Shabbot Shalom! (January 16)

On Friday night, we went to the Western Wall to welcome in Shabbot (Sabbath). It was pretty much one of the best experiences of my life. We couldn't take pictures, because you can't set off an electronic impulse on Shabbot. A couple of girls were trying to write down prayers on little slips of paper to stick in the wall, and a man came up and politely asked them not to write on the Sabbath, either.

These big masses of young men spent sang Hebrew songs and danced, sometimes in a circle with their arms around each other, rushing around, sometimes jumping up and down like a mosh pit. About half of them were the soldiers we see everywhere. The older men in big black hats threw the young men long-suffering looks and tried to suffocate all the dancing with their air of solemnity. It didn't work. Our boys were wearing kepahs (that's the Hebrew word for a yarmulke), and the Jewish boys grabbed them and pulled them in. They danced with them and tried to follow along with the singing and apparently had the time of their lives.

The girls there were less exuberant. There was only one small circle of girls dancing and singing, so few that if we tried to join them it would be obvious that we didn't know what we were doing. Kate and I did stand right outside of their circle clapping with them and singing, "Shabbot Shalom," the song we learned in our Hebrew class this week. There are only two words, so we were able to sing with gusto.

Closer to the Wall things were more reverent. Everyone stood in a sort of orderly crowd, waiting for their turn to go up and pray at the wall. It's segregated by gender, so I went up to the women's side. I stood beside a pair of girl-soldiers who rocked back and forth singing a prayer together, and a couple of middle-aged women wearing heavy eye-shadow and gauzy headscarves, and a white-haired woman dressed like a wealthy Russian woman a hundred years ago.

I put a hand on the wall and slipped a prayer I had written on a piece of paper into a crack in the stone, and it was amazing. I would go back every Friday, except we're not allowed in the Old City after sunset.

Love,

Stella