What you CAN'T Do at Jerusalem's Wailing Wall

Ladies and gentlemen, this is why you must negotiate. Do not accept this at face value. I think a lot of times women are better negotiators. Not always, though.

And hey, wasn't that a wonderful little Spot on Setsing. I absolutely love Setsing's works. I think that he's become such a master and it's just been amazing to see his development over the years. Yeah, it feels very colorful and refined now. He's got an amazing sense of color and he's just one of our great students, having been with us for about 10 years, I think, 8, 10 years.

And he just has, he not only has style in his paintings, but he has style in his Dress too steel, as they say here at Cappo Chia. He's a great singer also. Alright, what were we gonna talk about today? So today we're actually gonna be talking about your trip to Jerusalem. Okay. I believe it's called the wailing wall, which is still a wall story.

I'm very keen on why you call it the wheeling wall. I think that's, I know that you're poetic, but. We need to circle back around and figure out why you call it the Wailing Wall because well for you out there You can google Wailing Wall. It's just not my terminology. Oh  Very faint. It's supposed to be the most famous place in Judaism, the Wailing Wall.

Oh, wow. It's interesting because I don't think many people have heard of it I think you have to be knowledgeable about Jerusalem and Israel and maybe Judaism and So it's anyhow, I was fortunate enough once to go there, and the reason I was there was for business with the old  family business, and it was a trip for training a distributor in Tel Aviv, and I have to admit that at the time, this was probably about 10 years ago, There were, instances of mortar fire going off, and there was conflagrations in Israel, which is pretty much almost every day at one level, but so I embarrassed myself by asking our Israeli distributors if I, if they would have a Bulletproof vest waiting for me.

Oh wow. I got there. Hey, it's a valid question. They laughed. And then they explained how the news out of Israel is always exaggerated. Not always, but most of the time. So I was there in Israel training distributors. A distributor who's one of our biggest distributors in the, let's call it the European theater.

And on the weekend, I stayed over a weekend, and I took a guided tour on a bus with about 15, 20 people, and we went to Jerusalem. Spent a day in Jerusalem. Just one day, huh? Yeah, and I tell you what, it's such an interesting city, I would love to go back and spend two or three days.

Let's talk about Jerusalem and the Wailing Wall. Alright, sounds good. Okay.  How are you doing, Bill? Hey! Hey! Great. I feel good. I feel good, too. Didn't sleep a ton last night, but I got up this morning. Yeah, but this coffee from Noid here in Siem Reap is just hitting it out of the park, yeah, it's just my phone. Show moi. Show moi. Alright, let's talk about the Wailing Wall, so before the Wailing Wall you start seeing you're entering into Jerusalem for a day. Okay. The first thing that was surprising to me, driving into Jerusalem, let me talk about our guide.

And this is some kind of nuance of, let's just say,  what's going on in the Middle East and what's going on even in Israel, is that our guide, let's call him Jacob, was an extremely cynical, sarcastic guy. Oh, wow. And he never missed an opportunity to put a little twist and throw some mud at Jesus.

Throw some shade. He was tossing little negative vibes about Jesus. On Jesus specifically. He's just throwing shade at Jesus for It just seems like the Jewish people are not big believers in I guess they believe in the Old Testament and much of the philosophies and the teachings of Christianity.

Out in the New Testament, but this guy, it was just like any time he had the chance, he would put down Jesus and how Jesus was overrated, and he was a, Can you give me an example of something that he said about Jesus? I can't think of one right now, actually. It's been ten years, so So, anyhow, we're driving, and you drive through just, a barren desert for, it seems like about 45 minutes, an hour, something to that effect, and then you start coming in into Jerusalem, and I was very marked by the amazing architecture, a lot of very modern buildings are on the outskirts and in the beginning into the city before you get to the old city of Jerusalem.

It seems like a lot of the world's most famous architects, like Marina Bay Sands, the Triple Towers in Singapore, were designed by famous Jewish architects, and so there's a lot of them around the world. And most of 'em have tried to have at least one building that they've designed in Jerusalem. It seems to be a feather in their cap to be able to do that.

Oh, that's really cool. With Jacob, we went in our bus and we're traveling into Jerusalem and we're stopping and we're taking a look at the old sites. We went to the tomb where Jesus was first buried and then the rock was pulled aside and that,  oddly enough, was taken care of.

I'm surprised that he brought you there if he was so against Jesus. That's what he was there to do. Oh, okay. He's there basically, generally taking Christians from the western world into Jerusalem, but he has to throw in his little barb. And I, I gather he's not the only one in Israel with an ax to grind about, about Jesus.

The thing that was so cool to me is the history of Jerusalem. There's only one other place I've been to in the world that has so much varied influences from, let's say, conquering empires that have come in. And played a role in ruling Jerusalem, and I guess much of that part of the world.

So we're going to talk about the Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the British Empire, and the Egyptians. There's five or six different empires over the generations that have controlled and ruled for several hundred years, Jerusalem. And so you have that influence. That sounds like a lot of tension.

Yeah. Yeah.  Yeah, that is, I think as we all know, one of the most tense parts of the world. And I'm sure that undoubtedly creates for the most beautiful architecture and artistic landscape as well. All those influences. It's an ancient city that I understand has been burned and torn down and conquered numerous times.

Wow. Like when you follow the trail of Jesus on the, where he was, carrying the cross, dragging the cross, It was basically stated to us that nobody really knows today exactly where that trek was, but they've set one up so you can follow that path. And in that same part of town, the really ancient part of town, where the typical street is about this wide you will come to this courtyard area and it's very crowded.

And, that's where the tomb is. Very fascinating. And I, it's one of the few places I've been to that I would say I really gotta come back here and spend several nights and just, wander around and discover there's so much shopping to be done there. Buying artifacts from all different conquerors over the years.

At the tomb,  And in that part of Jerusalem, I just started to notice, and it was dumbfounding to me that there were so many of what I would call the most dishonest hawkers and salespeople. Oh, really? Trying to sell me little crosses, special ointments and pieces of sand, and also some items of clothing.

And did you buy some ointment?  . I try to buy ointments everywhere I go. Yeah, I know. I have very scaly skin.  Lotions and ointments. Love it. That's really interesting because I feel like in most religious places in the world, and it's very clear here in Southeast Asia as well, there's a dark underbelly of these religious sites or these, because there is, people want to I guess in some ways make money and capitalize on the religion and They're making money off of tourists, is what it amounts to.

Sure. And they are careless And it's I don't blame any culture for that because they gotta do what they gotta do, especially when you're down on your luck, so it's like why not harness the religion? Why not harness The desires and the wants of these people coming in, it's unfortunate that they're scammy, though. I was very surprised. I thought I was in the holiest place. One of the most holy places on the planet. And I'm having to watch everything I do. Because there were people after my wallet. But one thing that I found very tricky. Now, when you're in Jerusalem, and when you're in Israel you're basically, you could be potentially buying whatever you're buying in Euro.

You could be buying it in US dollars, or you could be buying it in the local  shekels. Okay? And between a shekel and a dollar there's, I think it's like 7 to 1 or something. But when you go into a store, it's gonna just have a number. Oh. And it won't be, this is Fifteen shekels. Seven shekels, it'll just have fifteen. Depending on who you are, and who's running the store at that time, they might pick, Oh that's your Oh no, for you, sure, that's a shekel, sir, that's a shekel. They were manipulating, and it was in all the stores. It wasn't like just one or two. That was another attempt, I thought, at, People trying to take potentially advantage of you or go after those who didn't seem very knowledgeable on how things work in Jerusalem.

Yeah, so it seems like you're setting this framework, like even the guide had this, like ill will temperaments and then these hawkers are just trying to, get your cash And I think when we think of Jerusalem, it's like obviously just like a very spiritual holy land, a place where people go for pilgrimage, and to feel good, and to repent, and to weep.

And then there's these people yes to, it's a You're weeping because your wallet's been emptied. Yeah, you're weeping, man, you're weeping. You're weeping because the ointment made you break into a rash, dude. I couldn't get enough lotions and ointments.  Alright, so we're sent on a mission.  My wife at the time had a Christian group that she spent a lot of time with.

They're doing Bible study and so forth. And Bill's going to Jerusalem. And so they wanted me to get it, it was some kind of a special cloth that goes over the shoulder. And it's a very holy thing. And all of the ladies asked if I would buy, like 20 of these. Wow. For the group.  So I found a store that was selling these.

And I went in, and it looked like something that probably Because it was very nice embroidery and shiny colors. And it looked pretty well made, but it didn't look like, to me, it should be worth more than  20 each.  And I think I might have even been told that's about what the price for these things is.

So I go into this store, and I'm literally on the trail of where Jesus is, it was supposedly dragging the cross, it's a very holy section of Jerusalem, and I go into this store, and I find one on, hanging on the rack, and they said sir, that will be two hundred dollars each. Oh, no. And I'm like, alright. I don't think so.

I, excuse me. I think I'll move on down the road. And the guy's okay. What about 150? What about 150?  And I'm like, I've really been told that a better price,  a realistic 20. And this guy's oh, that's horrific. Who would tell you that?

They're made with some of the most skilled embroiderers in all of the region. All right, for you especially, I'll give it, I'll give it to you for a hundred. And I'm like,  I'm gonna just mosey down the road. And so I did, I left, and the guy was almost grabbing me by my shirt to keep me in there.

And so I started walking down the road, and he's barking, okay, fifty. Okay, alright, 40. Oh my god. Finally, he hits the 20. I'm about 100 meters down. Ladies and gentlemen, this is why you must negotiate. Do not accept this at face value. This is classic. From 200 to 20.  And I went back with my money, and I bought 20 of these.

You're like, yeah bro, I told you. I still think 20 is too much. And I had the money. No, they were pretty nice. They were pretty nice, but 20 I was told was the price. And I tell you what, I was not planning on it. I think a lot of times women are better negotiators. Not always though. So that was, that was part of the  contradictory sort of nature, and the puzzle, and the beauty.

Of one of the holiest, if not most interesting places on the planet Jerusalem. And like I said I would really like to go back there, it sounds exciting. Yeah, let's go. You wanna go? Let's go. Let's go. I got some free tickets. I'm like, this sounds like a cool place. I just love any place that has this kind of Smoky intrigue with a melting pot of cultures, but not so much the lack of safety.

That's Jerusalem. I think it's, I don't think you're physically at harm there. You just gotta watch your wallet. But it's the first place I've ever had pomegranate juice. Oh, I love that. Oh, I had some in Thailand. Big pomegranates. There's nothing like the beauty of how it looks. Like that ruby red color.

You just feel like you're ingesting. Pure gold. I don't know. There's something about it. So tasty and so naturally sweet.  There were no additives at all. They just churn it all up. You know who's naturally sweet? That Singh.

You're right. Why don't we tune in on what Seth sings up to? Let's watch how he's developed. And is going to become one of the greatest artists, I think, in all of Cambodia. He really is. That is not a stretch of a statement. In fact, we've been having these weekly critiques at Colors of Cambodia, and we just had one last night, and his new piece is It's fiery, it's filled with peaches and oranges, and reds, it's beautiful, it's elegant.

It's so representative of Cambodia, actually, I think we have that in a video. Let's watch it. Oh, nice. Roll that footage.

Here's another school that supports children teaching for free, for local schools. I am Satsang, I am a student here since 2017,

and now I'm approved to be a teacher.  Teaching here and also some other school, course school in Cambodia. And this is my painting, oil painting. This canvas, like a bit this is one I do it more than others because I would like to draw, I like, I would like to prove myself to be better. And  this painting,  even oil colors and  mostly I draw with, like, all the sculptures together.

Like you see, this is like flowers, shoemake and lotus also.  And this calls me like more than that, I mostly draw with it and  my favorite color is about colorful because it makes me better to paint in it.  And  you can look around here. There are a lot of paintings drawn by all the students and teachers here.

And anyway, thank you to Bill Chantry and all the supporters for supporting me and all the students. Some material  for the art material, and teaching for free. Thank you.

Yeah Jerusalem is a fascinating place, and, but you do have to watch the hawkers, and watch your wallet, but it's a safe place, I felt, as far as body harm type things, and I would love to go back there and stay a few nights in a hotel. It just had such a very Exotic, ancient vibe to it.

Ancient vibe, I like that. Ancient vibe. And I tell many people who ask me what's your favorite place you've ever been to, I generally will say Istanbul.  Because it's just varied, it's huge.  I've always wanted to go to Istanbul. It is, I would say,  the most ancient and diverse city.

In, as far as historical past that I've ever been to. Anyhow, Jerusalem is very similar, and they're not, actually not that far apart from each other. So anyhow we finish this one section of going through ancient parts, the holy parts, some of the holy parts of Jerusalem. And we're gonna go to a place that I really didn't know much about called the Wailing Wall, the Western Wall.

So we hop back on the bus. And it seems to me it was somewhat like it seemed to be on the outskirts of town a little ways. Not in the center of the city. Could be wrong, but that's how I remember it.  And as we're driving on this bus, the twenty of us or so, I hear these people talking and shuffling with some paper.

And they're talking about doing something inserting notes somewhere something going on at the Wailing Wall. And I had no knowledge of anything like this. So you didn't even, you didn't even know what the Wailing Wall was. Really not. I knew it was, occasionally you see pictures of it on TV about some kind of an episode happening, some kind of conflagration  at the Wailing Wall.

This is just happening over the years, but I really didn't know much about it. But do you know anything about the Wailing Wall? I actually looked up three facts on the Wailing Wall. So let's go ahead and talk about these facts. Okay. Cause I, I had no idea. I thought that Bill came up with the term Wailing Wall.

Actually, there's several names for this wall. One is the Kotel Wall. K O T E L. One is the Wailing Wall, and then it's also referred to as the Western Wall, and it's referred to as the Barak Wall, so there's actually four or five names. It's  488 meters long, constructed of these huge stones, and it's actually Big stones.

Yeah, and it was constructed, they think, by King Herod in 20 BCE, and it was built where the retaining wall of the Jewish temple once Stood so it is built on a temple mount and it is a confluence of the three Religions. What were the three religions? Christianity and Judaism and it's supposed to be the most holy of all no, that's actually no it's not I looked it up.

It's actually not the holiest site. I'm not sure which one it is, but they refer to it They like to say that but upon research it may or may not Isn't that just like according to whoever thought? And then also it's just, it's a place where, Jewish people come to weep, to mourn but the practice, hence the name Wailing, the practice of the folded notes of which Bill was finding out.

Is that these prayers or these calls to God or the universe or this higher being if you place it within the crack of the wall, and we can cut this out later, but if you place it within the cracks of the wall, your prayer is said to ascend to heaven and be heard by your higher God.  I love that sentiment.

I think that's so interesting. It's an extremely cool idea. So I'm the boss. Thanks for the details of the past. I don't, I didn't know. Yeah, King Herod, man. Chopping it up. Good old guy. Good old guy, King Herod. So I am the boss. I'm alone. I'm traveling alone this weekend.

But with a group in the bus, and I see all these people busying, gathering their little, little folded up notes. And I ask somebody, hey, what's going on here? What are you guys doing? And they say you're, everybody here, everybody knows this, sir, except for you, that you're supposed to write out a little message on a piece of paper.

And slip it into the cracks  between these very big stones. And in there, your message to the universe, to the heavens your prayer will hopefully be returned to you. And so it's just it's just what you do at the Wailing Wall. I didn't know, so I grabbed my backpack. The bus stops in this large parking area.

And I get my backpack and I make sure I have some pieces of paper and a pen. And we come across this large expanse, which is below us, which is where the Wailing Wall is.  So we walk around and we go down these steps. And it's all very, yellow, brown stone. There's not trees.

It's quite simplistic, quite Stark, and as we got down to the bottom of the steps, there's, you start to come across many of these Hasidic Jewish people. Where they've got these unique hats, and this long hair, and beards, and these very stark dark suits that they wear. And I almost get the feeling that's all they ever wear all the time.

Oh yeah, absolutely.  And at the bottom of the stairs, there was a reading room. And I asked Jacob, our guide, what, what were they doing there? And he says they come here to study the ancient scriptures. The Jewish Hasidic people. Oh, very cool. So we all, so we came down to the large courtyard facing  the Wailing Wall.

And  across the courtyard there must have been  a hundred desks, like you would see in A hundred desks? A hundred desks. Oh, I was picturing like twenty or something. No, it was A large expanse of desks and they were like school desks where the seat is attached to the table. Love a memory.

I go up to the wall, I look around, I see what people are doing. They're placing these little messages into the cracks. So I thought, I need to get involved in this. I have some messages to the universe and to the heavens that I want to offer.

Were there people crying?  Eventually I think I was almost in tears about what happened. No, I saw nobody crying. It actually wasn't very busy. And that's possibly why what happened, because there wasn't anything else going on. But it just seems like one of these stories where no matter where I go, I will find trouble.

And I wonder why that is. I'm just kidding. I'm a very innocuous guy. That's why I hang out with Bill so much. I'm a very positive being. Trouble. And, yeah, if you want to find trouble, hang out with me. So I sit down on the table, pull out my notepad and my pen, and I start writing messages  that I'm going to put into, fold and put into the wall.

The next thing you know, some of these Hasidic Jews, they just come up and start screaming at me. Whoa!  Okay. They're not screaming at me in English. You're just writing, you're just writing at the desk? I'm sitting at this desk,  and, facing the wall. And suddenly there's one, two, three, four, five Hasidic Jewish guys coming in and they're just screaming and they're like, I'm getting my shit on, I'm about to lose it, I'm tired.

Whoa, whoa. And I'm like, wow, what did I do? I don't even know, I don't even know what to do And I think one guy in kind of a broken English said you're not supposed to be doing that. You're not supposed to be writing anything. In front of the wailing wall. You're supposed to have, if you're going to have anything and put it into the cracks, it has to be written beforehand.

Whoa!  What are all these tables for? These school tables. It looks like a perfect place to sit. Yeah, I would have done the same thing. Literally. Write out my message to the universe.  But this screaming and this yelling, it doesn't go away and I almost get the feeling I'm going to be hauled off.

Yeah, but are you continuing to write? No, I'm stopping. So at this point you're just like hands up. I'm causing, I'm in the middle and I've started what I think is going to be the next international incident. Oh my god. That's going to be on the global news. It was like the guy in 2007 that laid in front of the wall by the way, naked.

And then he got carted away from an insane asylum.  Really? I'm surprised I didn't do that to you.  I got saved. I got saved. And I don't really know what to do. I'm, I, it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to get my little message written out. I've got these people screaming and then some of them are looking at books and they're like finding passages in some holy book that are explaining why I shouldn't be doing what I'm doing.

And then the next thing you know  In contrast to the Hasidic Jewish people, there's a Byzantine Orthodox,  maybe it was Armenian, but  there's these robes that these Orthodox Christians wear. And there was a group of them also at the base in front of the Wayland Mall. And they look so exotic, and they look so ancient, and they look so foreign.

And this guy comes up and right up and pushes away the Jewish people who are screaming at me. And in perfect American English says,  You come with me. Okay. What you've done, there's nothing wrong with what you've done. It's just these people like to argue over everything and make a big scene over potentially nothing.

So he says, you come with me. And he's got this long robe on and it just seems so bizarre that he's speaking perfect American English. Turns out he was from An orthodox church in Santa Rosa, California.  So he literally is just whisking me away as quickly as he can as these Hasidic Jews are following, and they're yelling, and they're barking.

And we go back and then we hit the stairs, and we're gonna go up to the stairs, and I'm, literally, they're gonna escort me and get me on the bus. Oh, man. And hope that some kind of Jewish city ever gets your, did you ever get your prayer to the wall? No. Never got my prayer to the wall.

That, that's why, that, that explains everything. It was a yes, that's right. Things have been wrong ever since.  No, so I got to the stairs and he's whisking me up and we'll go from there.  Be careful if you go to the Wailing Wall.  So I think as I was talking with this like the Byzantine Orthodox Santa Rosa American that If I'd have put on the proper ointments before in the morning,  it would have worn off. Did you bring your ass ointment?

You borrowed it, don't you remember? No.  Okay this guy is literally saving my life, and he's literally keeping me from being, international news as being this ridiculous American who's come out to the Wailing Wall and actually thinks he can write his message in front of the Wailing Wall.  And so this guy's taking me up the stairs and he's these guys, they'll argue about anything.

They're always trying to make a scene. What you've done is  Nothing that you've done wrong. And these stairs, there's 300 steps, it seems going up to the top. He leads me up. We go on to the, into the parking area.  And at that time, I was ahead of everybody else, because everybody else was doing their peaceful visit.

Peaceful visit? Peaceful visit. Peaceful visit to the Wailing Wall. Not me. Not me at all. I get up there and Jacob is standing at the door to the boss.  And he's like, Why are you back so early?  And I said, you wouldn't believe it. I go down there and I'm like I have broken some ancient, very serious rule of the Wailing Wall and the Hasidic Jewish people by writing my message down at those little school desks, which seemed so natural writing my message.

And it turned into a situation where this good Orthodox rabbi helped save me, whisked me up here, now I'm back and I'm just gonna sit here on the bus until the rest of the people come.  And he's just shaking his head. He's just so happy to hear this bizarre story. And he sits down next to me on the bus and he says,  what you have just witnessed, Mr.

Gentry,  is why the Jewish people are the smartest people on the planet.  It's because from a very young age, we just argue about everything and we'll make a big scene about everything. We learn about debate. And that's why we're the smartest people on the planet. That's an interesting take. I guess so.   Yeah.

All that said, I would say, for any of you out there, go to Jerusalem. It's one of the most holy, spiritual, ancient and fantastic cities I've ever been to. It sounds awesome. I'd still want to go. It's just a bummer that you didn't get your prayer answered. Also, I just picture the rest of the people on this bus; they have no idea what's going on.

They're just all, they have their notes, they're all in their own little world, and you're just getting yelled at.  I don't remember any of them actually noticing what had happened. That's exactly what I'm saying. They're all, and then you're just like surrounded by this wildness.  If there's trouble somewhere, I can find it.

I found trouble at the Wailing Wall. It was almost an international incident. But,  all that being as interesting as it is, let's take a look at some more footage on Set Sing. Alright, sounds awesome. An interesting young man who is the future of Cambodia with all of his talent. And we love  Helping him and others in Cambodia to develop this innate talent that they have, yeah, absolutely. Let's watch Setsinghaen. Thank you, Julia, for joining. Yeah, thank you for regaling me with your wild tales as usual. Oh, it was a pleasure. Let's hear it for Julia. Let's hear it for Bill, man.  Bye. See ya.