Eating Cheesecake at the Western Wall

Well, to be honest we didn't eat cheesecake at the Western Wall but we did celebrate Shavuot (the holiday where we commemorate the giving of Torah at Mt. Sinai). There is a custom to study all night in honor of Torah, so we studied a little, slept a little and then got up at 3:30AM and took a walk to the Old City (with a lot of other people). There is also a custom to eat dairy - some say cheesecake is the best way to fulfill that requirement.

Once we arrived at the outskirts of the Old City we made our way to Robinson's Arch (see photo by Lisa Katz - the arch no longer exists - folks believe the arch to have been destroyed by the Romans). Robinson's Arch is a section of the Western Wall that is set aside for egalitarian prayer. It is a beautiful section of the Wall that has been made into an archaeological park and educational museum. Once at Robinson's Arch we found that we were amongst many of our close friends from the English speaking community in Jerusalem. We all joined in morning prayers as the sun rose over the Western Wall. It was a very special and memorable morning.

After a couple hours at the Wall, we decided it was time for coffee (around 7AM). So we took a walk through the Old City towards Damascus gate in hopes of finding a coffee shop that would also sell us some coffee and traditional Arab sweets. It turned out we needed to exit the Old City through the Damascus Gate to find coffee on the outskirts of the Old City. After coffee we walked back through the city and took two amusing detours.

Saul talked our way into this youth hostel in the Old City that advertised a wonderful view from their rooftop - so we shimmied up their very small stairways and landed on their rooftop overlooking the Dome of the Rock (see photo by Marc Herman). Our next stop on our way back home was at the Convent/Church of St. Mark. This was a strange and unique experience. We wandered in, hoping to take a look at the church and the caretaker of the property sat with us for nearly 25 minutes telling us all about the church. Apparently the lower rooms had once been the house of Mary and they claim the last supper happened there.