Christmas, part II

Finishing up for yesterday, after Bethlehem University, we headed down the Latin Shepherds' Field (there's also a Greek one). As you're looking into in the chapel (on the left), you are looking into and and to the painting (on the right) at the the opposite end of the chapel. It is a lovely little building, very quiet and peaceful. Everyone would have jumped if the angels (or anyone else) started to sing! (Speaking of which, I make a funny/not funny gaffe today when we were eating lunch: I was fidgeting with my soda can and cup when it popped with loud bang that could have been a gunshot in this cavernous, almost empty room; I was very embarrassed!)

After that we headed to the Herodian, Herod the Great's "summer palace." (Herod the Great ruled when Jesus was born; not to be confused with his son, Herod the tetrarch, whom we hear about in the Passion narratives.) It basically looks like a volcano: he took an existing hill, built it up even more, and put a resort on top of it. To give a perspective of size, you can see a row of Israeli soldiers standing on the rim on the opposite side, to the right. One guide (written by Fr. Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, OP) quipped that Herod built for eternity. A huge proportion of the extant ruins all over the area date from Herod's time. It is amazing what a megalomaniac with good taste and unlimited resources can do! It is the supposed site of his burial, but that cannot be definitively proved. There is an area that is identified as his tomb on the site; the problem is that it sits atop one (of three) cisterns. The dubium begins with the simple fact of it's location: dead bodies and standing water are not a good combination for the living.

Today we started at the Israel Museum. It is a huge complex! Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it!) only the two main attractions, the model of 2nd Temple Jerusalem and the Shrine of the Book, were open. (Something you won't find in any tourbook: there are three windows outside the museum: information, tickets and weapons' check. The museum offers free admission to active duty Israeli military personnel and new immigrants, both of whom are usually armed.) The model is immense and it give one a sense of how dominant the Temple was (the largest in the world as the time) in the city, even in the city's lay out. There were a number of errors that Fr. Gregory pointed out, but it is mostly conjecture based on solid history and archeology, so it is understandable. The Shrine of the Book houses the Qumran scrolls. It is shaped, inside and out, like a jar from Qumran and it's scroll. The "scroll" on the inside (the building's axis) is a reproduction the complete scroll of the prophet Isaiah, almost seven and a half meters long!
We had lunch in the café of the Bible Lands Museum, which showcases the peoples and places (and their contemporaneous history) mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures. The one thing I would fault that museum for is the lack of context for the lesser known peoples that are well covered in salvation history. I'm willing to admit that much of the reason may be that I am not a Jew (so not as focused on the Hebrew Scriptures) or an Old Testament scholar. But it was interesting none the less. They also had a temporary exhibit of 18th - 19th century lithographs and photos of Egypt that was neat.

Bubbling in my heart and soul is the Israeli security "fence." In places it is really a fence, but around Bethlehem it is a wall, complete with heavily armed fortifications. The state of Israel is very concerned with its safety. We had no trouble entering and only minor trouble getting out; the guard did not know English well, but once she saw our American passports (and that we were all caucasian), she waved us through. I am still reading Chacour's Blood Brothers, which puts a very human face on both the Jewish and Palestinian people. The wall vividly and viscerally contrasts the Jews and Palestinian people and their suffering to the policies of the secular government of the state of Israel, which in many ways are the source of that suffering. The increasing similarities with our own country's issues with regard to our border with Mexico pains me. I purchased a small Nativity set yesterday in Bethlehem. (We were there around 2:30; the shopkeeper said we were the first ones to go into his shop that day, which tells you something about the economy of Bethlehem which depends on tourists.) The remarkable thing about this small set was that it featured a wall, preventing the wise men from getting to the Christ child. (It didn't bother me one bit that I paid over what it is worth.) The visual image really hit home. It was another moment, like my time in the crypt of Dormition Abbey, when the Lord touched my mind and heart.