July 4, 2008
I suppose the appropriate greeting would be Shalom. Today was Friday, which was not only the first day of midterms (which were an absolute killer), but also Friday evening is the day the Jewish people welcome in the Sabbath at sundown. In Jerusalem they have the privilege of the Western Wall, or sometimes referred to as the “Wailing Wall.” There is a lot of history behind this sacred place for Jewish people, some of which I understand and a lot of it which I do not. In context, the wall is a place where people come from all over the world to pray because of some spiritual significance the wall has. Also a common thing to do is to write a prayer or the name of people on a piece of paper and shove it into the cracks of the wall. Well, I have passed by the wall previously and really did not think it was all it was cracked up to be with a few people praying here and there. Today, I found out what it was all cracked up to be. Today, as the evening was drawing in, our whole class walked from the center all the way over to the wall to behold and participate in one of the coolest things I have yet seen. We get there and the place was just absolutely packed with people (it is a good thing I served in India or I would not do so well with all the crammed space and bodily odor, post-India: nothing compares). So, there are thousands of Jews all over the place headed to go pray and sing and dance and celebrate the coming of the Sabbath at the Western Wall. It was amazing! Our teacher asked us the very poignant question, “When were you this happy about the Sabbath coming?” The people really were celebrating their opportunity to observe the Sabbath day. You know what was even better? They let us celebrate with them. The boys and girls are separated, the boys to one side and the girls to another side, but both accessing the wall. We went down and were given kippas (spelling?) to cover the top of our head, which made us blend in with everyone. Except for me of course, the orange shirt and blonde hair kind of contrasted with their brown hair and church dress, but nevertheless, let’s just say I blended in. Oh who am I kidding I stuck out like a Celtics fan at the Staples Center; you could have seen me and some other BYUers from across the stadium! Still, I just kind of followed the basic procedure. First, I gradually worked my way up through the crowd to the wall, I got up to it and I touched it and it was weird, there were people praying all around me and then a couple of us BYU students just up there kind of in the midst of it all, I just did not get the real effect and needless to say felt very out of place. After that, however, I wandered around through all of the different song groups and prayer calls and people worshipping. Here, I must explain, the Jews are always moving when they pray or sing, I guess it is just to show their excitement, but there could be more to it. They sway back and forth or up and down, side to side, as the read from scripture, pray or recite scriptures or sing. With that many people, all of them moving around so conspicuously and often times pretty dramatically, it just… well it is just an experience to be inside the crowd. I wanted to gain more from the experience, so I kind of ditched the group. I went off by myself and for the first time in a while I was alone. Funny that I say alone, I was surrounded by like thousands of people on all sides, but I was alone. I just watched and observed from the middle of the crowd. I loved what I saw. I saw young boys, with their hats and ringlets, scriptures in hand, praying and reading. I saw teenage boys, with their hats and ringlets, scriptures in hand, praying and reading. I saw grown men, with their hats and ringlets, scriptures in hand, praying and reading. I saw old men, with their hats and ringlets, scriptures in hand, praying and reading. You know what I really saw? Devotion. I saw a people who were devoted to the God they knew and had passed that devotion and love down though their generations. I saw a people who were so very sincere about their worship. I loved it. A dad passed by me with his son on his shoulders, trying to get him up to the wall. Another dad passed by me holding his two daughters, mom probably couldn’t watch them tonight and that was not keeping Dad from coming to worship. These thousands of people were here, in unity, the young the old, the Jew and, in my case and several others, the Jew and the non-Jew, to worship God. How much does the world need good people? Good God fearing people. People with morals. People with faith. Oh, I just loved the experience. It taught me so much. The world and God need devotion, in whatever form they can get it. Nephi teaches us that we are judged according to the law which we have been given. I am so glad that there are still so many people who are living to their full extent the law that they have been given. It made me think about myself, what have I been given, and what am I doing with it? Am I devoted to my belief and to my faith? What an opportunity for me to step outside of my life, my culture, my beliefs and just realize some very important things. Still, by myself at this point, I again made my way up to the wall. I waited behind a man who had his faced pressed against the wall praying with tears streaming down his face. Earlier I thought this was strange, “how strange that someone would do that in public and at a wall that has been touched by literally millions of people.” Now, however, I was so very grateful for that man. His religion was not a show, or a passive thing, he was there praying and pouring out his soul to the God that he loved, trusted, and judging by the earnestness in his voice and tears on his face, that he desperately needed. In that, there was holiness. A holiness that I could feel. When my turn came up again, now my second time at the wall, I put both my hands on it and said a very sincere prayer to the Father. It was personal, but more sincere than a lot of my prayers have been in sometime. It mostly focuses on my gratitude for being able to be here with these people as well as an earnest desire for Him to bless them and their families.
After this, the fun began. You see, after people are done with their prayers and their contact with the wall. They continue their worship through song and dance. It was AMAZING! A feeling of brotherhood that Elders Quorums would die for. There were several groups doing it slightly different, but basically what would happen a group would gather and all sing a song in Hebrew, very reverently but gradually work their way up to more enthused and more enthused. At the end, everyone would link arms and begin to go around in a circle, like a clock. As they started to move the song basically turned into a simple chant that everyone could say and did say as the linked arms. The circle turned into a full on dancing circle with everyone’s arms on each other’s shoulders running around in the circle, clapping, dancing and singing. Oh it was just amazing to watch. They were all just celebrating! Singing, dancing , clapping and just being with their brothers, with huge smiles on their faces, they welcomed in the Sabbath. As I watched all of this, I just could not help but want to join in. I just wanted to be a part of it and began looking for some way to join. Then it appeared. I looked over to a group dancing a little ways away from me and guess who was right their singing and dancing right along with everybody else in the midst of it all? Yes, you guessed it, Russell Edward Greiner. His hands on some total strangers shoulders, a huge smile on his face, dancing like anything and singing the words to a song he had no clue the meaning of. Lickity split I was over there in two seconds jumped into the group with Rusty and we just had an absolute blast. The people were so accepting, they just kept grabbing people and throwing them in and the circle just kept getting bigger and bigger, if you were on the outside, it was like the tide it just swept you away into the ocean of people and whether you liked it or not you were dancing along with them. Would you guess that I liked it? Yes, I absolutely loved it. It just was too much for words. I am actually kind of embarrassed that I even attempted to try and describe it to you. We were not allowed to take pictures, but if we were, they as you hopefully could have guessed would also, not do it justice.
How is that for the Fourth of July celebration huh? To top off the day even more, when we came back, we stood on the balcony overlooking the city and guess what we saw? Fireworks! In all honesty I have seen fireworks like every other day since I have been here, and we know that those fireworks going off over the Palestinian portion of the city were not celebrating American Independence. Still, it was cool. To be on the other side of the world and see fireworks on the Fourth is pretty cool.