Up at 4am on Shavout

I would never wake up at 4am in the morning, but on Shavuot it’s a different story. After going to bed after a late Shavuot dinner, we woke up at 3:30am and walked to the kotel. On our way there hundreds of Jews wearing anything from jeans to Chassidic garb joined us. By the time we arrived at the wall thousands of Jews were already there singing, dancing, and davening. Pushing our way through the crowd we couldn’t get any closer to the kotel than twenty feet. We began davening shacharit and then mussaf until the sun rose. When the sun finally reached the top of the kotel and the sky changed from black to blue, everyone began the amidah. Standing there with thousands of other Jews all davening the same prayer was an experience I will never forget. Now that Shavuout is over we’re heading to Ben Yehuda street.