br>I met up with some friends I hadn't seen for a while, including Yossi Dinnen, Benji Levy, and Liron Hayman, who recently scored a UAI of 100 in his HSC! A few people told me they easily notice his genius even in their Jewish classes ...

... a few seconds and a string of firecrackers went off at a nearby wedding reception. "just a little M16 fire" I told my wife, who was wholly unamused. [One thing about the middle east; it really is not dangerous. They need out tourist dollars and they do everything to get them by making us happy.] <br><br>An Arab wedding is a thing to behold, huge numbers of family members and friends attend and the men stay in one room and the women in another. The men sit ...