We were walking home from the old city with our English friends that we keep running into, and we had just finished breaking our Yom Kippur Fast together at an underground Armenian Tavern. It was so awesome.
So, we were walking home and it was just about midnight and we all stopped to chill on a beautiful patio sort of thing, right beside this awesome windmill (for those of you who know Jerusalem you could see the old city from where we were standing) and everyone held hands got in a circle and danced around me singing happy birthday haha it was hilarious. The age range in our little group of 6 was from 19-60+ but we are all pretty much kids at heart :)
We have been so blessed to have this English (and quite silly) group of people in our lives on this trip!
Anyways, Yom Kippur was pretty awesome. It ended the day before my birthday so thats kinda neat! and i just found out that 19 years ago I was BORN on Yom Kippur! Very cool.
I told this to a Jew we met in an antique shop the other day and he responded with "Oh, so you are sinless!". haha He said it, not me :)
Anyways...
So I was meditating today (Yom Kippur) and I realized that my whole trip is a love story.
A love story with the God of Israel and his Eternal Capital Jerusalem :)
So I thought I'd show you some pictures of some more adventures we've been on !
1000 people sitting at the southern steps of the temple mount!! 
12 Harp players at the Temple mount! 
The family of Kittens that made their home in our Yard 
Empty streets on Yom Kippur. No one drives! Everyone is Fasting and Praying. The intersection we are standing on is one of the main ones which usually is extremely busy! So it was so crazy to stand right in the center with not a car in sight!
It was also very neat to see all the street lights shut down throughout the entire city for 24 hours!
Never in another place in the world would you see something like this. Totally awesome.
This was a cute little Armenian restaurant that we found. It is totally under ground and filled with antiques! Very beautiful and it was lovely food! 
Our little Gang :) Represented here we have Canada, England and Holland. 
This was the Western Wall today for Yom Kippur. I totally love the sight of seeing such huge crowds of people gathering for praise, prayer and repentance.
So Blessings to you all ! May you all be written in the Lamb's book of life ! And may you have a sweet and wonderful new year ahead of you!
Dear Zoe and Lisa.
ReplyDeleteBoth Lucille and I (Brian) are enamored by your posts, extolling the beauty of Israel. However, on behalf of my fellow Israelis, I would like to apologize in advance for some of the behavior you are bound to encounter in your tour of our land. Some of my brethren can be loud, obnoxious, pushy and downright rude, I sometimes find hard to excuse.
Remember the original Olim who settled this tiny land in 1947 /8 were the remnants and survivors of the European holocaust. No sooner had they stepped foot in Eretz Israel when they had to bear arms to survive once again. Ever since the inception of our land. Our sons and daughters have sacrificed their young lives, some 24,000 to date. To put this number in terms this would be one million Americans or one hundred thousand Canadians. What you may encounter is a survival mode of people who have been at war for 66 years. By definition a Sabra is a fruit that's prickly on the outside, sweet and tender on the inside, and would give their all to protect you in times of trouble.
To quote scriptures “He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep!”
Am Israel Chai.
Brian and Lucille Freed. Netanya,
Zoe! I am SO happy for you! As you know, I am counting down the weeks until I am there!
ReplyDeleteShalom!
You have superbly portrayed your birthday experience in your blog. Even when we were on our family tour of Israel, I enjoyed my birthday there. On my birthday, we were in Tel Aviv, a beautiful place of Israel. We stayed in Shenkin hotel , whose staff organized everything to make this moment so special and made my day truly memorable.
ReplyDeleteThat's such a blessing! Thank you for sharing :)
DeleteThat's such a blessing! Thank you for sharing :)
Delete