Day 6

May 4, 2010

…In the lobby of the Crown Plaza Hotel, Jerusalem…

Today was our first full day in Jerusalem. We started by going to the Garden of Gethsemane. This is one place in Israel that was everything I imagined it would be. We were the only ones in the Garden. It was peaceful and there was a beautiful, fall crispness in the air. I went off by myself and prayed under an olive tree. It was the first place I could say without any doubt that my feet touched the same places that Jesus’ did.

We went to an overlook that gave us the entire view of Old Jerusalem. There were selling camel rides nearby. The poor camel looked so gross and tired. Hezzie knew the Old City like the back of his hand. From our view, he pointed out everything of importance and told us the history behind it all.

Old Jerusalem was amazing. We had to go through security and walk up an enclosed ramp past the Western Wall. They were having Bar Mitzvahs all over the place. We passed one processional and it was hard not to join in with the dancing and singing. For a male Jew it is the highest honor to be able to have his Bar Mitzvah at the Western Wall; rich Jews will travel from all over the world to celebrate their sons’ thirteen birthdays here.

While we toured the Old City we saw the Dome of the Rock, where Christ started carrying the cross, and the fourteen different stations of the Cross (which is a Catholic tradition) but it was still interesting to see. The Via Delarosa was a simple, little ally way, with no other acknowledgement besides the small street sign next to it.

In the evening we went to the Western Wall. The Wall is about 300 feet long with a divider placed in the center. The left is the women’s side and the right is the men. Men must have their heads covered. I filed down with at least 100 other women. When I walked up to the Wall, there were three rows of standing women spanning the length. We all waited patiently until it was our turn to touch the Wall and pray. There were notes wedged everywhere in the nooks and crannies of the Wall. The quiet murmured prayers from the women and the men made it so solemn. It was one of the most special places for me so far on this trip. It touched my heart to be able to pray against the Wall that for thousands of years people have come to pray to cry out to God with their desires and hopes. But it also saddens me to think that the majority of people who come to the Wall do not know that their Messiah has already come.

In the square in front of the Wall, the Israeli military where practicing for their swearing in ceremony, their shouts in Hebrew rang throughout the large courtyard. Next, we went to the Western Wall Museum which took us below the City, gave us the complete history of the Wall and answered the question of why people pray at the Western Wall. The Wall extends a couple hundred feet below the part that we can see, when the Romans destroyed the Temple they built on top of the rubble hiding a good majority of the Wall. Jews have come to pray at the Western Wall for generations because it is the closest area to the vicinity of where the Holy of Holies is/was. The Dome of the Rock is on top of the original Temple site, and the Muslims will not let the Jews excavate underneath the Rock. The girl that led our tour was a Israeli Jew that had grown up in New York and had recently moved to Jerusalem to be with the rest of her family. Her great-grandfather and great-aunt died in Auschwitz during War World II.

After dinner Cherie and I took a taxi cab and went shopping at the local mall. We had to go through security to get into the mall, but they had great shopping. Hurray for Israeli H&M!!