Another week and weekend

  Jerusalem, Israel
Sunday, July 20, 2008

The week of digging went quickly as days of routine flew by. We're fairly well in the groove now, our digging, hauling and wheel-barrowing muscles are toning up; we're learning the techniques we need to clear earth, bring out delicate pottery, recognize ancient pieces of bone and flint, and chop clean vertical baulks (the sides of the squares in which we dig).
 
We have occasional days of sickness or injury among us, but nothing too serious. Tatiana was down with a head and stomach ache one day this week, as was John. There was one injury that might have been serious, but turned out not to be. On Tuesday (which, since we dig from Sunday to Thursday is "hump day" the equivalent of Wednesday in a normal work week) Melia developed a very sharp pain in her left knee. She didn't remember hurting it, but it began hurting on the morning shift, becoming so painful by breakfast that she couldn't walk down the tel. We tried several methods of helping her down, support under both arms, carrying her on the supervisors back and finally took her down the last part on a stretcher. Norma Franklin, an experienced archeologist and one of the administrators of this dig for years, offered to lend me her car so I could drive Melia to the hospital in Afula to have things checked for safety's sake. I drove Melia to the kibbutz to get her passport, insurance papers and credit card. We also picked up Noga, an Israeli-born archeologist who works full time on the Megiddo expedition for Tel Aviv University. Noga speaks excellent English in addition to Hebrew. She had been ill the previous day with a stomach bug (foreigners aren't the only ones who get them), and didn't want to drive, but did feel up to going with us to translate as needed. It took about half an hour to drive to Afula. 
 
We drove south to the Megiddo intersection which we can clearly see from the tel; where a bus was blown up a few years back in a terrorist attack. I remember seeing the news photos. At the intersection is a security prison built on the site of an older British police station from the mandate period. The modern security prison is for prisoners involved with Hamas, Hezbollah or other such terrorist organizations. We turned left and headed east across the valley of Megiddo to Afula, a relatively recent and very modern city which has the area hospital.
 
During the drive I got to know Noga a little better. Her parents had come to Israel from California in the 1940s. She was born in Israel and in those days parents discouraged their children from speaking any language but Hebrew, so Noga speaks English with a discernable Israeli accent, though her family had been in the US for several generations before the trip to Israel. She still has family in the US and has visited them several times, but her life is fully here.
 
We arrived at the hospital. In Israel even hospitals must have security screening at the entrances. Noga explained to the guards why we were coming and we were allowed to enter the emergency area. It was a small but very modern hospital with a friendly and efficient reception staff. After the preliminary check-in procedures we went into the emergency area. There were no wheel chairs easily available, so we took a gurney on which Melia could like down and keep her leg straight. There were few other patients in the emergency room, several of them spoke Russian. There has been quite an influx of Russian Jews in the past few years, something like 10% of the Jewish population is now of Russian origin. There are Russian language channels on Israeli television.
 
After a longer wait that we would have liked, a gray-haired doctor came and asked questions. Melia was wheeled back to radiology to have an x-ray done of her knee. The results were quickly in: nothing was broken or out of place. There was no discernable swelling. All those were good signs. The knee was wrapped to help immobilize it and Melia received a prescription to reduce the pain. The doctor said to stay off it for a few days, keep it elevated when possible. It should be back to normal in a short time, he said.
 
We checked out and drove to a nearby pharmacy to fill the prescription, then drove back to the kibbutz to drop Melia off and get her settled in her room.  She took in easy on Wednesday and by Thursday afternoon she was able to walk to dinner. Her knee was still a little tender on Friday, but she was able to keep up with our touring.
 
Yesterday, Friday morning we left the kibbutz at 7:30 am. It felt like sleeping in, since usually by 7:30 we're getting close to finishing our first shift on the tel and preparing to have breakfast.... The tour company again sent us a 50-seat bus (and a driver named Hosam), though we had reserved a 14-seat vehicle, so we were able to offer free rides to a few other diggers who wanted to go into Jerusalem.  We dropped the others at the Zion gate where the bus parked.
 
Our tour group walked down the hill several hundred meters down the hill, passed the Dung Gate which is the nearest entrance to the Western Wall, then turned right to arrive at the City of David Complex. The organization of this compound has changed quite a bit since 2000, there are more archeological exhibits excavated and visible now. The entrance is different, and one must pay now to see the vestiges of David's city; Hezekiah's tunnel is now part of the entry price.  We arrived around 9:45 and were able to head almost straight down to Hezekiah's tunnel which is the most popular part of the City of David. On the way down to the tunnels (there are in fact several tunnel systems unearthed now, dating from several different historical periods), we passed vestiges of houses from the time of the Kings of Judah. At the Spring house we went down a metal spiral staircase to get to the tunnel systems. As we walked through tunnels carved in the rock, we passed Warren's shaft, named for Charles Warren who discovered it in 1867. Some believe this was the passages by which David's army conquered Jerusalem as mentioned in 2 Sam. 5:7-8. Descending farther we arrived at the Gihon Spring, the source of water for Davidic Jerusalem, and is the place where Solomon was anointed king (I Kings 1:38-39).
 
Then we entered Hezekiah's Tunnel carved about 533 meters through solid rock.

Heading down to Hezekiah's Tunnel

It is mentioned in the Bible too in 2 Chronicles 32:30 as a way of preparing the defenses of Jerusalem against the incursions of Sennacherib King of Assyria around 700 BC.  A few places the water is about 70 cm deep (a little over 2 feet), but mostly it is more shallow than that, and it is of course cold! There is no lighting along the way, so flashlights are necessary; at least a few per group. In some places the tunnel ceiling is so low we had to stoop to get through, in other places it was 5 or 6 meters high. It is usually just wide enough for one person, sometimes we had to turn slightly sideways to get through.

In Hezekiah's Tunnel

It's not a good place for people suffering from claustrophobia! It does not follow a straight course but meanders through a series of broad curves sometimes going in opposite directions.
 
It took us about 45 minutes to walk the whole length of the tunnel from the spring to the pool of Siloam at the end. This pool dates from the Byzantine period, but recently archeologists have found remains of a larger pool nearby that was probably the location of the pool of Siloam where Jesus had the blind man wash to gain his sight. Shortly before the exit one can see an inscription, found in 1880, written on the tunnel wall in ancient Hebrew. It reads (taken from the site brochure) "The tunneling [has been completed]. Here is how it happened. As tunnelers wielded the pick-ax, each man toward his fellow as and three cubits remained to be cut through, a man's voice calling to his fellow was heard, for there was a crack in the rock on the right and left. When the tunnel was driven through, the hewers hacked each toward the other, pick-axe against pick-axe, and the water flowed from the spring to the pool, a distance of 1200 cubits and the height of the rock above the heads of the hewers was 100 cubits."

At the pool of Siloam exit from the tunnel

 
As we exited the tunnel and pool area we turned to the left and walked passed the Muyachas house, reputed to be built over the location of the burial caves of the kings of Judah.

possible location of the royal tombs of Judah

We followed the upper promenade that overlooks vestiges of the eastern wall that protected the city during the first temple period. It was quite an interesting visit. The walk through Hezekiah's tunnel will remain in or memories, I'm quite sure.
 
We walked back up to the Zion Gate parking lot and rejoined the bus which drove us to Yad Vashem, the memorial to the Jews murdered during the Nazi perpetrated genocide of the 1930s and 40s. Yad Vashem takes its name from Isaiah 56:5 which says "Even to them I will give in My house and within My walls a place and a name better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off." Yad Vashem means "place" and "name," and is meant to give those simple things to those who disappeared in the hatred. It also has changed quite a bit since our last visit.
 
We went first to the children's memorial, in memory of the estimated 1.5 million Jewish children who were murdered. It is based on a simple but very touching concept. Visitors walk down a ramp to a dark underground room, lit very dimly by the light of candles. Through a play of mirrors the small candles appear above, below and all around as one walks through the room. And as one walks through a low voice says the names, ages and national origins of some of the children killed.  Leaving that memorial one come immediately to another in honor of Polish-Jew educator Janusz Korczak who ran a school for 200 orphans in the Warsaw ghetto. In spite of his best efforts, both he and his charges were sent to Treblinka in August 1942.
 
Two years ago a new Holocaust Historical Center was opened. It traces with chronological exhibits the rise of Nazism, and the progression of the effort to annihilate the Jews.

Inside the Genocide History Museum

On many screens all along the way, there are videos of interviews with survivors of various facets of the genocide from both Western and Eastern Europe. I don't think it is possible to walk through the entire center and keep dry eyes at all times, I know I could not. I witnessed many other visitors, including some from our group wipe their eyes as they imagined the horror, brutality, and magnitude of what occurred not so long ago. All this happened during my parents' lifetime.
 
The museum was closing as we left (it closes at 2:00 on Fridays since the beginning of the Sabbath is approaching) but we were able to visit the boxcar memorial, an actual German boxcar of the kind used to deport Jews to the camps. It was also very thought provoking.

The boxcar memorial at Yad Vashem

 
It was nearly 2:30 by the time we regained the bus, and we hadn't had lunch yet, so we drove to the New Gate in the old city and made our way to Amigo Emil another famous but inexpensive restaurant - this time in the Christian Quarter.  We had an enjoyable lunch and discussion about what we had seen in our visits. On the way back out of the old city we bought bread, cheese, chips and soft drinks for our picnic lunch the next day. Then we headed back to the bus for the short drive to our hotel, which this weekend was located near the Knesset and the Israel Museum.
 
We checked in and agreed to eat at 7:30 then went off to rest. After a fine buffet dinner, a wonderful change from the predictable kibbutz fare, and enjoyable conversation, we headed to bed for a needed long night of sleep.
 
Saturday morning we took it very easy.  Some slept nearly all the way until our Bible Study at 10:30, but many of us were up for a hearty breakfast at 9:00. During the Bible Study, I went back to the Sermon on the Mount and discussed the difference between the letter and the spirit of the law. Everyone got involved as I asked the volunteers to work by twos to describe the letter and spirit of each of the Ten Commandments and to give some everyday examples of the meaning of each.
 
We checked out and left he hotel at noon, which surprised our Hosam, since most tour groups don't start so late. He doesn't know how tired we are!
 
We drove first to the Valley of Hinnom, just below Mount Zion, where Hosam parked the bus. We walked down into the valley, which had quite a bit of litter strewn around, and found a clean spot to eat our cheese sandwiches. After a leisurely lunch, we read the Scriptures that recount the history of this valley which was a center of Molech/Baal worship where even some kings of Judah burned their children in honor of these gods.

Picnic in the Valley of Hinnom

During the time of Jesus it was the city dump with constantly smoldering fires, and the symbol of a shameful end where the bodies of hated criminals would be thrown. It is the location that gave the name to "gehenna fire" the ultimate end of the incorrigibly wicked.
 
Everyone seemed to find the study interesting and we discussed this fascinating place quite fully.
 
Then we drove over to the Jaffa Gate where Hosam let us off. We agreed to meet him at the New Gate at 3:45 pm. We had decided to walk the ramparts of Suleiman's wall around Jerusalem from the Jaffa Gate (where we found to our disappointment that there is now an entrance fee - this must be new since all the guidebooks say it is free) to the Lion's Gate on the other side of the city.

Inside the Jaffa Gate, start of rampart walk

It took us about an hour to make the unhurried walk, which afforded fascinating views both within the walls and without.

On the Jerusalem walls

Especially interesting was the Damascus Gate with all the traffic of people coming and going and doing and shopping for all sorts of items.

View from above of the Damascus Gate

The hustle and bustle is quite enthralling.
 
Even through we kept a leisurely pace we were hot and thirsty by the time we came down at the Lion's Gate. It's not possible to go all the way around the city because the Temple Mount is off limits and breaks the walk more or less in half.

Just off the Via Dolorosa

We descended very near where the two Israeli soldiers were shot last Friday. From there we walked up the first part of the Via Dolorosa, up past Amigo Emil again and to the New Gate where we sat in a pleasant garden and enjoyed a cold soft drink as we waited for the diggers who wanted to hitch a ride back with us to the kibbutz. We were all on the bus by 4:00 pm and the ride back passed without incident. We arrived a little before 6:00 with a few hours to rest and prepare before turning in to get our sleep so we can start our excavation schedule again tomorrow at 04:30.