5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must-have for every Jewish home!, October 30, 2000
By A Customer
There's more than one way to tour Jerusalem, and this book is definitely the best way! In large format, with dozens of photographs and extremely clear maps, it guides the reader through Jerusalem's Old City, pointing out every single point of interest, and explaining historic background, biblical sources, etc. The author brings his wealth of experience and knowledge as a tour guide to this book--you don't even have to leave your living room to feel like you're standing in the Old City! I can't stop raving about this book, and all the reviews it's been getting in newspapers are 100% accurate. It should be on the bookshelf of every Jewish home, and in the office of every diplomat!
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5.0 out of 5 stars
An Amazing Guide To Jerusalem! The Stones Cry Out!', January 17, 2012
This review is from: Jerusalem: Footsteps Through Time: Ten Torah Study Tours of the Old City (Paperback)
This excellent book takes us by the hand and leads us through the various tours, with different study goals in mind for each. It's more than just a guidebook though. It's an educational experience unlike any I've had in my life. I'm delighted with it!
Some scriptures I've always known are coming to life for me. I had never thought about the connection of Mount Moriah going back beyond Abraham. Jacob's famous dream finally makes sense to me. I haven't learned so much in a long time.
I want to tell everyone that they should get this book when they are ready for a serious study of the history of Jerusalem, starting further back than you might have thought. Of course it's written for Jews, but if you are a Christian, like me, don't think you won't be able to use it. If you run into a term that is unfamiliar to you, just keep reading and it will usually become clear. An example is The Kotel, which most of us have always known as The Western Wall. We as Christians also don't usually know much about the Bar Cochba Revolt from our Bible studies, so this may be new information. Other than that, it's all going to be familiar territory.
Even if you've read through the Bible numerous times and gone to Sunday School all your life, you're going to be surprised how much more there is to learn from this book which puts us in Jerusalem on tour, listening as "the stones cry out" to us.
If you love Jerusalem, you are very likely to appreciate this book very much.
If you love archeology and/or history of the Holy Land, again, you are likely to love this book. I've been studying Hebrew along with the archeology of the Holy Land. I wish I could go back and physically do this tour as presented here, but I'm going to have to be satisfied by doing it by memory.
There are ten tours:
1. Beginnings - In the Footsteps of Abraham
2. David and His City - The Rise and Fall of Biblical Jerusalem
3. Secrets of the Temple Mount
Part A - Building a Temple
Part B - Ascending with the Olei Regel
4. The Kotel and Environs
5. Underground Jerusalem - The Kotel Tunnels
6. From Splendor to Ashes - Second-Temple Jerusalem
7. "And Zion Will Be Plowed Like a Field" - from the Bar Cochba Revolt to the Middle Ages
8. The Jewish Quarter - A Dream in the Making
9. The Moslem Quarter
10.The Valley of the Dead Comes to Life
This book is the serious approach to a tour of Jerusalem that I was looking for. In my own experience during a three-week tour last year, with ten days of it based in Jerusalem, we entered the Old City through different gates every day, running through the various quarters, not really knowing what we were seeing. Most tours are by nature not designed to be a serious study of the events that have taken place over time.
Archeological Excavations Outside The Gates of The Old City:
Recently there has been increased interest in the area directly outside the gates, where excavations continue to reveal amazing archeological findings from the time of David and Solomon and beyond. These are addressed in this 'much-more-than-a-travel-book' as well, with excellent pictures.
We can take this tour from our own homes and probably get more understanding of it than those quick tours, even though being in Jerusalem is a great blessing no matter how quick the tour. If only I could go back in person and do it THIS way.
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