In America one may here the term "the day of rest" referring to Sunday. Westerners have this idea and envision sunday barbecues, church services, and football games on the television. This has always been my understanding of a sabbath. Being a bible college student I know how extreme the Jews practiced their sabbath. But I had never experienced it until now. Shabat isn't just a day where they take it easy and watch television. Shabat (sabbath) is rest. On friday afternoon Jerusalem is a busy as usual, cars honking, buses stopping, people walking. The market place is packed with grocery shoppers looking for fresh produce and likewise the store owners yelling out their prices and their products. I would probably buy more food if I could understand hebrew. The vendors usually speak enough english to get me some juicy oranges and some fresh pita bread. For those of you who think Jerusalem is in a hot and dry dessert, think again. It's probably never been above 65 degrees while I've been here. Jerusalem is delicious. Then the sun goes down.
Sabbath lasts from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. The formally bustling city of Jerusalem falls silent. The recently inhabited streets are now abandon, save for the occasional car or pedestrian. You can feel the silence, the peace. All the shops are closed, all the people are at home. This occurrence I have never experienced before. Imagine New york city just silent, no cars, no buses, no people. Shabat is as amazing as the rest of Jerusalem and must be experienced by all visitors. After the sabbath is over, every one comes out and the city is brought to life again.
It is odd to live in such a place that is Jerusalem. This city is so famous and I live in the middle of it. Today we flippantly decided to walk up to the temple mount, the third most holy place in all Islam. Not to mention the site of the first and second jewish temples. We walked past the Wailing wall, but thats nothing new (I've been there three times already). The temple mount turned out to be closed, so we just walked over to the Kidron valley(pictured above) and climbed around there for a bit. But we got tired of that after awhile and walked back to the dorms. The history of this place is overwhelming. The ancient and the modern beautifully compliment each other here.
It's a new feeling to be in a city that the majority of the world focuses on, no offense Lodi.
and there is shabbat shalom, the peace of rest, especially the rest we find in Him; see Hebrews 4. you may want to find out when the Temple mount is open. It is not open often; when we were there 4 years ago, we never made it on the mount due to wrong timing. Dad says he wants to come...looking at late April
ReplyDeleteDude. That sounds hecka tight.
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