Sunrise Service

So this is kind of jumping back a bit, but this past weekend was the Jewish holiday of Pentacost. Our Israel professor, Ophir, told us about a special sunrise service that they have at the Western Wall in celebration of it. It was a sunrise service, which obviously means it starts at sunrise. Most of us students here at the JC wanting to experience as much culture as we can decided to attend! So, we got up at 4:00 a.m. and left for the service at 4:30 a.m. After trekking up the hill to the city in the dark, and walking all the way to the Western Wall, we finally made it to the service. Little did we know, though, that by "service", our professor meant that basically it would be super crowded, there would be people everywhere reading their Bibles (in fact the tradition is to stay up all night reading the Torah..the Torah being the five books of Moses), and people praying at the wall. So there really wasn't much for us to do but watch people. Was it interesting? Yes. Was it worth getting up at 4:00 a.m.for? That's debatable. Still I am glad I did it. Later in the day we also attended a Pentacost service at Christ's Church that was actually very interesting and enjoyable. My favorite part was singing the surprisingly modern songs about Christ while being accompanied by a guitar, piano, and two vocalists. Super cool. Overall I am glad I was able to participate in this special Jewish holiday!

Rachel and I after the sunrise service - Western Wall in the background