Yesterday, we drove from the north, as Nora told us, to Jerusalem.
We drove down the eastern route, following the Jordan River down to Jericho. Since the Jordan River serves as the border, our group was amazed to see Jordanian towns a few feet away from us. We then passed a checkpoint to drive down the Jewish highway though the Palestinian Authority area of the West Bank. For the kids who were awake, we discussed a bit about the contested territories of the West Bank, the modern history of the different governments and authorities that have controlled the land since the fall of the Ottoman Empore, and the peace process. Our kids, as eighth graders, have just begun this conversation and we look forward to them learning more and continuing to develop their own opinions about the political situation.
On the drive, we came to the top of the Dead Sea, the lowest place on Earth, and began our ascent to Jerusalem. On the way, we also passed a number of Bedouin, and saw their tents and flocks—as well as some camels dressed up for tourist riders!
We arrived at the entrance to Jerusalem from Jericho just as the sun was beginning to set. We asked everyone to close their eyes as we went through the tunnel coming into the city, and then opened our eyes to see the last bright rays of golden sun shining through pink streaks in a grayish-blue sky stretched over the pinkish-gold skyline made of Jerusalem Stone.
For most of the group, this was their first time laying eyes on Yerushalayim.
We stopped at Har HaTzofim (Mount Scopus) to look out at the city and watch the sunset. There we had a small ceremony where we played the song “Jerusalem of Gold/Yerushalayim Shel Zahav,” and toasted grape juice after saying the special blessings for entering Jerusalem and the shehecheyanu thanking God for having reached this momentous occasion.
We then watched the sunset in silence, the golden sun disappearing behind the radiant buildings of the holy city—glowing with heavenly light.
We rode the bus towards the hotel in unplanned contemplative quiet—rare for a group of 13 year olds!
As we drove through the new city a different kind of excitement began to grow—SHOPPING! The kids saw all of the stores and restaurants in the center of the city through the bus window, and were overjoyed to learn that our hotel on Hillel Street is right in the center of the city. They could hardly put their bags down and eat a bite of dinner before we went out to the “midrechov” pedestrian shopping mall of Ben Yehuda St, Yoel Solomon St, and Kikar Zion. The kids blew off a lot of the steam of such a powerful experience of entering Jerusalem with a little retail therapy and bought a lot of gifts to bring home.
Wednesday will be a big day—we will tour the whole Old City in one day! Hopefully one of the kids will blog soon…but tonight, it is time for them to sleep so that they have the energy for tomorrow.
Shira
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