Day 9: July 16th, 2010 (Jerusalem)

View from our room in Jerusalem

We did not receive our daily wake-up call but luckily woke up anyway at 7:10 AM. Got up and dressed and headed downstairs for breakfast. Came back up to the room to brush up and headed down to the bus at 8:30 AM. Scott R and I did our over/under bet for what time everybody would board by. 8:45 AM was the over/under, I took the under and won. The first stop of the day was the Menachem Begin Heritage Center.

On the patio of the Menachem Begin Heritage Center

This is a museum in tribute of Menachem Begin who was one of the famous Prime Minister’s of Israel. Since our group was too big we had to separate in half for the tour. We were in the first group and finished 20 minutes ahead of the other group. The tour moved you from room to room explaining through a multi-media presentation where Begin grew up, his involvement in the military and ultimately his role as the Prime Minister. He is probably best known for signing the Peace Treaty with Egypt in the late ‘70’s. When we were done I walked around the building to a very old grave site and took some pictures.

Sculpture at old grave site

All throughout Israel you will find random historic sites and they are still finding many more with all the excavation they are doing. After the second group finished we went to the Yad Vaschem Holocaust Memorial established in 1954.

Inside Yad Vaschem Memorial

As with most memorials of this type it was a very emotional experience, especially the videos of the survivors and their personal experiences during the Holocaust. We spent almost three hours there and they kicked us out at 2:00 PM since they close early for Shabbat. The cafeteria was still open and we met everybody there for a late lunch. The kids were already at the café and had chicken schnitzel. Al and I split a chicken dish, fries, rice and a couple of muffins. The food was pretty good. After lunch we went back to the bus and our tour guide decided to walk us up to Mount Herzel.

National Cemetery

This is the National Cemetery where many famous Israelis are buried, including Herzel, Golda Meir, Rabin and other Government figures. There is also a Military Cemetery there where soldiers that are killed in the line of duty are buried. Since all Israelis must serve in the Military for three years (18 to 21 years old), not all Veterans are buried there. It is also interesting to note that every military grave site is exactly the same. There is a “bed” with a plant on it (yew?) and a “pillow” with the same standard inscription. You are not allowed to put your own personal words on it. By the time we finished with the cemetery it was already 3:45 PM and most of Jerusalem closes down to get ready for Shabbat, so we decided to head back to the hotel. We got back to the hotel around 4:00 PM and relaxed in the room for a while before showering up to get ready for the evening’s activities. At 6:30 PM however wanted met at the bus to take us over to the Western Wall for a quick Shabbat service.

Western Wall on Shabbat

On the way over we started seeing flocks of orthodox Hasidic Jews in their black garb and black hats heading towards the Wall. The bus let us off near the Dung entrance (named because that is where the Romans use to throw dung at the Jews) and we headed up the ramp to the Wall. It was quite a scene with people all over the place. Since the Wall has a separate area for men and women, I went with Zach and Al went with Hannah to our respective sections. Walking up to the Wall and finally touching it was truly a moving moment. As a Jew, I have seen pictures of the Wall and read so much about it but until I was finally there with all the Hasidim prayer it meant so much more. Zach and I had both written notes prior to coming to the Wall and we found our special cracks in the Wall to place our notes. I leaned my hands and head against the Wall and said a pray for my Aunt Beverly who just passed away the other day and a pray for my other relatives that passed away especially my Father. It is a very emotional place and you feel as though you are as close to G-D as you can get. Zach and I sat down on the plastic chairs they have in front of the Wall and absorbed our surroundings. All around you could see Jews of different types praying and getting very into the moment. As the official Sabbath time approached (7:20 PM) flocks of people began entering the area in front of the Wall. The other people in our group joined together at a prayer table and Rabbi Lewis led us in the Shabbat prays. Even though it did not matter, for some reason I noticed we had a minion of 10 people. I am not a highly religious person but this service seemed to take on a special meaning. As we looked on the other side of the fence, we noticed that the women were right there participating in our service too. During our service you could hear the loud chatting of the Hasidim and other small groups of Jews all doing their special thing. Occasionally you would see a soldier praying while he had his rifle slung over his shoulder.

Soldier praying at Western Wall

By the time we finished our service there must have been over a 1000 people by the Wall. After we finished our service at the Wall we met up with the women and started to walk back to the hotel. We walked thru the Arab shook area (old marketplace) where they were selling all sorts of spices, clothing, hookahs and much more. Since it was the Sabbath we did not stop to purchase anything and just continued on. We took about 30 minutes to walk back to the hotel. Al and I went back up to the room to change quickly for dinner and then headed downstairs to the dining room. Tonight was the Sabbath dinner for our whole group. The kids sat at a separate table from the adults so I don’t know what they ate. I had a salmon filet appetizer (Al had an avocado “tower”), I had the noodle soup (Al had the zucchini soup), for the entrée I had the chicken stuffed with veal, rice and pine nuts and Al had the steak and Cornish hen “duet”. We also brought our wine that we had purchased at the Golan Heights winery the other day and enjoyed that with our meal. For dessert there was only one option of the sampling plate with 5 different desserts on it. We hung talking for awhile and then headed back up to the room around 11 PM. We relaxed, watched TV and went to bed at 11:45 PM.