Day Four

Note: Forgive us that there are no pictures tonight. We will to add them tomorrow. We are all tired and have an early start in the morning.

Abraham Joshua Heschel taught with regards to Jewish monuments that we are not a people who put a lot of importance on holy places, rather, the Sabbath is our cathedral in time. Throughout our history the Sabbath has linked our people as a weekly sacred destination, and as we celebrate our Sabbath here in Jerusalem, there is something very special about the fact that we are sharing it with you half way around the world.

Tonight, however, we learned first hand that Heschel’s ideas were only partially true. While the Sabbath may provide us with a sacred spiritual destination, there is no place on earth like Jerusalem. This is truly a holy city. It is invested with thousands of years of hopes, dreams, struggles and prayers of our people. Just being here, one can sense that it holds the spiritual pulse of our faith.

Tonight we prepared for a creative service together by spending personal time at the Western Wall. The experience was powerful for each of us. We then returned to a private room at our hotel to reflect on the week and share our feelings from our time at the Wall. While the service may have been rather unconventional, it was deeply moving and extremely spiritual.

However you may have spent your Sabbath, we all wish you a Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem.