On this date in 587 B.C., the temple built by Solomon was destroyed by the Babylonians. On this very same date in 70 A.D., the temple rebuilt on that site was destroyed by the Romans.
On our first visit to Israel in 2009, my husband and I dropped our bags at our Jerusalem hotel. We were exhausted from a long day of travel, but knew we needed to stay awake for a few more hours in order to combat jet lag. We started walking, no particular destination in mind, and soon found ourselves in the Old City. Our little map was useless in deciphering the warren of ancient streets and alleys, so we just wandered. At least, we thought we were just wandering.
Without planning to do so, we found ourselves at the Wall. We’d planned to visit later in our trip, but at the direction of a homing device we couldn’t fully explain, we were drawn there first in our visit. We didn’t need a map to find it. [Read more]
