What to blog about?

So much has happened the past few days I hardly have time to blog about it. Today is Monday. Hmmm.... well, my last blog was on Tuesday writing about last Sunday. Phew. Well, most weekends we have a field study trip on either Saturday or Sunday; however, this weekend was one of our few weekends off, so three quarters of the school disappeared from campus. The 12 of us who were left spent a relatively quiet weekend relaxing with minor escapades in between movies and food.

This Friday evening marked the beginning of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah. Unlike our New Year, the Jewish New Year is a solemn time to prepare for Yom Kippor, the day of Atonement where you hope your name is written in the book of life. They don't have a glass ball or yamika or something that drops from the western wall with confetti. In fact, they nearly all spend the night either in a synagogue or at home since Friday is Shabbat.

Saturday a few of us decided to check out the city to see what we could see since Saturday marked the beginning of the Islamic month of Ramadan. During this month the Muslim community will fast and pray from 4:00 am until about 4:00 pm, when they feast.

Here are some pictures from our Saturday outing:

Four of us guys went - Ben, Benaiah, Josh, and myself

Being guys we couldn't stick to normal streets and somehow ended up smack in the center of the Old City meat market. There is an entire alleyway/street devoted to meat. You have to walk a little on the side of the street because of the "water" draining down the center doesn't look entirely sanitary. I apologize if anyone is grossed our by the picture, but trust me that I left off the more disgusting ones.

Our trip led us into the muslim marketplace where we wandered the packed streets for about an hour.

You can see Benaiah and I on the left buying candy for one of our fellow students. I love bartering with the shopkeepers : )

Next we jumped ship from the market street to a small orthodox church immediately adjaent to the church of the Holy Sepulchre. They have the oddest decorations in that place. Here they have a clock/large watch on the wall where all the worshipers would have been facing?

Another interesting picture in the place is Jesus holding the holy handgrenade - Monty Python?

We found a German hostel we were able to get into and the view of the city was incredible. We were incredibly close to the Dome of the Rock, and from a side a different side of the city than we usually go to see the Dome. The old city of Jerusalem is unique from any other city I know because the entire city is enclosed within the walls and in a matter of minutes you can go from one people group to another. One street will be too noisy to talk or think, but one road over will be completely silent and calm. What a city.

The last place we went before heading back to campus was the Temple Mount. As close to the Temple Mount as we are allowed to go. There are certain areas where the general public is allowed to go during certain times of the day, but the Dome itself is entirely off limits to non-muslims. This gate is guarded by Israeli soldiers to keep any non-muslims from entering the Dome. Ben took this picture of what I think is the stairway leading to the Dome. On the bottom left you can see one of the soldiers guarding the door.

Yesterday, Sunday, was a whole other adventure I'll have to write about later. Here's a question I've been pondering a great deal recently that I would like anyone's imput on who's willing to give it: does the Old Testament require that sins be atoned for through blood? or can there be atonement without death? - the book of Hebrews excluded. - simply because that is the book Ben and I are studying which sparked these questions - Hebrews 2:17 - any imput on the atonement and blood would be great.