Dome of the Rock

Today was another great day in J-town. For starters, our morning classes were cancelled, which meant we were able to explore some of the city again. We decided to visit the Muslim Dome of the Rock. This is a shrine located on the temple mount on the South Eastern side of the Old City. It's an amazing building that has a huge gold dome on the top of it. You can see this from almost everywhere in the city and I can actually glance to the Old City through a window on my right and the most prominent thing I see is the Dome of the Rock. So, I was under the impression that this was a mosque, but I was mistaken when I saw a mosque right next to it on the temple mount. Anyways, I found out that Dome of the Rock is shrine because apparently this is the place where Muhammad ascended to heaven for a few hours to speak with God. It was completed circa 691 AD, which makes it the oldest existingIslamic building in the world. This is a highly disputed piece of land amongst religious groups because somewhere on the temple mount was the Holy of Holies of the temple. Jews are discouraged to visit for fear of defiling the place where the Holy of Holies was located. Overall, it was amazing to see the beauty of this building. Although I do not share the faith of those that built this building you could feel the spirit's presence on this sacred site. We also read scriptures from 1 Kings 8, which speak directly of this mount.

Next, we ventured across the street to the tomb of Mary, Jesus's mother, located at the base of the Mount of Olives. I have been there before, but it was neat to see again. In the building, you are actually allowed to walk through her tomb. It's interesting in the building because all of the paintings are purely of Mary and there is one purely of Christ hidden in a corner. I know it's her tomb, but it's really very interesting to see how others worship her and can almost place Christ aside in some ways.

Up the hill a little bit is the Russian Orthodox Church of Mary Magdalene. We visited there today as well. Walking up to the church is so beautiful. There is a stairway with beautiful greenery lining the path. It's absolutely gorgeous and the outside is awesome. The church has four Golden spires. I guess you would call them spires, but they are more balloon-shaped than that... Anyways, the church is way cool, but I enjoyed the outside more than the inside. Inside was cool and some of the paintings were absolutely beautiful, but nothing compared to the outside. It was definitely something I wanted to see and I'm glad I had the opportunity to see their work of art.

One thing that struck me in particular today was seeing how all religions worship differently. It really hit me on the Dome of the Rock when there was a group there reciting prayer. It seems as though religion is so impersonal in many cases. I've noticed from limited observation that in several religions spirituality and revelation is not left to the individual. This is led and received by someone over a group. I believe in hierarchy, but I'm really grateful to have a personal relationship with my Heavenly Father and Savior.

On that note, Shabbat Shalom.

(I wear the same thing every day... I swear these are all taken on different days. Haha)