Mount Herzl and Yad V'shem
Today we got up and rushed to the Netanya bus station. We got there 5 minutes before the bus to Jerusalem came, luckily!! Once we were seated on the coach bus, my mom said we had a 2 hour drive ahead of us, so I took out my book to read. Once we got there, we walked around a bit to find our second bus. After another 15 minutes, we got off that one and went to Mt. Herzl. Mount Herzl is a military cemetery for soldiers, important members of Knesset (like congressmen) and prime ministers and presidents of Israel. Our first stop was the Herzl grave - Theodore Herzl was the founder of Zionism and to Israelis is like George Washington is to us. After that, we went to the graves of all the politicians and prime ministers. We even got to see Yitzhak Rabin's grave! By the way, Yitzhak Rabin was the only Prime Minister ever to get assasinated. My mom cried when we saw his grave, and also that of Teddy Kollek, and especially at the graves of people who died fighting for Israel - there was even one grave for a 14 year old boy who died in the 1948 War of Independence!
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| Mt. Herzl Military Cemetery: here is a grave of a 14 year old boy! |
After we had enough at Mt. Herzl, we walked down a path to Yad V'shem. Yad V'shem is a HUGE museum about the Holocaust. When we came out, we were shaking. Some things that we saw were just terrible. I could not begin to describe what gruesome things we saw in there. Just thinking about it makes me want to vomit and cry. The children's exhibit had candles and mirrors and kept saying the names of 1.5 million kids who were murdered; it was one of the saddest places I have ever been to.
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| At Yad V'shem, in front of a train car which took Jews to concentration camps in the Holocaust. |
Western or Wailing Wall ("Kotel") on Friday Night
When the sun had set, I found myself at the Kotel. The Kotel is the holiest site for Jews in the world, it's the remaining western outer wall of the Holy Temple from 2000 years ago. Because we were at it on the top of the stairs leading to the Kotel, we could see everyone. When I looked out, I saw a sea of black - what was it? Everyone there was black suit wearing Orthodox (almost everyone!). We went down stairs and went up to the Wall to pray. There were about 50 guards whose job was to make sure nobody took pictures or videos because it's not allowed on Sabbath at a holy site; they were aggressive. Yeshiva (Jewish seminary) students sing and dance towards the Kotel to go pray:
I got to go by myself to the men's side of the Kotel to pray:
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| I said a prayer and put a note in the Western Wall. Awesome! |
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| Small but mighty Jeff Siedel at Heritage House has been arranging Shabbat Dinner hospitality for non-Orthodox since my mom studied here 20 years ago! |
Sabbath Dinner
Of all the experiences, this took the cake! As soon as we walked in the door of these people's home, I could sense that this house was a weird yet mystical place. When did I sense this? As soon as the lady said hello with her mystical smile and paintings on the walls. When I turned around, there was the man with a big, round, furry hat who was wearing a black silk robe. Me and my mom were scared and didn't know what to expect. First, everyone had to wash their hands and say a prayer, and then they couldn't talk again till we had finished the prayer over the bread. They kindly served us nice food, even though the fish was rotten! Overall, they were nice people, but the experience was as weird as a cow doing ballet! They asked questions, quoted a bunch of rabbis that I didn't understand, and basically tried to teach us a bit about their way of serving God but also said some things that was not nice to us, like Reform Judaism isn't really Judaism! Every time the lady Sarah said something, she would finish with a hearty shout-out of AY-MEN! She went on about how angels sing when we say Amen and she wanted all of us at the table to say it after everything she said but most of us just kind of sat there through all her ramblings.
We were tired so we pretended we had a time to meet our friend Neta (well, it wasn't pretend - she WAS waiting for us at home!)... first she wouldn't let us leave till we said the prayer for when you finish eating. She gave me and my mom prayer books and we thought we were going to have to do it out loud by ourselves but we were nervous because we didn't know how! Turns out we could do it quietly under our breadth. Once we were done with that, she blocked the exit and wouldn't let us leave till we told her our Hebrew names. By the end of the night, she kept tacking new names on for me based on stuff I didn't understand what she was saying, but I had 5 names by the end of the night! I said, "Wow, I never knew I had those names!"
We had to tell them we were walking to our friend's house, or else they would get mad that were taking a taxi on Shabbat. Of course, once out of sight, we got a cab!
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| We couldn't take photos at dinner, but thiswhat the man Shlomo looks like! |
Neta's Place
When we got to our friend Neta's place, we were SO exhausted, but we stayed up chatting and snacking. I was so tired, I fell asleep while we were talking! We woke up the next morning and read for a while quietly because Neta likes to sleep late. Once she was up, we chit chatted and made french toast. We went off to find a taxi at a nearby hotel, passing the dorms my mom lived in 20 years ago. Finally, we said goodbye. It was great to see an old friend!
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| We stayed up late laughing with Neta, eating Apropo and cookies! |
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| Apropo is jus tlike Bugles in America - yum! |
Saturday
Old City
Once we got to the Old City from Neta's place in French Hill, we went on a 3 hour tour of it. Our first stop was the Armenian Quarter, which wasn't that exciting. Then it was the Jewish Quarter which we had explored on our own the day before, so we went to places we had already seen. Next the Muslim Quarter and the Arab shuk (market). The shop keepers were too aggressive and the smells of the shuk overpowered me. I urged the group to go on, but only after eating the best humus in the whole city at a little tiny place in some winding shuk street.
When we were in the Christian Quarter, I felt better. I went to the Church of the Holy Sepelchure where Jesus died on the cross and was buried. It was crowded with Christian pilgrims.
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| We walked Jesus' Stations of the Cross, and here I am at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. |
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| We stopped at this cool pub restaurant after dark for drinks before departing the Old City, felt like a movie set! |
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