With an unexpected early morning wake-up, I decided to go take a walk. I headed towards Jaffa Gate and the Old City, meandering through the shuk until I got to a sign giving direction for the Western Wall. Too hard to resist and a few minutes later I was in the courtyard in front of the Kotel.
As I was walking around, I heard a couple ask one of the security personnel how they could get to the Temple Mount. In fact, it’s very difficult to get access to the Mount itself. It’s controlled by the Muslim authorities and only open for tourists at specific hours on specific days.
For the Jewish observant folk, its also forbidden to ascend since one might accidently traverse the space that held the Holy of Holies room in The Second Temple. In fact, I haven’t been on the Temple Mount in over 25 years, since I was in Israel for the Otzma year.
To my gigantic surprise, not only was the Mount open to tourists, but there was absolutely no line. I followed behind the other couple, walked through a metal detector, and was walking up the ramp.
For the uninitiated, the Temple Mount is the location, among other things, of Abraham’s intended sacrifice of Isaac, of the First Temple, of the Second Temple, and now of the rock Mohamed used to ascend to heaven (the Golden Dome). It is the holiest spot on earth for Jews and I felt quite overwhelmed and humble walking on a largely deserted Temple Mount…until…I sensed that I was being followed.
A slight turn of the head and I saw an older man walking uncomfortably close to me. To test him, I changed directions. He changed too. I moved the other way. So did he. At this point, I saw a group of Israeli police, fully armed, about 20 yards away. I just started walking to them when the man interrupted my walk, “Do you want a guide?”
I turned around and he told me that for 50 shekels (about $15), he would give me a guided tour of the Mount. As a solo Jewish traveler on the Temple Mount, I actually thought it would be a good idea to have a companion escort me around. Voila. I had a guide.
We started at the Al Aksa mosque (the black dome). Since I wasn’t permitted inside, he took me to the window and gave me its history. We walked next to the Gold Dome, as he chastised a couple for putting their arms around each other for a photo.
We walked around the Dome of the Rock, with narration, and then he pointed me to the exit to the Via Dolorosa in the Christian quarter. I guess he had me as a Christian pilgrim.
Instead, I decided to keep walking the Temple Mount, which is a whole lot bigger than I imagined. In fact, the northern boundary has several buildings which seem to house schools since kids were running in and out. I headed as far East as I could to see if I could get view of east Jerusalem (couldn’t see anything). I did find a beautiful grove of Olive trees…
At a certain point, I did get a little nervous as the population around me was all Muslim and staring at me. When a few folks started to approach me, I made my exit to the Christian quarter.
Except, as it turns out, I made a wrong turn in the Old City. While I was sure that I was making a bee line for Jaffa Gate and West Jerusalem, I emerged from the shuk at a different gate and realized, remembering back to a similar experience 25 years ago, that I was at Damascus Gate in East Jerusalem. I said “holy cow” (or something like that), did a 180, retraced my steps back to the exit from the Temple Mount, and found my way to the Jewish Quarter, where I exited the Zion Gate and walked around the Old City to get back to Jaffa Rd. What a first morning in Jerusalem.
Astren sent me his recommendation for the best hummus in Jerusalem. A great lunch!
I have two priorities in this trip. First, I want to learn everything I can about pre-modern Judaism and Jewish life. As a scholar trained in modern American Jewish history (and one who teaches survey courses that include ancient and medieval Jewish life), I need to get all the knowledge and perspective I can. I reached out to colleagues and friends who all gave me recommendations for the trip. Second, I want to see Shayna whenever I can, both to support her and to get to be in Israel, together.
One of my college friends, Mark Bleiwess, who married one of my Camp Swig friends, Ellen Kaplan, has been on a journey in Jewish life that has brought him to what he calls “Torah Judaism” and what others call “haredi” or “ultra-Orthodox” Judaism. He is now a rabbi, goes by his Hebrew name Menashe, and with Ellen (Yetta) are raising 11 children in Jerusalem. He is both a teacher in Yeshiva (traditional school for Jewish learning) and a government-certified guide (and now a teacher in the guide-training program). Menashe invited me to join him at his Yeshiva, called Ohr Sameach, to study gemara (part of Jewish law), as well as a course called “controversial topics” and another on Jewish history. The Yeshiva is set up, essentially, for post-high school American Jewish young men who are seeking serious study of Jewish text, and who may be on their own journeys towards more traditional Jewish lives. I joined the “controversial topics” class on the first day back from Pesach vacation.
Requisite chicken schnitzel dinner and off to bed..
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