Reflections on The Kotel

Eytan Deener-Agus

4/13/11

Narrative Essay

Ms Novick

The Kotel

I never knew that you could get sunburned from the Kiddusha. That happened when I went to the Kotel with Andy and Shai-B on Shabbat morning. We found a minyan that was still at the beginning and we davened there. My experience taught me that every Jewish person davens in a different way; there is no one way to be Jewish.

            Andy, Shai-B and I all went to the Kotel for Shabbat morning services while the rest of the class went to a conservative shul. We walked through the Arab shuk to get there and by the time we got there there was only one minyan that was relatively close to the beginning. We joined in and after a little while we realized that this minyan was going very slow so we moved closer to the Kotel and tried davening alone, but it got old and we moved back to our first minyan. Finally, we got the Torah Service and Andy went to look for a Torah to use. Once he found one, he had to hold it for most of the service. I got the sixth aliah, which was meaningful because it was my first time leading anything at the Kotel.

            Once we got to the Musaf Amidah, the sun was very high in the sky and there was almost no shade. Shai-B and I did the Amidah as fast as we could so we could run into the shade and wait for everyone else to finish, but by the time I finished my arm was sunburned.

            After a long time, our minyan finished and we were the last minyan to be davening by 45 minutes. We walked back through the Arab shuk but got lost this time and ended up at the other side of the Old City. By the time we got back to the hotel, everybody had eaten lunch and was hanging out. In the end, it was all worth it.

            Davening at the Kotel was a very meaningful experience for me because it was my first time going to the Kotel on a Shabbat morning. What happened to me was not how I imagined it would be like. I imagined everybody being very into the prayers and trying to get as close to the Wall as possible. But, what I experienced was some people were more active in their prayers than others; there was a variety. Not everybody memorized the whole Siddur-- especially our Gabbai who even needed some help at times. I also saw that for some people being close to the Wall was not as important; it was just praying in a service on Shabbat. For me, it was my first time going to the Kotel on Shabbat morning so I felt very connected, but the truth is, I feel even more comfortable at my own Newton Centre Minyan. This proves that to be connected to your prayers does not mean that you have to be physically in the holiest place but in the right mindset which can take place anywhere: even in your minyan in Newton.

            By going to the Kotel on Shabbat morning, I learned that there is not one way to pray but many individual ways to connect to God. By going to Israel, you will learn that being Jewish is a big part in people's identities. There are some people who will pray all the time and the only time they are not praying is when they are studying Torah, and then there are other people who will not do anything to show that they are Jewish but will still feel connected to other Jews in the world. But in the end, Israel is the homeland for every Jewish person and we must fight through all the hardships that we face to keep it that way.

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