One of the amaaaazing things about Jerusalem is that you literally can just walk down the streets and pass a dozen historical sites—and not just recent history. So yesterday, we went out to look for a few sites, but on the way there, we passed a place that claimed to be the birthplace of the virgin Mary! It was a Greek church, with lots of beautiful paintings on the main floor. The lower floors were these cool, natural caves. And then today, I was walking to the Garden of Gethsemane and we walked next door to another church dedicated to the Virgin Mary! Both times we really weren't looking for them, but there we were! Add to that the fact that we watched a special documentary series tonight that hasn't been released yet, Messiah: Behold the Lamb of God, (Produced by Bro. Kent Brown himself!), and the section he let us see was on the birth of Christ... I decided to read some things about the Mother of God, and I'm really glad I did!

As I re-read Luke chapter 1, I remembered a life-changing insight that my mission president gave our zone in a zone conference about faith. First, the angel Gabriel appeared to Zacharias and explains to him what God is going to do in his life and he responds, “Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years” (Luke 1:18). And is heartily rebuked for his question. Gabriel responds, “behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season” (Luke 1:20). When the same angel appears to Mary and gives her almost the same news... she is still fearful and even “troubled at his saying” (Luke 1:29). She, too, asks a question of the angelic messenger which, at first glance, I thought was identical to the question Zacharias posed to the angel: “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?” (Luke 1:34). In essence, it is the same question, but there is a huge difference in their attitudes, their fath. Zacharias' question was outright incredulity. Mary's question is completely different. She does not ask for proof of the angel's claims—which would be proof of doubt—but rather, her question is “how shall this be”: she takes it as a given that it will happen... she is merely confused as to the method of its coming to pass. In contrast to the stubborness of Zacharias, Mary submits completely to God with a humble, submissive attitude: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38). Humility and submissive to the will of God... I am hard-pressed to think of more rare virtues that would make her so “blessed among women” (Luke 1:28). I give full credit to God for the type of women He chose to raise His Only Begotten.

I think these two virtues hold the key as to how to be highly favored of the Lord. It caused me to think about all the times that I doubt or am at least impatient with the promises of God. I do it a lot. I know what promises the gospel offers, yet I want things to happen in the way I expect in the timetable I desire...or I get FRUSTRATED. I honestly don't think it is unrighteous of me to want to see God's promises fulfilled, but perhaps it is precisely my zeal and overly-eager expectation to see and know with proof of their fulfillment that are the keeping me from the knowledge that the completely submissive Mary was privileged with... 

 I went to a Passover dinner last semester hosted by Dr. Ludlow of the Religion Department and in a lot of ways that was a bit better from my point of view.  Dr. Ludlow has studied things like this for years, had way cool teaching insights, and never forgot anything... ours at the JC was hosted by our Judaism professor, who brought his 4 year old daughter as a guest--so cute. It was really cool, because he himself is an orthodox Jew, and sang portions of the service in Hebrew for us... But at the same time, it felt like he was just winging it--and he left out some minor things.  But the main things were there... and hey, we were in JERUSALEM!  There's about an hour and a half of reviewing the history of the exodus (10 plagues, etc.), praising God, and rituals before dinner. This is when we take the parsley leaf (a symbol of spring/rebirth) and dip it in salt water (a symbol of tears), eat the bitter herbs (for the trials they passed), look at the lamb bone (representing the lamb blood over the doors), etc. We also have two ritual cups of "wine" before dinner--we had this really awesome grape juice that is bottled here and it tasted way different (good, but really on the sweet side--best if diluted) than any other grape juice I've ever had--and two glasses after dinner. Then after the rituals and singing, we eat a big dinner (fried fish, THEN the soup, then the salad, then the meal, then fruit, then dessert---huge!). Then we have the redeeming of the matzah bread (matzah is unleavened bread symbolizing the haste with which the people fled Egypt)
The favorite part: the symbolism of the matzah. We didn't talk about this during our Passover, but my friend told me about it before, and it is soooo cool! So, at the beginning of the ritual, the head of the house puts three loaves of matzah inside a cloth, symbolizing the Godhead. He takes the middle piece of matzah (Christ) and breaks it in half. The larger of the two halves he puts inside a different cloth. It is needed to conclude the Passover--you can't end without that last, set apart piece of matzah (given the special name of afikomen), so it is very important that it doesn't disappear. ...but it always does. When I was at the religion department's Passover, we just passed it around under the table throughout the whole dinner. Last night someone hid it somewhere in the building. At the end of the dinner when we need the matzah in order to end, the head of the house offers a price to "redeem" the matzah (note symbolism of the atonement--so cool!). Generally the person who has the matzah names his price, but last night our professor just offered something--chocolate--outright for it. After he redeems the matzah, they eat it as the last thing in the Passover dinner (this is after dessert). And this is the best part! THIS is the bread that Jesus likely broke and gave to his apostles as the very first sacrament of the Lord's Supper!!! It's a symbol of himself, that he already paid the price for, which redeems us. The Atonement. I LOVE BEING HERE AND HAVING SOOOOOOOO MANY TEACHINGS COME TO LIFE!!!!

Today we had more classes, I organized my photos and studied for finals coming up... not a lot worth writing about, but for the weekly forum, we had an excellent forum speaker who talked to us about the role of media in this conflict... and how it falls short of what it could be in a lot of ways.  It was very insightful.  He was a very good storyteller.  My favorite story can be downloaded here.  Enjoy!



PS
I uploaded tons of new pictures and new youtube videos!

Today we had 7 hours of class (1 hour of Old Testament, two sets of 2 hours of Judaism, and two hours of Palestinian). It was quiiiiiite the gauntlet. It was kinda frustrating, because it was really interesting stuff (we finally got the “founding of the state of Israel” war from the Israeli view in any sort of extended form), as well as the origins of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda... and I was SO tired—it was just too much class (plus I got to bed last pretty late...). But the best part was definitely the end of the day: we had a holocaust survivor come, Elias Feinzlberg. It was so awesome. It gave me such a better feeling than other holocaust learning experiences.

It was still genuinely tragic: he broke down a little bit when he said that his entire family was killed by the Nazis... but that was the only time he became emotional. The rest of the time... he was genuinely animated and happy. He didn't sound resentful or angry. He was retelling near-death experiences like they were... youthful adventures. He would tell his starvation in the ghettos, the grueling work in the mines, and concentration camp life with just as much bravado as a campfire story. One of the first questions we asked him was how he could retain his optimism throughout the ordeal. He replied that he just couldn't believe that he was still alive. He felt that only when he stopped working would his life be in danger... and he never stopped working. There was one time that he was so skinny and pale that they told him that he couldn't work... and he had the idea to pinch and slap himself a bit until he got a little red. He got back in line, and they accepted him. It made me realize that not only is there an entire range of holocaust experiences (not all the stories are as bad as the ones highlighted in Yad Vashem), but also that... something that I always felt was true has been confirmed by someone who has actually lived through the worst that life has to offer: you can always remain hopeful and positive.

Today I got my first and (hopefully) only package from home!  I say hopefully because not only does it take a long time to get packages, but Israeli mail has an extremely frustrating tax law on all incoming packages: they have set up a list of all the things that they deem should be taxed in order to "protect the economy."  The list is basically... everything that isn't homemade food items (even clothes carry a 100% tax on their value!).  Electronics are especially expensive to send because the government scans everything and is known for opening any packages that beep (add to that, the fact that if it has a tax imposed on it, even if it is small, you can't have it delivered--you have to pick it up yourself!).  Luckily, I only had to pay a small tax (I had my parents send me a phone accessory so I can plug my headphones in).  It was really great to get a real backpack and some Sweedish fish!!  When I was there, though, they asked if I wanted to pick up the center's other two packages for my fellow students, and they cost 200 shekels (~$54) just to pick up!!  When we got back, I picked up the two cameras that I broke from the security desk.  Boy, am I glad to have that headache over with!

Later in the day, I went to an Ethiopian Church with my friends Danielle, Katie, and Lindsey. It was a Christian church, but the style was with more... colorful with rugs and paintings and candles and incenses. It was probably the most colorful church I've ever seen. There was nobody else inside but a sleeping guard, so we actually hung out there for a while because it was really cool inside, temperature wise, and a peaceful place to talk--we had a great gospel conversation about the Kingdoms of Glory. It also had this really amazing painted dome ceiling, with saints and angels all around it. 

Then, we went down the street from the church there is this street called Me'a She'arim. It is a Hasidic Ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood. They had up all these signs that tell you that you have to be super modest and that they don't like groups to come through and disrupt their neighborhood. A few people who have gone there told us that they got some dirty looks if the girls were wearing pants or if there were a lot of them, but my friends were all in skirts, so we were fine (except I felt a little self-conscious for not having my kippa with me...) and since there were only 4 of us people were pretty nice. We stopped at a bookstore to look for a journal for Katie, and it was cool to see all the books they had- 100% of them were in Hebrew. There were also a lot of little stores and fruit stands, and we even saw a shoe-maker's store, where this guy was sitting at this intense sewing-machine stitching a black leather shoe. All of the little kids' sidelocks were longer, thicker, and curlier than any I have seen anywhere else in the city.

At night, I watched a concert put on by Palestinian children in a special music initiative.  It was pretty good!

Today we went to one of the most iconic, most recognizable, most talked about places in the entire history of the world: Bethlehem—the birthplace of our Savior Jesus Christ.  We sing about it.  We reread the happy story of His birth.


But have you wondered: What is the state of Bethlehem today?  I hadn't.  Until today.  To be sure, I have heard a few details about it since being here, but I just didn't think about it much until I went there myself... 
  
Bethlehem is actually very close to Jerusalem, but it takes a little longer than you would think because of traffic and because Bethlehem is in the West Bank... so you have to cross the border which is Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory.  The occupation really isn't a good situation... for disputable but not totally unjustifiable security reasons, a very large portion of the West Bank is literally enclosed by a high, barbed wire-topped wall.  It's very Berlin Wall-esque.  When we passed through it, it almost felt like we were losing our freedom, even though we were only visiting.  Some Palestinians who live there literally can't leave at all unless they have a really good reason, and when they do have to leave, it's a huge pain for them (the exit checkpoints are almost akin to airport security... so many people, so many needed official papers).  Even when they travel within this area from city to city, they still have to go through small checkpoints.  They say that the Palestinians really resent having to live under such conditions.  
The first part of our Bethlehem experience was visiting Bethlehem University, which is a Christian-operated university where both Christian and Muslim Arabs attend (the ratio is about 1/3 Christian, 2/3 Muslim).  We were given a tour of the University which included a Q&A with 5 of their students.  We talked about a lot of things...It was really interesting to hear their opinions, since we usually hear from older, more politically-active scholars or professors, but these were more like our peers.  The things they said weren't that extreme, but the underlying message that I got was that they didn't like the American government or anything that supported Israel's existence.  The sad thing was was that it truly dominated their lives—they think about it a lot... to the point of dwelling on it.  At their library, they showed us a hole in the wall from a missile during an Israeli attack... they made a big deal out of it, even though it was almost 30 years ago.  I asked our guide about one of the pictures they had up in the library... and he really didn't answer it... instead, he talked to me about how the American political system was completely controlled by the Jews (actually, a paraphrase of what he said was 'every politician that has risen to power is because he was pro-zionist, and every politician that doesn't get into office is because they don't support the Zionist agenda).  After we walked around the campus a little, we went for lunch.  It was the most amazing thing ever.  We went to this restaurant that was like a huge tent, with a low roof all the way across.  We sat in groups of 8 at tables, and ate all traditional Arab foods.  The first course was these DELICIOUS whole wheat pitas, and like 10 small plates of stuff you could dip them in. My favorites were the hummus and green sauce. For dessert they had baklava that was so good.  When we went into the city proper, We had a tour guide, our Palestinian teacher's wife, who took us through the city and showed us some of the historical stuff.  We walked through the streets and saw some of the different churches from the outside, but we went into the Church of the Nativity, which was built by Constantine over the place where they believed Jesus was born. There was one spot that was the birthplace and one that was the manger. It was a really cool place to see. There was a chapel connected to it that had a grotto underneath where Jerome translated the bible into Latin. This one wasn't decorated like the Nativity one, so you could see what the stable really might have looked like back then. We went down and sang some Christmas hymns, and there was a really special spirit there, despite the backdrop of political unrest.