Sunday 15 September 2013

Yom Kippur



The public face of the country closes down for the Day of Atonement, and cars are not meant to be on the road (although a few are), so a group of us walked for an hour into Jerusalem down the middle of the main Hebron Road, through the Jewish Quarter where every synagogue was packed and over flowing, and reached the Western Wall ('wailing wall') shortly before the end of the fast.  It was my first sight of the Western Wall, and an uncomfortable combination of Jewish devotion, gawping (the huge number of photographs which were taken just at official sunset did not reflect the Rabbi's public notices asking for respect in not doing so), and the amplified sunset calls from the Mosque above.  We found a pleasant place to eat outside afterwards, where the group pictured above was also gathering to continue prayers.

3 comments:

stan said...

You enjoy the weather over there Peter. Your not missing anything here as its wet and windy.

Bowyer said...

Hope you are both well and enjoying yourselves. Weather is poor and getting worse. Suppose you are enjoying mediterranean type weather.
Just to let you know, Chesterfield are at the top of the league 2, unbeaten so far this season. Up the spirite!!!

Peter Mullins said...

Thanks, Stan and Bowyer, for your updates on the poor weather. I hope you don't mind us saying that things have been a bit too good here for our likeing; last night the temperature dropped after sunset and a nice breeze picked up, and we felt it was just right sitting out then.