Hello again from Jerusalem. We are currently at home catching up on study, e-mails and this blog. We spent the night before last at Christ Church in room 11.

 

 

 

Do you remember the lounge?

Unlike our New Year, the Jewish New Year is the beginning of 10 days for preparing to ask forgiveness for the previous year. People call each other and try to set things right during those 10 days, then on Yom Kippur the whole country stops-all cars, all restaurants, all work, to spend the entire day fasting and praying in the synagogue, sincerely repenting and calling on God for help. The opening service is called Kol Nidrei and has beautiful liturgicalmusic sung in unison by the congregation. This melody has been written as a cello concerto by Max Bruch. You can hear a nice version on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7cNznH0GhI

We wanted to be in the Old City on Yom Kippur so we could fast, go to the Wall and to the services. 

 After sundown we stopped at a Jewish Synogoge "Hurva" and listened to the Kol Nidrei on the evening of Yom Kippur and went back for the closing service where the whole congregation calls out God's name 7 times then they blow the shofar to end service. Many people were wearing all white to symbolize being cleansed form their sin.

When the Temple stood in the first century, the High Priest would make the atonement sacrifice for the sins of everyone on this day.

http://www.jewish-quarter.org.il/atar-hurva.asp

 The following day we had some God Appointments.

The first was a visit to the Jerusalem Prayer Centre which is near the Garden Tomb on Nablus Rd.
This prayer center is hosted by Dale and Anita Thorne.

For 25 years this home belonged to Bertha, a daughter of Horatio Spafford. Horatio wrote the hymn "It is Well with My Soul" after losing four children on a ship that sank in the Atlantic in which only his wife survived. Afterwards he moved to Israel because he saw a trickle of Jews coming to their homeland from Yemen and believed that this was the beginiing of the fulfilment of the promised return that heralded the Messiah At the time he lived in Jerusalem al the inhabitants lived in the Old City-a very small community compared to today.
He was a founding member of the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem and the original score of his hymn from the late 1800s is in a small museum there

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPPSG_SpojY

Positioned on the dividing line between Arab east Jerusalem and Jewish west Jerusalem, they are ideally situated to promote prayer for all peoples of the Holy Land and beyond. The upper room is beautifully arranged to promote quiet reflection and prayer and included poetry, songs, art opportunities and scriptures on the walls.

 

The second was a Christian prayer meeting at Christ Church led by David Pileggi, that included people from many countries in the world, to praying for protection and peace in the middle east.
The day finished with a vist to David and Carol Pileggi's home for long talk and a glass of wine.

The last couple of days we have not been taking many pictures.
On Sept 22 we went back to the Israel Museum-way too much to see in one day and not easy to take pictures.
1. The Shrine of the Book-if you remember in 2005 we went there. You can see the actual Dead Sea Scrolls which were found at Qumran in 1948, the same year that Israel became a nation. Much of it is copies of the Hebrew Bible that date back to 130 BCE. The pervious earliest maunscripts were 1000 CE. The content of the manuscripts was almost identical, confirming the validity of the ones used to translate our Bibles of today. Interesting that God returned Israel to the Land and the scriptures to Israel in the same year!!! The Essenes who wrote the scrolls retreated to the desert wilderness because they believed there was soon to be a great battle between the forces of darkness and light. This is represented at the Museum with the roof of the exhibit like the white top of the jar that the scroll were found in, and a large black marble monument in front of it.

2. There is a large miniature model there of the city of Jerusalem as it was in the first century, reconstructed from archelology and Biblical and other accounts. Below are some pictures in which you will see the Temple, and the City of David (where we ended when we went through Hezekiah"s tunnel. If you look carefully in in the left corner you will see the Pool of Siloam)

 

3. Two items of interest in the Museum were a exhibition of ancient glasss. People had the ability to make glass since 2000 BCE. The picture is of glass from the first century Roman times which is not clear, of poor optical quality due to impurities in the ingredients used . It reminds me of the scripture that Paul wrote about how our undertstanding of love in 1 Corinthians 13:12 will be clear when we see God's face.The word in Hebrew for face of God, "panim" is the same as the word for presence of God.                                                                     1 Cor. 13:12
"For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as I am known."

 

The second picture is an ancient Jewish marrige contract (or Ketuba in Hebrew). It sets out in writing the promises and obligations agreed to when 2 people get married.  The Torah given to Moses and written on the stone tablets is also a form of Ketuba marriage contract. This is where the idea of God being married to Israel and Jesus (Messiah) being married to the congregaton of beleivers at the end of time comes from.

 

In the evening we had dinner with Keren Burlan. She is a 22 year old Jewish girl from New York who has decided to return to Israel and live here. She is obliged to join the army for 2 years and has just finished her basic training. We helped sponsor her to go home because of the scripture that says;

Isa. 49:22

"Thus says the Lord God;

Behold I will lift My hand in an oath to the nations,

And set up My standard for the peoples;

They shall bring your sons in their arms,

And your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders."

 

 

 Sept 23 and 24 I had Hebrew lessons, and dad went to visit his patient with MS. Here is a picture of Rachel, the recetionist from Ulpan Aviv where the lessons are. The sign on her desk says Shana Tova-Happy New Year. She is from England but has returned to live in Israel. In the afternoons we stayed home and studied and organized other places we want to go.

Yesterday we went to Shilo with my Hebrew teacher, Reut Abramson, who was born and raised there. Her parents and grandparents were part of the kibbutz movement at the turn of the century and they have continued through many attacks.

It is in the West Bank about 20 k N of Jerusalem.
This is the place that was the capital of the Israelites for 369 years after they crossed the Jordan River around 1400 BCE.

 Josh. 18:1 "And the whole congrgation of the Children of Israel assembled themselves together at Shiloh, and set up the Tent of Meeting there; and the land was subdued before them."

 The present day location of it is exactly described in the Bible in Judges 21:19 "And they said:There is the annual feast of God in Shiloh, which is north of Beth-El, on the east side of the highway that goes from Beth-El to Schechem, south of Levona."
The Tabernacle that was carried around in the wilderness for 40 years was set up here more permanently until King David took it to Jerusalem around 1000 BCE. You can see the flat area where they think the Tabernacle was, surrounded by hills that form a natural amphitheater and magnify the sound like the hill in the Galilee where Jesus preached the sermon on the mount at Church of the Beatitudes, so all the people around could know when the services and sacrifices and holidays were.

There is an ancient cave house, storage rooms and a later Byzantine church with mosaic floor. (from 400s CE)
 This was also the place where Samuel was taken by his mother Hannah after she had prayed for a child and God heard her prayer. It has become a place where women go to pray for a child with the prayer of Hannah. You can find the story in 1 Sam 1 and 2. Samuel heard God calling him in the night and later became the famous prophet that God told to annoint King David after he killed Goliath.

 

 

Today we went to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, not far from our little apartment. That is where the Shrine of the Book (2005) houses the Dead Sea Scrolls, but we will go there another day. Today we went to the Archeology Wing which houses the most extensive holdings of Biblical and Holyland Archeology in the world. It is impossible to describe all the stuff they have there, but here are a few things you might be interested in;
1.The original silver scroll, with the blessing of Aaron that is still said in synagogues and churches around the world. It is the oldest scripture ever found in the world and is 400 years older than the Dead Sea Scrolls which date to approx. 130 BCE. There was also a model of the burial cave in Jerusalem where it was found.
Num. 6:24-26 "The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace. So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them."

 

 

2.A heel bone with a nail through it from the first century, likely the manner in which Jesus was crucified

 3. Caananite Gods worhsipped in pre Israelite times, El the main God, Asherah his wife, Ba'al his son, God of thunder and associated with bulls; daughter Astarte, fertility goddess, and many other ones-they were said to have produced 53 gods. Main centers of Caananites were Hazor, and Arad where we were last week.

 

 

4. Kids pull toys from 800 BCE-for the kids :-)

Hi Everyone;
On Monday Sept 17, the first day of the New Year 5773 we went to Petah Tikvah, near Tel Aviv, to visit Yakov's relatives (our friend that we do Bible studies with). Petah Tikvah was one of the first settlements for refugees after 1948 and the name means Door of Hope. The family speaks Russian and Hebrew but only limited English. We were all a little nervous about how to communicate but we soon relaxed and had a good visit.

Sept 18 was also a holiday for New Year. Everythng was closed. We spent most of the day ay home (I was studying) but took a little walk in our neighborhood at noon and found a cool slide-thought the kids would like to see it.

We had Ruth Fazal for dinner and talked about Israel, the Holocaust survivors, and her new Hebrew song that she wrote. She is studying Hebrew at the same place that I am but she has lived here for a year so has more time to practice.
Today I had a Hebrew lesson, and dad has his first day in the place he is volunteering. He is helping an older man named Michael, a Jewsih man from Be'er Sheva who has MS and is severely handicapped.
Then we went to Herodion, one of 2 places of Herod from the first century.(the other plaace is Masada). It is a huge artificial mountain in a circle with a palace inside.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herodium
The pile of stones is a collection of round rocks that were used to roll down the hill on the attackers.

 Recently they found the actual grave of King Herod the Great and a huge theatre and swimming pool and gardens. (we couldn"t see the tomb of Herod as it is not yet open to the public)

 It was later used by Jewish revolutionaries who were revolting against Rome (70CE and 135 CE). The revolutionaires dug extensive tunnels under the mountain and hidden cisterns for water that they could get to through the tunnels.

 

 

Happy New Year 5773 (since the creation of the world :-)
we uploaded the video from Yehuda on Youtube
So here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muNvKVcqOVA&feature=youtu.be

The B&B in Arad was a nice change from the desert "camping" experience. It is hosted by a lovely Jewish believer in Jesus named Karen.

 

We visited Rick & Dafna Wienecki in their home which was a 15 min. walk from our B & B.

 

Here is the view from their backyard-right into the desert!

 

 

The day before we got there, he was trying to put up a new tarp roof on the Fountain of Tears and fell from the ladder. He had no permanent injury other than very sore muscles where he landed.

 

 

The first day we were able to have a good visit because Rick needed to rest. We spent the whole day there and had a wonderful time talking with them about Israel and his vision as an artist and his experinces in the 33 years he has lived here. The second day we spent the whole day getting really dirty helping him get the new tarp roof up.

Some very interesting projects are beginning to unfold especially in Poland. He is hoping to make a "Fountain of Tears Garden" near Auschwitz death Camp.

 

 

 

The Fountain of Tears is based on Jeremiah 9:1,

 "Oh Lord that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears that I would weep day and night for the lost of my people."

 This was the cry and prayer of Jeremiah,and it is also (Rick's) prayer that the Lord would remember the six million and pay back all that was taken from God's people as a result of the holocaust. RW

 

Today we drove back to Jerusalem on the road along the Dead Sea. Here is a view coming towards it from Arad. I think we stopped at this lookout in 2005.

 

 

Last week we emailed Yehuda Zabari. He was leading a tour group that ended today on Sept 15 and has come to our apartment to visit and to stay overnight. We tried to send you a greeting from him but it would not upload an avi file to the blog so we will try to email it to you.

This is Rosh Hashona (the new year and therefore the need to repent and prepare for the year ahead) and the following link will give you a flavor of the feast especially the blowing of the Shofar which some think it necessary to get our attention and to focus on the need at hand.

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=85382a90a6&view=audio&msgs=139cb64dcc72c6d4&attid=0.1&zw

 

Rabbi Sack's (Chief Rabbi of Briton) quote's two Psalms for this festival: 63 "O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you ..." & 139 "O Lord, you have searched me and you know me, ..." Read all of 139 as it is especially relevant for Rosh Hashona and the need for repentance.

 

 

Here we are again; The second day in the Sukkah in the Desert we hiked to the rim of the Ramon Crater. We sat for awhile and had a prayer in that awsome place.

In the afternoon we went to a Lama / Alpaca fram. We discovered that Lamas, native to South America are used by the Israeli army to pack things into hard to get at places. Maybe the kids would like to draw an Alpaca

 

 

Later we went to Avadot, an archeological park of an ancient Nabatean city from 300 BCE to 400 CE. It was a major fortress on the Spice Route between Petra (maybe all the way from India) and the port at Gaza. It was ruined and abandoned due to an earthquake in 749 CE.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabataeans

 

We spent our last night in the desert watching the sun go down and looking at the stars in the Negev.

 

The sukkah people grow their own fruit in the desert. Above are olives and pomegranates.

"For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land----with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegratates, olive oil and honey" Deut 8:7,8 

 

 

 

Today we drove to En Avadot which is a spring near the ruins and hiked up wadi Zin-like a canyon with a stream in the middle of the desert, something like En Gedi except more surrounded by wilderness and desert. Look closely and you will see Ibex on the cliff.

"I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland" Isa. 43:19

 

 

We continued on to Arad where Rick Wienecke now lives and stopped in at Tel Arad on the way. This was a Caananite city in 3500 BCE!!!!!, then abandoned then resettled in the time of King Solomon in 1000 BCE. Ref Numbers 21:1, Judges 1:16 and several others. It was destroyed at the time of the Babylonian Captivity on 586 BCE. The conquest of Israel by the Babylonians was what a lot of the prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah were warning against. There were some studensts from the USA volunteering there for 3 mo who spent all day fixing the walls of the ancient city with an archeologist.

We are now in a beautiful B&B in Arad run by friends of Rick Wienecke and will visit him tomorrow.