Motzei Shabbat

     As I'm compiling this, the 3rd installment of my time in Israel, I am filled with so much longing to return to Yerushalayim.

    This was the very first photograph I took in Jerusalem. Three lanes of traffic in a street so narrow, we would hesitate to have two lanes!

    It's easy to see why we parked the car and walked everywhere, except if we went out of town. I take my hat off to Clint, being such a calm driver in traffic like this!

    The smile on my face in every photograph was indicative of the deep and constant joy I had the whole time I was there. Surely, G-d still dwells there!

    Another favourite eating house was the Armenian Restaurant. Here are some images:

Is this big enough to brew your

morning coffee in?!

    

At the Jaffa Gate:

    We walked through this gate so many times during our stay; what a wonderful privilege!

    Still grinning madly, at the City of David, the seat of King David's government offices. Those old stones! Signets have been found there that were used to seal official documents - they bore the inscription in Hebrew "Belonging to David" on them. What an experience!

    Me at the Roman Cardo (the ancient marketplace):

I don't quite match the ancients, do I? 😀

    This used to be a parking lot until it partially collapsed one day, with a lot of cars parked on it. Ancient Jerusalem wants to give up her secrets so that the whole world can know without a shadow of a doubt that this is the land G-d gave to our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

    Everywhere one goes in Jerusalem, there are diggings of one sort or another. All over the place, there are little squares in the ground with strong transparent covers on them so we can look far down into the ground, to the ancient ruins that are being uncovered below.

    One of the highlights for me in Jerusalem - there were so many! - was Hezekiah's tunnel. Look at that smile!

    I actually saw with my own eyes and touched with my own hands this 2700-year-old stone inlaid into the rock of Hezekiah's tunnel, written in Ancient Hebrew, the same symbols Jeremiah and Isaiah wrote in! For my history-loving soul, this was a momentous moment beyond compare.

    I had seen photos of people walking in Hezekiah's tunnel with lots of light. Those images didn't show the Utter Darkness that enveloped the entire tunnel! Neither did they show the knee-deep water you had to wade through! Imagine my shock and distress when I approached the entrance to the tunnel to start my sedate walk through it and I saw the torrent of gushing water that is the Gihon Spring! I'm not a swimmer and am terrified of any body of moving water. I froze! I turned to Clint and said, no, cried! "I can't go in there!"

    Being the extremely kind gentleman that he is, and one of the kindest souls I have ever met, he said: "Let me go in front of you and I'll help you in." - Which he then proceeded to do. Here he was, this gentle giant, standing in the middle of the ancient stream of gushing water and getting wetter than a duck, while helping me so carefully over the offending gush of water and into the relatively harmless flat water inside the tunnel. Once he had set me down, I was still in a small panic and asked him to please walk in front of me. He obliged without batting an eyelid. I held on to the back of his belt with a death grip until about halfway through the tunnel. By the time the picture below was taken of me smiling in the tunnel, I had recovered enough to let go. Poor Clint!

    This is what we saw when we exited Hezekiah's tunnel:

    And then we took a breather to try and dry ourselves off! (Well, maybe not the men!)

    The chap in the shorts is our intrepid tour guide, Shlomo. He's obviously much more practiced at walking the tunnel than us!

    Somewhere just below these stairs is a just-(re-)discovered mosaic floor that Yeshua would have walked on often on His way to and from the Holy Temple. I, unfortunately, can't find my photo of it, but I walked all over the area again and again, just to make sure I covered every possible place that my Master would have set His foot!

      

    These stairs lead up to the Temple from the Pool of Shiloach, mentioned in John 9:7: "And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing."

    This pool was used as a miqweh (a ritual bath) and even today it is still used by some Jews to purify themselves ritually. While we were there, drying off after coming out of Hezekiah's tunnel, there were some young Jewish men there. We didn't realise they were waiting for us to leave before they went into the miqweh before Shabbat began until our guide, Shlomo, told us. They never rushed us at all, though, and were very sweet.

    

    This is me walking up the pathway from the Pool of Shiloach (not Siloam as stated in English Bibles) to the Temple area - the same path Yeshua - and all other Temple attendees - would have walked every time they attended services there. This very same path carried all the Levites with golden jars on the last day of Sukkot, when they took the golden jugs from the Temple to fill them at the Pool of Shiloach and then back to the Temple to pour them out as an offering to Adonai.

To touch history - His story - like this - INCREDIBLE!

This walkway was not yet open to the public from this end when we were there, but Shlomo managed to get permission from the powers that be to allow us to pass through this hallowed passageway.

I will close this episode with one of my favourite pictures of Peggy and I, in Jerusalem. I have so many wonderful memories and photos still to share - I look forward to walking through the streets of Jerusalem with you again soon:)