VC Saved From Lightening Strike, Sees Jerusalem

So -- last time I left you, I was using a cyber cafe in a guesthouse in Jerusalem and was off to bed. I actually didn't make it ALL the way to bed right away, as I saw that the city was alive quite late and I took a stroll through a park by Jaffa Gate that I had admired earlier during the day. Very enjoyable :)

Ok so to get you up to speed, yesterday centered around me returning to Riff Raff Sandwich Bar and eating the same thing I'd had before and loving it just as much. Ok, not really...I mean I did do that, but it would be unfair to say that it was the HIGHLIGHT of my day. It was kind of a day crammed with holy things, as I set off early for the Abbey of Dormition (where Mary fell into her eternal sleep), the Coenaculum (Site of the Last Supper) and King David's Tomb, and Mt. Zion. I have only a few observations, because I found all of them summarily disappointing:

Latin American Catholics will touch ANYTHING they think is some kind of holy relic, and as if the Abbey of Dormition wasn't bad enough because it's SPARKLING in its Disney-like renovations, their trouncing around photographing and kissing everything kind of ruined whatever enjoyable moments were left there. I will say that I found the whole Dormotion complex (especially the crypt) really aesthetically appealing, but more in the way the SoHo Prada was before it burned down (see my former blog about that) than in the way I expect a really old and holy place to be. I was thinking they should offer dormition cots and blankets for sleepy pilgrims to imitate the holy mother in her sleep -- why not?

King David's tomb was also extremely anticlimactic (even though I'm really into tombs...like even of random German monarchs and stuff), in part because I was distracted by the fake yammukah I had to wear on my head (they provide them at the entrance), which is LITERALLY a cardboard frenchfry holder (like the kind you'd get at the beach or at a movie theatre, but NOT the kind you'd get in a fast food place, which is more vertically-oriented), as well as the fact that the tomb is cut in half by a "wall" that separates the men and women, or in my case, separated me from a man and woman SCREAMING at each other on the other side (how that's not forbidden I don't know) and them constantly scooting the wooden wall-on-wheels closer into my chamber. The whole thing is covered in velvet cloth, and I felt really unable to connect with the decaying corpse underneath :(

As for Mt. Zion...well...it's more like a little hill where all these commercialized complexes are than a real mountain, and my experience of it was basically hiking back through the King David toilets to a piss-stenched field where Palestinian youth had gathered (you see the PHYSICAL concept of marginalization very clearly, here) and me looking out over some garbage and homes and saying: "Ok, so this is Mt. Zion."

Don't get discouraged that my whole day was a waste, though, because I did have a really nice experience after that when I went to the Western (aka: Wailing) Wall. Because it was SUCH a holy day (passover) we weren't allowed to take photos or leave notes in the wall, but I had a note (more like a list of prayers) that I'd written in the morning that I sort of read over and reflected-upon while touching the wall (for the record: we also had to wear yamukkahs at the Wall, but they were MUCH nicer!). After seeing the tunnels under the wall (which I think I wasn't supposed to see since I'm not Jewish), I ascended to the Temple Mount (aka: one of the huge controversies in the world).

Basically the Temple Mount is where Abraham was WILLING to sacrifice Isaac but didn't (so they say -- most religions have a slightly different version...some say it wasn't Isaac..some say he was actually killed...pick the one that tastes best for you), and is under Palestinian control even though it's in Jerusalem. There are a lot of interesting parts to the Temple Mount complex (although even it felt a little flat, honestly), but two of the most important ones, the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock (the golden-domed complex that is where THE alter was, supposedly) were both ruined by the experience I had with the guards.

Now, there are SOME sites that I consider to be so holy for a particular faith that I don't think I should be barging in -- like the Kabbah at Mecca, or the Baghaii shrine in Haifa, because I think the only people who go there are pilgrims, and pilgrims are saying: "I have committed to living my life according to the practices of this religion and, for that reason, must visit this site." I think that for REGULAR places of worship, places that are not the explicit focus of a pilgrimage, we should have more free reign than that. I don't think I'll every be persuaded to follow a particular faith or read a particular book, but I do believe in God and pray (at least sometimes! lol) and I think that visiting a place like the Dome of the Rock should not be out of my spiritual explorations.

To make a long story short, I went to the Al-Aqsa mosque, which I didn't really care about anyway (mostly because I can't figure out what's so special about it...otherwise I'd tell you!), and was turned away as I approached and was told "Muslims only." I then told the guy, in Arabic: "You don't know if I'm Muslim or not, do you? You saw me and say I wasn't allowed, but you didn't even ask if I was Muslim or not." I then walked away. At the Dome, however, I was a bit more persistent. I was too slow to get out the Islamic hello and slip my shoes off, so I think he thought I didn't know to do both of those things and therefore wasn't Muslim, and so he asked me: "Are you Muslim?" I knew this would happen. I told him I didn't know. I told him (this is all in Arabic) that I wanted to go inside and look and pray, and that I wasn't 100% sure if I could say I was Muslim or not...did he mean in my heart or in my practice? I told him that I didn't go to the mosque every day -- did he? At this point a crowd of like 12 people (oh what a symbolic number! ;p j/k) has gathered and some people are shouting to him: "He speaks Arabic, let him in," to which he relied: "He won't say he's Muslim!" He asked me if I knew how to pray, and I said yes, and then he asked again: "So are you Muslim?" and I said to him: "What do you want me to tell you? 'There is no God but God, and Mohammed is his prophet?' " and he said "yes" and I said, "Well I can say that, but I still don't know if I'm Muslim. I have studied the Koran and the law, but I came to Jerusalem to see and understand." He said that I couldn't enter, I told him "shame on you" (except in Arabic you use the word "haram" which is more religious than "shame" -- it's like "sin on you") and he gave me the Islamic goodbye.

I was a bit angered by his controlling of my religious identity when, as we know, that is a category of identity that is SO flexible. All the men who entered that day who cheat on their wives, or sleep with men, or drink alcohol, or all the women who don't cover their hair, or don't do any number of the things they are required to, all THOSE people are allowed the agency over their faith to say: "I do notdo XYZ things, but I can still identify as Muslim to a degree that makes my entry into this place permissible." What about people who question their faith? Is there no room for them? Do you have to pompously assert your religiosity in speech and not in practice? I found the whole thing ridiculous. Ironically, the next thing I visited on the temple mount ("visited" meaning: "Walked up to it, thought a bit, and took a photo") was the Dome of the Chain, which, to plagiarize from Lonely Planet, is the smaller version of the Dome of the Rock, where Solomon hung a chain from the dome and those who swore falsely while holding it were struck by lightening. I thought about the fact that there would be a LOT of lightening-struck bodies on that temple mount of the chain were still there, but I wouldn't be amongst them lol.

There are lots of little columns and domes and things on the mount (although it's still a bit sparse, which I think is supposed to contribute to the centrality of the Dome of the Rock...so that it's not competing for attention), but the other thing I saw that I really liked (just the thought -- the actual thing is not that cool) are the stairs of the Scales of Souls leading up to the Mount on all sides, which (according to LP) are believed by Muslims to be the spot on Judgment Day where scales will be hung and souls will be weighed.

After the Mount, I went to the Gethsemane Church, that has the olive fields where Jesus first expressed his angst over sweating blood (that would freak me out, too!), and which was one of the most tasteful (although still brand new) churches I've seen. There was a (I've seen many) Philipino congregation having a service there, and they were singing their hearts out (that is a country of singers! Just look at Lea Salonga and Monique Wilson!) and it was really nice. I also visited Mary's Tomb, which was also anticlimactic and weird (as I felt the priest was a bit over-interested in my experience there), and then walked home through what WAS the City of David and is now an impoverished Palestinian-Israeli village.

I will have to blog about the rest later, as my time in this Bethlehem cyber cafe is about to run out, no ATMS are open for me to get money to buy more time, and I have to pee so bad I could die.

XO

VC

EDIT: My cyber cafe had a restroom that I used, and the boy behind the counter pointed me to an ATM that works, so now I have a full wallet, an empty bladder, and will finish updating my blog! (and then blow my new cash on junk food...helping the local economy, you know!)