Day 13 & 14 - Mikvah - Bethlehem - Jerusalem

 Days 13 & 14: Mikvah - Bethlehem - Jerusalem
March 8-9, 2026 

 

Total miles traveled to date: 9,112

Steps taken past two days: 29,795

Steps taken to date: 118,833

Details: Tel Aviv to Ancient Bethlehem to JTowers in Jerusalem

Total Miles Driven past two days: 72 

There has been so much happening that it's been hard to keep up.  I offer my double portion for my neglect. Let's jump right in!!

 Sunday we were moving to Jerusalem, which was meant to be harder than it was.  We enjoyed a bomb free night, and the sleep was so sweet!  I will never again take for granted my peaceful little city and my soft, peaceful bed.   

We started with some coffee.  The last coffee from the self-serve espresso machine.  I will miss you, dear coffee machine.  After cramming everything back into my suitcase in a haphazard kind of way, we gathered in the conference room to discuss plans. 

At this point we split up.  Some went shopping and visited the sites of Tel Aviv.  Joe, Shawna and I went to Jerusalem.  Our goal was a site that Joe had been told about by a friend.  His friend had sent him a map of sorts – spots circled on a satellite view.  We knew the neighborhood it was in – the same area where we dropped off the jars two days before. 

An ancient well

This time, we parked and walked down around the apartment building, then back up to a rocky area.  Here we found what looked to be an old well.  This was neat, but not what we were there for.  Across the way we saw a group of boys and a couple of men going around a trail and up over a wall, and we decided based on our map, this was the place to go. 

Scrambling behind Joe who walks like he drives – fast – we came to the group of boys and some sort of obvious ruin.  The man and the boys did not speak English well, but one of the boys asked us if we liked Trump, to which we said yes, of course.  He smiled and said, “Biden, no.”  Then the man told Joe something amazing – that we were at Bet-lehem.  Bethlehem!!

Most of the modern sites one sees in Israel are not the original sites.  The modern city of Bethlehem is not what I am discussing here.  Constantine’s mother, Helena, after converting to Christianity, came to the region and did the best job she could finding these places.  However, YHVH protects things, and he protected this. The locals know what it is and there have been some archeological digs here, but I will be keeping the site a secret for now.

We started up into the ruin, and guess what was right there at the gate!  This flower is called the “Star of Bethlehem.” There it was, right at our “gate" into Bethlehem. 

Star of Bethlehem!!

What we saw there was rocks and a broken down walls, and a mosaic floor.  Clearly we were looking at the walls of a building, and basement rooms.  There was a thorny tree growing out of the basement of the building, and a set of stairs. Joe and I made our way down the very narrow stairs, and explored a little, but we didn't want to be too intrusive.  We walked around the space some more – found some cistern openings, and other walls and objects.

There was an old wall there, and the three of us walked down it and around.  That would have been fine if it didn’t require billy goat style traversing around the wall.  I'm not so fond of heights.  Eventually, we wandered back up the other side, and found a very large cave.  At this time we only had a vague idea of what we were looking at, but we thought we were at the ancient site of the Migdol Eder – the strong tower. 

One of our goals here was to find hyssop.  We searched high and low.  Several times we looked at plants we thought were hyssop, but Google was leading me astray!  Eventually, Shawna did find it and we can now easily identify it.  I wish I could share the smell of it with you!  It smells like a cross between oregano and anise.  We are needing the hyssop to complete our purification ceremony.  As we climbed up away from the large cave, we started across the top of the hill and found loads of hyssop!  We gathered up lots of hyssop at the top of the fence, and then made our way back to the car and across Israel to our AirBnB – a rather large apartment building right on Jaffa St. 

Hyssop (pic borrowed from the internet)

 

That evening, I eavesdropped on a call from Joe’s friend again as he talked about what it was that we saw that day.  According to him, this was indeed Ancient Bethlehem Ephraita.  The well in the photo above is a 3000 year old well!  We learned this was the place where they raised and prepared the sacrificial lambs, along with the other products needed for the Temple.  This place was called Migdol Eder, and this is where young David would have grown up and where he would have raised the sheep for the temple, and where it is mentioned he would have gone back to before returning to fight Goliath.  It’s also the REAL place where Yeshua, our Messiah, would have been born!  I believe I put my head into the very place where the Messiah would have laid!!  We were so excited with the day's events, and headed back to the hotel.

The birthplace of Messiah??

The apartment is an ok place to work out of.  Primarily we are hoping to sleep and sometimes eat here, so we are not worried about too much comfort.  I am sleeping in a room with four bunk beds, which makes hanging out at the room less than important.   We got settled, then Joe walked us down Jaffa for a yummy pasta dinner. 

Jerusalem is always a fun place to visit.  The diversity of the people, the history everywhere, and the pace of life is fun to watch. I will miss the hotel for the coffee, the daily room cleaning,and the convenience of the staff and life, but my view there was a wall and this is my view here now!  

Good morning, Jerusalem! - my view

Monday we went to Ein Lavan again first thing in the morning and we did our second mikvah.  I can tell you that this water is COLD.  So cold.  We also were sprinkled with the red heifer ashes water and Joe said a prayer over each of us.  I got a headache – like an ice headache, and later in the day it turned into a full migraine, but more on that in a moment. 

We walked down to the Old City together, stopping at a place for nachos that took way too long, but I needed the food. While we dined, several hungry cats came around to keep us company!  Thanks to Shawna and Anne.  They arranged to go to a store and get the cats some meat, which the cats obviously appreciated.  In the old city, most of what we would want to visit together was closed for the war.  We couldn’t even get to the overlook looking down on the western wall.  We did a little shopping, then came back to the rooms to prepare for our dinner date. 

Our cat lunch companions

We had dinner with Yehuda Glick and his lovely wife Haded at a restaurant called Ofra.  Honestly, I felt so terrible I could barely eat anything, which seemed rather strange to everyone, but I got through it.  I wouldn’t have missed it for the world!  Haded was wonderful, and had so many great things to teach us.  Yehuda is fun to be with and was really excited we were here.  

Yehuda & Haded Glick - photo by Johan

Dinner with the Glicks - Video by Shane 
 

That night, I was so glad to be in bed!!  Most of this trip I have felt fine and I didn’t want to have a migraine, but what can you do?  Two people told me to drink more water, so I have been doing that.  Otherwise, I’m getting through it. I'm grateful for my medication, which makes it less miserable.

Tuesday is Ancient Susiya, and the next day is another trip to Bethlehem to take the whole team.  I will be sure to share more!

Shalom from Jerusalem!!