Western Wall

Today we started our day fairly early (again with Pita and hummus.. my favorite!) and went to the Western Wall or as people know it to be, the Wailing Wall. It was such an enriching experience. It started out where the guide was telling us about the Jewish traditions, but as she was speaking, a Barmitzvah traveled by, and if you know anything about a Barmitzvah, it is very loud and joyous! After this, the men and women split their seperate ways on the wall. On the womens side, there were orthodox jewish women praying fervently and rocking back and forth with the "rythm" of the prayer. Again, just the reverence and beauty the Jewish people have of God is unbelieveable. There was one woman who was holding up a cell phone to the wall to allow the person on the other end to pray at the wall. I also realized that the women were walking backward from the wall all the way to the main walking place, and when I asked our guide about it she said they do that because they believe that is where the Spirit of God is and they do not think they should turn their back on the Spirit of God. Completely Beautiful. If you dont know, the western wall was actually the wall built around the temple. This temple was greater and bigger than anything you can imagine. The steps to get into it were stories high. Inside this temple was the Holy of Holies. This was the Jew's sacred place. A ruler came in a took over Jerusalem and desecrated the temple (put foreign Gods in it) and renamed the city. He told the jews they were no longer allowed to come and pray at the temple, but they were allowed to come once a year to the temple to weep at the wall for what had happened. (Hints the "Wailing Wall"). The Romans soon desecrated the temple, tearing it down and taking the treasures inside of it. (Did you know: The treasures the Romans took from the temple were actually the money used for building the colliseum in Rome? True story.) The temple was completely demolished except for a specific section of wall. This part of the wall happens to be where the Holy of Holies are and is very special to the Jewish people today. This is where Jewish boys have their Barmitzvah's, Jewish men and women come to pray for hours, they learn the torah, etc. It is an amazing place. Just the beauty and power that was felt there was unbelieveable. Everyone in our group had an amazing experience. We then went to Yad Vashem which is the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. This was a very emotional place for me. I couldn't belive the things that happened. I knew about the Holocaust and what went on, but to see the actual car they used to carry bodies on, it just gripped my emotions like I've never felt before. Needless to say, I didn't walk out of there with dry eyes. It's amazing to me though how amazing God's grace is because if the Holocaust didn't happen, the Jewish people wouldn't have been able to call Jerusalem their homeland again... how awesome is God's grace even in the thick of hopelessness?

Afterwards we went to the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, which wasn't all that amazing . Haha. It was cool though to hear their theology of the organizations with the Jewish population.

After dinner we went to get Gelato (oh so good!) and then found an amazing book store! They have books there, ALL IN HEBREW like Cat and the Hat, The Wild Thing.. everything! It was so cool! It's actaully right by our SEU building in Jerusalem, so the future Israel-goers will have great places to explore! The woman in the shop saw us looking around and said "Here! Take free Jewish calander!" So we did! (It was only Ryan, Katie, Alexis, Kara-Leigh and I).

I'm here at the house and was able to talk to Jenna, Beky, and Sarah!!!! That was so awesome. I miss everyone so much even though I am having a great time. The hot water heater exploded tonight which means we have no hot water and all the electricity on our side of the building went out, but the heat turned back on. PRAISE THE LORD! ahhaa.

Going to Galilee tomorrow... and on a hike. :-/ These hills are killing me haha.