12 November - Jewish Quarter

Mid-week field trip!!  We got to explore around the Jewish Quarter.  We walked there from the Center.  The first item we checked out was the Broad Wall.  This section of wall was likely built by Hezekiah around the Mishneh and Makhtesh.  This section is on the north side by the gate.  Chadwick had us imagine Nephi and his brothers hiding just outside this gate...STORIES!!

When the Jewish Quarter was destroyed in the more modern wars (WWI and WWII), thankfully people decided to excavate the area before rebuilding on top of it.  We now have these awesome museums featuring mansion homes from the Second Temple period.

We walked by a family celebrating this young man's Bar Mitzvah!!! They were singing and dancing and asked us to join in!!  Those of us who took Hebrew were able to sing one of the songs with them - Shalom Aleichem - which was so much fun.

We went into the Davidson Archaeological Park next for a while.  This particular corner shown in the first photo is the Southwest corner of the Temple Mount.  This would have been known as the "pinnacle of the temple".  Does that ring a bell?  Christ was led up to the pinnacle of the temple by the Holy Ghost, where he was then tempted by Satan to jump off into the crowds below.  Satan's logic was that the angels would catch him, and so the people would realize he was the Messiah.  There is this niche that was at this upper corner with an inscription in Hebrew that says "the place of trumpeting".  The trumpeter would also stand at the pinnacle of the temple.  This piece of the wall is now on the ground, and the piece of stone with the inscription is now in the Israel Museum (we saw it).

When the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in 70AD, the walls came tumbling down.  This was a fulfilling of a prophecy by Christ in Mark 13:2 talking about the stones being in piles.

Photo on the right: Chadwick showed us how the huge Herodian stones were set on each other going in by a couple centimeters so when you stand from the ground looking up at the wall, it doesn't look like the wall is falling over on top of you.

Chadwick quote sitting on these stones: "My life is literally in RUINS."

    

     

We had free time after the field trip. I went with a group of people to get a CAKE and some PASTRIES and we took them up on the ROOF and ATE THEM.

The back of Damascus Gate (out of focus). Still love.