The hockey shirt
Part one: Israel
This is another travel story. On our Mediterranean cruise, we had two stops in Israel. One involved Nazareth and the Jordan River, but the second stop was to allow us a trip into Jerusalem. This was an eye-opener for both of us. Our group from the ship was too big for all of us going to the old city of Jerusalem at one time, so we were divided into two groups. Group one ( us) went to visit Bethlehem, which we were very interested in. Bethlehem, unknown to me at the time is in the Palestinian sector. Our tour guide was in his late 50s. He knew his stuff, but was quite a bit on the negative side with his attitude during the tour. Our first stop was a souvenir shop that he owned,… but we had to pass through before getting to the supposed birthplace of Jesus. The store sold many olive wood carvings of the Holy Family, among many other items. I wondered why, as a Muslim, he would be so interested and all these Christian memorabilia that he wanted to sell us. No matter, we all bought a few items and proceeded to the supposed site of Jesus’s birth. This was in the “Church of the Nativity”.
There were crowds of people in the church waiting to descend the stairs; to visit and kneel before a silver star… Which was proclaimed as the very site of Jesus’s birth. How they decided upon this, I have no idea.
Imagine this large church, very wide from one side to the other. Apparently, different Christian faiths take their turns as being the dominant force there. Don’t forget, we were there under the guidance of a very militant and grouchy Muslim. It felt anthing but holy.
As we took our turn to become a single file line and descend the stairs, all of a sudden, one of the priests , was angered by something he saw,and was screaming out loud with “Blasphemer” and that he would “burn in hell”. We did not feel very enraptured to say the least.
This priest was involved with the group that was to follow us down the steps. Apparently someone had greatly upset him. The tension was so high, it was unbelievable to me for such a supposedly holy place. We did, one at a time proceed down the stairs to the bottom, Off to the right, a sheltered area with a large silver star was evident. This was the supposed actual birthplace of Jesus. Maybe that is true, I have no idea. I did go on my knees I kissed my hand and placed it on the star. I’m glad I did, but it felt a little doubtful.
There are many more details, but we completed this experience and headed to our bus.
Because of the Palestinian/Jewish conflicts, Israel has built a very high intimidating wall between the two sectors. This was very weird and frightening to all of us. Our bus stopped on the Palestinian side, where we all departed our bus, said goodbye to our very uptight guide and crossed into the Israeli sector. Once on the other side we boarded the awaiting bus. This time our guide was a young very enthusiastic and bubbly young woman. She had moved to Israel from Britain and was a completely opposite personality of our previous Palestinian host. They each gave a dramatically different perspective on what we were seeing. This was amazing to me.
Onward we went into the city of Jerusalem. The first stop was a park outside and above the city, looking at it down below …for a general perspective.
At this stop, there were about 30 young male and female members of the Israeli forces. They were cheerful and upbeat. In my mind up to that point, there sure seemed a difference in mindset and attitude between two sides of that wall.
This is a problem that I hope will be eventually solved.
After that, the first stop was the “Wailing Wall” on the very outskirts of the city. To my understanding, this is the only remnant of the original wall around Jerusalem from its beginning state, before the Romans, the Arabs and who knows what else attacked and defeated that city.
The wall is very holy… for all Jews, but especially for the extreme sects with their funny dress, strange haircuts, and beliefs. The women in our group were not allowed to approach the wall and had to stay behind. We were all then immersed in belief systems we knew nothing about.
We obviously cooperated, and I approached this ancient wall. The practice seemed to be writing prayers or thoughts on a piece of paper and then inserting them into any of the many crevices on the wall. We all did this… I think I wished for a “ happy, fulfilling and successful lives” for each of our four children.
It certainly was a very unique experience. Our male members of the tour group were only a very tiny fraction of that large crowd at the Wailing Wall.
Next, we entered one of the gates of Jerusalem.
End of part one