Tel Aviv and Jaffa

As a traveler through Israel on a Christian-based tour of the Holy Lands, I saw a small Middle East country, with a population of some 8.7 million people, most of whom are Jewish, that is rich in archaeological and religious sites considered most sacred by Jews, Muslims and Christians alike. Along with that comes a very complex, complicated and controversial history with periods of peace and conflict.

I am not a religious person but I am a spiritual person who believes in the very basics of kindness, love and tolerance, but being in a country with such a depth of religious histories was powerfully moving for me. I’m a traveler who ultimately enjoys experiencing what my destination has to offer and Israel has much, which I will be sharing throughout this piece, but let’s just breeze on in to travel mode.

Elizabeth and I arrived in Tel Aviv late evening on Monday from Beirut, Lebanon, by way of Larnaca, Cyprus airport. It’s the first time I’ve had to run to catch an airplane that I was already on. Let me briefly explain.

Since you can’t fly directly from Beirut to Tel Aviv, you have to fly to Cyprus instead. And, even though that same flight is going on to Tel Aviv, Elizabeth and I had to get off that plane, go through Cyprus passport control to get into the country, get our luggage, go to the Cyprus Airways ticket counter, re-check our luggage, get a boarding pass, go through passport control again to get an exit stamp from Cyprus, then go through security before re-boarding the same airplane and we had less than an hour to get all of this done.

Caesarea, Muhraka and Tel Megiddo on the way to Tiberias

We left Tel Aviv to make our way to Tiberias, on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee for two nights, with stops in Caesarea, Muhraka and Tel Megiddo along the way.

From Tiberias: Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee

Much of the ministry of Jesus Christ occurred on the shores surrounding the Sea of Galilee and Nazareth in Israel. And while staying in Tiberias, our way too large Globus tour group of 43 people, visited a number of sites from where the angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary to announce she would conceive and bear the Son of God to where Jesus Christ gave his most famous discourse, the Sermon on the Mount. Let’s follow some of the paths walked by Jesus in and around Nazareth in Israel.

Jerusalem is full of ancient sites, religious history, war and conflicts. But today’s Jerusalem is still full of religious history but with a modern slant. We began our first full day in Jerusalem visiting the Garden Tombs, a place where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified and buried at least according to descriptions in the Bible instead of at the traditional location of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Then we made our way to the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ein Kerem to see the Church of St. John the Baptist that was built over the home of his parents and where he was born. From there, we took the steep walk up to the Church of Visitation which honors the visit paid by the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, to Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist.

So many churches and so much history. Here’s more Jerusalem!

Palestine, the West Bank – Bethlehem

After spending the morning at the Garden Tomb, a place where many Christians consider to be where Jesus was crucified and buried, we made our way to Bethlehem, in what is called the West Bank in the town of Palestine just south of Jerusalem.

I’m not in Israel to take any political or religious sides. Even though I was raised a Catholic, as an adult, I am presently not a practicing Catholic. However, I am known to step into many a Catholic Church around the world to attend mass. Israel has such a complex history of religious and political divides, but I’m here to learn. This Globus tour is about Christianity’s most important sites and I can’t learn about the history of Christianity without incorporating the Jewish and Muslim faith/history that permeates this part of the world.

Jerusalem – The Wailing Wall; Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Stations of the Cross

Spent today in Jerusalem with its incredible beauty and history. A history beyond extensive and religiously deep. And, that’s what we explored today, the incredible Jewish and Christian histories of Jerusalem starting with the Wailing or Western Wall the only remnant of the Second Temple, and then onto the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and through the Via Dolorosa.

The Wailing or Western Wall, a relatively small segment of a longer retaining wall, is an ancient limestone wall in the Old City of Jerusalem. It was originally erected as part of the Second Jewish Temple expansion  begun by Herod the Great that resulted in the encasement of the natural, steep hill known to Jews and Christians as the Temple Mount, a huge rectangular structure topped by a flat platform.The Western Wall’s holiness in Judaism is a result of its proximity to the Temple Mount and is the holiest place where Jews are permitted to pray. The Foundation Stone, the most sacred site in the Jewish faith, lies behind it. 

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre or Golgotha, erected on the site of the crucifixion and which houses the last five Stations of the Cross where Jesus was crucified, at a place known as Calvary or Golgotha, and Jesus’s empty tomb, where he is said to have been buried and resurrected. The tomb is enclosed by a 19th-century shrine called the Aedicula housed within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The first church, on the site of the  Church of the Holy Sepulchre, was begun in 326 AD by the emperor Constantine I who tore down the pagan temple and had Christ’s tomb cut away from the original hillside. Tradition says his mother, St. Helena, found the cross of Christ in a cistern not far from the hill of Calvary. Constantine’s church was burned by the Persians in 614 AD, restored, destroyed by Muslims in 1009 AD and partially rebuilt. Crusaders completed the reconstruction in 1149 AD and the result is essentially the church that stands today including arches and columns that still stand.

The Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial; the Israel Museum with the model of ancient Jerusalem & the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Good Samaritan Mosaic Museum

We spent some of the afternoon at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem and although I’ve been to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. and visited the Auschwitz concentration camp outside of Krakow, Poland, I am always hurt by man’s inhumanity to man. 

I can’t wrap my mind around how one group of people could perceive that blaming another group of people as being detrimental enough that mass murder is the way to solve their sick perception. But the German Nazi regime, during World War II, did just that, the mass murder of some 6 million European Jews, as well as millions of others, including Gypsies and homosexuals. 

I’ve spent my time in Israel visiting a number of Christian religious sites pertaining to the crucifixion of Jesus but walking through the memorial listening to the stories of the survivors and reading the loss of so many truly left me drained and mournful. Yet, I know the only way this atrocity never happens again is for everyone to see what our inhumanity can do to one another. 

Before the Holocaust memorial, we made our way to the Israel Museum to see an extraordinary model of ancient Jerusalem at its peak in 66 AD (during the Second Temple Period). That same year the Great Revolt against the Romans broke out, resulting in the destruction of the city and the Temple. Additionally, at the museum, we saw the Shrine of the Book and the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest Scriptures in the world. 

We spent the latter part of the day at the day crossing the Judean Desert checking out the amazing mosaics and artifacts exhibited at the archaeological site of the Inn of the Good Samaritan Mosaic Museum.

We traveled through the Judaean wilderness to the planet’s lowest point on dry land, the Dead Sea and to an ancient fortress in the Judaean Desert on our last full day in Israel and as a group. 

We began our last day with a visit to Masada, an ancient fortress in southern Israel’s Judaean Desert “The Masada complex, built by Herod the Great, King of Judaea, who reigned between 37 BC and 4 AD, and particularly the “hanging” palace with its three terraces, is an outstanding example of opulent architectural design, elaborately engineered and constructed in extreme conditions. The palace on the northern face of the dramatic mountain site consists of an exceptional group of classical Roman Imperial buildings,” according to UNESCO World Heritage.

Masada was built in the year 30 BC by King Herod, whose architectural feats have left their mark throughout the country. At the beginning of the great revolt against Rome in the year 68 AD, the site was conquered by a group of Jewish zealots, and Masada became their last stronghold. The most impressive structure on Masada is King Herod’s northern palace, built on three rock terraces overlooking the gorge below.

It’s on a massive plateau overlooking the Dead Sea. We also caught a glimpse of the Caves of Qumran where the precious Dead Sea Scrolls were found. And after lunch, at a very crowded touristy restaurant with horrible food, we made our way to a Dead Sea resort to experience the buoyancy of its heavy saltwater.  

With an early afternoon return to our hotel, the Leonardo, in Jerusalem, we prepared ourselves for our farewell group  dinner to celebrate our time together. I’m not really a fan of such big tour groups, but I truly enjoyed this group and our travels through the Holy Land.