That it was eerie is of no dispute. Apocalyptic? Well, that is hard to say, except that if anything Apocalyptic is likely to happen, it would happen in that area. There is a belief by many Jews that the Messiah will be arriving out of the Eastern Gate of Jerusalem that was sealed by Suleiman the Magnificent, ostensibly to prevent the happening.
https://youtu.be/ByqMLfeYYOs
Now that I have been in the general vicinity, I recognize where the men in the video were standing, overlooking also a very ancient cemetery. I saw no mist when I visited the Wall, which abuts the Temple Mount (which we could not visit because it was closed when we came), but God's Presence could certainly be felt as we explored the courtyard and joined those so reverently praying ahead of us at the Wall. I somehow had expected the length of the Wall to be more extensive based on photographs and even on that video I had seen, but it was impressive enough if only for its survival and its importance to this very day.
One of the happy by-products of this Pilgrimage are some of the things I learned, surprising things, small and large, along the way. Here is one. Notice the big bushy thing protruding out of the wall? These plants were everywhere on the walls throughout the City. They are capers--yes, the plant that bears the little things you eat in your salads, after much cutting, selecting, pruning and pickling. And having read a little since I returned, these plants have been compared to the Jews themselves, having the ability to survive even when cut to the roots.
Women and men do not approach the Wall together. There is a strict, Orthodox, separation. I seem to remember someone near me, maybe one of our own group, complaining about the dichotomy. For me, somehow it was of no serious objection, perhaps because, though I am a woman who has neither married nor had children, and lived a life that many would say was a model of feminism (having had a career of my own and supported myself), I believe that we all are given different gifts and roles by God, and that the separation is a recognition of those natural dichotomies of body, mind and soul. In any case, I think as far as the Western Wall, critique is a ship that has sailed. And so, off I went to say a prayer for my mother, and for a couple of friends, attached to a note to be placed in one of the cracks in spiritual emphasis.
I waited my turn. I was impressed by the intense reverence around me., and by the sense of the many who had come here before over years and years past. And now, I was one of them. It's pretty powerful stuff. And something else. I have never understood anti-Semitism from Christians. And now, I understand it less. There would be, for me, no Catholicism, the faith I practice, without the extended history of the Jews. They are indispensable to what we believe. We would not exist as a faith, but for them. (I hope that my Jewish cousins don't mind the expression of this view of our connection; it is meant with a gratitude only.)
I leave you with a video snippet. In the background, you can hear a Muezzin doing the Call to Prayer for Islam. As Mr. Spock would say, "Fascinating".
From the Western Wall, we went to an ancient palace, inside the City, that some say is that of King David, though it is disputed. (In all things of human discussion, there is dispute, it seems!) I think by this time, as the end of the day was upon us, I was exhausted in taking pictures, so I just absorbed. But here is a link to a video about this archeological gem.
https://youtu.be/NZhFteuv9Is
All I can say to those of you who dispute even the existence of David--I hear you are out there--is that the Bible, The Torah and the New Testament connects very nicely to so many of the ruins discovered in the past and still being unearthed as we speak. But whether you believe in the Kings, the Prophets or the Messiah, it is all pretty spectacular.
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