Hezikiah's Tunnel

This week has gone by rather fast...except we have not done much. Because it is the Jewish holiday of Sukkat here, the city has been off-limits and many of our classes are not taught. We have only had Old Testament classes a couple hours each day and one language class. Sukkat or Tabernacles is the holiday that celebrates the children of Israel's journey out of Egypt through the wilderness. It is fun to see all the little "tabernacles" built outside homes and restaurants for the Jews to eat in.

Our field trip this week was to Hezikiah's Tunnel which is located in the City of David, or South of the Temple Mount. This was amazing. This tunnel was built by King Hezikiah to direct water from the spring and bring it within reach when perhaps the city was under siege. The tunnel is fairly long...I think we walked through it for 20 or so mintues with water above our ankles and at some points reaching my mid-thigh! (although I am short...so that isn't too deep). This tunnel was dug by people thousands of years ago and it was so neat! Many of us students want to return when water levels have risen so the tunnel will be deeper. Outside of the tunnel is the Pool of Shiloh, I believe. (Or maybe not...i should have written this on Monday when I remembered the names of everything...but..I didnt)

I visited the Israel Museum yesterday. It was a very good learning experience. The museum houses some of the Dead Sea Scrolls under this strange white-looking fountain. There is also a huge replica of Jerusalem during the 2nd temple time period. It was wonderful to see what the temple mount might have looked like and the way things were situated then, because it is so hard to imagine now when other things have been built up on these places. The museum also had the oldest mask in the world (all of the students were sarcastically making a big deal about this) but it is actually 9,000 years old. Pretty neat. So now I've seen the oldest building in the world and the oldest mask.

The students put on a formal talent show last night. I was blown away by the talent we have here. All of the other students are of such a high caliber. There were piano performances and duets. Singing solos, songs written by the students and performed. After events like this, I always walk away wishing I had some sort of musical talent...and then I remember that it's probably better I didnt. The problem with liking to write is that it is not performable (a word?) and anyone can write. And I don't really write poetry..or short stories, etc. I can barely keep up this blog (though I am proud I have managed to write in it almost every week).

Tomorrow morning I am waking up at 5:30am (10:30pm central time) to walk to the Western Wall and watch the Jews beat their willows against the ground. It is a part of the Sukkat tradition. I hope to get some awesome pictures. This is the only time we have been allowed into the city in the past 2 weeks...and we have to be back before 8am and people start moving about to their work and schools. I cannot wait until this holiday is over so that perhaps there can be more peace or serenity in the city. Being restricted to the Jerusalem Center is becoming unnerving..and there is only so much to do in West Jerusalem. I hate taxis. I think I've spent too much money this week just taking taxis everywhere. (because we are not allowed to walk anywhere right now.) This adds up quick. I'll write again shortly. We get to herd sheep on Monday! We also get to see the rest of conference this Saturday during church.