Today we woke up and left the hotel early – we arrived at the Southern excavations of the old city by 8.30am and were shown presentations and a movie about where the temple stands in Jerusalem and what exactly the Western Wall is! In fact, the Western Wall that we pray to today is only a small sector of the actual Western wall which surrounded the temple complex (but was not part of the actual temple). We learned that the height of it is only a third of the height that it actually was, some of it going deeper into the ground and some of it having been knocked off the top by the Romans during the destruction of the second temple…

After that, we went up to the Jewish quarter of the old city and had some free time to hang out and buy snacks before the next activity: Mechon Hamikdash. Mechon Hamikdash is an amazing place : it is a tour of the artefacts that were in the Beit Hamikdash exactly as they were, and made out of the same materials. We saw the clothes of the kohen gadol (high priest) and of the we saw the cherubim which were in the holy of holies. unfortunately we couldnt take any pictures but it was awesome!

Following that fascinating presentation, we were given vouchers to buy lunch in the old city and we all went for either pizza or falafel…

We then went to the shuk (the Machaneh Yehuda market) and bought fun things! After that, we made our way to the hotel to get ready for our amazing last Shabbat in Jerusalem! We’re sooo excited and although we miss our parents in the US tremendously, we’re so happy to be here and send you kisses across the Atlantic!

Shabbat shalom 🙂