Easter and Pesach

April 12, 2012

This past weekend was the beginning of Pesach (Passover in Hebrew) and it was also Easter, the Christian version of Passover. I also had a friend in town so I spent last week showing her around Tel Aviv and then we also went to Jerusalem and the dead sea. Oh and we had a little stop over in Palestine. We walked the stations of the Cross while in Jerusalem and then on Easter we went back and saw the last 4 stations of the Cross at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is believed to be the sight of Jesus' crucifixion.

Being in that place on Easter Sunday was a pretty amazing experience to have. The church was packed with people from all over the world. I wish I could describe the experience, but I can't really find the words. Jerusalem is just an amazing city if you believe in God and to be there during religious holidays makes it that much more amazing. The energy and the people are intense, but warm and inspirational and moving all at the same time. I wish everyone could experience it. Putting a prayer in the Wailing Wall and then walking the stations of the Cross during holy week is uplifting and moving for me and I'm really not religious at all. It's an experience for anyone that believes in God, it ignites a spark of faith in you that until you are there and you experience it you may not have even known you needed it.

We went to J'lem and walked around the old city on a nice warm sunny day and given that the city is religious out of respect people try to dress modestly. So I had on jeans and a tshirt with sleeves, but I also had a cardigan in my bag because at the wall you must cover up. I was burning up that day. I was miserably hot which is a drastic change from the last time I was in J'lem where it was miserably cold and wet. Either way I had a good time and so did Michelle.

There was a little bit of a lapse in communication between Michelle and I apparently too. When she first told me she was planning a trip to visit me I remember her expressing all of the things she wanted to do while here. Visiting Bethlehem was on that list, so after we walked around Jerusalem I told her we'd catch a bus over the Bethlehem. Now for clarity sake, Bethlehem is actually in Palestine for those that may not know. Give the recent rocket attacks and the threat of war with Iran right now I honestly wasn't that comfortable with the idea of visiting Bethlehem this go round, but I was tryna take one for the team seen as I thought she wanted to go. Well come to find out some where between planning her trip and actually arriving here Michelle had changed her mind about Bethlehem and she was toughing out the visit to Bethlehem because she thought I wanted to go seen as I'd never been before.....

Well let's just say this as soon as you cross in to Palestinian territory you can feel it. It's an experience, an immediate change in energy. It was not comfortable at all. There was a sigh we passed while on the bus that said something about you're now entering Palestinian Territory it's illegal for Israeli citizens to enter.... when Michelle saw this sign she looked at me with this immense sense of shock on her face and was like did you see that. I said yes of course, but I was a bit confused because I was thinking she knew all of this and wanted to go to Bethlehem so that's why we were taking this trip.... well some where between seeing that sign and actually going through the border crossing it was decided that we were not getting off of the bus and that we were taking this bus straight back to Jerusalem. Which was totally fine by me seen as I wasn't the most comfortable with the idea either. A little miscommunication led us to Palestine and back, but now we can both say we've been and I'm sure I'll try to go back another time before I leave, but hopefully it'll be a little bit more of a comfortable experience for me.

Friday night was the start of Pesach. I sadly didn't attend a seder, but I did have a yummy lunch with my roommate and Michelle in the sunshine as our own little celebration of Passover. Even though I'm not Jewish out of respect for my roommates I also threw out my bread and am bread-less for Passover. That's as far as it goes though. I've had kosher for Passover foods before, pastas, matzah, etc and I do not like them at all so I'm still eating the regular stuff.

On Easter Sunday before heading back to Jerusalem in the afternoon we went for a hike in the desert and to float in the dead sea. The dead sea is amazing, it's awesome to just float in it, but because the water is so salty the experience doesn't seem to last very long for me. After about 15 mins of floating I've had enough. Once you exit the water and you can feel the salty sludge all over your skin all I want to do is rinse off. It's still amazing though because you really do immediately float.

Anyway enough talking, check out some of my pictures....