Veneration City

This morning I went to a bat mitzvah by the southern end of the Western Wall. What is today known as the Western Wall is an exposed part of the Temple Mount’s retaining wall built by Herod and used as a place of prayer by Jews who wish to pray as close as possible to the site of the Holy of Holies. While compelling, the place does lack a certain decorum, and the large crowds and separate prayer areas for men and women make it difficult to have family events there. Over the last few decades since the Old City came under Israeli control in 1967, archaeologists have excavated much of the area around the south-western corner of the Temple Mount, exposing the street from the Second Temple period, along with shops, ritual baths, and other structures that had been covered by thirty feet of earth for centuries. This area is now frequently used for small events because of its proximity to the site of the Temple, as well as its relative tranquility. We were the first of at least three private services there that day. This bat mitzvah was celebrated in a more egalitarian style with the bat mitzvah girl leading part of the service and reading from the Torah, which would be impossible at the Western Wall. And praying alongside the mounds of debris, the stones piled where they were toppled by the Romans when they destroyed the Temple two thousand years ago, was a much more powerful reminder of the losses and triumphs of the Jewish people than the Western Wall plaza could convey.

The southern end of the Western Wall and the Jerusalem Archaeological Park. At the top left is what remains of Robinson’s Arch, once an entrance to the upper level of the Temple Mount and the largest arch in the Roman Empire in its day. In the foreground are the stones that once made up the top of the wall before the Temple’s destruction. They rest on the original pavement, part of which is visible above the rocks. Beyond that are three enclosures which were shops, including one of a money changer, where travelers would come to buy sacrifices to bring to the Temple, ritual baths, and other buildings of the era. In the distance is the southern wall of the Old City.

En route to meet a friend for lunch, I went to the Abbey of the Dormition, a beautiful church on the site of the Virgin Mary’s Assumption to heaven (some Christian tradition tells that she did not die but fell asleep and was received by Christ in heaven, hence Dormition). I marveled at the striking Byzantine mosaics and stonework, and only found out later that the reason it’s in such good condition is that it’s only 100 years old, built on the site of an older Byzantine church.

The crypt of the church with a wood and ivory statue marking the spot where Mary fell asleep and passed to eternity.

From there I walked to a building containing three religions’ holy sites. The ground floor features a small synagogue at the site of what some hold is the tomb of Kind David. The entry was packed with people singing and dancing, the songs and drums echoing into the courtyard. The Upper Room on the second floor is venerated as the Cenacle, the site of Jesus’ Last Supper. Arabic writing and a mihrab date to when Muslims took over the building in the sixteenth century and made it a mosque, holy to Muslims who also revere the man they know as Nabi Da'ud. The solemnity of the Upper Room contrasted starkly with the exuberance downstairs. From the roof I had a great view of the church and the surrounding area. Then to koobeh lunch with a friend in the shuk and back to Baka for Shabbat.

The cramped room with the covered entry to the supposed tomb of Kind David, which the Bible says isn't here.