Jerusalem Free Day!

Today I go to go into the city again!! Oh my goodness!! Today was way better than the first time we went, I loved it. First we walked up to the money changer office in east Jerusalem. Alladdin was the owner and he was great. Many students before hand have gone there and so we have a great reputation with him. He gave us falafel and pita bread and coke. It was so fun. We chatted with him for a while and then headed up the wall to the Damascus gate where we found some of our friends. We decided to do this wall tour where you go and walk on the top of the walls surrounding the old city basically. It was so awesome to see that view of the city, it made me want to go into the peoples houses. It was sweet to see them actually living their lives. So we did that then went to the place of Marys birth. That was cool. And then we went to the Jewish quarter and saw the wailing wall where the Jews pray. They pray at this wall because it is the closest thing to the temple mount where they aren’t really allowed to go because it is owned by the muslims. The Jewish believe the Holy of Holies to be under the Dome of the Rock and so that is why it is so important to them. So when the wall was built they just went to the wall and wailed because they weren’t able to get to the Dome of the Rock. So we were there and then this girl approached us, she looked our age and asked us what group we were with and stuff. We found out she was from Indiana and was in Israel with this certain group called Birthright. We asked her a few questions about Judaism and then she asked if we wanted to go with her into this tunnel that is underground that goes to the waling wall. We said yes, of course! So we got to go in for free because she is Jewish and going in there to pray. We went in there and saw the wall portion where the women were praying, the men were below, and then we walked the way we came in. We stopped walking and she started chatting with us about her religion. It was amazing. We asked questions and she would just answer with such enthusiasm. She just started practicing Orthodox Judaism about 3 years ago in college. She explained to us some of the different aspects of being an Orthodox Jew. A few things to note. They believe that women connect with God easier, like a woman is more sensitive to things of the Spirit so she can pray alone. Men have to pray in groups of ten because they need all that strength to be able to connect with the Lord. There is more to it, but that is the gist. Also, we learned that men and women do not touch each other until after marriage. So while dating they don’t even hug or anything. Also, the don’t use electricity from sundown on Friday to sun down on Saturday (their Sabbath). They have so many similar beliefs to us. The whole time she was talking she would say things that I wanted to be like we believe that too, but we signed a no proselytizing agreement so that won’t be happening. It was really valuable though because instead of trying to form my next sentence on how to connect her religion with mine or trying to think of things to say about my religion to her I just listened. It was so great. I am here to explore religions and broaden my horizons, I feel like the no proselytizing agreement really helps with this so I am glad it is in place, no matter how much I really want to tell people about the fullness of the gospel. Some things that she said totally paralleled the things we believe in the gospel. Like she told us that they believe that their bodies are temples so that is why they have rules about what they can eat and rules concerning chastity. Also, she said that two things that made her want to pursue being an Orthodox Jew were the fact that the men were praying together on a Friday night, instead of partying and also because of the emphasis on families and the respect the children give to their parents. It reminded me so much of LDS people. Our men devote so much of their time to their religion, as do the women and our religion is all about families. It was so wonderful to here the things she was saying. I really enjoyed it and am so thankful for that enriching experience. I love the city of Jerusalem. It is beautiful and the people there, for the most part, are so dedicated to their religion. They are examples to me and I love learning from them and more about them. I feel like I have already learned so much already and cannot wait to learn more!