day three: the wall, the wall, the wall

muslims make a haj to visit mecca, where muhammed founded islam. christians go to a number of places: bethlehem where jesus was born, jerusalem where he was crucified, and basically everywhere jesus did anything. jews come to jerusalem to see: a wall. this is not just any wall though; it is the remaining wall of the second jewish temple destroyed by titus of the romans not long after the birth of christ. this temple, like the first one destroyed by those dastardly babylonians, housed many things, like an altar for sacrifices, a big golden menorah, and a bunch of stuff that priests used to obey G-d's command and to please Him by doing various things with them. but the most important thing in the temple was the shechina, or G-d's physical presence on earth, which was housed in the Holy of Holies (kadosh kedoshim). this wall is the closest one can get to the burial place of the shechina, which supposedly still exists in a secret underground hiding place beneath the...... dome of the rock (big mosque with a golden dome)! ...of all places. according to my guide shani, omar the conquerer and once a representative of sorts of islam, decided to build a mosque atop this site hundreds of years after the second temple's destruction, which was also the ancient site of avraham's attempted sacrifice of his son yitschak, because both it had historical holy significance and the christians left it barren. why? because jesus had made a declaration standing above the impure city of jerusalem that no bricks would be left standing here because of the unholiness of its denizens. therefore, the christians who controlled palestine would not lay one brick upon the site. in addition, muhammed spoke of a dream he had of riding a horse from a mosque in mecca to another distant one on a white horse, where he docked the horse and ascended to heaven. this mosque was to be the one in the dream. and to this day, it is treated as such. biased of course, this story, but it is interesting nonetheless.

anyway, this wall is crowded with jews of all colors, religious sects, and denominations. chasidim walk around begging for tsedaka (charity) and americans with their huge cameras pray clutching its stones. i myself got wrapped up in teffilin (look it up) and said the v'ahavta, aided by some friendly chasidic boys. i also inserted a prayer into the wall. it is said that the female spirit of god (some kabbalistic stuff) floats around the wall and brings all the prayers directly up to heaven.

more later. time running out on this computer.