Hello,
Shabbos was amazing. We stayed at the Diaspora Yeshiva in the Old City, which is the famous Reb Shlomo Carlbach Yeshiva. We davened (prayed) at the Kotel on Friday night, and in the yeshiva for everything else. After davening we had a tour of the muslim quarter. Don't worry we had 24 hour security. We walked all over the old city and went up onto the roof of some family. From there we had an amazing view of the city, as well as straight into the courtyard of the dome of the rock. Interesting. Then we walked to the Kotel Katan, which is the other side of the Kotel a little bit further down. It is one of the closest places to the Kadosh Kedoshim we can get to. There were guards there watching the door. Then we sang Am Yisrael Chai, and other songs by the Kotel Katan. It was amazing. Then we had Shalut Shaddus on the roof of the Yeshiva. Then we davened Maariv by Dovid Hamelech's Kever, and sang Havdala in the same place.
On Friday night we had Rav Mati Berger speak to us. He was amazing, and talked about the inner child and the choice we have to be adults or children and stuff like that. He gave a lot to think about.
Saturday, we had an interesting speaker named Gil Lox. He has an amazing story all told in his book Coming back down to earth. I think that was what it was called. He was a good Jewish boy learning knife fighting in Japan. And thats how the story starts. I have to go to sleep so I will write more on him later.
Then Saturday night I had an interesting experience, that I want to tell over.
I was in the main bus terminal in Jerusalem, when a blind guy about my age comes over to my friends and I, and asks if we can help him. So I say "Sure, what do you need?"
So he says I need to get on my bus to Gilo and I dont know where it is. So I said sure. I took his hand and led him upstairs to the information desk. He asked the lady in hebrew to tell me in english where to go and what time the bus was. Amazingly I actually understood the Hebrew. So the info lady told me where it was and we went. We had to go down the 3 floors, outside, across the street, through the underground tunnel, across another street, and then to the left. As I sat him down in the stop he was thanking me like I was going to leave, and I told him I wasn't going anywhere. After all how can a blind guy know when his bus is there?
So I stayed with him, and we were talking the whole time. It turns out he knows 4 languages; English, Hebrew, French, and Arabic, and he is learning German. He was asking me about American politics and how do Americans vote while they are in Israel. So I explained to him about absentee ballots and the works. And then we were talking about studying for the year in Israel. His thirst for knowledge was incredible. He goes to Hebrew U and learns everything there. He was so inspirational, and I felt so good after that. So I just wanted to share that with you,
Have a good night,
Jesse
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2 comments:
Hi,
Thanks for sharing these great stories! I never heard of the Kotel Katan. I'm learning from reading! I love it!
Your speakers sound very interesting as well. Wish I could hear them.
That story about the blind guy was very moving. It was really nice of you to go so far out of your way for him, but totally in character for you!
Have a good one,
Love, Mom
Hi Jesse,
In speaking to the gentleman, did you happen to find out what caused his blindness? A congenital eye disease? Severe head trauma? A Vitamin A deficiency or other underlying medical cause?
Just curious.
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