We woke up and realized we were waking up in Jerusalem. Since we were a bit jet-lagged we had no trouble getting up early and we were rather excited to take on the day.
The day was set for Leah's Bat Mitzvah at the Wall.
We got up early and met our tour guide and picked up the Rabbi and then were dropped off and walked to the Robinson's Arch at the Southern End of the Western Wall. As we did we passed by blowing shofars and other musical instruments being played to mark Orthodox Bar Mtzvahs that were going on at the time.
The Robinson's Arch was first discovered and excavated in the 1860s and is used by the non-orthodox for religious ceremonies at the wall, unlike at the main plaza which is separated by gender.
The ceremony took place on a platform set by the Western Wall.
We did the morning service and Leah read form the Torah for the first time.
All her practice and hard work paid off. She was letter-perfect with the portion and did great. She also gave a good D'var Torah, which is a speech concerning her understanding of the portion she read (in English) and how it applies to her.
It was a great and meaningful ceremony and we were extremely proud parents.
After the ceremony we walked to the main Western Wall plaza, where we split up and each went to the Wall to say a prayer and to put in a kvitl (a prayer) into the wall.
Pretty awesome moment, that.
That ended the first half of Day 2, in the next half, we explored Jerusalem.
2 comments:
Hey Aaron;
A lot of kids do "Bat-Mitzvah", your Leah did it in Jerusalem..How Cool is that?.
MrGarabaldi: Yep it was the trip of a lifetime. The kid doesn't care much for parties and wanted something more meaningful than a party to mark her Bat Mitzvah.
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