The Old City



The word of the day today is Sleecha - this means excuse me. Again this is a word I should have learned before coming to Israel, but I am glad I know it now for my last 2+ weeks, since many of the sites we are seeing are very crowded. Since one of my biggest pet peeves is slow walkers, I think I might be putting this word of the day to use a lot.

Yesterday we explored the Old City of Jerusalem, including perhaps one of the most recognizable sites in all of Israel - the Western Wall (Kotel). The Old City is a very interesting place, rich in history but also filled with touristy places such as t-shirt shops. I have included a picture of one of my favorite shirts so far.

Like many of the other sites we have visited, I have been to the Old City before, and craming everything into just a few hours is tough, but I was thankful that I was able to see some things that I had not seen on my pervious two trips. We learned a bit more of the history than I had before dating back to some of the first few kings of Israel. There are a number of archaeological digs happening around the city, and we toured one that is believed to have been the palace of King David. It sits high on the hill, but not all the way up so that it can still be close to the springs below. Only part of the palace is exposed so far, but we were able to see perhaps the most important part..the Kings Thrown. Oh if you were thinking about the ornate kind of thrown, you are mistaken...we are talking about the bathroom...do you remember how to say bathroom from yesterday? There is a test at the end of the 3 weeks.

After visiting the dig of the palace, we swung around to see the steps that led up to the former temple. This was a side (literally) of the old City that I have never seen before. We were told a couple of interesting facts. There were two doorways leading into the temple but three leading out, because as our tour guide explained, in thousands of years nothing has changed about Jewish people. We show up to services whenever we please, but we all leave at the end together. Also the first man on the moon Neil Armstrong visited these same steps and as a devout Christian, believe that Jesus had once walked up these same steps, he claimed that walking these steps meant more to him than the steps he walked on the moon. To him, experiencing history meant more than making history.

Finally we made our way to the Western Wall. There is no "right" way to experience the wall but there are a number of traditions. A few things however are mandatory - heads must be covered, and women, should be dressed modestly (shoulders and knees covered). Men and Women also pray in separate areas, the Men's being more than double the size of the Women's. One of the big traditions is putting a note in the wall, these notes are often some sort of personal prayer. I once again for the third time in my life, came to the wall, left my note and enjoyed the highly spiritual location as a time to collect my thoughts.

Soon the day in Jerusalem came to a close and we arrived back at the Kibbutz earlier than most other nights which meant getting to bed on the earlier side and hitting close to 8 hours of sleep for the first time all week. This was a good thing as this morning I had my first workout on Israeli soil, but more on that next time as we are off to the Dead Sea and Masada. Today is going to be a very, very long day and a late night.