Shabbat Shalom! 3rd Shabbos

Hello everybody! It's been another wonderful week here in Jerusalem and right now all is quiet at Beit Nativ as everyone is napping to prepare for Shabbos.

This week I feel like I really was able to experience a lot. On Tuesday afternoon our Jerusalem class learned about Jesus, and so we went to the room where it is believed that the last supper was held, as well as the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was incredible, and hands down one of the coolest places I've ever been in my life. In the church there's the stone where Jesus was laid down after being crucified, as well as the actual spots of his undressing and crucifixion. There were people there from all over the world kissing the stone and lining up to pray in the spot of crucifixion. The entire church is divided into dozens of sections so that each denomination has its own place to pray in the church. At one time, there was so much disunity between the different denominations that no one could decide who would get to be in charge of holding the key to the church. As a result, there's a Muslim family that lives up the street that has been in charge of holding the key to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher for years now - which I thought was pretty funny. We saw Franciscan Monks chanting and waving around incense and the Armenian Priests chanting and holding candles. I'd definitely never been exposed to anything like this before, so to me it looked like something out of Da Vinci Code, and it all seemed very foreign, which made me wonder what someone who'd never seen a Jew before would think while looking into the services that we have every morning. Being in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was so cool to me because whether or not anything that is believed to happen there actually happened there doesn't matter, what matters is that where I was standing and what I was seeing was the cause of innumerable events throughout history. It felt very significant.

Tuesday night some of us went to the Taste of Jerusalem Food Festival in town, where we walked around and ate all different kinds of foods from the stands that were set up. There were also some little shops and live music. It was really lovely.

Wednesday in Jerusalem Class we learned about Islam, which was also very interesting. We then toured the Islam section of the Jerusalem Museum at the Tower of David and climbed up to the top of one of the towers for an incredible view of the city.

Last night, Thursday, a bunch of Nativers went to the Jerusalem Philarmonic Symphony. I'd never been to a symphony concert before, and it was a lot cooler than I was expecting it to be. They opened with a single oboe player playing "Yerushalayim Shel Zahav," and they also played HaTikvah. It was really a great evening, seeing everyone dressed up to go out and experience the culture of Jerusalem. I couldn't believe the tickets were free.

This morning I did the usual trip to the shuk and the grocery store to prepare for Shabbos. As much as things are becoming a little more routine now, I'm still so happy to be here and I'm really looking forward to picking my classes for the upcoming semester at HebrewU. I'll be putting up more pictures for everyone soon.


Kari