Make Hummus, Not Walls

Well Friends, Ulpan (Hebrew class) is almost over and it is almost time for Purim break. I just have a final Wednesday and then I am off the hook for a bit.

Back to about a week ago: I went to Bethlehem to go to church (Mormon services) last Sunday. It was one of the coolest church experiences I think I have had yet. Most people don’t realize that Bethlehem is in the West Bank, is in Palestinian Territory, and everything is in Arabic. The meeting was in Arabic with translation into English (for me- I felt bad), and all of the other church-goers were Palestinian. It was so interesting to hear stories and experiences of others in a Sunday school lesson. The lesson was on honesty and one member talked about a lot of really interesting life experience pertaining to living in the West Bank. I had never seen that kind of perspective before. It was really enlightening.

Graffiti on the inside of the wall that separates Israel from the West Bank.

This last weekend I went on a school trip to Masada and the Dead Sea. Surprisingly, only an hour away from Jerusalem is the Negev Desert, a UNESCO world heritage site, and the Dead Sea.

Masada is a fort that housed Kind Herod (the same king who made the decree to kill all the babies under the age of two when Christ was born). It was when that land was under Roman rule. It’s a big deal in Judaism because in 73 A.D. The romans came to siege the fort and instead of allowing a mass slaughter of the hundreds of Jews, everyone decided to commit suicide before the romans came. They also burned a lot of local resources, food storage, etc. There were 15,000 soldiers that were going to attack only about 900 inhabitants who were living in the fort. Masada has turned into a symbol of Jewish/Israeli heroism, as it was the last place to be conquered by the Romans. A tour guide told me that every Israeli soldier takes an oath at Masada, to not let Israel fall again. It was really interesting to learn about.

In an Ancient Synagogue in Masada

Dead Sea from Masada

Masada has a lot of really old ruins and is actually near the location where a little Bedouin boy found The Dead Sea scrolls some decades ago. From Masada there is beautiful view of the Dead Sea, which we got to float in after our trip to Masada. It was really warm for it only being February. I floated, got a sunburn, and had really soft skin afterwards. No wonder people use water softener (salt) in indoor plumbing. Sooooooo nice. I’m going to go back and take a mud bath at some point during the semester.

Dead Sea float!

I find it really funny that the climates in Utah and around the Dead Sea are very similar. The Great Salt Lake In SLC is also a dead body of water (in that no rivers exit from it), is surrounded by a desert, and that both The Dead Sea and The Great Salt Lake are fed by Jordan Rivers. Moab is a city in Southern Utah and is also an area on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea. I never realized how Biblical everything is where I grew up.

Mud fight!

After my Hebrew final we have a 5-day weekend. I’m going hiking from Nazareth -> Galilee. I’m so excited!

Besalos mucho

View of Mount Zion from a Jewish Cemetery

Remember my blog post about people kissing cheeks in Spain? Well people here people are the same, except it is all about kissing objects that are holy. Everywhere I go, no matter what religion current inhabits a holy site, people kiss everything. From the Western Wall, Mary’s Tomb, to Holy books. The nurse inside of me wants everyone to sterilize his/her lips before and after every kiss. Seriously, how many people have kissed that?!? It is like when you take CPR classes and you use alcohol wipes on the dummy’s mouth afterwards so that the next person who uses the dummy doesn’t get contaminated? Anyways, it is definitely interesting to watch.

I’m trying to make this blog completely neutral. Religiously, politically, etc. so if it even seems like I am taking sides or saying anything bad about any religion, my intent is not to.  My purpose to come to Israel was not to solidify my previous opinions (or I guess, more the opinions of others that I have heard), it was to come learn and understand.

I have come to realize that in Israel, no one is neutral. Everyone has an opinion and a history lesson to teach you. It is wonderfully educating, yet I still don’t know what really happened. I mean, I wasn’t here and I guess neither were they (about most historic things in the past). You can ask two people to explain the history of a certain holy site and you will get completely opposite stories.

The next few paragraphs are about my religion: if you don’t want to read it skip down 3 paragraphs J

Today I went to a couple of Christian sites with a church friend after church. We saw Gethsemane and Mary’s Tomb. It was extremely interesting.  First off, Gethsemane (literally meaning oil press- it sits at the bottom of the mount of olives) is where Christians believe that Christ came the night before he was crucified and took on all of our sins individually. It is an integral part of the atonement, because we believe that through Christ’s payment for our sins we can repent, become better, and become closer to God. We believe that we can overcome spiritual death (sin) and physical death (by being given eternal life after death) through Christ’s sacrifice and payment for our sins.

“I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;

“But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;

“Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—

“Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men” - D & C 19: 16-19

It was really interesting to be there. A lot of different sects of Christianity say that the actual garden is in a different place. I think there are more than three spots proclaimed to be where it happened.

An olive tree in one of the supposed spots of Gethsemane

I have been thinking about it a lot and in order to become closer to God, you don’t necessarily have to be at a “holy site”. It is cool to be able to go visit those places, but I think that the real factor in coming closer to God is the genuine time and effort you put into it. Now that I have been to Gethsemane I am not magically a better Mormon or Christian. To get closer to God I think it is best to have straight communication through Prayer, read the scriptures, etc. etc.

We also went to the Jewish cemetery that sits on the Mount of Olives. It is extremely beautiful and holds graves of a lot of really important Jewish people. You can see a wonderful view of the old city, the city of David, and mount Zion from it.

Jewish Cemetery

Fun fact: Gethsemane means "oil press" in Aramaic. There are loads of olive trees there -> olive oil.

 Tuesday I am going to the Israel Museum- where the Dead Sea Scrolls are! So many things to see!

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.

ישראל

Well, I’m in Jerusalem and it has been pretty neat so far. My program this semesters starts with a 5 week long Hebrew class and then follows with the actual semester where I do clinicals and take an elective course. The Hebrew class is really intensive-we are in class for a five hour-long class, five days a week. My first class was Thursday and to say the least, it was really hard. I’m going to have to study a bundle because having a new alphabet and learning to read from right to left will take a little to get used to. I am really excited though; it will be a good experience.

The view outside my window. If you look hard enough you can see the Dome of The Rock- The gold dome.

During our first class we heard a really loud noise outside of the window. Rothberg (the name of the international school we are at) is having a lot of construction being done. The noise sounded like it really could have been a gunshot of something, but it really was the construction workers chiseling in to the rock wall (There is a building code in Jerusalem that all of the buildings have to be made of Jerusalem rock). When our professor heard it, she just waved her hand towards the window and sarcastically laughed, “For Israel, is normal” as if it was the sound of an explosion or something. Oh boy.

Today is Friday, meaning that Shabbat (Sabbath) starts at sundown. My roommate and I ventured into a market to go grocery shopping-it was CRAZY. Everyone is trying to get enough shopping in to make all the food they need for Shabbat dinner. It was literally packed. The market was amazing though; there were so many fresh things to buy.  There was a lot of produce that I had never even heard of before. It will be really cool to start cooking new things.Today I bought a mini-watermelon. I think that has been my dream since I watched Aladdin when I was like 4 years old. You know, like when Abu breaks open a melon and they share it? I also bought an avocado that was probably bigger than the size of my heart. If only we had really good markets like this in the states.

The market. This picture doesn't give it justice. It was really busy.

It is cool to be surrounded by so many different types of people. My program has people from all over the world. Albeit that most of them are Jewish, they are still from everywhere. I never knew there was such a large population of Jews in Australia, or that there is a dialect of Hebrew that is a mixture of Spanish and Hebrew like Yiddish is a mixture of Hebrew and German. I also love being able to hear the Muslim prayers in the morning. I hope to learn a lot more about other religions while I am here. It is interesting because talking to people about religion here is really natural and normal. People here aren’t surprised if someone is religious to any extent. It might be a faulty perception I have, but it always seems like people are surprised that I actually believe in God, that I really enjoy going to church, or that I choose not to drink alcohol because of my religion. Most people I have talked to here aren’t really surprised at all.

I am sure that there will be a multitude of adventures to come. Next week all of our classes are out by 1 P.M., which gives plenty of time to get around the city.

רק מאוחר יותר!