Holy shit. I just got to my mom’s. What a busy week. My internet access has been limited over the past week. Hopefully I’ll have it for now on.

I have been so many places and seen so many things in the past week. I watched the sun set over the Negev desert. I watched the sun rise from King Herod’s northern Place in Masada. I rode a camel. I floated in the Dead Sea and swam in the Sea of Galilee. Seven soldiers from the Israeli Defense Force also joined our group. Here I am with one named Chen on top of Masada.

Thursday I arrived in Jerusalem. I am not a religious person, but this city is a very special place and definitely has an aura about it. The old city of Jerusalem is surrounded by a 500 year old 4 mile long wall, 15 to 50 feet high built by Suleiman the Magnificent. The city could be a museum, but instead is home to 40,000 people broken into the Arab, Armenian, Christian, and Jewish quarters, the largest by far being the Arab section. The entire city is built of stones worn smooth over the centuries. There are countless narrow alleyways and plazas, painted tiles and wrought iron gates, and vendors selling colorful cloths, hookas and shwarma.

Within a few blocks of each other is the Dome of the Rock, where Mohammed ascended into heaven to join Allah. Just below the Dome is the Kotel, or the Western Wall, which is the last surviving section of the Second Temple which was destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 and is the holiest sight of Judaism. Then there’s the Church of Sepulchre built over the sight where a Jewish carpenter was publicly executed back in 33. Here is the top of the dome with the Kotel just below.


More to come…I just need some time to process.