Susan's Blog: Pilgrimage to Israel/Palestine. Dome of the Rock, the Western Wall, and more. Do you want to be healed?

Today, we ventured into the Old City of Jerusalem for the first time.

The major religious site there is an area that has significance for both Jews and Muslims: Al-Haram Al-Sharif, as it is known in Arabic, and Temple Mount to Jews.

King Solomon built the first temple for the Israelites around 1000 BCE on the site where it was thought that Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son, Isaac. That temple was destroyed during the Babylonian Exile, but the 'Second Temple' was built by Jews in 516 BCE. It was the center of Jewish religious life and, according to tradition, the very site of the presence of God. They believed that God's spirit dwelt there. The temple was on top of a hill, so they had built a huge stone platform to make a flat surface on which the building could stand firmly. The whole platform is 35 acres.
That temple was destroyed in 70 CE, when the Romans sacked Jerusalem and sent the Jews into centuries of Diaspora.

Centuries later, in 691, the Umayyad dynasty adapted the site as a cornerstone of Muslim faith. In the Qur'an, the story goes the Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son Ishmael on this site. Later on, Mohammed is flown to Jerusalem before he ascends to heaven. So Jerusalem is the third holiest site for Muslims, after Mecca and Medina. The Umayyads built the Dome of the Rock in 691 CE on the temple mount platform, and Al-Aqsa Mosque in 715. Despite several earthquakes, the Dome of the Rock has never fallen, and the structure of the building has not changed. It's covered in mosaic tile and gold leaf, and incredibly beautiful. The photo here speaks for itself.

Now, access to Al-Haram Al-Sharif (the platform area) is strictly limited during certain hours to keep it a holy site. Non-Muslims may not enter the mosque nor the dome.

Just on the western side of the huge stone platform, however, is what remains of the Israelite temple as it was modified by King Herod the Great shortly before the time of Jesus. Known as the 'Wailing Wall,' Israelis call it the Kotel. Many faithful Jews see it as a direct connection with God. Men and women pray there, in separate areas. People write prayers on slips of paper and put them into the cracks between the huge stones. The photo below is from the women's area. Note the prayer books and the different styles of dress. (There's been a recent controversy about the gender division there--click here for more).

Both places, very much alive. Groups of men studying the Qur'an were gathered in the shade in front of the mosque. Mothers helping little girls take their shoes off before entering the Dome of the Rock. Young women, some soldiers, praying fervently in the women's section of the Western Wall. Families with strollers, little boys with earlocks, black-hatted men in prayer shawls. Both places are very much alive, full of prayer, beautiful in their own ways.

We also visited excavations on the southern side of the wall, where Israelite pilgrims would come in Jesus' day to make their sacrifices at the temple. Along this road, pilgrims came to change their currency, buy sacrificial animals, and do the ritual bathing required to enter the temple.

All of these sites are so evocative of faith, from different religious perspectives. They're powerful in the historical images they evoke as well. And finally, the political tension in the competition for space and power here is unavoidable. The entire Temple Mount area speaks to the turnover of dynasties and the delicate balance of power in this ancient land.

The most moving part of the day, though, was what we did in between those two sites on Mount Moriah: we visited the ruins of the Pool of Bethesda and the Church of St. Anne. This is where conclusive archaeological evidence shows the pagan healing pools that are mentioned in John 5, where Jesus healed a man on the sabbath. We read the story and reflected on the power of the question: Do you want to be healed?

Everyone, in fact, needs healing from something.

We have gotten to know each other quite a bit over the past week. Halfway into the trip now, walking in this place that speaks so powerfully of the desire for wholeness and healing, it was profound to experience and even more profound to see others experiencing this reflection on healing. I am honored to be traveling with such good people, who have borne many griefs and struggles and pains. It was beautiful to be there with them today. We gathered in the Church of St. Anne afterward, a place that is solemn and cool and happens to have amazing acoustics. And we sang.

After dinner, we heard from Xavier Abu Eid , who works in communications and negotiations for the PLO, on his perspective on the peace process. This blog post is too long to reconstruct the entire history we heard, but the basic jist of his perspective is this: Israel is the last case of colonization in the world, in which the Zionist government took the land and saw it as being without indigenous people--when, in reality, those people were systematically forced out. The PLO now supports a two-state solution, and is willing to compromise back to the 1967 boundaries, which Israel never respected. Every time the Palestinians articulate a willingness to compromise, the Israelis grab more land in settlements. The Palestinians have little trust that the Israelis are willing to compromise faithfully at all. On the other hand, he said, it is in the national interest of the surrounding Arab nations as well as the United States for Israel to commit to the Arab Peace Initiative . The international community is now beginning to acknowledge the human rights abuses and apartheid situation in Israel, and something has to change.

The question hangs in the air: Do we want to be healed?

Tomorrow, after more explorations of the Old City, we will hear from a rabbi on his perspective on the peace process.