“We’re standing here at the Temple Mount and what’s significant about……wait, let’s wait for him to pass……..Hi, we’re standing here at the Temple Mount and ….. I’m sorry, can I help you? ….. Yes, all the women’s arms are covered, thank you……Ok, we’re standing here at the ….. I’m sorry, it’s just that tensions are always a little high here…….We’re here at the Temple…..no, we do not have any Bibles…..”
That was pretty much how the morning started for us. They wouldn’t allow tripods for security reasons, so we felt like we were winging it already, but random men would come by and just listen to what Dr. Varner was saying, sometimes interrupting to bring up some trivial matter, such as the dress code and our conformity to it. #gallery-1376-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1376-1 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 16%; } #gallery-1376-1 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-1376-1 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
After that, however, we walked back through the area of the Western Wall (called “Wailing Wall” by outsiders, but we gathered that title is somewhat offensive to Jewish people). There we were again reminded of the potential for danger as we saw several of the large silver “balls,” designed to house explosives that are discovered in busy public places. It was ironic, yet comforting, to see a child playing on top of one, unconcerned with the stress others around him must feel to keep him safely oblivious.
We followed a wonderful tour through the underground Western Wall. We only used one camera for that part of the tour, so Joel shot and got to just listen as a student. Because so much effort had gone into each day’s productions, I had been missing a lot of key information during the lectures (as I was checking audio levels when the wind kicked up, seeing where Joel was and what the other shot would look like to know if I can move my camera) and not really understanding where locations were in relation to each other and their biblical significance. Getting to give full attention to this lecture, I started to get a good idea of some of the basics of the city’s construction that helped in the work in the days ahead.