250,000 at Kotel Rally
250,000 at Kotel Rally
Jews in unison
By Laura Ben-David, Israel Insider
Last night's scheduled anti-disengagement activity was a prayer service at the Kotel. I dashed home early from work to don an orange shirt, grab a few of my kids and go. This was no ordinary prayer service.
In my life I have never seen anything like tonight. Rallies and special prayer events filled with orange-clad people (orange being the symbol of the Resistance) have become a regular occurrence in Israel as the dreaded "disengagement" day rapidly approaches; the day that will pit Jew against Jew in the unfathomable event of expulsion and eviction of 10,000 people from their homes in Gush Katif and parts of Samaria. I expected tonight's prayer rally at the Western Wall to be no different. But it was. Very different. [..]
[..]There were people on every roof, in every alley, on every street; it was unbelievable!! And the masses of people at the Western Wall plaza! If you have never been to the Kotel, it is something like a big, outdoor synagogue, except that every little group holds its own, sometimes competing, prayer services. Not tonight. Tonight, all of those thousands upon thousands of people prayed as one. I cried and sang along as all those people sang the prayer "Avinu Malkeinu" (Our Father, Our King) in unison, amplified by
some massive speaker system.
Anyone who has ever been to a Jewish town knows that the only thing people need to start a synagogue is another synagogue to break away from. The tiniest differences among people and suddenly there is a whole new congregation. But here there were people who were about as different as you can get, black coats with long beards, hippie-types, the fashion conscious; knitted kippahs, no kippahs, big black kippahs; yet here they all were praying, together, in perfect unison, at the holiest site in the world.
I was overwhelmed and overjoyed at the unity. A unity that I hope we can sustain and replicate in the coming, painful weeks.
Posted by Ted Belman at August 11, 2005 03:35 PM
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Yehoshua Kehati
said:
Good to see gigantic turnout at TA, the Kotel , and such, but why are they ignoring Sycamore Farms?
Also, in USA, there is such a thing as "citizens arrest" of a law-breaker whom the police have failed to apprehend. This can include officialdom.
Posted by: Yehoshua Kehati on August 12, 2005 01:06 AM
250,000 at Kotel Rally
Jews in unison
By Laura Ben-David, Israel Insider
Last night's scheduled anti-disengagement activity was a prayer service at the Kotel. I dashed home early from work to don an orange shirt, grab a few of my kids and go. This was no ordinary prayer service.
In my life I have never seen anything like tonight. Rallies and special prayer events filled with orange-clad people (orange being the symbol of the Resistance) have become a regular occurrence in Israel as the dreaded "disengagement" day rapidly approaches; the day that will pit Jew against Jew in the unfathomable event of expulsion and eviction of 10,000 people from their homes in Gush Katif and parts of Samaria. I expected tonight's prayer rally at the Western Wall to be no different. But it was. Very different. [..]
[..]There were people on every roof, in every alley, on every street; it was unbelievable!! And the masses of people at the Western Wall plaza! If you have never been to the Kotel, it is something like a big, outdoor synagogue, except that every little group holds its own, sometimes competing, prayer services. Not tonight. Tonight, all of those thousands upon thousands of people prayed as one. I cried and sang along as all those people sang the prayer "Avinu Malkeinu" (Our Father, Our King) in unison, amplified by
some massive speaker system.
Anyone who has ever been to a Jewish town knows that the only thing people need to start a synagogue is another synagogue to break away from. The tiniest differences among people and suddenly there is a whole new congregation. But here there were people who were about as different as you can get, black coats with long beards, hippie-types, the fashion conscious; knitted kippahs, no kippahs, big black kippahs; yet here they all were praying, together, in perfect unison, at the holiest site in the world.
I was overwhelmed and overjoyed at the unity. A unity that I hope we can sustain and replicate in the coming, painful weeks.
Posted by Ted Belman at August 11, 2005 03:35 PM