Friday, June 1 (Part I). How did it get to be June already? Well, in three out of the last four days I managed to knock off three items from my bucket list. I got to the old city of Jerusalem and the Western Wall. After a decent night’s sleep, at 8:30 AM I decided to go back into the Shut [I spelled it wrong in the last entry] with camera in hand. I really love the vibrancy of this market. Then at about 10:00 Chana came by on foot to pick me up and we walked through some Orthodox and Hasidic communities to get to the wall surrounding the old city of Jerusalem. After going through tight security, we entered the walled city which began being built by King Solomon, David’s son. The history in here is incredible, a melting pot where Jewish religious history, Islamic religious history, Christian religious history and Armenian history, are all mixed together, but more like separate but equal. Each has its own portion of the city, but everyone in this section controlled by Israel intermingles together. Not so in East Jerusalem, which is Islamic controlled; it is the rare Jew who dares to cross over into there. We walked along the apparent route where Jesus allegedly dragged his cross to be crucified; it’s amazing to think we walked in the same steps. But the highlight for me was the Western Wall of the Temple Mount (sometimes called the Wailing Wall, but not by residents of Jerusalem), a remnant of the wall surrounding the Second Holy Temple that stood upon the Temple Mount for approximately 500 years until its destruction almost 2000 years ago (King Solomon had built the first Temple there approximately 3000 years ago). Just seeing this extremely high wall, behind which is known to be the holiest spot in the world (which happens to be Islamic controlled) did something to me. As a brochure says, “this is where people from around the world come to pray, contemplate, and to which notes, requests and pleas between its timeless stones. Indeed this is its purpose, for the Temple Mount is not just a holy site; it is the place where heaven and earth embrace, and where all of humanity may also embrace, finding peace, harmony and divine beauty in their diversity.” I walked up to the wall where along the entire wall a row of Orthodox Jews and others were standing, some sitting, praying in front of it, adorned with their tallis and tefillin, and I touched the wall, the same wall where probably millions of Jews have prayed, and the first part of a Hebrew prayer came to me and I felt totally moved. I surprised myself by my feeling. Then I walked to the left and went underground into what is now a library, with more people praying. It was an amazing experience all around. Apparently part of the old city of Jerusalem is built on Mount Zion, which Abraham allegedly called “the mountain where God is seen.” We walked back through more of the old city with its completely interesting little neighborhoods of different cultures. It was all really an amazing experience. After lunch we tried to get up onto the top of the wall to walk along it, but after we paid our money we discovered it was closed. An old couple had gone in just before us and thought they were trapped and couldn’t get out. The woman started to panic. Chana told them to just wait a moment and went down to where we paid and got our money back. Meanwhile, some other people told the couple how to easily get out. But this woman had really panicked; a lesson in the power of Thought. We went back to the apartment very weary, and I took a nap.