Western Wall Welcome Shabbat

I haven't felt the spirit so powerfully in a long time as I did when I was at the Western Wall. What an amazing experience. The wailing wall (aka the western wall) is a cool place for sure to go and see...but we went on Friday night to welcome in Shabbat morning with a huge weekly Jewish celebration. I can't even express really how lucky I am to have experienced that. To prep you for info on the western wall..it's one of the most holiest places in the world to the Jewish culture. It's a part of Herod's temple, and Jews all over make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and see the Western Wall. In America if you are Jewish, the Jewish church pays for everyone to make a trip once in their lifetime to come see these holy places. It’s part of their pilgrimage, and so a lot of them had been waiting their whole life. When they come, they write their prayers on little pieces of paper, and stuff it all over in the cracks of the wall. They rub the wall and pray and kiss it and just have their own spiritual experiences and dances there. They speak to God, and just have their own, personal experience. It's so holy to them that when you walk away you don't turn your back to the wall. You face the wall and walk backwards away. Anyway when you first walk up to it the boys have to go on one side of a dividing wall, and girls go on the other. There are all types of Jews all together. The hasidic ones with fur hats and long sideburn curls, down to the teenage boys just finished with their bar mitzvahs wearing just a yamakah. A lot of our guy friends put on some yamakahs they bought and went in and did the dancing and singing with all the men. On the girls side there was a massive crowd of women all over bawling and reading scriptures and just being respectful and doing their own individual thing. Some were praying. Some were just sitting and taking it in. Some were dancing to help welcome in the Sabbath. Some were waiting to touch and kiss the wall. Some were just closing their eyes. Some were crying. Everyone was just doing their own thing. As you went closer to the wall the women of all ages were packed up against it just wanting to touch the wall and have that time to talk to God and feel the presence of. It was so cool by the time I waited to get to touch the wall because by the time I got there the only people that I could see in all areas were Jewish women with their prayers in their hand waiting to put it in. Everyone in my group had either already had the chance to touch the wall, or were somewhere farther down where I couldn’t see. There were dark haired women in all areas. When I got to the wall the stone was so smooth from people rubbing it and touching it so much. Papers upon papers were molded together and stacked one on top of the other everywhere where there was a crack of air in the wall. The ground against the wall was scattered with little papers of prayer. A girl next to me was sobbing and wailing out in Hebrew as she bowed constantly. On the other side of me was a small girl probably 12 or 13 just singing a quiet song as she laid her head against the wall and gently stroked and kissed it over and over. I carefully put my forehead against the cold wall of papers and whispered my own silent prayer in English. The girl next to me kept gently bumping into my shoulder as she bowed over and over and the girl next to me just kept singing softly. It's so crazy to think that whether you pray to the wall of Herod with a piece of paper or in the small bathroom stall before a test; Heavenly Father hears your prayers. I got such an overwhelming feeling that He knew who Emilie Savio was. In the midst of all these dark haired Jewish sisters that I don't even know their name, it was incredible to re-realize how individual and personal Heavenly Father is. He knows me and who I am, just like he knows the sobbing woman next to me who is crying out in Hebrew for help. It truly humbled me to be in such a crowd of devoted women. Women who's every breath and every way they go about life relates back to what they believe in. What they believe in, is who they are; and isn't just another category of their life. It felt nice to cry next to the crying woman and just feel so grateful to be there. To have the family I have and to have the knowledge and belief in the things I do. Believing in something is what gives people hope. It doesn't matter what it is. To make what you believe in, who you are I think is one of the greatest things we can do in this life. To truly become what you want to become. Not just on Sunday, or when you are lonely. But to become who you are in every area of your life. Who you are from the inside out. After walking away from the wall we all got in a circle with some 16 year old girls and danced and clapped and hugged. Even though we couldn't understand each others' languages, there was a feeling of knowing each other. Truly an amazing experience. I couldn't take any pictures because when the sun goes down for Shabbat, you can't use flashes on camera's and modern technologies. You rest from the world. I love these Jewish women. This was a night I will never forget. I truly can't capture nor explain fully how I feel in words. What an experience that I get to remember forever.