Kotel
The Kotel, known in English as the Western Wall, is the surviving outer retaining wall of Herod’s Second Temple platform. Posts here include the mass Priestly Blessing (Birkat HaCohanim) gatherings on the festival mornings, the Second Temple-period archaeology along the foot of the wall, and the wider First and Second Temple Jerusalem story in which the platform sits.
3 articles
3 articles
The Priestly Blessing (Birkat HaCohanim) at the Western Wall
The unified Priestly Blessing (Birkat HaCohanim) at the Western Wall: a personal reflection on the service that takes place twice a year, when hundreds of cohanim recite a blessing dating back to the First Temple.
Jerusalem in the Second Temple period
A field trip through Jerusalem's Second Temple period sites: the City of David, the Tyropoeon valley drainage channel, the Davidson Centre, the Burnt House, the Wohl Museum of Archaeology, and the excavations beneath the Western and southern walls of the Temple Mount.
Jerusalem: First Temple and Second Temple Periods
A field-trip filling in the gaps between the two Jerusalem temple-period days: the Roman 10th Legion's camp under Binyanei Hauma, the Western Wall Tunnels, an advance preview of the Eastern Cardo, the Kidron mausolea and the burial tombs at Ketef Hinnom.
If you are going to Israel, you would be mad not to give him a call.
Amol Rajan, BBC presenter and broadcaster
Having been on trips in Israel with seven different tour guides, Samuel stood above all the rest.
Seasoned Israel traveller
Samuel is one part walking encyclopedia, one part storyteller, one part stand-up comedian.
Berkeley Haas Business School student