CC Official Takes October Trip to Holy Land

In mid-October, I had the privilege to take my second trip to the Holy Land — a land that continues to be in the news and is full of history. I was traveling with my brother, sister-in-law and sister, all from Sequim, and planned on being gone three weeks to celebrate Sukkot, or the Festival of Tabernacles or Ingathering, in the land and then attend a B’Ney Yosef Congress in Ariel (Samaria).

Sukkot is one of the “appointed times” for the Nation of Israel (Lev. 23:34-36). This festival takes place each year beginning at sundown on the 15th day of the Hebrew seventh month. Since the months are determined by the “new moon,” each year the date for this festival changes. This year, it was from sundown on Sunday, Oct. 16, through sundown on Monday, Oct. 24.

We arrived in Tel Aviv after an 11-hour flight from Toronto, where we met Norman, who is an attorney in Toronto and also a Cohen (from the priestly line). He and his wife were also flying to Tel Aviv for Sukkot. He goes over annually to participate in the Priestly Prayer that is held at the Western Wall mid-way through Sukkot.

Sukkot is a seven-day festival remembering how the children of Israel were delivered from Egypt with a final eighth day of celebration. This was to be my first time to be in the Land during Sukkot.

We arrived on a Thursday evening, arriving at our apartment in downtown Jerusalem after sunset. We took a “sherut” (in English, a service taxi that holds up to 10 people with luggage), from the airport in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and the ride was like a Disneyland ride — in and out of traffic with lots of horns honking.

Our apartment was located between Agripas and Yafo Streets in a non-vehicle neighborhood. We were dropped off on the street and had to haul our luggage through an alleyway into a little park area and then another alleyway, up three flights of stairs to our apartment.

The apartment was a two bedroom with a nice but small kitchen. We shared one tiny bathroom — spacious bathrooms are not a high-priority in Israel like they are in the states — that also included a washing machine. The temperature (even in late October) was in the mid-80s, so we were very grateful for air-conditioning.

We were right in the middle of things and could hear the buses and Jerusalem Light Rail going by on Yafo Street as well as the taxi horns on Agripas. Yafo Street is also one of the main shopping areas for the locals. We were situated between Mahane Yehuda Market (the “Shuk” — much like our Pike Place Market) and Ben Yehuda Street (a popular street for tourists).

On Shabbat (Saturday) everything closes down — things actually begin to close around

3 p.m. on Friday and a loud horn blows about 30 minutes before sundown on Friday night to remind everyone that Shabbat is coming.

The streets are empty on Saturday except for those walking to and from the synagogues. But once sundown comes on Saturday evening, the city becomes alive again with the shops opening up until close to midnight.

It was eye-opening to see how the nation observes Shabbat and Holy Days, not just for the religious Jews, but all of the nation. It was also interesting to see how they observe the Festival of Sukkot with temporary dwellings (or Sukkahs) going up all over the city on patios, terraces, etc.

Even restaurants got into it by putting up Sukkahs on the sidewalk or creating a “Sukkah” like structure inside their restaurants to look like you were outside. The city had a very festive spirit with lights, music and colorful decorations hanging from the ceilings.

On the first night of the festival, we went out to eat at sundown and the restaurants were packed with families of 12-20 people, intergenerational and coming together to celebrate and share a meal with the wine flowing.

One of my favorite things to do was to go out to Yafo Street on Shabbat and people watch. There were families — many of them young with children in buggies — headed to the synagogue. Many, many men dressed primarily in black suits with various black hats or “kippas” also headed to synagogue with their “lulav” as commanded in Lev. 23:40.

The Lulav is made up of an “etrog” (goodly fruit of the tree, a citrus), a palm branch and a branch from the willow tree. These are “waved” during Sukkot as part of the “remembering” and rejoicing.

On the eighth day of Sukkot I was taking a nap mid-day and my window was open. I kept hearing singing and thought that was weird since my iPhone music wasn’t on but dozed back off again only to be awakened to more music. I got up and quickly put on some shoes and got my sister-in-law to come with me to go in search of the source of the music.

 We went down the two flights of stairs, through the alleyway onto Yafo Street to find a large group of people. Someone had set up a table with liter sized pop bottles and cups, and the men were dancing in the street, some holding beautiful Torah scrolls. It was beautiful to watch, even though I couldn’t understand what they were singing; you could tell they were definitely rejoicing.

We had the opportunity to do a one-day tour with Hanoch Young that took us up on the Temple Mount, through the Davidson Center and Ophel Archeological Gardens, the Herodian Quarter at the Wohl Museum of Archeology and the Burnt House (Katros House).

 It was very interesting to hear and see over thousands of years Jerusalem has been destroyed only to be rebuilt on its ashes. It is the only city in the world that has been destroyed so many times and then rebuilt.

We ended our tour that day with a tour of the tunnels under the Western Wall. It was amazing to hear that the wall that we see today is only a small portion (in height) of what the wall used to be when it was originally built in King Solomon’s time.

We followed the tunnel along the Western Wall, which would have been on the back side of the Temple to a place where they believe would have been the closest spot to the Holy of Holies in the Temple. Words cannot express what I felt as I stopped there for a moment to take it all in.

Another special opportunity that we had was to rent a car and take a one-day trip up to Caesarea on the Mediterranean Sea. Being from the U.S., I forget how small the nation of Israel is geographically. You can get from the east to the west in about an hour and a half and from the south to the north in about eight hours (depending on the location).

We traveled from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv and then north to Caesarea on freeways that would put ours in the U.S. to shame. There were cities dotting the landscape with skyscraper buildings, some business but mostly residential and lots of new building going on with up to a dozen cranes at each location.

We passed one place that had huge business buildings with names such as Sony, Dell, etc. Obviously it was a center for technology. Cars on the freeways were mostly smaller cars with car manufacturers that we recognized (Honda, Toyota, Suzuki, Ford, Volvo), but there were also some we had never heard of. We didn’t see many SUVs or pickups. We got to tour the Caesarea National Park with ruins dating back thousands of years.

It was interesting to see the remains of Roman bathhouses and beautifully decorated mosaic floors. A special treat was to be taken out on a big pontoon type boat (the boat held about a dozen of us) into the midst of a regatta — an annual boating competition for sailboats there on the Mediterranean.

There were also competitions for wind surfers and sail boarding going on at the same time. There must have been 300 or more sailboats out there with colorful sails. The spray from the water left me soaked and sticky due to the salt content of the water. The color of the water was amazing — kind of a bluish green and so clear.

As we drove back to Jerusalem I could actually see how (Jerusalem) is built on small mountains. I didn’t realize how high we had come since we had originally arrived in the dark, so I checked our altitude and we were at nearly 2,500 feet. Yes, it truly is a city built on a hill as the Bible says.

We also had the opportunity to participate in the Parade of Nations during Sukkot. This is an annual parade during Sukkot where people from all over the world came to show their support of Israel. It was amazing! I have no idea how many people participated but they marched on both sides of a four-lane street and it took over four hours for the parade to go by.

No, I didn’t march because the day was hot and I knew that physically I just couldn’t do it; but, my brother marched and said it was awesome to see the smiles and welcoming handshakes of the people on the side of the parade route.

So, my sister-in-law and I found a shady spot with a short rock fence that I could lean on to watch the parade. The people from the nations had little flags from their countries that they handed out to the children along the route.

The streets were lined with people living in Jerusalem and they would walk out into the parade and shake hands with the participants thanking them for their support. It was an awesome sight.

The largest contingencies of people were from China and Brazil. Many nations were dressed in their national dress and some played music.

We went down to the Kotel (Western Wall) numerous times but only once did I feel compelled to go up to the wall myself. And as I approached it I was overcome with emotion. Something deep inside me welled up realizing that this is near the place where God’s manifest presence actually dwelt. How long he returns to fulfill His promises? As I leaned my forehead onto the Wall, I was overcome with sobs. “Come quickly,” my heart pleaded.

Once Sukkot ended we packed up and took a bus north to Ariel in Samaria. We stayed at Eshel Ha’Shomron Hotel, the only hotel in Samaria, where the second B’Ney Yosef National Congress was to take place. The owners of the hotel have both been seriously impacted by terrorist activity there at the hotel and bear the scars to this day.

There were 14 nations represented at the second B’Ney Yosef National Congress with three additional nations represented via video.

Each nation shared how the Father is moving in their nation, some of their challenges (persecution in some areas of the world), the effects of perceived isolation, and a desire to be a cohesive unit under the banner of our shared beliefs, being about our Father’s business and being ever mindful of his overriding will for restoring the Prodigal Son.

We ate together, we laughed together, we cried together, we repented together, we rejoiced together, we worshiped together. No, we didn’t all speak the same language (other than love); no, we didn’t come from the same culture backgrounds; and no, we didn’t come with the same world view — but all of us came with the same heart, to hear him who called us to a time such as this.

The Congress lasted for four days and then we headed back to Tel Aviv for one final night before heading back to our “temporary homes” in the U,S. We stayed at a cute little boutique hotel in downtown Tel Aviv near the Russian Embassy. The next morning as our taxi took us to the airport, our driver, Daniel, told us that they (the nation of Israel) were closely watching our upcoming elections. He continued stating that the people of Israel consider themselves to be one of the stars in our flag. That was an outstanding statement in my opinion— one I will never forget.

As we drove through various areas of the nation, there were olive trees, citrus trees, cotton fields, industry, new building taking place and lots of children. I was reminded of something that Moshe from the Shorashim shop (in the Old City of Jerusalem) shared with us, “... as you see the new building activity with many cranes, as you see the fruit trees growing, as you see the children running and playing … remember, this is all part of prophecy being fulfilled.”

I can’t wait to return. The land is calling my name. For such a time as this.