Kotel, Western Wall or Wailing Wall?

Kotel, Western Wall, Wailing Wall . I've heard all three used. I'm confused. Which one is it?
Nayna explained it to me.
Kotel means wall in Hebrew. Jewish people use this word, or they'll sometimes say Western Wall because its the retaining wall on the Western side closest to the Temple Mount. Non Jewish people sometimes call it the Wailing Wall because of two reasons. They hear people crying there as they pray and it sounds like wailing. Another is because a long time ago, Jews could only go to their holy place - the Temple area once a year and they would cry and wail because of the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE.

Did you know that I stood on Mount Moriah? That's where God told Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. And that's where the Temple stood - on this very mountain.

 There is a short divider between the men's and women's section. We walked up to the Wall - women's side and found a place to pray. Nayna says that she feels God's presence at the Kotel. People all around us were praying too - I could hear their whispers. I felt like I was in a holy place.
I noticed lots of small pieces of paper tucked into every nook and cranny around the stones. I found out that people write prayers on these pieces of paper. I got tears in my eyes when I realized so many people were asking God for help. I'm glad He's big enough to respond to every one of these prayers as well as the ones spoken by everyone at the Wall.

We still had time before we needed to meet Papa in the Plaza so we found an empty, white plastic chair and sat by the wall. I could hear singing and men's voices praying on the other side of the divider. It was much louder on their side.

I looked up and admired the stones in the wall. They were made of limestone and they were huge! Little birds and pigeons swooped and soared around bushes growing out of the cracks between the stones.

It was time to leave. I was sad because I could have stayed near the Kotel for a long time. It was so peaceful as we sat in the shade.

We met up with Papa and began our short walk out to meet our taxi driver.
There were so many IDF (Israeli Defense Force) soldiers in the Plaza and an area nearby was set up with a stage and big white screen. I felt very safe with so many young men and women in uniform. I found out later that they were being commissioned for duty in the Golan Heights. We prayed for their safety as we were leaving.

 Nayna pointed out this section on the Southern end of the Kotel It's called Robinson's Arch and was a stairway from the Old City streets up to the Temple. Here's a picture from www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org
that shows what it might have looked like.

 This is the last picture Nayna took at the Kotel - a permanent hanukkiah next to Israel's flag. Do you know the difference between a hanukkiah and a menorah?
Join me next time when we continue our journey back to Tel Aviv and our Friday escapades.

Camel Riding in the Judean Desert

Lets go back to Israel.
I've ridden a horse, an elephant in a shopping center parking lot when I was 6, and a camel.
The ultimate tourist adventure while in the Holy Land - ride a camel. Why not!
The Genesis Land is in the heart of the Judean Desert. Tents, tables low to the ground, hyssop tea - and maybe even a visit by Abraham (or one of his friends).
But to get to this part, you have to experience the first part.
We were greeted by Eliezer, Abraham's manservant, who took us to a group of camels that were being prepared for our journey to the tent. It was either ride the camel or a long schlep around the hill on foot. How hard could it be to ride a camel groomed for carting tourists less than a mile around a wide dirt path?
I waited my turn while my camel was prepared for me. Hubby - being the cautious non adventurous type chose - with determination, to hike it. No camels for him, thank you very much. So I was paired with another gentleman.
Side story.
There were two single gals on the tour and they were going to be pared up on one camel. However one of the gals came down with sudden "I don't want to do this!!" syndrome and my valiant husband (with a prompt from the L~rd) chose to ride with her. You know - strong man to save the damsel in distress.

 But it was indeed ordered by G~d because he kept his hands on her shoulders the whole time, telling her she was okay, and she later said that is what kept her from loosing all sense of reality.
Back to my adventure.
Climbing on a camel, sitting in the front looking down the neck of this huge beast is something else. Even with a saddle, it feels like at any minute you'll slide on down that long neck and onto the dirt. And a camel on her knees hoisting herself up with a saddle and two occupants is not a smooth ride. My unhealthy back was not happy with the ordeal.

Okay, so now we're ready to cruse. Those first few steps were interesting and starting to be kind of fun. Roll, sway, roll sway...until my beastie decided she was tired of the whole thing and wanted to go down to her pen where her baby was. She saw the pen and stopped. Then she began a maneuver of sorts - I think trying to rid her back of these growths that had attached themselves to her. She lowered herself to her knees ( not fun for my sciatica). Me, being in front lurched forward. That didn't work and we stayed on her back because her leader told us to stay put. So she, with a camel noise, lumbered back up, swayed in place and with another camel noise headed back down to her knees again. Once more we were told to stay put. By then I was ready to ignore the highly trained in camel, young man, unlatch my belt and bolt. But with prayer - lots of prayer I hung on for all I could. She then pulled herself up again and started backing up. We skirted a deep ravine. My thinking - she was trying to dump her load overboard.
 Now she had two handlers holding her reins. No one said anything. They just waited and looked at her. Finally I guess the camel whispering worked and she began to amble past the pen (which was down the ravine) and on to the tent.
When we were safely delivered from our camel, I asked the handler if he was worried that she wanted to make a dash for the pen. He said yes. Her little one was down there, it was close to feeding time and she was ready to leave the party - guests and all.

I should have gotten the tee shirt. I Survived a Camel Ride in Judea!