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 | Jerusalem The Old City Jerusalem Reviews | Tips 1 - 10 of 21 |  |
 | |  |  | The Old City Jerusalem: Kotel Birds | Tip Rating:   |  |  | |  |
“Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare” (Psalms 124:7) I can still see them in my mind’s eye: dozens of black birds, their wings spread, circling the Western Wall as the sun rose over the Old City on that morning in May. One of my brothers was celebrating his bar-mitzvah that day (when a Jewish boy turns 13, he is ushered in as a member of the community by performing certain rites, one of them wearing tefillin – phylacteries - and being counted as an adult in a prayer quorum.) The whole family went with him to the wall to pray that morning. It was very early. The air was cool, and the plaza in front of the wall, usually crowded with visitors, was almost deserted. We could come right up to the wall and touch the ancient stones. They were smooth and worn. Stuck in every crack and crevice as far up as people can reach were little bits of paper (it is customary to stick a “kvitl” in the wall inscribed with a prayer or wish). Higher up, various species of plants, among them thorny caper bushes with delicate purple and white flowers, jutted out between the stones. But those birds – they kept hovering overhead. Around and around they went, silent and eerie. They appear every day at the crack of dawn, an old woman told us. They are the souls of the dead. Leave a Comment
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| | | | The Old City Jerusalem: Old City Market Haggling | Tip Rating:  | | | | |
Israel is a good place to buy souvenirs and as in all Middle Eastern countries, haggling is a tradition. Some tips are: Never pay in a market the first price, once they tell you the price began to haggle, try first half price or even less, as much as you offer as much they will think you can pay. (well I did not follow this rule, even if I knew it in one of my shopping lol) Play the game, if you go out of the shop and he follows you, you can still play it ;-) Even if they are aggressive, do not let your self intimidate. If you are just looking, do not make the seller loose his time, even if it is a game, some politeness is appreciate. Window shopping here lol is not recommended ;-) Leave a Comment
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Jerusalem
on December 12, 2006
on November 7, 2004
on March 22, 2004
on February 10, 2005
on September 8, 2002
