After a few attempts, this song found its inspiration in a piece by master glass artist and Baltimorean Gianni Toso. The piece, called “Birthright”, shows the kotel on two sides: one, with a more traditionally-dressed crowd in gender-separate reverence before the kotel, and the other with mixed dancing of Taglit-Birthright Israel participants in shorts and … More »
I tell my students: We pray facing Jerusalem, towards the Kotel, to remind us how important those places are to the Jewish people. I tell them: for many generations the Kotel has been a sacred space for our people, a remnant and reminder of the ancient Temples that stood in Jerusalem. I tell them: one … More »
There are people with a heart of stone. There are stones with a human heart. Hakotel, The Wall, Israeli Folk Song. Of all of the services throughout the year, my favorite has always been Friday night. Growing up, Friday night services were smaller, and more intimate that Shabbat morning, and they always seemed a … More »
I have always felt something exceptional at the Kotel (western wall), but I have generally had to work to achieve that feeling and it remains unpredictable. There is something holy that I cannot yet fully grasp about that place in the heart of Jerusalem. It may seem counterintuitive to think that our religion (consumed with … More »
1. I was a freshman in college, on a trip to Israel with my family. I had a K-6 Jewish day school education but was not religiously observant. The Kotel felt huge, overwhelming, full of meaning. It seemed like the center of all Judaism, the holiest place on earth. I felt the enormity of the … More »
The Kotel runs deep. Walking through Jerusalem, with it’s markets and vendors packed into a tight space designed just for the purpose of traders and herders from corners of the Middle East to share their goods, I remember. It’s been that way, for a long time. My feet remember the feel of hard, smooth stone … More »
Judaism has a penchant for recursive symbology: symbols of symbols of symbols, nested within one another, sometimes dizzyingly. A great example of this is the aron kodesh (the holy ark in the synagogue). During tefillah (prayer), we face it, we bow toward it, we rise when it is open, and it is a minor honor … More »
In the slips and dashes of history, we became a people of the Wall. No cathedrals. No turrets. No spires. All we have is a Wall. Our great spiritual obligation: To stand at a Wall. To caress the soft stones of a Wall. To weep at a Wall. At the Wall, all anyone can do … More »