The Wailing Wall

We are now in Jerusalem for 4 days and began our tour with a trip to the old city by going through the Western Wall at the Dung Gate. This is the only gate that is in the Jewish Quarter. As we went through we saw the areas where there are huge water fountains that are used for ritual cleansing of hands before going to the wall for prayers. From there, folks walk with prayer books in hand to one of two sections of the wall. One side for men and the other for women. Men must have there heads covered, but not so for women.

Interestingly, when they pray, they do not go up to the wall and just pray. They say prayers that are from a prayer book only. There are indeed tiny scraps of paper scrunched up and put into the cracks of the wall.

After going to the Wailing Wall we entered into a tunnel that ran under the wall into the Muslim section. This particular area is as close to the Holy Mount as they can come. It is very sacred to them. There is constant praying and a mummer of voices can be heard echoing throughout the tunnels. In this excavated area you see many indicators that demonstrating that King Harrod had had this built (stone carvings etc).

Again, prayers in this

area are separate the men and the women. Dan was good about keeping his little hat on.

As we emerged from the tunnel, there was some sort of "bomb scare" in the courtyard. Everyone was calm and and the bomb squad came with speed and efficiency. Within about 30 minutes the "forgotten" laptop was exploded by the robot and a tech was sent out to retrieve it once everything had settled. Life resumed as normal after that. This is just life for them and they are always prepared...remember Masada? The Jews do not ask questions first. They take care of business and with good reason. Look at the countries that surround them.