Trip to the Wall

There are quite a few intra city buses between the Tel Aviv area and the Jerusalem area. I choose a line which came within about a 15 minute walk from Beth's apartment.  The bus to the central bus station in Jerusalem was clean and comfortable but stopped many times (it seemed about 2 dozen) and thus it took about 90 minutes to get there. One of the stops was the Coca Cola plant (first image) in Bnai Brak.

As with other places (e.g. the well of Abraham discussed earlier), the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem has been prettified as it has expanded to take care of the passenger load. The second image shows how it looked in the 1930s (from the internet). 

The third image shows how it looks today. The building is multistory because an intercity bus will arrive at the second level and let departing passengers off and then go to the third level and let boarding passengers on.  The ground level is where the local buses pick up and let off their passengers.  The 2nd and 3rd levels also have dozens of retail places about half of which serve food.  The rail in the image is for the light rail line, the green buses are the local ones.

The next two images are of me at the wall. The anonymous photographer took one vertical and one horizontal. 

I had some interesting discussions and heard some others. On the way to the bus stop near the wall, one fellow from Australia told me that he had recently discovered, from genealogical research, that he was partly Jewish. "I felt that and I think somehow I always knew that" he said. I'm told (by Beth) that this sort of discussion is actually fairly common and the 'feeling of being Jewish or partly so" brings many to the wall.  

I got to the wall a few minutes before noon so I had time to do Shacharit (the morning prayers) at the wall (and deliver a message written by Ann which I put into one of the numerous cracks between the large stones). I then decided to stay another hour and a half and then do Mincha (the afternoon prayers). 

As I waited I walked around. There were about a half dozen Bar Mitzvahs going on (it was a Monday) and people were throwing candy (I brought some to Beth).  As in the image (from the Internet), every one of the Bar Mitzvahs that I saw was a Sephardic one (you can tell by the round Torah case) but most included Ashkenaz looking people as part of the celebration.

I then went and listened in on some tour groups. Several of the tour leaders decided to try to explain why the Western Wall was holy. One said that God's special presence left the Temple when it was destroyed by the Romans and went to the nearest man made structure which was the wall. Another said that the wall wasn't originally holy but having received millions and millions of fervent prayers had become holy.  Another said that it was the wall closest physically to the place of God's presence and that the holiest offerings were brought by going over that wall.

On the way back from the Old City to the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem, a fellow sitting across from me started talking to me (I was wearing a lapel pin with the Israel and  US flag so he had a clue that I might understand English). At one point he asked how many times I had been to the wall. I said, "four, maybe five". He then asked, "Oh. Is that part of your Ministry?"

I really got a kick out of that question and that's how I'll end the blog.