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"Mount Zion"
Jerusalem
Monday, December 23, 2013
Third Day of my Holy Land Trip, Mount Zion, Jerusalem
My Holy Land Trip
"Mount Zion"
Jerusalem
Jerusalem
Psalms 132:13-14
For the LORD has chosen Zion; He has
desired it for His habitation. "This is My resting place forever; Here I
will dwell, for I have desired it.
Joel 3:17
Then you will know that I am the LORD
your God, Dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain. So Jerusalem will be holy, And
strangers will pass through it no more.
The first mention of the word “Zion” in the Bible is 2Samuel 5:7: “Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion, the City of David.” “Zion,” therefore, was originally the name of the ancient Jebusite fortress in the city of Jerusalem. “Zion” came to stand not only for the fortress but also for city in which the fortress stood. After David captured “the stronghold of Zion,” Zion was then called “the City of David”
The first mention of the word “Zion” in the Bible is 2Samuel 5:7: “Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion, the City of David.” “Zion,” therefore, was originally the name of the ancient Jebusite fortress in the city of Jerusalem. “Zion” came to stand not only for the fortress but also for city in which the fortress stood. After David captured “the stronghold of Zion,” Zion was then called “the City of David”
A view from Mount Zion, near to the church of Peter in Gallicantu:
Mount
Zion (Hebrew: Har Tsiyyon; Arabic: Jabel Sahyoun) is a hill in Jerusalem just
outside the walls of the Old City. Mount Zion has been historically associated
with the Temple Mount. In the Bible, Mount Zion is synonymous with Mount
Moriah, the site of the binding of Isaac and the Jewish Temple. The term is
also used for the entire Land of Israel.
Zion,
in the Old Testament, the easternmost of the two hills of ancient Jerusalem. It
was the site of the Jebusite city captured by David, king of Israel and Judah,
in the 10th century bc (2 Samuel 5:6-9) and established by him as his royal
capital. Some scholars believe that the name also belonged to the “stronghold
of Zion” taken by David (2 Samuel 5:7), which may have been the fortress of the
city. The Jewish historian Josephus, in the 1st century ad, identified Zion with
the western hill of Jerusalem, where most of the city lay in his day. This
incorrect identification of the site was retained until the late 19th or early
20th century, when the site of Zion was identified as the eastern hill (modern
Ophel). The site was not included in the walls of Jerusalem’s 16th-century
fortifications.
The
etymology and meaning of the name are obscure. It appears to be a pre-Israelite
Canaanite name of the hill upon which Jerusalem was built; the name “mountain
of Zion” is common. In biblical usage, however, “Mount Zion” often means the
city rather than the hill itself. Zion appears in the Old Testament 152 times
as a title of Jerusalem; over half of these occurrences appear in two books,
the Book of Isaiah (46 times) and that of Psalms (38 times). It appears seven
times in the New Testament and five times in quotations from the Old Testament
A view from Mount Zion, near to the church of Peter in Gallicantu:
In the Old Testament, Zion is overwhelmingly a poetic and prophetic designation and is infrequently used in ordinary prose. It usually has emotional and religious overtones, but it is not clear why the name Zion rather than the name Jerusalem should carry these overtones. The religious and emotional qualities of the name arise from the importance of Jerusalem as the royal city and the city of the Temple. Mount Zion is the place where Yahweh, the God of Israel, dwells (Isaiah 8:18; Psalm 74:2), the place where he is king (Isaiah 24:23) and where he has installed his king, David (Psalm 2:6). It is thus the seat of the action of Yahweh in history.
A view from Mount Zion, near to the church of Peter in Gallicantu: Dome of the rock in the background
History
According to the Book of Samuel, Mount Zion was the site of the
Jebusite fortress called the "stronghold of Zion" that was conquered
by King David, becoming his palace and the City of David. It is mentioned in
the Book of Isaiah (60:14), the Book of Psalms, and the first book of the
Maccabees.
After the conquest of the Jebusite city, the hill of the Lower City
was divided into several parts. The highest part, in the north, became the site
of Solomon's Temple. Based on archaeological excavations revealing sections of
the First Temple city wall, this is believed to have been the true Mount Zion.
Towards the end of the First Temple period, the city expanded westward.
Just before the Roman conquest of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Second
Temple, Josephus described Mount Zion as a hill across the valley to the west.
Thus, the western hill extending south of the Old City came to be known as
Mount Zion, and this has been the case ever since. At the end of the Roman
period, a synagogue was built at the entrance of the structure known as David's
Tomb probably based on the belief that David brought the Ark of the Covenant
here from Beit Shemesh and Kiryat
Ye'arim before the construction of the Temple.
In 1948, Mount Zion was linked to the Yemin Moshe neighborhood in West
Jerusalem via a narrow tunnel. During the war, an alternative was needed to
evacuate the wounded and transport supplies to soldiers on Mt. Zion. A cable
car capable of carrying a load of 250 kilos was designed for this purpose. The
cable car was only used at night and lowered into the valley during the day to
escape detection, it is still in place at the now Mount Zion Hotel. The ride
from the Israeli position at the St. John Eye Hospital to Mount Zion took two
minutes. Mount Zion was conquered by the Harel Brigade on May 18, 1948
Between 1948 and 1967, when the Old City was under Jordanian
occupation, Israelis were forbidden access to the Jewish holy places. Mount
Zion was a designated no-man's land between Israel and Jordan. Mount Zion was
the closest accessible site to the ancient Jewish Temple. Until East Jerusalem
was captured by Israel in the Six-Day War, Israelis would climb to the rooftop
of David's Tomb to pray. The winding road leading up to Mount Zion is known as
Pope's Way (Derekh Ha'apifyor). It was paved in honor of the historic visit to
Jerusalem of Pope Paul VI in 1964.
A view from Mount Zion, near to the church of Peter in Gallicantu:
Landmarks
Important sites on Mount Zion are
Dormition Abbey, King David's Tomb and the Room of the Last Supper. Most
historians and archeologists today do not regard "David's Tomb" there
to be the actual burial place of King David. The Chamber of the Holocaust (Martef
Ha Shoah), the precursor of Yad Vashem, is also located on Mount Zion. Another
place of interest is the Catholic cemetery where Oskar Schindler, a Righteous
Gentile who saved the lives of 1,200 Jews in the Holocaust, is buried. Notable
burials in the Protestant cemetery on Mt. Zion include the architect Conrad
Schick.
Chamber of Holocaust museum:
Chamber of the Holocaust (Martef
HaShoa, "Cellar of the Holocaust") is a small Holocaust museum located on Mount
Zion in Jerusalem. It was Israel's first Holocaust museum.
The site
was founded in 1948 by the Ministry
of Religion and its
Director-General, Rabbi Dr. Samuel Zanvil Kahane, whose responsibilities included
Mount Zion. That same year,
Kahane oversaw the on-site burial of ashes of victims from the Oranien burg concentration camp together with desecrated Torah scrolls recovered from Nazi Europe. In contrast to Yad Vashem, the government's official
Holocaust memorial museum established in 1953 on Mount Herzl – a new site
symbolizing rebirth after destruction – the Chief Rabbinate chose Mount Zion as
the site for the Chamber of the Holocaust because of its proximity to David's Tomb, which symbolically
connotes ancient Jewish history and the promise of messianic redemption
(through the Messiah, son of David). Scholars have noted that the somber
ambience of the museum, whose dank, cave-like rooms are illuminated by candlelight, is meant to portray the Holocaust as a
continuation of the "death and destruction" that plagued Jewish
communities throughout history. The museum is currently maintained by the Diaspora Yeshiva, with an Orthodox orientation.
Chamber of Holocaust museum:
Przcedcz – Jewish
memorial plaque:
Pzcedcz – Jewish memorial plaque
The Jewish community of Przedecz, which accounted for a large proportion of the
population of Przedecz, a town in western Poland, was wiped out in the Holocaust. In Yiddish the city was known as Pshaytsh. The town, which dates from the 14th century, is
located midway between Chodecz and Kłodawa. It is 75 km
(47 mi) northwest of Łódź, 150 km
(93 mi) west of Warsaw and 130 km (81 mi) east
of Poznań. On the southeast, it borders on Lake Przedecz
Translation of the text in the board:
In eternal memory
In memory of the souls of our dear friends, the
martyrs of our city
Przedecz (Pshaytsh)
(Włocławek district)
who were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators, may their names be obliterated
in Chełmno on the 7th day of Iyar, 742 [Anno Mundi], 24 April 1942
and in the other places of extermination, may God avenge their blood
The memorial day was established as the 7th day of Iyar
May their lives be bound in the bundle of the living
Their holy memory immortalized by the survivors of our city
Przedecz (Pshaytsh)
(Włocławek district)
who were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators, may their names be obliterated
in Chełmno on the 7th day of Iyar, 742 [Anno Mundi], 24 April 1942
and in the other places of extermination, may God avenge their blood
The memorial day was established as the 7th day of Iyar
May their lives be bound in the bundle of the living
Their holy memory immortalized by the survivors of our city
in
Israel and in the Diaspora
A view of Mount Zion
from Abu Tor:
I had also a chance
to stand in that holy place, Mount Zion for a while:
On the peak of mount
Zion, near to the church of St. Peter in Gallicantu, Mount Zion, Jerusalem
