Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Obama at the Western Wall

The second moment occurred one night when I heard that Barack Obama was going to be visiting the Western Wall. It was an historic moment that I could not miss. Luckily, my friends were staying at a hostel in the Old City, and since I had never spent a night in the Old City, I decided to camp out on the rooftop of their hostel.

As I lay awake on a mattress, I could hear the Muslim call to prayer. Earlier I had heard church bells, and soon I would be standing with women who prayed at the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism. In that moment, under a gorgeous orange moon that reflected on the stones of the city, creating a light unlike any other I've seen, I felt at peace.

Jerusalem was quiet and asleep. At that moment I wasn't thinking about the terror attack that happened a few days ago, or the bodies of two soldiers who were finally returned to their families after two years of not even knowing if they were alive or not. Nor was I thinking about the fact that it’s actually more dangerous to drive in this country than anything else, as 46 people were killed in car accidents last month alone. At that moment on the rooftop, all I could think about was how beautiful this city is - so full of energy of thousands of years, of millions of people. At that moment Jersualem - literally "the city of peace" - lived up to its name.

Oh yeah, and seeing Obama at the wall was awesome - the orthodox women who camp out there every night were at first peeved that we were interrupting their prayers, and then when he finally stood before the wall, they all crowded around to see. One of them commented that "the Messiah should only get such a welcoming!"

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