From the moment we arrived at the Tower of David Museum there was only one thing on my mind. Well, not really one thing, but more like a few small ideas. I had our upcoming visit to the shuk (Israeli market) on my mind, and a sense that this tour through a museum about the Temple Mount was going to be the most disgustingly boring thing I would experience. I was kinda right. This tour, through photographs old and new, was a little more than an hour and admittedly wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been. Our tour guide was more than competent and clearly knowledgeable about the Temple Mount. This was lucky since I had absolutely no clue really what the Temple Mount was, other than that it had a mosque. There were some notable photographs mainly consisting of various religious ceremonies and visits by people of political importance. These pictures helped to emphasize the cultural significance of the Temple Mount along with the passion that fuels so much debate surrounding it. I managed to take away that the Mount was the location of the Holy of Holies and is highly debated among Jews and Muslims as to who should pray there. Currently only Muslims are allowed and this causes some conflict since the Temple Mount is the holiest place for Jews and they cannot pray at it.
After discussing the Temple Mount, I feel the need to continue on a lighter note with the Shuk. To be entirely honest, the Shuk wasn’t nearly as interesting I had anticipated. That’s not to say that it wasn’t fun, it had a West-Side Market vibe (I think the west-side market is better though) and had some cool little nooks and crannies filled to the brim with spices and really any other foods you could imagine. But the highlight of the Shuk was definitely the rapper who positioned himself at the entrance. This man was clearly an American who either moved to Israel or was visiting, and he was the most awful thing I have ever heard. He is Israel’s true threat. Everything that came out of his mouth made the Shuk seem so much less enjoyable. However, there is a bright side. On the bus ride to Bet- She’an Amnom told me and some others about how he would’ve loved to take the rapper down but he didn’t want to be arrested. We managed to conclude that if he had taken the rapper down, he would’ve been declared a national hero and would’ve had a parade all through Jerusalem in his honor.
This is Max Kornblut signing off looking forward to the rest of Israel.