We've been in the city all day. Straight after class, Katie, I, and a classmate from Norway named Marianna, took the city bus from campus to...er, what we hoped would be the Israel Museum. Now, we really did try. The Museum's website said the 9, 14, and 17 buses went there, so we didn't get on the 17 bus completely blind. Just mostly blind. (Nothing says 'fun' like my first time on a bus in any city and having zero clue where I'm going. Maps are all in Hebrew you see...) So we knew vaguely what to look for and hoped for the best.
Astoundingly, that did not work. +5 travel points to Katie, who approached the driver with a, (phonetically) "sleekah, atah medeber anglit?" He shook his head. "Eifo Mutzeon Yisrael?" (Excuse me, do you speak English?, Where is the Israel Museum?) With some helpful translation from a passenger, we determined that me needed to switch to bus tesha (9) at the next stop, which took us straight to the front door. The three of us shared in a modest group high-five as the bus pulled away.
There, we met up with Kate, another classmate of ours from America, and proceeded into the Museum.
I dragged everyone along eagerly to our first stop, the Shrine of the Book, a white dome set into the Earth amidst a fountain, housing Israel's collection of the Dead Sea Scrolls. (This biblicist has her priorities and is not ashamed of them.) But I was not alone in my enthusiasm. If you're going to go see old Biblical Texts, always take a handful of Bible, Classics, and Text nerds. Much more fun, trust me. I saw some of the Scrolls in a touring exhibit in New York this spring, but this collection was more complete, including the famously mostly-intact Isaiah scroll, and the emphasis here is that the texts are being enshrined in Zion itself. We spent at least an hour under the dark dome before Marianna started gesturing downstairs excitedly--they had the Aleppo Codex.
In short, the Aleppo Codex is a manuscript of the Hebrew Bible from the 10th century and is believed to be the most complete, authentic version of the Masoretic text. It's been hidden, stolen, shunted, and hunted all over the world for as long as it has existed until it finally found a permanent home in the Israel Museum. Signs around the display asked us to approach the text with respect.
While we were waiting for everyone to finish, I heard Katie cry from behind me, "Wellesley!" I spun around, and, sure enough, the woman behind us had a 'Wellesley Class of '07' shirt on. We introduced ourselves and chatted about what brought us to Israel (she was on a birthright trip.) Wellesley women--we are truly everywhere.
From there, we went to the Jerusalem model--a 1/50 scale model of Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period (you didn't think you were going to have to learn, did you?) The description doesn't do it justice. I wasn't prepared for how, well, cool it was. Beneath the ledge, a stand-in Mount of Olives (google that one yourself if you need to), the city lay sprawled out in reconstructed white stone about an acre wide. Tiny huts and stacked walls surrounded the Temple itself as it would have stood in Herod's Jerusalem. We spent an equally long amount of time there, taking photos and listening in on tours to learn what we could.
From there, I made what was my second trip to the Archaeological wing. This time, skipping the early stuff, I got to spend as long as I wanted with the Tel-Dan inscription (the first written reference to the House of David, a thorny archaeological issue), the Hezekiah Tunnel Inscription (the point at which the two digging teams building an aqueduct beneath the city met, proving the levels of literacy at the time and how cool the Hezekiah Tunnel is), and the oldest found Biblical text (a blessing from Numbers written on two silver pendants, predating the Dead Sea Scrolls by about 400 years). I did warn you I was a nerd about this stuff. (Are you reading all these links? There's going to be a test, you know.)
After that, it was nearly closing time, so after an obligatory trip to the gift shop in which I oohed and ahhed over some prints of illuminated Biblical texts, we tried to make our way back to East Jerusalem.
Once again, tried.
We wanted to avoid changing buses this time, so we thought we'd walk over to the Givat Ram campus of the University and take a direct bus from there.
Except we got lost. We did not find the University. We found a Circus.
Well, across from which was a random bus stop that had the right bus in the right direction, so after half an hour of wandering, we decided to just wait there. We're pretty sure we heard a motorcycle demonstration from the circus tent, labelled in bright lights, 'Amerikani.' Classy.
If Marianna ever forgives me for getting her lost, I think she'll come out with us again. She (a grad student of theology. That woman knows her biblical Hebrew.) was super cool and intelligent, and she seemed glad to have someone to tour with.
For now, my homework calls me before it gets too late. I have a few more trips planned for this week (stay tuned for the actual Hezekiah Tunnel), so there'll be plenty to talk about in my next post.
Shalom!
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| Me in front of the Shrine of the Book |
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| The scale model of Jerusalem |
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