Tisha B'Av

July 20, 2010

Yehuda and Leora had an incredible experience at Eichah last night. They went to Independence Park by the old Sheraton and then they marched around the walls of the Old City together with hundreds and hundreds of people. All of the streets were closed off and finally they arrived at the Kotel. The entire plaza was packed with people (see video clip below). They left after midnight and there were still hundreds of people waiting to get in at every gate. Pretty amazing!

In the morning we all slept in...yet again...and had a lazy morning in the apartment. After mincha we took a ride our to Beit Shemesh to see Ari and Chaviva Billauer. The line of the day was when Yehuda said to the kids when we were leaving, "Everybody say goodbye to the Billauers" and Joshua said, "What's a Billauer?!" The kids really enjoyed the pomelo and rimon trees in their front lawn and the grape vines on their gate. Pretty Cool!

After our visit we went straight to the Kotel for Maariv and to end the fast. It was the boys' first time walking around he Old City and they were in awe! Even Benjamin was too excited to sit in his stroller. We walked in through Jaffa Gate and down through the Arab Shuk (which, so they tell me, is fine to do now). The Kotel was packed and all the way from the top we could already hear the singing, kumsitz style coming from the plaza. People were just sitting on the ground, camped out singing. It was so beautiful. We stood at the top for quite some time just soaking in the scenery before going down the steps.

At the bottom, Joshua went to put his note in the kotel with Yehuda and Zachary, while Leora, Benjamin and I stayed back to enjoy the singing. Just as it was getting dark the group of guys that were singinging got up and started dancing to "Yibaneh Hamikdash." We then sat on the steps, along with TONS of other people and ate our sandwiches to break the fast. Luckily we bumped into Savta and Roy who also had delicious fruit.

At about 10:00 PM we walked back through the Old City and the Mamilla Mall to our car. Needless to say, the kids were alseep the second their heads hit the pillow...me too!