As this was an opportunity to see what the Old City had to offer, I preplanned by making contact with a former Hillel Youth director who suggested that I attend a learning session with Rabbi David Aaron, founder and director of Isralight Institute.
He founded the Institute some years ago and now it has flourished into an all year program offering short and long courses. He has written several books and appears regularly on TV. It was suggested to me that I go to the 3.30am learning and then at 4.30am head off to the Kotel for shacharit. So Gavin and I went early to bed so as early to rise.
Alarm set for 2.45am and up we got. As we walked through the Mamilla cardo there were lots of people making their way to the Old City. We found our way to Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue which is one of the Four Sephardi synagogues in the Jewish Quarter. After a little detour we came to the Shule and there perched on the Bimah was Rabbi David Aaron who had been teaching since 11.30pm and was giving different sessions each hour. We arrived for the session on Torah of Love. There were some 250 people sitting in the Shule. All of his sessions had been full. He thanked all for helping him stay awake by participating in his learning. A most charismatic person! He was explaining that
G-d does not want us to fear Him, and does not say that if we sin or not follow the way of the Torah we will be punished, but rather that good happens to those who do good. Each of us has good in us, and it is how we develop our qualities that will give us a life of love and fulfillment . He explained the distinction between הי and אלוקנו and how each of us is a collective vessel through which G-d acts. Example , if we were asked to stop our heart just for 3 minutes and then start again, we couldn’t, why? If we decided not to think for 3 minutes we just couldn’t even if we were just meditating, we would still be thinking, why? Is it because we really do not control our actions? Hashem does.
He spoke of who G-d is, a separate being or part of us. That when Moses spoke to G-d the voice he heard was his own but with a higher pitch demonstrating that each of us are in fact a particle of G-d.
After he finished we set off to the Kotel. There were several hundred people there at the time and more were coming from all directions. We went in search of a minyan and a chair. Boy was that an experience! Chairs were a hot commodity, people were sitting on stacks to save them, they were walking around holding them, they had hands on them, a struggle occurred here and there , then a new stack came out. The security guy just gave up and it was a free for all. Great, we got 2!
We found a nice minyan and sat, the crowds piled in, it became a sea of bodies, we had hardly enough place to stand, the crowd swelled to thousands in fact 10’s of thousands, incredible! We davened, we listened to the Torah and stood to hear the Ten Commandments, what a feeling to be there at this time! Finished by 6:45am and then back to our fantastic apartment in the Mamilla complex. A little sleep, some breakfast and then off to the Great Synagogue to hear Chazan Chaim
Adler with the full choir. Rabbi Lau Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv was the presiding Rabbi , but unfortunately he spoke in Hebrew. What an inspiring morning!