MindFlex - Virtual Israel Tour: Jerusalem Heights

[Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] do [Music] do [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] hey everybody welcome to this beautiful day in jerusalem from wherever you're tuning in just take a look at that gorgeous view behind us here i am standing here on top of the mount of olives har has a team on a normal day this place would be mobbed with tourists and pilgrims coming to catch the view and spend their time here learning more and connecting more jerusalem now obviously because of this recent year there are no tourists in israel but i could see a few people kind of coming out here israelis mostly checking out the view and learning and hearing from their tour guides you can see behind me some tour buses mostly just parked there we really can't wait for the day the tourists come back for real so i'm inviting you not le chana baby you should line but this year in jerusalem and also next year in jerusalem you know jewish people have been saying that for literally thousands of years and this year i think we felt it more than any other time that like wow we really can't get there so thank you to project inspire and for everybody tuning in to feel like you're there with me this isn't a virtual tour this is a real tour you can see right behind us there the beautiful temple mount mount moriah the gold dome of the rock and all the buildings of modern jerusalem today jerusalem is israel's largest city close to a million people live here and it's building building building the city is just spreading think of it this way jerusalem is about a hundred times bigger today than it was like a hundred years ago and if you want to find like a spot where everything begins it's right behind us over here at the temple mount mount moriah before anything was ever even built here jerusalem was just a city of mountains even the tehillim tells us that yerushalayim harim savivla jerusalem is surrounded by mountains and in the center is this mountain mount moriah and in jewish tradition this is you know we don't really believe in holy mountains but if we did this would be one of them for sure this is the place where abraham avraham avinu travels from bear sheva for three days and god tells him look up to the place this is the place and bring your son your only son itzhak and kill him what kind of strange story is this well that you know has a lot more meaning to it obviously this was a test of abraham's faith and the hardest test he could ever imagine was to sacrifice his son and he brings him to mount moriah in this ultimate show of covenant and faith and he's about to bring down the knife when the angel says stop you've passed the test sacrifice this ram instead and that kind of begins the jewish people's ancient connection and tradition with moriah mount moriah here a few hundred years later as the jewish people returned from the egyptian exile they're going to install the king who's the first king of israel king saul ulhamilah who's the second king of israel king david and that's important because when king david becomes king he's going to have to establish a capital city for the jewish nation and that of course will be jerusalem 3 000 years ago and in the center of it is mount moriah he brings up the ark of the covenant to establish the covenant there with hashem and the jewish people and the land of israel and of course he cannot build the temple because he has blood on his hands he's a warrior but his son solomon will build the first temple see the gold dome of the rock there that underneath the gold dome is the rock what jews and muslims call the foundation stone the center of the world and that is the place that we also attribute to be the holy of holies and that is the site of solomon's first temple after about 400 years the temple is destroyed by the babylonians the jews come back from babylonian exile and we're going to build the second temple and that's what we're kind of looking at over here you could see the walls of the temple mount now of course you've prayed at the western wall what you're looking at down here is the eastern wall of the temple mount i hope that makes sense to you over here is the southern wall to really appreciate the temple mount you need to see it from a helicopter but from here we're getting a pretty good glimpse aren't we in the second temple period we're going to have a great king in this land his name is herod the great now if it was up to us we'd call him herod the horrible but he was a great builder and he's going to renovate and rebuild the area of mount moriah expanding the temple mount to make it one of the largest construction sites in the world and in the middle of the temple mount where the gold dome is rebuild or build the second temple for about 400 years the second temple is going to stand here in the site of mount moriah until the roman siege of jerusalem and the roman destruction of jerusalem and this is when the romans are going to destroy the second temple on the day of tisha b'av in the year 70 of the common era stripping away the marble carrying the gold and silver back to rome and destroying the temple mount leaving only remnants which is kind of a good thing that they did because that's where we pray today when we go to the western wall time took its toll new religions developed in the world new religions moved into the world and of course the muslims are going to attribute this as their holy place not only of the foundation stone but the site where they believe muhammad rose to heaven on his night journey and that's kind of a big deal okay for the past 14 plus 100 years the muslims have controlled the temple mount and made it their primary place of prayer right now is the high holy days of ramadan and on any given friday now i don't know how it's going to be this year but we expect that the crowds are going to return there could be literally tens of thousands sometimes upwards of a hundred thousand people praying on the temple mount but muslims and for the last 1400 years that's how it's been you can see kind of the outlines of the temple mount here and the reconstruction of the temple mount by the muslims about 1400 years ago behind that you can see the cranes of new jerusalem tour guides always joke the crane is the national bird of israel everywhere you look we're building building building and there has been a lot of building going on this year and closer to us down here i want to point out the oldest and holiest jewish cemetery in the world this is the cemetery on top of the mount of olives har has a team another reason why many jewish visitors come to visit the mount of olives to visit their ancestors parents grandparents who are buried here on the mount of olives the jewish tradition tells us that those who are buried here on the mount of olives we believe in resurrection and during the time of resurrection the body's heel will rise up and walk straight into the newly rebuilt third temple and that's why all the graves here are kind of pointing towards the holy of holies there's about a hundred thousand jewish souls buried on the cemetery and before you ask yes people still get buried here in this day you can buy a space there's still a little bit of space left here and it's still a great considered to be a great mitzvah to be buried in the land of israel i just want to point out a little more of the view here you can see all the mountains of jerusalem and just up over here is an area known as the city of david this is the original canaanite settlement of jerusalem which was conquered by king david rebuilt as the capital city of the jewish people and if you've ever walked through that dark water tunnel hezekiah's tunnel this is where you did that this is where david's ancient palace fortress was built as we read about in the book of samuel sefer shmuel next time you visit israel if you have not visited the city of david make sure it's on your itinerary it's a great site to visit and it's kind of where jerusalem begins from this mountaintop and then spreading out to mount moriah and then spreading out to the areas that we can see today look at this incredible view and just enjoy for a moment and feel like you're right here in the holy of holies and maybe you have a prayer for yourself or a loved one someone or something and just take a moment you know we believe that all our prayers from around the world come first to mount moriah before they rise up to heaven and that's why every synagogue in the world faces jerusalem faces the holy of holies some from right here let's just maybe take a little moment and just think to ourselves for a little more health a little more wealth more peace peace in our homes peace in our families peace in our communities and in our nations and to come out of all these crazy times we've been living through and come to better times which is what jerusalem represents why did we always say leshana yerushalayim because oftentimes there was no jerusalem to come to in that present moment it was destroyed and we've never felt anything like we felt in this past year of destruction and if jerusalem represents one thing in this world it's hope rebuilding reconstruction i mean think about this the christians have a church the muslims have a mosque the jews have a broken wall waiting to be rebuilt what a beautiful symbol that is and it represents so much of who we are as individuals and as a nation you know this has been a really tough year for everybody this area should be packed especially with christian pilgrims this is a very important site for christian history there are many churches here on the mount of olives and so in a normal time this area should be packed with people and we want to see it packed again with people you know one of the fun things to do when you come to this area which is kind of like an only an israel type thing is to ride a camel you didn't think i was gonna say that did you hello my friend hello how are you whoa look at this his name this is kojak yes where are you from i am from canada but we're talking to people from new york new jersey the u.s all over my uncle lives in clifton i have been in petra nice hat man thank you everywhere you go can i can i ride your camel yes yes you guys want to come on a camera ride with me oh boy this is a big camel this is kojak the camel hang on let me give this over to my friend here oh my gosh oh yo [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] no i'm good jewish thank you oh wow riding a camel on the mount of olives and only in israel type thing put this on your itinerary next time you come to visit you know seriously camels built the middle east they are one of the first animals to be domesticated they can travel for three weeks without water in an arid part of the world they can carry i don't know how many times their weight bringing spices and textiles and people across deserts and caravans these are the original escalades and hummers this is how the modern world was really built and this is really such an ancient creature so lehitra oath we are going to continue our tour at our next sites see you at the next site hey join me as we drive here along the mount of olives the ridge here and you can see out to my right take a look here you can see the seven arches hotel this is kind of an infamous hotel you see 1948 jerusalem was the main battleground and you have to picture this the jordanian forces are coming from the east the jewish israeli forces are coming from the west they fight fight fight fight and they stop in the middle and they divide jerusalem into two parts east jerusalem and west jerusalem and this part of mount of olives and mount scopus fell under the jurisdiction of east jerusalem jordanian control and what did they do with the cemetery here well obviously they destroyed par obviously it's known that they had destroyed many parts of the cemetery a lot of the tombs were in total disrepair and disregard they paved a road right through the mount of olive cemetery and of course they built the seven arches hotel on top of the mount of olives i've heard that people had gone into that hotel and seen some of the tombstones used as part of the foundation of the hotel which was built in the early 1960s today it's a hotel that is sometimes used by idf soldiers when coming on group excursions to this area you can see a big israeli flag here even though this is a predominantly arab part of the city known as atur or the mount the mount of olives neighborhood there are a few jewish areas that's a building there called beitahoshen where about 16 jewish families live as i was driving here this morning a police car kind of put on its lights behind me i thought was being pulled over and he told me to roll down the window he said do you know where you're going i said yeah i'm going to the lookout of the mount of olives he goes yeah but what if you know could be that arab kids are throwing stones i'm like really have they thrown stones today he goes no but it could be i'm like well i think i'll take my chances and as i say that i see some boys here kind of messing around with firecrackers because it is ramadan and so the kids are kind of out a little bit more but honestly i don't feel any particular danger here i'm driving around here as i do i come in peace and a lot of israeli security on the mount of olives once upon a time not so long ago if you were coming to visit one of the graves of a beloved you know of a loved one in the cemetery you might have like an armed escort with you things have since calmed down quite a bit but it's still okay to be vigilant this is ramadan time so a little more traffic a little more action here look at this the makasid islamic charitable society hospital there are a couple of big hospitals here in this area of course the hadassah hospital which we're going to to see another one called augusta victoria he asked me what are you filming i said this is a movie i'm filming about the mount of olives but okay sometimes people don't like to be caught on film another major hospital here is called augusta victoria which we'll see in just a few minutes here you know the ramadan is like the high holy days of the muslims for 30 days from morning from sunrise to sunset they fast they don't eat they don't drink and just like most jews fast on yom kippur most muslims fast during ramadan for 30 days it's a kind of cleanse both physical and spiritual sometimes the tensions can rise because of that but i've met many holy muslims over the years who have seen it as like a month of cleanse they lose weight they have they practice their patients i remember i had a muslim bus driver roommate in a hotel i stayed in a couple of years ago and it was ramadan and he woke up at 4 30 in the morning before the fast he stretched a little bit he prayed he ate three dates and drank a bottle of water and he said i'm good i said that's it three dates and a bottle of water he goes that's all i need for the rest of the day and i was like wow i'm gonna start eating dates it must be a super food and then of course at the end of the fast at the sunset they have a big celebratory meal and these streets here at night are lit up with decorations and people celebrate together and eat the meal at the end of the fast look at this intersection right here good luck getting through even though i'm canadian i don't drive like one so in 1967 the six day war israel is gonna cross the dividing line the green line that separated east and west jerusalem between the jordanians and the israelis and we're going to capture this part of the city and annex it as part of one united capital city of jerusalem take a look here on the right you can see the augusta victoria hospital built by the germans the german kaiser in honor of his wife victoria this is a major hospital for arabs and palestinians in east jerusalem we're going to go see something cool right now look at this i'm just on the pointing to the other direction of the mount of olives the mount of olives is kind of the highest ridge in jerusalem and so this is also what's called you know in tour guide speak the watershed line when it rains in the mountains part of the mount part of the rain is going to go to the west and part of the rain is going to go to the east right now we are looking towards the east of the land of israel before we were looking towards the west built up crane is the national bird of israel buildings a million people that's just on the other side that's just like on the other side of the view of this mountain but look at what's on the other side of the mountain here the desert midbar yehuda the judean desert and i don't know if you can see out in the distance it kind of looks like fog but those are actually the moabite mountains that is the edge of jordan those are the cliffs and mountains of the plateau of the hashemite kingdom of jordan if you climbed up those that cliff and you'd be in amman in about 45 minutes keep going you'll get to iraq iran india china i'm looking at asia right now you're looking at asia and just below here is the jordan valley one of the most strategic areas in the land of israel kind of this trench that kind of naturally protects the land of israel the west the coast tel aviv jerusalem where the jewish israeli population centers are giving this natural kind of like dip in the land of israel giving the land of israel and the population on the other side a great natural protection this jordan valley down here is where the jordan river runs from the kineret lake down to the dead sea it's not really possible to see but just i actually can see it because this is a beautiful clear day see kind of the blue color of the northern dead sea right there israel's such a small country so interesting so packed with things just behind me over here is hebrew university we're going to go visit hebrew university you know it's called hebrew university not jewish university or yeshiva university that's in new york of course because it's a hebrew university and you're like well duh you're in israel yeah but in the 1920s when they wanted to build the first real university in the land of israel there was a question what language should we teach in somebody said english somebody else it's a german french heim weizmann israel's first president slams his hand on the table he goes ladies and gentlemen this will be a hebrew university and everybody's like very nice dr weitzman but we don't speak hebrew back then most jews spoke yiddish english arabic french spanish ladino he said okay so we'll teach them we had to write the hebrew math books the hebrew philosophy books think about that for a second to take an ancient language that had been used mostly in the synagogue and in the yeshivas and write refrigerator manuals and have you know psychology textbooks and that's why it is the hebrew university don't ever forget that it's considered to be one of the hundred best universities in the world there's a great overseas student program called the rothberg school if you're looking for a program for your kids to come spend some time in israel and get some credit for it check out the overseas program at hebrew university i'm walking now to one of the coolest places i think i have you know five kids god bless i'm always looking for stuff to do in israel you know they always want to go to water parks and roller coasters i always say when we go to america we'll go to the roller coasters in israel one of the things that i like to take them to is an archaeological dig back in the 1990s the walk which is kind of the religious organization the muslim organization that's responsible for the holy site of the temple mount is going to do some renovation work in the temple mount basically they're going to take bulldozers and empty out tons and tons and tons of dirt from within the temple mount mount moriah they're going to take that dirt and they're going to dump it into the valley right below the mount of olives israeli archaeologists thank you hello my friend yuval over here let's go in as israeli archaeologists led by a great professor and archaeologist named gabby barkai are going to take that debris that junk that garbage that dirt and they're going to bring it here to the top of the mount of olives and open something up that's called the temple mount sifting project for the last about 20 years thousands and thousands of volunteers well you have to pay for it but it's a good gig you know you pay them to work for them okay forget that for a second thousands of students and tours and visitors are going to come here to the temple mount sifting project all the dirt has been pretty much preserved here and placed into these buckets you can see these buckets filled with dirt and rock and who knows what else and basically what people come here to do is go take these buckets put them in these sifters and sift through them now most of the time you are going to find dirt and rock and plastic debris but every so often very often ceramics coins inscriptions pieces of jewelry all kinds of items that could be found in an archaeological excavation in a few moments you you val over here is going to lead a tour with the group and we're going to get a little more information about what they found here at the temple mount sifting project yeah look at this we got some people here sifting look at some of the ceramics and pottery that he's showing them here these are some of the items that they found here they break this up into different categories including ceramics glass coins sometimes metal objects are found here and so they this is a way to help date and identify the different periods of the jerusalem's history also make it really hands-on and fun so next time you're in israel and in jerusalem make sure you come here especially with the kids they love to do this they can spend a good hour or two sifting through and they're not just sifting through you know rubble they're sifting through some of the most important possible artifacts that can be found in jerusalem because of where it's coming hey so even though we're still driving along this main road along the mount of olives this section over here is called mount scopus and that's a good name harhat sofim which means like to scope like a microscope or a telescope or to scout in israel the scouts are called sophia from this mountaintop you can really see kind of 360 all around us on a clear day we could see across jerusalem we could see to the east the mountains of jordan and the dead sea you know 3000 or so years ago moses stood up on a mountain over there in jordan and god said you can't come into the land of israel but you can see the land of israel is that true can you really like stand on a mountaintop here and see the land of israel and the answer is yeah actually kind of and that's what mount scopus is and that's why even here we have the university in the hospital we have a little army station here that is kind of like the eye in the sky for the area so i'm just gonna turn around here and we're gonna go check out the main entrance of the universe so i came here to the main entrance of hebrew u hebrew university and as i said before this isn't a jewish university it's a hebrew university because that's the main language of instruction something like 30 of the student body here is not even jewish many arab muslim students from east jerusalem study here and so this is really kind of like an island of coexistence and sanity and a part of the world where we don't really use those words so often hebrew university and hadassah hospital on mount scopus were both built here in the 1920s in 1948 as a result of the war of independence this fell under the wrong side of the line and became part of jordanian-controlled east jerusalem making it so that students could no longer study here nurses and doctors couldn't come to the hospital anymore and so the fundraisers went back to the drawing table and we built another campus in west jerusalem called giveat ram and another hadassah hospital and and karim if you ever heard of the famous chagall windows those are in n karim in west jerusalem that's why it's unusual that jerusalem you know not a huge city has two university campuses and two hospital branches in the same city after the six day war in the 1970s as this part of the city came under israeli control once again the university here was renovated and rebuilt the hospital was renovated and rebuilt and so today this is an area of the city that comes within israeli jurisdiction everybody comes here to study you know i don't really like to talk about these things too much but kind of like in the bad old days of the early 2000s we had the second intifada and some of you remember the suicide bombings and the terrorist attacks that took place here in israel in jerusalem and it was the summer of 2002 i believe when a suicide bomber entered this cafeteria here at hebrew university blowing himself up with several other students causing tremendous damage and murderous rage and one of the worst terrorist attacks that took place in the second intifada and for many people that was crossing a line of course suicide bombings and terrorist attacks should never happen but the fact that it happened here at the hebrew university an institution that represents really the future the best and brightest the coexistence was wrong on so many levels for so many people and so i like to think of this place as really a an institution of higher learning but more than that this isn't just another school this is a place for people to meet and greet each other and to live together i'm pulling in here to the hadassah hospital something that is so famous and important especially for american jewish women in the early teens of the 20th century henrietta's old came here to the land of israel to volunteer and connect and she just saw the dire situation that so many of the children were in many of the hospitals in those days were run by christian missionaries who saw it as their mission not only to treat jewish patients but also convert them to christianity and she started a mission that lasted her whole life to connect especially jews in the diaspora to jews in the land of israel and provide medical care at a modern sophisticated level for this land and so we built here together the hadassah hospital in mount scopus in the 1920s and since then expanded to incarim and it's become really kind of the one of the important iconic institutions of the land of israel paid for by your donations abroad your mothers your grandmothers and i hope you as well so we thank you on behalf of israel for helping to continue to contribute to our well-being and our healthcare thank you look at the beautiful new student housing that was just built here in the last few years this is uh the neighborhood of french hill for those of you who studied at hebrew u or have kids that came here you might be familiar with this area for those of you who've been to jerusalem in the last 10 years or 15 years you'll know we built a beautiful new light rail cable car train that runs through the city they're extending it to come here to hebrew university that's why there's so much construction all around us here that'll be a game changer one thing about the last year of corona has really been a lot of construction taking place here different residential properties being built and rebuilt and infrastructure and highways and tunnels this is the dan hotel here used to be the hyatt hotel we're passing the british military cemetery this is a war cemetery from the 1930s and 40s the british had something like 4 000 dead soldiers in the land of israel in palestine that is a huge number really speaking to the amount of resistance the arabs and also the jews had towards the british presence in the land of israel you know the british come here during world war 1 1917 of course is the balfour declaration where the british government sees with favor the establishment of a jewish homeland in the land of israel so it starts off as allies but it ends up pretty much as enemies by 1947 1948 many of the jewish forces were trying to get the british out of here so that we can establish an independent state let's go and finish up here in one final lookout over jerusalem looking out here from mount scopus [Music] let's go finish up our day here in jerusalem's hilltops mount of olives mount scopus mount mariah with one final look out from the mount scopus lookout viewpoint this is a place that so many groups like to come to it's a little more accessible than the first location we went to many groups like to come here as they enter jerusalem for the first time from the dead sea or from tel aviv you know there's something to that before abraham came to mount moriah before avraham comes to the place god says look at the place before you get there look at it connect to it and let's do that again from a different vantage point here and just see the sloping hill of the mount of olives going down to the valley that we call the kedron valley where once upon a time a little brook a little river flowed through that valley bringing water to the residents of jerusalem and then rising up to mount moriah with the gold dome and the eastern wall of the temple mount and you know this is mount scopus we have a story in the gemara that tells us that after the destruction of the second temple rabbi akiva stood here with two rabbis and they could see smoke coming out of the remnants of the holy of holies and foxes running in and out and the two rabbis he was with of course started to cry he started to laugh and they said akiva how could you laugh at a moment like this he goes this is how it's supposed to be this is how history was supposed to play out for there to be rebuilding the first has to be destruction and so i like to think of that story when i stand here and i wonder how he laughed he didn't laugh because it was funny maybe he laughed because he was nervous maybe he laughed because he didn't know how to react you know this last year has been for so many of us a year of destruction whether it's financially or professionally or personally but we don't really believe in destruction we believe in destruction for the purpose of rebuilding and nothing nothing exemplifies that better than jerusalem and what we can see here and feel here in the city of jerusalem so we hope and pray for the day that jerusalem is being rebuilt and we can all come here together lyshna thank you so much to project inspire and for everybody joining this virtual tour i can't wait to do it with you in real life soon thank you so much my name is patrick ammar thank you to my friend david sussman for helping me on this tour today filming and for everybody joining and we hope to see you here really soon in israel thank you so much latrout [Music] you