Great Day

Wow, today has been one of my best days here in Israel. The day actually started last night. David Aarons, my friend who is a guide, came and got me around 8:00pm last night to show me Jerusalem. We wandered all over the city, through some historic Jewish neighborhoods, to the YMCA, King David Hotel, Machane Yahoda Market, Zion Square (where all the young people hang out), and then around 1230 we heading back into the Old City to the Western Wall which was filled with thousands of Jews coming to pray as the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur begin. Got home around 1:30, but still managed to get up at 530 so I could talk with Nancy online.

After a quick breakfast I decided to head to Emmaus. Along the way I needed gas and I stopped at Castel, once a crusader castle, but known for the role it played in the 1948 War of Independence. I then wandered through Emmaus for a while. On my way back, I stopped at the place where many historians believe that Emmaus really was (today it is a shopping mall). What made it fun was today was like December 24th. Everybody was running around trying to get ready for the holiday. While there I stopped at Pizza Hut (yes I wrote that correct) for lunch.

This evening I was invited by Hillel and Hanna Kessler to join them at their Synagogue for worship. Hillel described it as a unique synagogue made up of a bunch of ex-hippies. He compared it to a "Conservative" Synagogue in the states, but this worship was down right hip. I understood very little of the Hebrew, but the love for God came shining through. It was a blast.

My father keeps sending me these old pictures, so since this is the Jewish High Holy Days, I put this wonderful picture from Christmas 1963.