May 17, upon awakening after my first night at
the Tantur Ecumenical Institute, Jerusalem: It is a nice place with views of
Jerusalem & Bethlehem. It is 5 hours
behind Philippine time here. So I just
had an 8 am breakfast. We had bread,
hard-boiled egg, cheddar & cottage cheese & fresh fruits including
grapefruit. I did not try the latter yet
because the others were sprinkling sugar on it.
At the 12-hour El
Al (Israeli airline) flight from Hong Kong to Tel-Aviv on May 16 in which we arrived at Tel-Aviv at 11 at night, they gave me a middle seat
because El Al said that the plane was full. We were a group of 24 from the Philippines
& we noticed that 20 of us were all given middle seats & spread out in
the plane, even though most of us asked for aisle seats. We conjectured that this was a security
measure since El Al knew that we knew each other.
I was
originally seated between two non-Filipino women, but then the flight attendant
requested that I exchange seats with a Filipina & I ended up sitting
between two ultra-orthodox (Hasidic) Jewish men who could have been rabbis. They were big with full beards, curled side
burns, prayer shirts under their coats, & black hats. I was told that they
would not sit beside a woman & so their original seatmate had to be moved. It was interesting to encounter it first-hand.
The two were solicitous
especially when they saw that my food seemed delayed. They called the attention of the flight
attendant. They were served first
because they had a special diet. My
Filipino companions had a good time talking about my "fortunate"
seating & Pol Repotente took a picture of me sleeping between the
"rabbis." The two would stand
up at certain times to find a place where they would pray standing &
slightly swaying back & forth.
The
weather at Tantur is like Baguio in the summer. You can go outdoors with just your t-shirt. It
is dry & it can get hot under the sun & so regular drinking is advised.
It was
sunny this May 17 afternoon. We were out 3
hours to have a panoramic view (from the south) of the Old City of Jerusalem. You could see the golden Dome of the Rock,
which is one of the holiest Islamic shrines & which has been off-limits to
visitors for some years now. It is where
the holiest section of the Jerusalem temple used to be.
We also saw the Hinnom Valley
where ancient Israelites sacrificed to idols including human sacrifices that
were condemned by the prophets. By the
time of Jesus, it was already the city dumpsite because it was considered an
abominable place. This was Gehenna,
where “the fire always burns & the worm never dies” like Smokey Mountain & Payatas dumpsite.
In the
meals at Tantur, there are always fresh greens for salads, luscious cherry
tomatoes & bell peppers. There are 3
choices of dressings: all creamy. The
honeydew & pears are so sweet. Last
night we had lamb & beef rolls with lots of pine nuts. I initially thought the nuts were garlic,
& I was removing them, until somebody corrected me.
Tantur
has a huge garden with flowering trees & bushes. It is a school that promotes mutual
understanding between Jews, Muslims & Christians. The property straddles the original border
between Israel & the West Bank, now under the Palestinian National Authority.
The front gate of Tantur is in Israel
while the back gate used to be part of the West Bank, so that Israelis and
Palestinians can enter separate gates to meet in the institute for dialogues. Unfortunately, the Israelis moved back the
border & set up an 8-meter high wall, which one could see from Tantur.
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