Today I had my first Comparative Religion Class. Instead of sitting in a classroom, we actively tour Jerusalem and learn first hand. Today we learned about Christianity and we started off by going to a beautiful lookout point on Mt. Scopus that looks over the Judean wilderness. Then we traveled to Mt. Olives and went to a Jewish cemetery (as if I haven’t seen enough cemeteries in the last week..) that is believed to be where the messiah will awake from. Then went to Dominus Flavit Church which is where Jesus wept after seeing the terrible sins and problems between people. We then went to the Garden of Gethsemane and the Church of all Nations, the two most beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen! Both two very special places.There were about 20 different Christian tourist groups there from all over the world. Then we went to the Tomb of Mary and to the Tomb of Avshalom (David Warward’s son). This interactive class helps me understand how uniquely holy and complicated this city is.

            Today was also my first day of volunteering at the soup kitchen. It’s a forty minute bus ride and to get there and I have to walk through the busy, chaotic market where the most delicious fruits and vegetables are sold. It’s tough to walk through without buying anything but luckily the man behind the big table full of sweet strawberries always lets me snatch one or two to eat. The Soup Kitchen is aimed towards young kids and the elderly whom are mostly holocaust survivors. It’s sickening to hear about the hundreds of holocaust survivors that are homeless and hungry despite going through terrible atrocities, so It’s very fulfilling working at the kitchen that also provides medical and dental care for them and gives them a grocery bag full of canned food every week.