The Image of the Menorah found on a wall in the Herodian Quarter. (photo taken from http://seeisraelyourway.com)
Today we will finish our virtual tour of the Jewish Quarter in Old City Jerusalem. As we continue winding our way through the narrow stone streets, we come to a large building that says Wohl Museum. We enter into a small reception area and are immediately escorted down a steep set of stairs and into a time warp, called the Herodian Quarter. We are literally standing in the ruins of Second Temple Jerusalem! This reality is enough to give anyone goosebumps. The upper city, where we are standing, was populated by Jewish priestly families, Pharisees and Sadducees, all of whom conducted the religious, political and military affairs for the city during the 2nd Temple period. The buildings date to the time of Herod the Great, who reigned from around 37-4 BCE. Though the city was burned to the ground in 70 CE, we have the awesome privilege to see what was left under the rubble and imagine what life must have been like in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago.
Ruins of a villa from the Herodian Quarter in Jerusalem. (pic via Getty Images)
Some of the artifacts found in the ruins were pottery jugs, oil lamps and fertility goddess figurines. There were perfume vials and stone vessels. But the most incredible find was a limestone wall hanging of an artist’s rendition of the Menorah, the seven-branched candelabra, which stood in the Temple. For years it was only supposition that this find was the likeness of the Temple Menorah until, in 2009, another likeness of the same candelabra was found in a 2nd Temple synagogue in Magdala on the Sea of Galilee, confirming that both artists must have actually seen the original with their own eyes!
We walk from structure to structure, most preserved to their original state. Most of them were villas of wealthy people. Mosaic floors, ritual baths, tables, whose legs were lost to the fire, but the tops remained intact. And then we come to an eerie sight; ashes encased in glass. Two-thousand-year-old soot from a city destroyed. This ashes and soot are what the archaeologists had to sift through in order to find any remains of the city. It is profoundly sobering to stand in this place and imagine the terror these families must have felt as their homes and city were destroyed by the Romans. Josephus writes, “The blood of the victims put out the fires.” How very sad.
Most scholars and historians believe that the 2nd Temple fell because of baseless hatred, one Jew to another. Yes, it was the Romans who did the damage, but it was a result of Jewish infighting that was the ultimate cause. This is a strong lesson for the times we live in today. A lesson that if not learned can lead to the destruction of any city, any state and any country whose people are divided with hatred one for the other.
An aerial view of the Temple Mount Complex. (http://biblicalisraeltours.com)
As we make our way back up into modern day street level, just around the corner we have an incredible view of the Temple Mount and the Western Wall (Kotel). We are looking at 3,800 years of Jewish history. Underneath that huge golden dome (The Dome of the Rock), is the place of Abraham’s binding of Isaac; Mt. Moriah. 800 years later, King David purchased this land, and his son, Solomon, built the first monotheistic Temple, to the God of Israel on that very spot.
That Temple stood for almost 400 years until the Babylonians came and destroyed it and exiled the Jewish people in 586 BCE. The Jews returned 40 years later and built a small temple, what is known as the Second Temple. When the Romans ruled the Land of Israel, Herod the Great, ventured on what was believed to be the most magnificent building project in the world. His determination to be remembered as the greatest builder of all time might just have been realized in the building of this massive 144,000 square meter Temple complex. The base of the Temple Mount, what we see today, still stands with the same Herodian stones placed there more than 2000 years ago! Herod used Jewish labourers and Jewish taxes to expand the Temple Mount and build this massive architectural wonder.
But the Jews had had enough of Roman rule and started a revolt in the year 66 CE that lasted seven years. Halfway through the revolt, in 70 CE, the Romans destroyed the Temple and the Jewish part of the city, expelling the Jews from Jerusalem. The Temple Mount laid in ruins for 621 years, as a testament to the destruction of Jewish Jerusalem, until the Moslem conquest of the Holy Land which brought about the building of the existing structure, the Dome of the Rock in 691, as a memorial to Mohammed’s Night Journey.
We stand in Jerusalem today some 2000 years after Rome tried to destroy the Jews. What is incredible is that today the Jews literally live on top of the rubble of what was once Rome. Jews all over the world pray three times a day towards this Temple Mount, in hopes that one day, we will be free to worship there once again. Let’s go down and get as close as we can to the holiest site of the Jewish people.
A view of the Western Wall from rent-a-guide.co.il
We enter into the Kotel Courtyard, where Jews from all over the world make a personal journey to touch the western wall of the Temple Mount, pray to the God of Israel, and leave notes for their friends and family who couldn’t make the journey. This wall is sacred because it is the closest place in proximity to the where the Temple and the Holy of Holies stood, where Jews are free to pray. Above the praying people, the massive wall, with its huge stone structure, towers above. And just on the other side of the wall is the site where the 2nd Temple once stood. Unfortunately, the Temple Mount has been under the control of the Muslim religious authority since the time of the Crusades. And even though Jerusalem is under Israeli jurisdiction today, non-Muslims are still not allowed to pray up there. And so for now, the Western Wall is the only Christian and Jewish access point.
If you ever get an opportunity to actually come to Jerusalem and touch the Western Wall, it is an emotional and very moving experience. For Christians and Jews to pray there is a once in a lifetime treasure, a holy moment. For those who aren’t religious, I guarantee you will not go there without having your heart touched by God in some way.
Until next time, Shalom from Jerusalem.
