August 9, 2025

Here are some of the sights and sounds you might see when visiting the women’s section of the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

1. Since the area facing the wall functions as an outdoor synagogue, men and women are not permitted to mix or pray together in keeping with the Orthodox branch of Judaism, which oversees the site. Women pray to the right and men to the left at the wall.

2. There are prayer books (Sephardi, Ashkenazi and Psalms) in glass cases that the women are free to borrow before entering.

3. There are also secure metal donation boxes at the entrance. The money is used to maintain the site.

4. The women do not use Torah scrolls or wear prayer shawls at the wall, for both are forbidden in the Orthodox tradition.

5. There is a small, airconditioned prayer room with glass walls adjoining the women’s section where the women can sit and pray indoors to escape the Jerusalem heat.

6. On Mondays and Thursdays you may see women standing on chairs overlooking the adjoining men’s section in order to witness the bar mitzvahs of their sons and grandsons. They often throw candy to the thirteenyear old boys who read the Torah for the first time and thus are now subject as young men to keep all biblical laws.

7. There are some women at the wall who teach, encourage and bless the other women and may pray on your behalf for a small donation.

8. You may see someone preparing a dough offering as described in Numbers 15:1721.

9. After completing their prayers, the women then back away from the wall toward the exit. They do not want to show disrespect by turning their backs to the wall.

–Daniel McCabe

Trivia question (Answer below)

What is the largest church building in the land of Israel?

Jesus by the Lake: The Deceased Son of a Grieving Mom, Luke 7:1117

I. The Passage, “A dead man was being carried out [of the city],” v. 12.

A dead man—Jesus raised two others from the dead: Jairus’ daughter (8:5253) and Lazarus (John 11:43).

An only son—thus, the woman’s only breadwinner; “only son,” the same word as “only begotten Son” in John 3:16, meaning either “only” or “unique, oneofakind.” An only son prompted intense grief (cf. Zech. 12:10, “They will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.”).

The son of a widow—not the first widow’s son the Lord had shown compassion toward (e.g. 1 Kings 17:10)

A young man—“beyond the age of puberty, but normally before marriage” (LouwNida, GreekEnglish Lexicon of the New Testament)

II. Ancient Funeral Customs

The dead were buried the same day.

The dead were buried outside the city though exceptions were made for kings.

Often accompanied by the tearing of clothes, sackcloth and a public display of mourning (cf. 2 Sam. 3:31), sometimes utilizing professional mourners and musicians

Here a procession, including pall bearers and a large crowd, growing even larger with Jesus, his disciples and the large crowd accompanying him (vs. 1112)

Note the “open coffin” (v. 14)—“a stretcher or plank used for carrying a corpse to a place of burial” (LouwNida), so clearly not an infant, which would have been carried.

III. The Babylonian Talmud

“If a person sees the funeral procession, and fails to join the procession, he is guilty of mocking the poor* and is deserving of excommunication. He should accompany the dead at least a distance of four [cubits].** Even when one is exempt from accompanying the dead…, he, nevertheless, must rise before the procession. He does not rise in deference to the dead, but to those attending to the dead, for they are engaged in performing a mitzvah.”***

Rabbi Solomon Ganzfried, Code of Jewish Law, Chapter 198: The Removal of the Deceased: the Funeral and Burial Services.

*Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Berakoth, Folio 18a.

**any closer and he is defiled

***a commandment

Note that to have come within four cubits (six feet) of the stretcher, Jesus would become defiled.

–Daniel McCabe

Life in the Land: “Rabbi Ben Ezra”

The well respected English poet, Robert Browning, learned Hebrew, studied the Old Testament and always exhibited strong support for the Jewish people until his death in 1889 at the age of 77.

One of his greatest poems, Rabbi Ben Ezra, explores the themes of aging and the purpose of life, and Browning creatively presents them as the soliloquy of a long ago Jewish sage and philosopher named Rabbi Ben Ezra, who is probably to be identified with Abraham Ibn Ezra (10891164).

The poem’s thirtytwo stanzas can’t all be printed here, but I’ve reproduced four of them and added some minor commentary.

The opening stanza:

Rabbi Ben Ezra expresses optimism about growing older. It is not something to fear, but rather to embrace.

The seventh stanza:

It can be quite comforting when you realize that though you may not reach some of your goals in life (perhaps even concluding with frustration that you have failed) that this failure may in fact lead to unexpected success in another endeavor. Learn to rise above one’s natural “brute” instinct to grow despondent and instead look for a greater purpose—God’s purpose.

The final two stanzas:

Don’t forget that God uses the “whirl” of life to mold you, so “thirst” for what still remains of his plan for you. Don’t dwell on the pressures of today. Instead, rely on the Lord through them all, even while young, and let God bring you through the trials (your “cup”) to a perfect end.

I’m thankful for the older men in my life who have passed their wisdom down to me, and it’s my hope that I have aged wisely. It’s my hope that you will age wisely as well.

–Daniel McCabe

Scripture Study: King Hezekiah, part 2

Isaiah 36 sets the stage for chapter 37 wherein Hezekiah’s men report back to him all that the Rabshakeh had said, and here we discover King Hezekiah’s greatness, for as soon as he heard their report, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord.

It’s true that Hezekiah didn’t really have anywhere else to go, but at the same time the temple is probably the first place he should have gone.

He’s been trying to convince the people to turn to the Lord, and here he models for them the importance of taking refuge in the Lord when you are troubled.

He then sends his messengers to the prophet Isaiah to appeal for help from God, and in 37:5 we read God’s response to the king, “When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, Isaiah said to them, ‘Say to your master, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard with which the young men of the King of Assyria have reviled me. Behold, I will put a spirit in him [i.e., in Sennacherib, the king of Assyria] so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’”’”

God guarantees Hezekiah, “Don’t worry! I’ll take care of this!”

V. 8, “So the Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish.” So, the Rabshakeh returns to the king of Assyria who is now attacking Libnah just a few miles north of Lachish.

V. 9, “Now the king heard concerning Tirhakah, king of Cush, ‘He has set out to fight against you.’” There’s a rumor that Tirhakah plans to attack the king of Assyria.

“And when he had heard it, he sent his messengers to Hezekiah, saying”—now he’s going to taunt Hezekiah again, saying basically, “Don’t go anywhere, I’m going to get you.”

V. 10, “Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah, king of Judah, ‘Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Behold, you’ve heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction, and shall you be delivered? Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed?’”

Then he recites a long list of places that Assyria had already taken in past victories of his father and of his father before him. Samaria, the capital city of Israel, had also been recently taken, so really Jerusalem is all that is left.

Now I don’t blame Sennacherib for having all the confidence in the world. After all, he doesn’t trust in the one true God, and he doesn’t think that Yahweh will deliver His people because none of the other supposed gods had delivered their people.

In any event we read in v. 14 that Hezekiah receives this letter from the hands of the messengers, reads it, and goes up to the house of the Lord where he spreads it out before Him.

V. 15, “And Hezekiah prayed, saying, ‘O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim. You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth.

You have made heaven and earth. Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear. Open Your eyes, O LORD, and see and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations in their lands and have cast all their gods into the fire.’”

I love this part of Hezekiah’s prayer because he realizes what these other supposed gods are. He adds in v. 19, “For they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands—wood and stone.” They’re just idols. “Therefore they were destroyed. So now, O LORD our God, save us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone are the LORD.”

If you continue reading 37:2129, then you’ll discover additional prophesies, written in poetic form, including God’s direct address to Sennacherib in v. 29, which reads, “I’m going to turn you back the way you came.”

–Adam Keim

Greatest NT Discoveries: #9, The Pool of Siloam

“Then [Jesus] anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing,” (John 9:6b7).

The Pool of Siloam sits on the southern end of the City of David in the southeastern part of the city of Jerusalem. The stepped remains of one side of the pool were discovered in 2004 after being unearthed by construction workers doing repairs on a drainage system. In the picture you can see how the pool stretches further to the right, still covered by dirt.

Today Hezekiah’s tunnel flows into a narrow stone courtyard, built during the reign of the Byzantine empress Eudocia in the 5th century A.D. and which was long thought to be the Pool of Siloam until the more recent discovery. The nearby stepped remains mark clearly the actual location.

Jesus sent the blind man that he healed to wash his eyes in the pool. Siloam was likely a large mikveh that worshipers used on their way up to the temple. The Roman road that led from the pool to the temple has also been found–you can take it all the way up to the Temple Mount! If you do, be confident that you are walking the very route that our Lord took during His triumphal entry.

Would you be among the many that waved palm branches and shouted, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel!”? (John 12:13).

–Adam Keim

Answer to the Trivia

A. The Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth