December 20, 2002
Israel | Hebrew Union College |
Travel | Family |
Fun | Thoughts |
Recent Photos | Home
Lots of rain falling these days, and it's a good thing -- we always need it here. And from what I've seen about world weather, looks like much of the West coast is getting it pretty good, as well (sorry Mirm!). We're expecting/hoping for snow over the next couple of days, although it doesn't seem cold enough yet. Still, though, we have hope, it would be so much fun to be in Jerusalem for snow -- we're planning to head directly to the Old City if the white stuff decides to drop.
Other exciting news (if you consider weather exciting :) is that we're dog-sitting this week. We have the pleasure of spending about 10 days with Motek (Hebrew for Sweetie), a high-energy and, yes, very sweet poochie. She has taken over the couch and all in all seems to be settling into life in the Miller household. Almost immediately, though, we started missing our dog, Chapin, even more. 6 more months without him... seems like a long time. :( As Mark likes to put it, we miss our family and friends terribly, but at least we can e-mail, talk, and send letters to them. With Chapin, all we can do is miss him. It makes it all much better to know, however, that he's being very well taken care of, has lots of space to run around, and a couple cousins to play with. :)
Mark and I had a funny experience a few days ago -- we walked into a store and there in front of us was a Christmas tree with all sorts of decorations. I know, it's a perfectly normal scene in the States, but a little more uncommon here (at least in the parts of Jerusalem we live and shop in). We're living less than a half hour from the birthplace of Jesus, Bethlehem, yet experiencing less of the "Christmas craze" than ever. Perhaps there's more of an emphasis on the religious aspects of the celebration here, or maybe just less integration of the three main religions (my hope would be the former, but my guess is the latter). We're not exactly seeking out other experiences -- mostly for safety reasons (it's not recommended to go to Bethlehem these days)-- and, frankly, it's a major disappointment to me. I'm reading more about Ramadan and Christmas than in year's past, and I've started a book called Jerusalem - One City, Three Faiths, but studying and experiencing are two very different things. The one place where there is an evident overlap of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam is in the Old City. One of my most memorable moments happened there a few years ago. I was at the Southern Wall (just around the corner from, you guessed it, the Western Wall) with a group of students. It was Erev Shabbat (Friday night) and we were having services. The Southern Wall is directly underneath the Al-Aksa Mosque (the third holiest site for Muslims) and it happened to be during Ramadan. In addition to the five daily prayers, Muslims recite a special prayer called the Taraweeh prayer (Night Prayer) during Ramadan. So there we were, deep into Shabbat services when suddenly, the Call to Prayer began. It's really quite beautiful. The chanting is done by a Muezzin from high in the minaret. If you're interested in reading what the Call to Prayer contains, here's a link: http://www.discoverislam.com/14.html
Anyway, soon after the Call to Prayer began, we could hear in the distance the sound of church bells -- it was also Christmas Eve! Can you imagine being in the Old City on Shabbat, during Ramadan, on Christmas Eve!! That is when I realized just how holy Jerusalem is to so many people, for so many reasons. I'll never forget that night and I'll never forget the lesson, to remember and celebrate this Land and all her people -- Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze (Mowahhidoon), Samaritans, Beduins, the Hebrews, and on and on.
With that, I wish you a Shabbat Shalom, a very Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and a wonderful weekend. :)
Love,
Rachel Ann
P.S. Here's another link, this one with general information about the Old City:
http://www.historychannel.com/cgi-bin/frameit.cgi?p=http%3A//www.historychannel.com/classroom/unesco/jerusalem/main.html
