Ha-kol B'seder (everything's okay)

Everyone on the tour is fine. We heard about the attack in Jerusalem shortly after it happened. We were in the Old City at the time. It's such a land and experience of contrasts. Look at the pictures I just put on album #4 from the Kotel (western wall) and you will see what we were doing around the time the attack took place.

Today was a busy day. We drove through the Dung Gate to the Kotel and went straight into the under "ground" tunnels (they're actually just under the construction of the streets). This allowed us close access to the unexposed sections of the Kotel and the closest point to the Holy of Holies. We then went to the Kotel itself and, for the men, put on tefillin and said Shema. We offered words of wisdom to Gunnar and put tefillin on him (see the photos). From there we went to the Davidson Center/Robinson's arch. It was so hot that most of the kids bailed out and played cards with Elizabeth in the covered portion of the exhibit. Then into the Jewish Quarter for lunch and a hour of power shopping - Arab market, Jewish Cardo - as a group we acquired a lot (if you'll pardon the expression), but some were accused of being "not nice" for browsing in one Arab stall but buying in another. Lynn explained to the slighted merchants that this is what we call "shopping." Ahh, market place diplomacy! After the shopping, we boarded the bus for Yad Vashem - the Holocaust Museum and Memorial complex.

We ended that visit with a memorial service in the "Valley of the Lost Communities" - in front of the memorial stones for Czechslovakia. The Torah scroll in our temple lobby is a surviving artifact from the community of Breznice, Czechslovakia. We read the names of the Jews from Breznice who died in the Shoah and memorialized them along with all our brothers and sisters who died at the hands of Nazis. May their souls be bound up in the bond of eternal life. We carry their memory with us throughout the land and into our own lives. Through us, they will never be lost. Yad Vashem was packed with platoons of Israeli soldiers (we saw hundreds) who visit as part of their training and service. It was a powerful symbol of the promise, "Never Again." Though they are complete strangers, it's hard not to feel proud of them.

Tonight we are going to dinner on the midrachov (pedestrian and shopping area on Ben Yehuda Street). It's the first time we'll get to a "food court" that not's in a mall. The old courtyards and winding alleys have been converted in to shops, cafes, and restaurants.

Tomorrow, the group will go to the temple mount with Roni while Gunnar, Brook, and I prepare for his service. The bar mitzvah will be at 10:30 AM tomorrow back at Robinson's Arch (near the Kotel). Then we'll go the Israel museum, Knesset (from the outside), and David's Tower museum.

Keep checking in and checking the photos. My internet connection is not the best here, but I'll post whatever and whenever I can. I will also backfill photos from Jerusalem as I upload photos from other people's cameras (I'm not the best photographer).