Joe Pallugna
TEL AVIV--The sun has set early at 5 pm as we walked through the subteranean, narrow paths from Via Dolorosa of the Old City of Jerusalem and entered the Jewish Quarter.
There was suddenly a huge plaza which had steps going downwards to a flat surface which ended on a 20-meter high wall where I saw many people laying there hands on while standing, clearly deep in prayer. That was the Wailing Wall, or properly called the Western Wall.
This Wall was actually just an outer wall that surrounded the Temple Mount, the holiest place for Jews. When Rome destroyed the Second Temple after the Temple Mount was destroyed and rebuilt centuries earlier, the Western Wall became the holiest spot in Jewish life.
Non-Jewish people like me are allowed to come to the Western Wall and I also wrote my prayers and wishes on a small piece of paper (which the Jewish call a kvitlach) which I then inserted into a crevice on the stone Wall hoping that, as tradition would have it, God will grant them.
As I approached the Wall, a Jewish man called and stopped me and insisted that I put a round small cap on my head first. It’s called a yarmulke in observance of holy practice. I obliged and kept the free yarmulke as souvenir home.
The Jewish Quarter is on lower ground as Jewish and Christians were prohibited to build anything higher than the Muslim structures. In the plaza is the Hurva Synagogue which was rebuilt after it was destroyed several times by the Ottomans and rebuilt and destroyed again by the Jordans during its capture.
I also was wondering why there were thousands of people at that time. My curiosity was answered half an hour later when on atop a building just nearby, some Jewish elders began lighting three candles on a nine-pegged set of candleholder that they call a Menorah. It was the third night when I arrived there.
One candle is to be lighted each night until the eight night, which commemorates the end of Chanukkah, the Jewish festival of Rededication of the Temple. It is almost similar to our Christmas in the matter of gift-giving but entirely different in all other aspects.
The Menorah’s ninth candle is only a service candle called a Shammus, which should be put on a higher or lower level than the other eight candles. The chammus prevents the eight candles to be used if there is power outage. It is, indeed, only a service candle, and shall be used to light the other eight in the lighting ceremony.
It was a jolly candle-lighting ceremony, and there was gay singing and dancing by children and adults afterwards. This ceremony was done all over Israel by the Jews. It was such a joyful affair to witness.
It was really an enriching experience as the Jewish Quarter proved not only of buildings and synagogues and walls and Jews with long beards and Jewish bullcaps or kippah, but also of ceremonies and merry traditions done in the midst of everyone.
And as Hebrew would say, Hello!, to mean peace to you my readers in this new year, I greet you Shalom!
E-mail: ajpallugna@gmail.com
