Yesterday was an exciting day. We began the
morning by going to the Kotel,Western Wall or Wailing Wall - whatever you
prefer to call it. It was amazing to see about half the population of Jerusalem
making their way with their children and extended families to experience
Brichat Hacohanim which is the day when the Rabbi's of the Western Wall do the
Priestly Blessing for the holiday of Sukkoth or Feast of Tabernacles. It
was quite a day at the plaza and at the Wall, were literally people from all over
the world were gathering. Jean, Garry and I felt quite privileged to be
here at this time of the year. This holiday is one of the three in the
scriptures that requires all Jews to come to Jerusalem. It was a
beautiful sight seeing the Jewish men carrying their lulav and etrog to wave
before the L-rd. If you want to learn about where they get this ritual read
Leviticus 23:34-42. (When we iron out the kinks of attaching pictures we
will post some pictures from today.)
It was so crowded at the Kotel we thought the open air market - the Shuk
would be empty. But when we got there we found the other half of Jerusalem's
population. It was so crowded we could hardly walk.