Page 33 - Holyland Magazine - 2009 Edition
P. 33
Moshe Amar
In Jaffa’s charming Old City, walk down Above, cormorants basking on Andromeda's Rock, just off the coast near Jaffa. Below, tourists in Jaffa's Old
the narrow alleyways past picturesque old City walking across the Wish Bridge, where it is said that if you make a wish while standing in front of your
houses and galleries until you come to a astrological sign, it will come true.
small mosque built in 1730, which is believed
to occupy the site of Simon the Tanner’s To learn more about the city’s eventful past, Today Jaffa is undergoing extensive
house. This is where Peter had a vision in visit the small museum just below the central archaeological excavations as plans move
which the Lord commanded him to eat plaza. Beside it is St. Peter’s Church, a gold ahead to restore some of its many historical
foods that were “unclean” (unacceptable and orange building erected in the 17th sites. A short walk eastward, past the central
under Jewish dietary laws). As is written in century and rebuilt in the 19th century above mosque and an Ottoman bathhouse, brings
Acts 10: 9-16, Peter went to pray, became earlier chapels and Crusader ruins. you to several of these sites.
very hungry and had a vision of “all kinds
of four-footed animals of the earth, wild Designed in the Italian tradition with its red It is well worth visiting the colorful flea market
beasts, creeping things, and birds of the brick facade, the church’s interior has vaulted and shopping in the Old City’s galleries for
air… And a voice came to him, Rise, Peter; ceilings, stained-glass windows and marble- beautiful keepsakes of your visit to Jaffa. And
kill and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord! covered walls. A large painting of Peter's if you glance down as you walk, maybe you’ll
For I have never eaten anything common visitation by an angel hangs over the altar. even come across an ancient coin, a
or unclean. And a voice spoke to him again Napoleon Bonaparte stayed in the church cannonball from Napoleon’s siege or another
the second time, What God has cleansed when he conquered Jaffa in 1799. souvenir of the past.
you must not call common.”
OF MYTHS AND MIRACLES
Yael Ilan
believed in the Lord” (Acts 9: 40-42)
