Day 7/8 - Jim Papile - Jacob's Well; Church of the Ten Lepers, Beqin, The Taybeh Brewery, Church of the Resurrection, The Herodian Palace

Today's Slideshow

Jacob's Well; St George's Church of the Ten Lepers,  Greek Orthodox, Beqin; Orthodox Service, The Taybeh Brewery, Taybeh; Sunday Morning,Church of the Resurrection (Jerusalem); The Herodian Palace;  A local restaurant near the Damascus Gate.  It's been a busy two days

Israel today is a mass of contradictions.  Yesterday morning we found ourselves at the lovely Orthodox Church of  St Photini, at the outskirts of the city of Nablus deep within the occupied territories of the West Bank.  For many of us the climb down into the well was a moving experience.  Jacob's Well has, throughout history been a place where cultures have met in the most intimately caring  of ways.  Patriarchs Isaac and Jacob went there to find wives, women not from their tribe.  Jesus, traveling through the area, then called Samaria met a woman who was not from his tribe.  His encounter with her has been for many who have felt marginalized because of race or gender, a story of hope and acceptance.  Another example of the refusal; to abandon or reject was the story of Jesus healing the ten lepers, the theme of the tiny ancient Greek church in a little town called Beqin.

Filling and sealing bottles of water from Jacob's Well at St. Photini.

Over and over the Bible records the coming together of people who have stood in opposition to  or have rejected each other.  Late this afternoon Mary Malzahn and I stopped at a local wine cafe for a break.  Engrossed we spent the better part of an hour looking over the shoulder of a young Palestinian film maker who was editing footage of several recent altercations between Palestinian Arabs and Israeli police and army forces.   Visual accounts that never make it to the western press.  It was heartbreaking.  Israel is such a country of great contradictions.  How can a land of the Old Testament Prophets, Jesus, and the peaceful, irenic portions of the Quran be a land of such violence.  I have no answer, but I can tell you this.  Israel is a land of great, great beauty, proud hard working people, and much potential.  But it is killing itself with violence and hatred.