e jumped right into the Jerusalem experience this morning with an early wake up call, breakfast and departure for the Old City. When we arrived at the Western Wall, Zvi told us a bit about how Israel reached the wall in 1967 and showed us the very famous picture of soldiers standing at the wall right after capturing it.

At 8:30 A.M. on the nose, we entered the Western Wall tunnels. These tunnels run for quite a ways under the Arab quarter of the Old City and along the long-buried continuation of the Western Wall. We learned that the wall was not actually a wall of the Temple. Rather, it was a retaining wall that held up one side of a giant earth platform which King Herod built for the Temple complex. It was very interesting to hear the stories of how the Temple was built, as well as about the archaeology of the site and the religious significance.

The highlight of our tour came at the end. Zvi took us to a spot near the entrance of the tunnels. He reached behind a corner and his hand came out very black. He explained that the soot on his hand came from the time when the second Temple was destroyed in 70 C.E. Carbon dating and archaeological evidence say that the soot is, in fact, a destruction layer from the period. This was so meaningful, so amazing: Even though Rome thought they could destroy us, we’re still here 2,000 years later. Am Yisrael Chai, the Jewish People live!

After the tunnels, we headed to the Davidson Archaeological Center of the Southern Wall excavations. Here we watched a movie about what it was like for a person to bring a sacrifice to the Temple. We then went and toured the site at the Southern Wall and imagined ourselves walking through the busy courtyard we had seen in the movie.

Next, Saul introduced an activity that allowed our families to reflect on the trip up to this point. Each family composed a prayer that they could bring home with them. Once the prayers had been transferred to parchment, I compared prayer to sacrifice. Sacrifice is easy. You buy an animal, you give it to the priests, and you’ve fulfilled your duty to God. Prayer, on the other hand, is hard. It requires us to open up ourselves, to make ourselves vulnerable before God. We need to mine our deepest thoughts and values and find some way to express them in words. These, I explained, are the offerings of our hearts, our sacrifices. Then, one family at a time, we ascended the steps at the Southern Wall, the very steps that our ancestors ascended to bring their offerings to the Temple so many thousands of years ago.

After lunch on a Jerusalem rooftop, most people went back to the pool while several of us went to explore Mahane Yehuda (the Jerusalem marketplace) and Ben Yehuda Street. In the early evening, the kids went to the Jerusalem Time Elevator to learn about Jerusalem through a fun, interactive, multimedia show. The parents heard a great lecture about the Israeli political system from Professor Ruven Hazan. Each family then went out to enjoy dinner on its own.

Another great day!

he schedule for Wednesday focused on the Western Wall tunnels (very cool), the Southern Wall excavation (inspiring), the Time Elevator (boring) and Rueven Hazan (smart and thought provoking).

However, the real highlights of the day were our shopping and dining experiences.

At lunch we went to a café that had plain food and a few hairs in it. The view was great, but the sanitary conditions were not up to our Upper East Side standards.

In the evening, we decided to go tallit shopping for three of the soon-to-be b’nei mitzvah. Our first stop was Gabrieli’s. The store had more than 4,000 different tallitot! The boys quickly found styles they liked and were all set to go, but…wait one second…this is the Middle East. We have to keep shopping! Haggling is a way of life here and a skill that is respected.

Next stop, Ben Yehuda Street and a store called “Grand Opening.” I found the name of this store odd because I think it has been open for a while. As it turned out, Grand Opening had a nice selection of tallitot, too.

In the end, we bought two at Gabrieli’s and one at Grand Opening. All three of the boys looked proud and great in their tallitot. You could see the look of anticipation for their bar mitzvah ceremonies in their eyes.

After our shopping spree, it was late, but we needed dinner. At Zvi’s suggestion we went to Beit Tichot. This is a wonderful outdoor restaurant. The food and service were great.