Note: I published this piece nine years ago when I was treking in Israel for a while. The unspeakable horror of last weekend prompts me to publish it again, my own small tribute to my Israeli and other Jewish friends.
Muslims have the Taj Mahal and Mecca. Catholics have St. Peter’s Basilical and the Vatican.
Jews have a wall.
The Western Wall is a stack of massive stone blocks a few dozen feet high and a couple of hundred feet long. It’s all that’s left of Jerusalem’s second Jewish temple, a structure that astonished even the Romans. The Romans destroyed it to punish the Jews for their Great Revolt in 70 A.D.
the Aspen beat 