Christianity at Ein Karem

Ein Karem -- Church of Visitation

As everyone knows we had an interesting and fun tiul to the familiar neighborhood of Ein Karem. Aside from it's super awesome ice cream and pretty views, there's a rich history that comes aong with it. A large part of that is the fact that in the second temple period Ein Karem was a successful farming village. Before we went to see The Church of Visitation it was nice to sit outside near the garden we worked on just a few weeks before and learn about Jesus's early life. We learned about how he was born in Bethlehem although his family lived in Nazareth, his parents were Miriam and Joseph and whether he was immaculately or normally concieved was an argument between Matthew and Luke in the biblical period and is still an exisiting argument. We also learned that he went missing for three whole days and when he was found, he was found right here in Jerusalem arguing with Rabbis and asking questions, showing that he was already ahead of his time.

At the church that we visited, one of the first things we saw were the statues of the two pregnant woman. We learned that the two women were Elizabeth and Miriam. The baby that Elizabeth was pregnant with sensed that the messiah was near and it's told that it went a little crazy in her stomach. Its's said that Elizabeth's baby was kicking and moving around during the visit because of it's knowledge about how close it was to such an important figure before that figure was even born.  (That figure being Yeshua Ben Yoseph, later known as Jesus) It was really cool seeing the statue of what we had just learned about and taken notes on because of how real it suddenly makes it.

With this, we learned about John the Baptists and all that he had to do with Jesus's teachings. He was a strong inspiration for Jesus and introduced Baptisism to him and was the one who baptised Jesus in Yam Hamelach. This went on to Jesus's teachings, which was the main event in the tiul. Jesus was a dedicted Jew and took his knowledg, his beliefs, and his specific take on Judaism and spread it all over. He believed in healing people, social justice, and made Judaism a lot more individualized. This eventually became a seperate religion after Jesus died because of the belief of life after death or not.

A Christianity became it's own religion, dropping many Jewish priotities like mitzvot and circumcision, it took off and became appealing to people world wide. We learned about Paul and Peter and their missionary work, and we saw the olive branch stump as we walked down the hill back to the town that symbolizes the Withered Stump Theory, which is that Judaism is an old and out of date religion while Christianity is a new and represents the "truth".

It eventually became that Jews were seen as below christians. This was especially when the Romans all converted to christianity and Father Oregon gave Jews the responsibility for "killing God", accusing us of Dioside. Some Christians like Father Oregon wanted Jews to be gone while there were also people like St. Augustine who wanted Jews to be alive to witness the success of Christianity.

Going to the Chruch of Visitation was an interesting and enlightening experience. Like we talked about when we sat outside after that quick little rain storm, it's sometimes uncomfortable to be in a place of worship that's so different than you're own. Even though temples can be beautiful and breathtaking, churches have a very different feel. There's no religious connection so all you can do is observe and learn, and it was a good experience to do that at Ein Karem. What do you guys think about Withered Stump Theory; do you think it's still true today or not? Also how does being in a place of worship that's not exactly your own religion make you feel?