Our final stop today was to visit the Western Wailing Wall – that most sacred Jewish religious site – the only remaining portion of the original Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. It is a very moving sight at any time, but tonight was not only the beginning of the Sabbath but also the first night of Hanukkah so there were hordes of people there (men on their side, women on the other) praying and chanting and singing in celebration.
We weren’t supposed to take any photos (though Michael snuck this one without a flash). That whole “no work” on the Sabbath is actually “no creating” anything. So you can’t take photos and you can’t write prayers. If you are going to go with tradition and put a little piece of paper with a hand-written prayer on it into one of the cracks in the wall, you have to have written it before sunset. You cannot write it at the wall. In addition, you apparently cannot push elevator buttons. You can use the elevator. You just cannot push the button to signal the elevator to stop on your floor. So most hotels set one elevator for this purpose…it just automatically stops at every single floor so you can get off where you want to.
Additionally, most of the females at the wailing wall tonight were younger girls. That is apparently because women cannot light a stove or “create” a meal after sunset, so women with children and families have to stay at home to get all the dinner cooking done before the sun sets and the Sabbath begins. Great how there is always a solution that allows women to get their work done!
No comments:
Post a Comment