Vatikin at the Kotel. . .

One of the most moving things I’ve ever done has been davening vatikin (the earliest possible time to daven in the morning) at the Kotel. We used to do this all time in Yeshiva, when one of our Rebbaim would be driving to the Kotel on Friday morning from Ramat Beit Shemesh.

After a car ride of about a half an hour we would pull into a parking spot that would miraculously materialize during our search around the Kotel area. Even at 4:00 in the morning it’s impossible to find a parking spot there, with cars jam-packing every parking lot and the side of every road!

I remember one time when we were going through the Kotel security check point the security guard there said “Shalom,” followed by name. I looked at him and asked him if I knew him from somewhere, thinking he might be another one of my relatives in Israel that I didn’t know I had. He replied in broken English “We are all Jews, and we all stood at Har Sinai together, that is where I know you from!”

Only later, as I was walking to the Kotel plaza, did I realize that my name was clearly printed, in Hebrew, on my T’filin bag! I love this country!

I always love approaching the Kotel at this time of day, when the sky is completly dark, except for a small sliver of red on the distent horizen. I think there might be more people davening there at this time then any other time during the day. This is definitely the time of day with the least amount of tourists, which makes the Kotel Experience much more enjoyable without being interrupted every few seconds by the flashing of cameras, or the whispers (hopefully only whispers!) of conversation.

When davening at this time (well, actually anytime, really) you kind of just join any minyan that is at the point in davening that you want to be. Depending on the speed in which the particular Jewish sect you choose to daven in, you can arrive an hour before sunrise, or 20 minutes before, and you can still find a minyan that is just starting.

But the real magic of the morning is when the sun starts to rise. Every single minyan, no matter what time they started, starts Shmonei Esrai at exactly the same moment, and the noise that was thunderous, with hundreds of people yelling different words at different times, just stops, and all you can hear are the birds that are flying around the Kotel area.