Monday: 27 Sept 2010

Today was a pretty good day.  I slept well and woke up in my own bed J naturally going back to Jerusalem food is making me sick again (not severely—just a bit uncomfortable at times. How’s that for irony? I didn’t get sick once in Egypt…)  We had a free day, so lots of people did homework but some buddies and I went out to see the Bar Mitzvahs at the Western Wall (apparently they only happen on Monday and Thursday mornings).  I was surprised; there were quite a few going on, but most of them were only attended by about 15 to 20 people.  There was a big scroll that the boy would read from, some singing and dancing, and then pictures.  Most of the activity at the Western Wall was for the Sukkot holiday—the Jews carried a palm frond, citron branches, weeping willow leaves, and myrtle leaves to the wall and prayed with them.  They also had a huge “tabernacle” set up in the corner.  It was a big deal, and I felt kind of bad intruding as a tourist on their worship.  It was neat to see, though.

After the Western Wall, I split off with a smaller group and we went to visit the Burnt House of the Kathros family.  Apparently the Kathros family was a wealthy family of priests during the time of the Great Revolt (66-70 AD), and were present for the burning of Herod’s Temple by the Romans.  A month after the temple was burned the Romans stormed the Upper City and burned it too.  The house we visited was the remains of the basement found not too long ago.  They had a video that we watched to explain its significance; it put me to tears thinking about how terrible it must have been to live during that era.  I have to wonder if it was a punishment from God, a result of their own actions, or a combination of both.  In any event, it was super sad but interesting.  After that we went and had shamelas in the Old City, visited some cool Hebrew bookstores and shops, then went back.

The rest of the afternoon was pretty much just homework, not too much to write about.  Tomorrow we have our first quiz in my Judaism class and I’m kind of nervous for it because our teacher is a bit tough but it should turn out alright.  Au revoir!