Author Archives: crow610

Festival of Light

Starting last Wednesday and going through all of this week, the Old City is lit up with innovative and inspiring installations either with historical meaning or abstract.  My favorite was the drawings of gates projected on Damascus Gate.                              

Lag BaOmer

Following with the tradition of Lag BaOmer, Jerusalem with filled with bonfires (some much taller then I am!) and people singing and dancing around the fires.  Unfortunately this year I wasn’t able to make it to Meron  where many Jews flock to visit the grave of Rabbi Shimon however I hope to go next year since I hear it’s an amazing experience.   U

  

Yom HaZikron & Yom Hatzmaut

After a day’s worth of ceremonies honoring fallen soldiers of Isrsel and victims of terrorism, the night ended with a transitional ceremony put on by members of the shul I attend and included singing, dancing, and prayers to bring us out of the mourning mindset and into a more joyful mindset  for Yom Hatzmaut (Isrsel Independencr Day). 

The rest of the night was filled with parties all over town and crowds of people in the streets having fun.   

           

Benjamin Netyanyahu   

        

  

Priestly Blessing At Kotel

Reminiscent of the times when the Temple was still standing, 75,000 people flocked to the Kotel to hear the Priestly Blessing during Passover.  Sure it was quite chaotic with people rushing to make it to the blessing, rushing to get to the front, standing in the sun, but to see that many people standing in front of the Kotel almost gave a feeling that the Temple is still standing today. The video below is almost 30 minutes long beginning with me walking to the Kotel and then waiting for the blessing but if you want to see the actual blessing just fast forward to 12:55.

                  

Pesach in Jerusalem

It’s quite amazing to not only feel Pesach in the home but to also feel it outside of home. This isn’t just seeing an endcap in your local grocery store selling a couple boxes of matzah and some gefilte fish. From seeing the grocery stores covering up products with hametz in them, seeing public wash bins, and seeing the the hametz burned in the street, Pesach is all around Jerusalem and most of Israel.  

חג שמח

washing hametz off dishes

    

coveting up hametz in grocery store

  

burning hametz

             

Petra Day 2

On day 2 of Petra I visited more tombs and hiked up to a point where the Treasury could be seen from above instead of below.  I spent some time up at the top enjoying the view while taking pictures then began the hike back so I could pick up my luggage at the hotel and be back at the meeting spot by 3PM.

Upon exiting Jordan I was worried I would have visa problems again however to my luck the only arbitrary question they asked me was what my father’s name is and where he was born.  The person in front of me didn’t have the same luck.  Turns out since her mom made Aliyah and returned to Canada some years ago, her mom was required to fill out some paperwork and the daughter was told that since her mom was a citizen she shouldn’t continue entering Israel as a tourist and apply for her passport.  Was talking to another guy in our tour group who had just finished the Birthright trip and he said he was asked “what special ceremony he had when he was 13″.

                        

Petra Day 1

Today I left Eilat for a 2 day tour of Petra, a city in Jordan which holds a huge archeological site with remains of a Nabataean city dating back to more than 2000 years. The tour bus picked me up at 7, made a couple more stops before heading to the border crossing. I was the first in line to have my passport checked and due to misinformation given to me by someone at the visa office in Jerusalem, the last person in the group to enter Jordan.  They held my passport and made me wait for nearly 30 minuted before calling me inside to speak with a border guard.  The lady informed me that since my visa only allowed me to stay a maximum of 4 months I was in Israel illegally. I told her that I was aware of the 4 month maximum and didn’t do anything about it due to the information which was given to me in the Jerusalem visa office where I was told that “it’s noted in the computer that you are staying longer”. She asked me questions like why I was in Israel, what my father’s name is, where I live, and if I’ve ever been to Israel.  Hoping that this would speed up the process I made sure to emphasize that being Jewish is part of the reason why I came. It’s surprising that they know who my father is and the exact year I was first in Israel which was 1996.  After waiting another 20 minutes the lady returned my passport and said I was good to go.  My only thought while running to the border to catch up with the group was if I wasn’t Jewish would the outcome have been different?
The first stop in Jordan was the typical make the tourists walk through a souvenir shop just to get to the bathroom.  I know tour companies make money this way but if it means less time at the site we paid to see I feel it’s a waste of time.  Once we arrived in Petra we immediately began the tour through the archeological site where we saw many different Nabataen tombs which all were pretty amazing until we got towards the end of the tour and began to gain sight of the Al-Khazneh (Treasury) which is a 30×43 meter high tomb and was carved for an important Nabataean king in the 1st century BC. It’s quite amazing and there are many more tombs of this size further along the trail .
Unfortunately for the people who booked the one day tour this was the most they’d see in Petra but for the 4 of us who booked the 2 day tour, we had the rest of the day to walk around the park plus another full day too.  We decided to hike up to the monastery which was 800 steps up and well worth the hike.  At the end of the hike was a Bedouin tent set up for hikers to rest before making the descent down.