Last night here

Unfortunately, my computer is not working and I am finding it difficulty to post on my blog. Each time I write something, it won't go to my blog and so I have not written over the past few days. I will attempt to do so one more time as it is my last night in Israel. Mom and I had a lovely day. We relaxed at the hotel and went to the pool and read. This evening we took a cab to the city of Tel Aviv. We got there just at sunset and sat at a restaurant right on the ocean. It was truly beautiful and a wonderful way to end our vacation.
For me, this trip has been wonderful. I have learned so much that I never knew about our jewish history, culture and religion and I realize how much more there is to know. Through my experience of being here, I really feel even more connected to my Judaism. I refuse to let that go anymore.
I understand that Israel has many problems. I do also believe that most of the Israeli people want peace . Through traveling throughout all of Israel, I have seen many things and realize that often the world holds a double standard for Israel. I have seen the beautiful homes that the Palestinians are living in. There are 7.5 million Israelis here and 1.5 million arabs. The arabs live in gorgeous communities and before anyone can criticize Israel for what they do to the Palestinians, they need to come to Israel to see for themselves what is going on here. I will not go into this anymore on my blog.
In the event that this blog goes through these are some of the places I visited:
Caesaria which is a beautiful area north of here that King Herod built and which became a "Las Vegas" of the times as well as a port to import and export goods
Zichron Yaakov-an artists colony
Akko and Gorgeous Tunisian synagogue
Golan Heights to Kibbutz Afik where we slept for the night
Katzrin Golan Winery
Kibbutz Kfar Blume where I lived for 2months in 1978
Gamela which was an incredibly fascinating historical place

I leave tomorrow and I am looking forward to going home to be with my family and to celebrate my oldest son Marc's 27th birthday. Kol toov (which means "all should be good!" lilah tov.

too tired, will write tomorrow

Still too tired. will write tomorrow.

too tired to write

Continuation of Oh Jerusalem

After leaving Yad Vashem, we went to the tunnels at the Western Wall. They were pretty amazing. There is so much history there and it is overwhelming but I will say to all of my friends who asked me to put in the prayers in to the cracks of the wall, I learned of the place which is the holiest of the holy. It is a place in the tunnels which is conjectured that the high priests stood during services. After placing the prayers in the cracks of the wall, I said my own prayers. It was a very special moment.
It was also quite interesting trying to push my mom in a wheelchair in the tunnels. It was quite narrow at tunnels andt their was a point where she got a little claustrophobic and I started to sing jerusalem of gold with her. After coming out of the tunnels, we walked through the arab market and Hughie went with us down one of the corridors to where we could see the dome of the rock. There is a lot of controversy surrounding the dome of the rock. Presently, Jews are not allowed to go near the dome of the rock. When we went there 14 years ago, we were able to go into the Dome of the Rock.
We then went to the western wall where everyone prays. That was pretty incredible and we stayed until dusk to see that are all lit up. It was magnificent.
Hughie drove mom home and I met my friends Paula and Azzy at this new shopping area which was gorgeous and where I bought some gifts. It was almost 9PM and I hadn't eaten since 1PM and I was craving either schwarm or falafel. Azzy said the best falafel and schwarma were at the gas stations. Lo and behold, he was right. We stopped at this place which was packed. We waited on line and the guy behind the counter cut up turkey schwarma which was on a skewer and offered everyone on line a taste of the turkey. Everyone stuck their fingers in and grabbed a piece. He then proceded to make my turkey schwarma with that turkey. I looked at Paula and said,'NOw that is real appetizing". And you know what, it was delicious!!!!!! Lilah tov.