A Southern American in Jerusalem: “ShAy-bAt ShAy-Lom, Y’all! Where ‘re yer cheeseburgers?”

Above: An icon some friends and I found in a jewel of a church tucked away in the Old City of Jerusalem. The small Greek Orthodox building is usually locked up, but somehow my friend met the lady with the keys in a gift shop. The Greek woman brought us to the church.

While you might have been celebrating the 4th of July in a traditional, patriotic, freedom loving, and culturally kosher manner—that is with a backyard barbecue—my American flatmate and I did our best to do the same. Of course, we ran into some difficulties here in Jerusalem.

Dilemma #1: We weren’t in America.
Remedy #1: We decided to eat cheeseburgers in the spirit of America.

Dilemma #2: Oh, wait, that’s right—here we go again. Jerusalem, in the spirit of Israel, is a Jewish city, and therefore seeks to keep kosher. What does that mean? For starters, dairy and meat aren’t allowed at the same restaurant, let alone the same meal. That’s a bit of a problem when you have a hankering for a cheeseburger.
Remedy #2: Find a non-kosher restaurant.

Dilemma #3: The 4th of July occurred on a Saturday this year. While that may be perfect for a celebration in the United States, Saturday is the Sabbath in Jerusalem. Most establishments are closed. Buses stop running. The city is quiet.
Remedy #3: Find a non-kosher restaurant open on “Shabbat” and improvise with the transportation.

Like our forefathers, rebelling against the establishment in the name of freedom and seemingly guided by Providence, my Gentile friend and I managed to find an open non-kosher restaurant in town. The restaurant, of course, was filled with other Americans devouring cheeseburgers and fries. Oh yes, and we could order our burgers “medium” or even “medium well.” We enjoyed our truly American experience so much that suddenly everything became American for the rest of the afternoon. Even the traditional Israeli Saturday greeting, “Shabbat Shalom” (peaceful Sabbath), became Americanized with a southern draw: “Shaaaaaay-bat Shaaaaaaaay-Lom, Y’all!”


Above: An advertisement I found in Tel Aviv that claimed to have a remedy for peace...I think it was imported from America...it didn't even bother with writing its message in Hebrew or Arabic: "Mutual respect, friendship, non-violence, integrity, fun."

In all seriousness, while cheeseburgers are hard to come by in this city, “once in a lifetime” experiences are the norm. One highlight from the last week centers around another trip to the Western (or “Wailing”) Wall. This time, I was on a night tour of Jerusalem with other international students studying at Hebrew University. We walked around much of the Old City as the guide told dozens of stories about the different sites. I’m finding that even if there is not a historical story to be told, the rabbis have passed some narrative along that usually is recounted to enrich the experience. Our tour guide informed us throughout this tour that the “Old City” is actually a misnomer since its walls and many of the attractions are “only” four hundred years old. I suppose that only sounds like a long time in the United States.

The Western Wall was the last stop of the tour, and we had reservations to explore the tunnel that runs along the part of the wall that is not visible from the outside. I will not take up space explaining the history of the tunnel here, but if you are interested, I will put an informational link at the end of this blog. The important thing is: if you go to Jerusalem, you MUST enter this tunnel.

Before I had heard that the Jewish temple was magnificent, but seeing the 2000 year old stones of the outer supporting wall, still in fabulous condition and incredibly ornate, there, before my eyes, was spiritual meat for my soul. When Jesus told the Pharisees, “Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days,” it’s no wonder they responded with, “It has taken us 46 years to build this temple…” Of course, John explains that the Messiah was talking about His body (the infinitely more glorious temple than the one made by man), but even so, Jesus’ statement in front of this temple was surely poignant. There was one point in this tunnel tour where the wall stood on our right, and we found ourselves standing on the actual Roman road where the temple market would have been. How provocative to think who might have walked these very roads…
Again, this was a night tour of Jerusalem, and by the time our group had made it to the Western Wall, it was already midnight. I naively thought that the Western Wall would be mostly deserted at this time, but instead I found it much busier than my first Saturday afternoon visit. The video below gives you an idea of what I saw.


Soon, I hope to report on more of the mundane here in Jerusalem because I have found much to enjoy in what is becoming daily life, but I’ll finish this update with a blurb about Jaffa and Tel Aviv.

Basically everyone I had talked to, Israeli and tourist alike, had warned me that Tel Aviv is basically the opposite of Jerusalem (secular, modern, beachy, etc). I saw very little of Tel Aviv during my short visit to the two adjoining cities, but I found Jaffa absolutely charming, and no one told me to expect that. The city overlooks the Mediterranean and, if I were dreaming and this place were to appear in my dream, I would have thought that I was looking at a Greek island (okay, I have never been to a Greek island, but I have seen The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Parts 1 and 2). Only right before I left did one new friend suggest that this town is mentioned in Acts as “Joppa,” where Simon Peter stayed with Simon, the tanner, after he prayed and called Tabitha from the dead. Here, Peter also received his vision to go to the Gentiles and met with Cornelius. Since the group I went with was mostly Jewish and our tour guide’s English was fairly broken, this story almost went forth unnoticed. Quite fitting I suppose. It’s habit now to carry a small copy of the Bible basically wherever I go because opportunities to pair a setting with a text are all around. This was one of those scenarios.



A view of Tel Aviv from Jaffa




Western Wall information: http://english.thekotel.org/content.asp?id=116