What I did this morning

So it's 7:45 am here and I've already had an awesome morning. Today
(and last night) is the Feast of Weeks or Shavu'ot. It celebrates God
giving the Law to the People, and also the sacrificing of the first
fruits of harvest. Here people celebrate by going to the Western Wall
and reading the Torah through out the night and day.

The Western Wall was part of the parameter wall around the Temple
built by Herod from 20BC to 20AD. The stones building it range from 4
tons to 40, and as the Romans were tearing down the Temple they
basically got to this part and decided it wasn't worth it. It's been
cleaned up since then. Apparently people don't really call it the
Wailing Wall anymore because times have changed and Israel possesses
more of the city. There is still some crying there, but there isn't
the rising and falling moanig that I heard about.

We got to go up to the wall yesterday, which was really very powerful
for me. We heard that people would be gathering there for the festival
and that if we wanted to get in we'd have to go around 4 in the
morning. So I basically didn't question question if I was going or not
I was just going. A group of about 6 of us got up at 3 (jet lag helped
take the edge off) and walked over. It wasn't crazy when we got there
but by 5:30 it was getting really busy. There were a lot of men in
different complicated traditional dress, little kids running around,
and women in long skirts. People were singing and talking, mostly in
Hebrew and English, chatting, reading, and praying. It was chilly that
early. We could have worked our way up to the wall, but we had been
there the day before and we didn't want to impose, so we just sat back
and watched people move around.

It's incredible and unreal to be here. I want to remember this forever.