The City of David
has already changed Jerusalem. A new discovery there opening soon will change
the way Jews connect with their past in a way never seen before.
From J.Post - BY
YAAKOV KATZ JUNE 30, 2019 12:58 - https://tinyurl.com/y3pr4btm
In 2004, a sewage
pipe burst in the middle of the neighborhood of Silwan in southeast Jerusalem.
The municipality sent in a crew of construction workers to fix the leak, and as
is the case in Jerusalem and especially in neighborhoods adjacent to the Old
City, they were accompanied by a team of archeologists.
As the repairs
progressed, the construction workers stumbled upon some long and wide stairs a
few dozen meters from where the Shiloah – the ancient pool Jewish pilgrims
would dip in before beginning the religious ascent to the Temple, until its
destruction in 70 CE – was believed to have once stood. The steps were just
like the ones that lead to the Hulda Gates, a set of now blocked entrances
along the Temple Mount’s Southern Wall.
Discovery of the
Shiloah Pool led to another monumental find – the central water drainage
channel that had served ancient Jerusalem. This channel is the tunnel that
visitors to the City of David – known as Ir David – get to walk through today,
starting at the bottom of the Shiloah and emerging about 45 minutes later next
to the Western Wall.
The ancient street
is referred to as “Pilgrimage Road,” since archeologists are convinced that
this is the path millions of Jews took three times a year when performing the
commandment of aliyah l’regel – going up to the holy city of Jerusalem to bring
sacrifices to God during Judaism’s three key holidays, Passover, Shavuot and
Sukkot.
The Pilgrimage Road
goes all the way from the Shiloah Pool to the area adjacent to the Western Wall
known as Robinson’s Arch, where today you can still see remnants of the ancient
stairway that led into the Jewish Temple.
Walking the road –
as of now Ir David has excavated about 250 meters of it – you can imagine the
throngs of people parading on it 2,000 years ago. Young boys walking next to
their parents. Girls on their fathers’ shoulders. So far, only some of the
stores that once lined the road have been partially uncovered, but with
imagination you can hear the bartering that took place here – people trading
leather for fur, seeds for honey, coins for wine.
For example, archaeologists found a set of stairs in the middle of the road alongside one of
the ancient shops. But the staircase doesn’t go anywhere. It ends in a
platform. When Ir David checked, though, it found just one other similar set of
stairs – in Rome.
IR DAVID has changed
our understanding of history. It is one thing to read the Mishna and imagine or
visualize what life for Jews was once like. It is quite another to walk on the
exact same road as they did.
Ir David hopes that
when the road officially opens in a few months, it will draw approximately one
million visitors a year.
Considering the
anti-Israel resolutions coming out of United Nations organizations such as
UNESCO that deny the Jewish connection to Jerusalem, the Pilgrimage Road has
far greater significance for Israel than just the opening of a new impressive
tourist site, said Ze’ev Orenstein, director of international affairs for Ir
David.
It proves the long
and historic Jewish connection to Jerusalem, Orenstein stressed, not just the
parts where Jews live today but across the city, even if it takes you under
homes and streets in Arab neighborhoods like Silwan.
US Ambassador David
Friedman agrees. “The City of David brings truth and science to a debate that
has been marred for too long by myths and deceptions,” he told the Magazine.
“Its findings, in most cases by secular archeologists, bring an end to the
baseless efforts to deny the historical fact of Jerusalem’s ancient connection
to the Jewish people.”
I asked Friedman why
the discovery of Pilgrimage Road was important for the US government.
“There has been
enormous support for the City of David by the American public,” he said. “This
is yet another example – and a great one – of the recognition of the
Judeo-Christian values upon which both nations were founded.”
I asked Friedman
what would happen if a peace deal were to be concluded one day between Israel
and the Palestinians. Is it possible that the Jewish state would be asked to
give up Ir David or Silwan?
“I do not believe
that Israel would ever consider such a thought,” he said. “The City of David is
an essential component of the national heritage of the State of Israel. It
would be akin to America returning the Statue of Liberty.”
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