Bob at the Wailing Wall
Trip Start
Nov 13, 2008
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Trip End
Dec 15, 2008
Wonderful day Friday. Went to the Old City of Jerusalem and visited the Mount of Olives and the garden of gethsemane where there is a large church and small garden of olive trees both of which are outside the walls of the old city. Then into the city to trace the Via Delarosa (way of the cross) where there are small plaques for the location of each station. Quite an uphill climb through narrow cobblestone streets--surprised at the number of vendor stalls along the way--to the crucifixion site which, after all, was on the top of a hill and the holy sepulcher, the inside of which is a several hour wait to see--we did not wait. Then onto one of the big markets in West Jerusalem-street after street of stalls and shops selling food and various goods--not catering to tourists at all. Shabat starts at dark on Fridays and it was amazing to see all the orthodox jews rushing to buy their bread and other food as it was getting late in the afternoon and they needed to get home before dark. There are small variations of orthodox dress for the men, not only the type of black coats, hats, and white shirts, and ringlets of hair we usually see--although our guide said that black and white were the only colors they wear. Saturday when it gets dark is the end of Shabat but from Friday night to Saturday night, the orthodox refrain from almost all activity (our guide said that this was a popular time for sex--it is allowed. Elevators in our hotel run automatically stopping at each floor so that one does not have to push a button during this time! After dark went back to the Old City to the Western(wailing) wall. What a sight. Must have been almost a thousand orthodox gathered in the space in front of the wall. Women have a separate section. The men in our group put on our paper yarmulkes provided at the entrance and walked up and touched the wall. Some were praying with the head nodding you have seen but others were singing--it was more joyous than I had imagined. Throngs of young people locking arms, singing and dancing. Today Saturday we visited the Israel Museum. Quite interesting to note how light the traffic was compared to the previous days--it is Shabat during the day on Saturday. There is a saying: Haifa works while Tel Aviv plays while Jerusalem prays. In the afternoon we met in the hotel with a young palestinian woman who gave us her version of history and the current situation. We had to ask Betty our guide to please let us ask the questions because she (an Israeli jew) would interrupt our guest speaker to "correct" her and they would start arguing. It ended on a positive note but, again, one can sense the depth of the tensions between the jews and arab muslims. Tomorrow we explore the tunnel area under the western wall, visit the Holocaust museum and take a short trip south to Bethlehem. We need to bring passports and pass through a checkpoint because Bethlehem is in the West Bank and we will have to have a non jewish tour guide. Take care. Bob at the Wailing Wall.
