Friday February 7 we spent in Bethlehem, the shepherds fields nearby and at Ein Karem in the Judean Hill Country noted for its connection to St. John the Baptist and the Visitation.
Some of you may have heard of some disturbances around Israel and Palestine which has resulted in the death of either 4 or 5 Palestinians and the ramming of an Israeli army vehicle. Since some of the action, I'm told, involved someone from Bethlehem and happened in Jerusalem, I can imagine there were concerns about our safety. We are all safe and feel safe. Our trip has not been affected beyond running into closed roads and having more discussions among us and with locals about the political situation and how it affects people in Palestine.
We are staying at St. Gabriel Hotel in Bethlehem. It is a very nice hotel, and I think we are all enjoying it. Tonight we spend the last of three nights here before moving our trip to the north, Galilee, which is in the nation of Israel. Bethlehem is on the West Bank, which is in the nation of Palestine, as much as it can really be called a nation. Other notable cities in Palestine we will visit include Jericho and Bethany. Our bus and many other people with the proper documents often pass easily through the border checkpoints. But not everyone can get the documents. Many people in Bethlehem work in Jerusalem which is in Israel. (The cities are just five miles apart.) At times many people passing through are checked more thoroughly which delays everyone and makes getting to work on time difficult.
But enough about that. On both Thursday and Friday about half of us got up early and walked from our hotel to the church of the Nativity. On Thursday we were able to spend about seven minutes in the cave where Jesus was born. Today we could not get in there, but did have a leisurely visit in all the other caves under the church of the Nativity. One was where Jerome translated the bible from Greek and Hebrew into the then-common Latin around the year 400. This became known as the Vulgate (i.e. vulgar, or common tongue) translation. On Thursday we also wandered through the area more and saw a few more streets.
We returned in time for a hearty breakfast and boarded the bus to go to Shepherds' Fields, where the angels announced the birth of the Savior to the shepherds. We had Mass in one of the caves there and also visited a beautiful small chapel. We celebrated the Christmas liturgy and sang Christmas carols.
From there we headed to a place to shop for higher quality olive wood items. They are beautiful, but you pay for the craftsmanship. If you ever do this, move beyond the proclamations of 15% or 30% discounts. You can drive a much harder bargain on the more expensive items. However, we were treated very well, and they gave the parish a beautiful icon of Mary which will be shipped to us. We will find a prominent place for it. This store does sell thing that are really handmade and made by people in the Bethlehem area. Many items for sale in shops and on the streets are actually produced in China, and simply sold here. Others are made in Bethlehem and the surrounding area, but are of poor quality. If you want some trinkets, rosaries, or an inexpensive nativity set, you will find better prices elsewhere. If you want a keepsake, this store might be better. But bargain. The sort of buying we did today helped the local working Christian families, not just the store owner. This is important in a city where the Christian population has shrunk form 40% when I was here nearly 30 years ago down to about 10%.
One of the more interesting things we discovered in this store was one of salesman, Faud Moubassela. He is an excellent singer, and showed us a video he and others from Bethlehem made singing Little Drummer Boy in several languages. You can get it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHLcf6BUrEY or going to youtube and searching for Little Drummer Boy Bethlehem.
Next we went to the Church of the Nativity and were given a tour of the building while we waited our turn to visit the cave in which Jesus was born. This church was the only one not destroyed by the Persians when they came through the Holy Land around 611-613. (These were not Muslims; that religion began later.) It was preserved because a fresco on it showed the magi, who were depicted wearing Persian dress. The building has recently been renovated to save the roof and be cleaned. In the process they discovered many more mosaics on the walls than had been seen for centuries. Below is a picture of the nave of the church when it was deserted early in the morning; center: the spot designating where Jesus was born in the cave below the church, also early in the morning. right: two of our group venerating that area during our group visit.
The wait to see the grotto was extended by the Roman Catholic Procession which goes through parts of the church and into the grotto. I had never seen the procession before, so I found the wait worth it. We also had more time in the Greek Orthodox area which has many ancient icons and paintings.
The actual visit was very brief and somewhat chaotic as people were trying to get in from the other stairway. It was very different than the early morning visits when we were practically alone.
Our next stop was lunch. The meal for the day was described as Aleppo Barbeque. It is a Syrian dish almost never seen elsewhere. It is a lamb/beef compbination, shaped in a ball and put on a cinamon stick in a tomato sauce. There were also french fries, roasted chicken and many side dishes of various salads.
After lunch we went to Ein Karem. This is an area in the Judean Hill country. There are two churches in the area. One has an ancient connection with John the Baptist. That was being renovated, so we could not go there. We did visit the other place which is connected with the Visitation, a church high on a hill which I had never seen before. The walk up is very steep, all stairs. But the stairs have a dual ramp built into it to allow a car to go up - two tires on one ramp, and two on the other. Several of our people went in a car which barely made it up.
We heard several days later that the retaining wall we walked by collapsed a few days later due to excessive rain. The collapse may put a convent and orphanage in jeopardy.
The hill country is heavily terraced so olive trees and other farming can be done. The soil is very rocky, but it still is productive.
We returned to Bethlehem the normal way today, for our final night in Bethlehem. Three of us did a quick walk into the shopping area to buy some inexpensive items, and returned by cab - making the others wait on the bus a few minutes before we headed to "The Tent" Restaurant. It is sort of a tent, but really a structure. Lawrence Tours bought wine for all of us. The meal was enjoyable. We saw a number of people smoking from hookas and got a short tutorial on it. As best I can describe it, tobacco is put into a cored apple, which is wrapped in foil and has charcoals put on it. One inhales from a hose, which lowers the pressure in a lower chamber, which causes water in that part to rise. Air flow into the apple/bowl. Because of the charcoals, smoke is created which flows into the lower chamber and then is inhaled through the hose. I have no pictures.
We returned to the hotel and retired for the night. Tomorrow will be a new adventure.
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