Day 5 – Written by Rev. Wendy Lambert
We were all very excited to head to the Western Wall this morning! The bus dropped us off near the city gates and we walked to the Western Wall. The Wall is part of the retaining wall to the Temple Mount. Because Herod the Great had remodeled the Second Temple in such a grand way, he had to enlarge the entire Temple Mount to accommodate the bigger structure. The Western Wall has become a holy site in the Jewish religion. After we took time to lift up our prayers, we walked over to the teaching steps. These are located below the Temple Mount. It was moving to be standing in the place where Jesus would gather with His disciples.
We then drove to Jericho for lunch (which was amazing!!) We went on to Qumran, the location of the community who wrote and hid the Dead Sea Scrolls. Our guide shared with us the importance and history of the scrolls and what they meant not only to Israel, but to the world.
From there we went to the Dead Sea and had a great time floating in the salty solution!
