You had me at hello.

You had me at hello.

But actually, I didn’t understand anything you said after shalom. That is the story of my Hebrew speaking life, and that is all I will whine about it. It is getting better though. There are only 3 weeks left of Hebrew classes and then I am on to my clinical rotation. J

Moonrise behind a mosque

Everything has been really cool! I meant to share an experience earlier, but I couldn’t find time to write it out. Last Saturday night my roommate and I went to the old city to go to the western wall during Shabbat (Jewish Sabbath). I wore a floor-length skirt and we walked all the way there- there is no public transportation on the Sabbath. Honestly, it was a really thought-provoking experience with so many different religions worshipping at the same time. After we had gone and prayed at the wall, we went up to an overlook where we could see the Western Wall (one of the most important sites of Judaism) and the Dome of the Rock (3^rd most important site in Islam). The sun was going down and a full moon was appearing. While we sat there we heard a group of men singing at a religious service in a nearby synagogue and at the same time, the Muslim call to prayer started. It really hit me how beautiful it is to worship God; it also really made me wonder why all of our religions hate each other. What would the world be like if we all just followed the commandments of our religions?

In all Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism) it is a sin to kill, except in very very rare circumstances, like for protection. So why do so many people justify themselves in it? Maybe we are all protecting ourselves from an imaginary threat? People or traditions that are unknown to us? In the end I think it really all comes down to one thing: We are all human, we are all born the same way, we will all die the same way, we all have families, we all love people, and we all like to enjoy ourselves. I know in the places we all live we don’t necessarily have a big religious/ethnic conflict in our hands, but I think we can still apply that lesson to our lives. If we completely understood that about the people in our lives that we don’t like, it would be so much easier to love them. We all have people we can’t stand; colleagues/classmates/acquaintances that aren’t our favorite, but we can still love them and be nice to them. I genuinely think that you can love any human being from any background; you just have to put the effort in. It all starts with one person to make things better. Nobody is born a bigot.

Well, enough of my hippie-love soap box. 

When we left the Jewish quarter we went to the Muslim quarter and looked around.  We stopped at a shop and the shopkeeper started talking to us while we were looking at things to buy. We randomly had a heart to heart conversation. He started talking about how you can really read someone by his or her eyes. The rest of our bodies can act and pretend, but if you want the truth about someone you should look at their eyes. He went on to tell us what he could see in each of us. He started with my roommate. When he got to me he told me that he could tell I am stubborn. My jerk reaction was to be like “No I’m not!!!” which kind of proves that I really am. Haha. He also told me that I have a lot of love for people but that I don’t know how to share it. Getting constructive criticism from strangers is always an adventure.

The Dome of The Rock with the Western Wall below.

outside of the christian quarter

I hope for more adventures soon! Today I am going to the holocaust museum and on Saturday after church I am going to go to the mount of olives.