I thought Israel Would Be LESS Overwhelming?

It’s our third night in Jerusalem and we leave tomorrow for Mt. Herzl and Yad Veshem.  It’s been the most incredible experience to be here.  The first couple days it was so hard to feel connected to this land and I was afraid that the next few months were going to be scary and difficult.  Then we came to Yerushelayim.  It’s gorgeous.  We have done so much, hiked through the Golan Heights, bathed in hot springs by the Sea of Galilee (actually a freshwater lake),  trekked through and then went rafting in the Jordan River, visited synagogues in Tzfat, bathed in a spring fed “waterfall” in the Golan Heights, saw Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon from a distance, sat on top of an IDF bunker while listening to a story about the Valley of Tears, etc.  I got to celebrate Shabbat in Jerusalem and went to an Orthodox service with some friends.  I decided to have a Bat Mitzvah that is happening at sunrise on top of Masada on Monday.  I can’t even begin to express what that will mean to me.  But here is a highlight reel of the top two moments here in Jerusalem:

1.     The Mega-event.  Each birthright trip is organized so that one day they go to a mega-event with every single Taglit (birthright) participant in the country at that time.  There are thousands of people and they have top Israeli performers and actors and models and politicians come and get the Taglit participants excited about Israel.  Before we went, I thought this was going to be incredibly dumb.  And it would have been.  If my life weren’t…. my life.  When we got there, we were told that this was the one meal today we would be buying for ourselves and we would have to buy it IN the venue.  So we go in and move with thousands of other people towards the food kiosks amid dancing and drums.  After waiting in a throng of the most obnoxious people on this planet (I’m convinced) we get to the front of the line right as they close the kiosks in an attempt to force us to move towards the concert hall.  There was almost a riot.  People were stealing food and yelling and chanting.  As far as community building went, all it made any of us want to do was fight.  Realizing that obtaining food is impossible at this point, Emily and I realized that we were (a) going to be starving for the next few hours and (b) were completely lost and separate from our group.  So we wandered toward the hall and somehow ended up at the restricted entrance by the front row.  Then we wandered in and no one stopped us.  So then we walked to two empty seats dead center of the second row and still no one stopped us.  So we sat down.  And were front row center for this ridiculous concert.  This guy named Mark pretended like we were part of his group so we didn’t get 

kicked out.  It was insane. None of the following pictures were taken with a zo!  

AAAAH only time to upload one and now leaving the hotel.... SORRY!

2. The Kotel.  I knew that everyone talked about the wailing wall as a holy place but I never thought it might actually affect me.  I thought it would be beautiful and a place to reflect but I never thought touching it would feel like raw emotion in every cell of my body.  It was incredible.  After several minutes of praying and reveling in the intangible amazingness that is the Kotel, I was interrupted by the woman next to me who began sobbing her prayers in Hebrew pretty loudly.  I wasn’t so surprised because I was also moved to tears but even though I couldn’t understand the Hebrew, her tone told me that this was entirely different.  I glanced over to see her staring up at the wall with her eyes shut in a posture of pure overwhelming grief holding a photograph to the wall.  I turned back to the wall and couldn’t pray or focus on anything because I was too stricken by this woman.  After a few minutes of feeling completely helpless and wishing I could comfort her in some way, I felt something on my hand.  Without looking at me, the woman had placed the photograph into the wall by my prayer and then placed her hand over mine.  We held hands and prayed and cried for a solid twenty minutes.  I don’t know that I have ever felt that much of a connection to a stranger in my life and I seriously doubt that I ever will again.  It was unspeakably beautiful.  I have changed my plans about a little bit in order to spend more time in Jerusalem and I’ll admit that the prospect of praying daily at the Kotel has motivated a lot of these plans. 

I also have made friends with a few Israelis between the soldiers who joined our group yesterday as our Israeli peers and our security guard Vered (means rose in Hebrew… what a coincidence!) who I sit next to on the bus.  I’ve haggled at market.  Generally, I just feel at home here.  I can’t wait for the next few months.  I’ll try to keep y’all updated more reliably but internet here has been patchy at best.  All my love!