Dome and Western Wall

We took a day to explore some of the sacred, holy, AND famous sites of this area! We visited the Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall in the same day! These are located in close proximity, on the ancient Temple Mount. Why? Herod's temple was destroyed in 70 AD, when the Jews were permanently removed from Israel under the Romans. There were a lot of other empires that controlled the Holy Land at one time or another, and the Ottoman empire built the Dome of the Rock on top of temple mount, because they believe it is the place where Muhammad ascended into heaven. The only thing left over from the Temple of Herod is the outer retaining wall. The Jews treat it as sacred, and recognize that it is the closest they can get to the temple right now. It is a very sacred site for both religions. 

This is a picture we took along the way to the Temple Mount. This is the Church of All Nations (bottom), and the Russian Orthodox Church of Mary Magdalene (right). The Garden of Gethsemane is to the left of the Church of All Nations. So many people love and revere Christ, and they all have a stake here in the Holy Land to worship him!

These are pictures of the Al-Asqa mosque, on the Temple Mount with the Dome. Aren't those pictures NEAT? The Dome is all reflected in them :) We wanted to go in and see the inside of the mosque, but we aren't Muslim, so we weren't given that privilege. 

Here it is! The one--the only--the lovely and timeless DOME OF THE ROCK!! Isn't it beautiful? Look at all those colors!

Proof that I saw this thing in real life. I got in trouble a little for my excited pose. I was just so excited to see the thing up close that I couldn't contain myself!!

This is a little dome thing off to the side of the big dome, but I'm not sure of its purpose. However, you can see the beautiful and intricate tiles that decorate the dome, and that are so typical of Islamic art. They're all hand painted, and they are incredibly beautiful!!

This is one of my favorite pictures! I love the Dome, but I miss my own temples. I'm so grateful for the incredible blessing it is to have a temple on the earth! I feel for the Jews, and it breaks my heart to see how they long for a temple again. We are so blessed to have MORE than ONE temple, too! The House of the Lord is scattered all over the earth, and one will eventually be RIGHT HERE IN JERUSALEM!! I'd take the temple to the left any day :)

I love pictures of cool buildings with the sun behind them. I love the gold dome, it's so beautiful and unique!

The mysterious mini-dome next to the big dome...so beautiful :)

After visiting the Dome, we went to the Wall to see the morning prayers and hear the Torah being read. This is the men's side of the courtyard, for women and men are separated to worship. All the white clothes are 'taliyt', the prayer shawls that Jewish men wear. The Wall is the furthest right of this picture.

This is a cool picture because you can see the Jewish men wrapping their tefllin (phylacteries in the New Testament, the little prayer boxes they wear) in preparation for their prayers. You can see them on their heads, and the guy in the middle is wrapping it around his left arm. They wrap the ends of the strap in their hand in the form of the Hebrew letter "Shin", which stands for the name of God. 

You can see how crowded it gets as people try to make their way to the Wall to touch it as they pray. You can see the separation wall for the men and the women. Also, the women don't pray like the men do, as you can see.

A real live Torah scroll!! They are kept in these beautiful ornate cases because they are so precious. One Torah scroll takes like 5 years to complete, because they are handwritten on real vellum parchment by a highly trained scribe. He has to purify himself every single time he writes the name of God, and there can't be any mistakes in any of the letters. Can you see why it takes so long?! Holy cow. But they are beautiful works of art that last for so long!

I don't know where the tradition originated, but people write little prayers on paper and stick them in the Wall to make them come true. Kind of like a wishing well, I think. I wrote a note to the Lord, asking him to bless my family and loved ones. Putting it in the Wall is especially neat because Jewish people do not throw writing away--they bury it in a cemetery  because they do not want to desecrate the thoughts of others by treating them like garbage. This is the case with ALL writing, even a grocery list. So my little prayer will end up in a Jewish cemetery outside of town to exist forever :)

Looking for a little crack in the wall in which to stuff my paper, but all the spaces were taken...

So maybe I stuck it in the hole in the bottom of the stone. Oh well, it's still the Wall, right? :)

There are members of the Israeli army wherever we go, but we met some girl soldiers today! They were our age, too. They explained, and to the best of my understanding, I think that when people graduate from high school, they serve in the army for 2 years before they get married or start further education. THAT says something about Israeli national pride! How amazing to have a love of country instilled inside of every citizen through their service! Those girls were so tiny--look, that gun is almost as big as her :)

One thing among the many things I love about this place is that there are beautiful doorways wherever you go. There are many doors that are simply pieces of art, and I love looking at them! It makes the city feel like a fairy tale kingdom. In some ways. The city is also disgusting and dirty, but I'm grateful for the occasional bright splotches of happiness on the doors.  This one was made out of mosaics! So awesome!

We took a little stop to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre with is absolutely breathtaking  This is just one of the many rooms, but its the one right under the giant dome. I love looking at churches and seeing how other people choose to worship Christ. All these churches, though, remind me of Matthew 6: 28-29: "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." I love the many churches that are in and surround Jerusalem, but I will always think Nature is more beautiful, and in some ways, is a more spiritual place than a church.

This is one of the paintings that is in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. I love it because it is so old and dark with age, and that's really epic. I also love that the Savior's body is being dressed by so many people--He died for all mankind, not just His friends and family members. We all have an opportunity to take part in Christ's gift for us!

I think this picture is so cool. The light is shining directly on the face of Christ. Isaiah 60:19:

The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.

The Savior is our light, and by following Him we can walk the correct path and come back into His presence! 

We went out for lunch, but Michelle and I are trying to save money (to spend on presents later, hehehe), so we ate our lovely home lunch. It wasn't too delicious, compared to the schwarma and pomegranate juice. Oh well :)