The Western Wall

Last night was the highlight of the trip thus far, we went to the Western or “wailing” Wall. Sundown on Friday night welcomes in the Sabbath for the Jews so there were thousands of Jewish people that made a pilgrimage to the Western Wall. After I scrambled my way forward I was able to touch the wall and leave my little prayer paper in the cracks of the  wall. It was such a neat experience to watch all of them pray and read from the Torah. After walking backwards from the wall there was a group of teenage girls that were singing from their book and they made these circles, one within each another and they would sing and dance. These girls immediately pulled us into their circles and before we knew it we were singing and dancing. They were so nice and so welcoming of us, we knew none of the songs but they didn’t care. We eventually caught onto some of the chorus and sang with them. Afterwards we went back up and looked over and saw the male section and on that side to it was full of singing and dancing. Then the best part of the night came, we were at the top where everyone was allowed and there was a group of Israeli soldiers who had just passed their 3 month training and so they came down to pray at the Western Wall and celebrate. They started their own dancing circle and before we knew it they pulled all of us American girls into it. We were all hesitant at the beginning because they were in full uniform, which included their huge Uzis that were strapped around their shoulders, and they were military men. But these guys were so funny and nice, we all got into the circle and we were singing some Hebrew song and they would come around and dance with you and then it was your turn to go into the middle and then you would go up to another person and “tag” them in by dancing with them. They were laughing at our dance moves and we were laughing at their dance moves and although none of us could communicate it was a good bonding moment and we were like instant friends with these guys. In the outer circle we would be singing and their guns would be hitting us and we would just be praying that it didn’t accidentally go off.  All of the guys in our JC group were having like a panic attack when they first saw all of us girls with these guys but no worries it was a good time. I was so shocked at how nice the Jewish people were and how welcoming they were. I have never felt so connected to a people than I did last night. It was like we were apart of the Jewish family. And let me tell you, there were some nice Jewish men there that might make the calendar next year. Afterwards when we got back to the center we kept the BYU tradition and had a dance party. But I’m not going to lie I still had fun.
            Today after church I went to the Garden of Gethsemane for the first. It is like a ten-minute walk from the Center so we are able to go there like every Sunday! We went as a group of students and it was such an amazing spiritual experience. At first we were in the main section and there was tour after tour group coming in all the time so the people who ran the place let us go into this other section that was a private area so it was peaceful. It is going to be hard to leave this place.