The Western Wall

This is the second of two blog posts in a half hour's time. So be sure to go and read the other one I posted, too. I just posted this one separately so as not to overwhelm you with a plethora of information.

Tonight, as a class, we went to the Western Wall to welcome in the Sabbath. (For Jews, Sabbath begins at sundown on Friday night and ends at sundown on Saturday night). This was an amazing experience for me. I'm so tired, so I will probably keep this really short, even though this was probably my favorite night so far.

The Western Wall really was a spiritual experience. While I was there, I felt the spirit so strongly. The scripture kept popping into my head from Matthew 18:20, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." I realize that's Christ speaking, and the Jewish people don't worship Christ, but they worship the Lord, and the Messiah in whom they trust shall come, so I believe it still counts. I could feel the spirit of the Lord. And that was really neat to me.

I took the opportunity to place a prayer in the wall. Afterwards, I placed my hands and my head up against the wall, and it was warm, which was neat because it was dark out. I said a prayer, and it felt like everything except my prayer wasn't even there. It was really neat.

After my prayer, I joined in the festivities of the welcoming in of the Sabbath. There were tons of people there tonight because it's the last Sabbath before the Israeli independence day. That also meant there were tons of Israeli soldiers there celebrating, which was really neat, because, as soldiers, they only get to go there twice a year. There were all sorts of people there, whether they were diligently studying scriptures, singing at the top of their lungs, dancing, praying, or just observing. It was so fun. I definitely joined in the singing and dancing. There was this circle of people singing a song, that went, "La la la la la" and I was like, "I KNOW THOSE WORDS!" so I included myself in the circle and joined in. It was so much fun! Hahaha. I loved it. I feel like we, as Latter-day Saints, could learn a lot from the Jewish people about worship. Besides learning from their devotion, we could learn about how to usher in the Sabbath. If we started church by singing and dancing like they did at the Western Wall, it would be much easier to stay awake. I'm just saying.

Later, Brother Muhlstein (my future New Testament teacher) read a few of us sections from the prayer book in Hebrew, and I got the opportunity to read an English portion of it, which was neat. Some of the prayers are really beautiful. I think the prayer for the children was my favorite.

Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures from tonight, because cameras weren't allowed. Extreme Orthodox Jews do not use electricity on the Sabbath, so it would have been offensive for us to have cameras. But I kind of enjoyed it more: it let me enjoy the experience without worrying about documenting it. But here's a picture of the Western Wall that I took a few days ago:

Note the Dome of the Rock in the background. Isn't that cool?! I love how sacred this land is to three major religions. It was the site of where Abraham (almost) sacrificed Isaac, it was the site of the Temple of Solomon, the site of the Temple of Herod, it has the Western Wall, it has the Dome of the Rock, it was the site of where Muhammad ascended into Heaven, and so much more. It is a sacred site to three of the world's largest religions, and I was there worshiping tonight. It was amazing.

After we got back, a group of us were still excited from the partying at the Western Wall, so we had a dance party in the Student Lounge. It started with us simulating a Jewish dance party, then playing Ride that Pony, then having an all-out dance party. Haha. It was a blast.

I love the people here. I love everything. Everyone. The cultures. The people. The languages. Everything.

Everyone should come here. Right now.

Sleep time. Happy Sabbath, everyone!