11/6 | The Western Wall at Dawn

This morning, Steven and I woke up early to visit the Western Wall at dawn.  Early morning is when there are the least number of people at the Wall (hundreds as opposed to the thousands that will visit throughout the day).  While we were there, there were two Bar Mitzvahs happening as well as Jews of all different denominations davening in front of the Wall.  It was a great time to take in the majesty of our holiest (accessible) site when everything was most serene.  While Steven chose to pray, I decided to take some pictures:

The Western Wall at sunrise.

An old inscription high up on the wall.  I believe it is somebody's name, but nobody has been able to verify this for me.

Steven showed me how to put on tefillin, or phylacteries in English.  These black leather boxes contain scrolls of parchment with verses from the Torah.  They are placed on the head and the arm.

A Bar Mitzvah at the edge of the men's section.  Women must stand on chairs in order to see over the mechitzah that separates males from females.

The entrance to the prayer hall of the Western Wall Tunnel.

The eternal light of the Western Wall prayer hall.

The main Torah ark in the prayer hall.

The entire length of the prayer hall in the men's section.

In the back, there is a small room with Torah arks on three sides.  It seems like a great place to just sit and think.

A scrollable Torah in a room filled with books, or seferim in Hebrew.

The actual depth of the Western Wall.  In the Second Temple period, the ground was much lower than it is now.

A soldier placing a note in the Wall.

An elderly woman peering over the mechitzah.

An Indian Jew wearing a sari-like head covering.

A younger man reading from an iPad instead of a book.

The buildings behind the Western Wall Plaza.

A yeshivah that kind of looks like a fortress.

Six Stars of David, or Magenee Dahveed, looking up towards the sky in memory of the six million who were murdered during the Holocaust.

Three doves sitting above the entrance to the Western Wall Tunnel.

Notes are packed into any crack, crevice, nook, and cranny of the Western Wall.

After we were done at the Kotel, Steven and I walked to the Little Western Wall in the Muslim Quarter:

A sign pointing to HaKotel HaKatan, the Little Western Wall.

A mosque across from the entrance of the Little Western Wall.

The small side street that leads to the Little Western Wall.

The official sign for the hidden holy site.

The small area in front of HaKotel HaKatan.  Only the bottom two sets of stones date back to the Second Temple period.

The stones of the Little Western Wall have not been rubbed smooth by millions of visitors.  It offers a feel for what the Kotel looked like before the plaza was created in 1967.

On the way out of the Old City to Damascus Gate.

The house of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

After we were done in the Old City, Steven and I headed to the Central Bus Station to pick up the new Rav-Kav cards needed to ride the busses and light rail system (like a Smartrip in Washington, D.C.).  We got lunch there, then headed to the shuk to pick up some food before heading back to the Student Village.  The rest of the day will be spent on homework in preparation for what promises to be a very busy week.  Tomorrow, I have a class trip to the Intel factory in Kiryat Gat, so that should be very interesting!