CORONAVIRUS LOCKDOWN AT ISRAEL'S HOLY SITES

good morning I believe it is day number 11 of this national walk down in Israel now today is a special day or a different day because different kind of day because starting tonight everyone must stay home legally you are not allowed to walk more than a hundred meters away from your home it's just after 8 a.m. yesterday I got a call from an unknown number it was a block number actually but no caller ID and I usually don't pick up those kind of numbers but I figured yeah why not picked up the phone was actually the US Embassy in Jerusalem and they said you have a passport that needs to be picked up please pick it up because we were probably closing the embassy so please be here tomorrow between 8:00 and 9:00 so I'm leaving right now to go get that then we'll see if I could do some shopping because after this it looks like we're gonna be stuck at home until at least after Pesach Passover so trying to get whatever I need done today and I'm pretty sure there's a minyan going on now in the garage let's take a look yes there is you know I want to show you something else it's happening here and tell us what oh my god the streets are so empty the windshield wipers for some reason will not go down so to drive like this just arrived let me see right now fishing in five minutes I can't got my passport anymore there's almost nobody here check it out two empty empty empty your destination is on the right on a regular day this place would be teeming with people but it's not a regular day so thank God got the passport and now I just noticed that I'm very close to Kaiba ruffle so I'm going to head over there see if I can go inside and pray a little bit okay so I'm here in the car - no it looks like it's closed maybe it's open am I sure hopefully they will let us in but there are no guarantees let's see what's going on okay so I waited about a half hour outside apparently the only letting in a few people at a time but finally hit off and they did let me in so we are about to get inside they let me into the building as well I don't home in the compound and now we see get in as Marcus I should mention that I'm not dressed like I usually would dress I'm going to holy site I'm not even wearing shoes I've pretty much stopped wearing shoes and socks for the most part but they're not wearing socks anyhow yeah usually I would dress differently a bit more formal but I didn't know I was coming here so I'm sure God understands there's nobody around on a regular day on a regular day there would be hundreds of people here at this time that's so quiet this is sad I would usually use one of those pamphlets to say technically but because of the coronavirus I'm doing it on my phone [Music] [Applause] the only letting give 10 people at a time so there's less than 10 people in the room right now I'm going to leave to make someplace for other people I hope you got your soon to thank God for the miracles that we're gonna see God willing very soon save the world [Applause] duh without ahem fine okay next stop we're gonna try to get into the old city looks like it's open hopefully not a problem okay so that didn't work they told me to try to go in from another entrance I was turning trying to go from Jaffa Gate so let's see if we can get in from another entrance we'll see what happens it is such a beautiful day pity people can't really go out and enjoy it or at least they can today but tomorrow they can't Wow check out this view anyhow I just made it to old city they let me in through another gate so now we're going to go to the tomb of King David Kyoto is a MELAS if they let me in there and then to the western wall and then we're gonna go home god-willing needed him thank God thank God thank God if we can get into the actual room okay so they asked me to only pray for a few minutes so that I can make room for other people so I was in there for about eight minutes and then I left and now I'm on the way to the Western Wall oh the Kotel the western wall is outdoors obviously most part of it most of it is outdoors so hopefully there won't be too many restrictions about you know who can go we're and win and hopefully I'll be able to trade that for as long as I need to looks like the Israeli government is utilizing this opportunity to do offensive road repairs which is probably a very good idea [Music] okay I'm not even sure what this embarrassed to say this I'm not even sure what what this square is called but it's probably the busiest place in the old city after the Shooks masuka's and after the western wall or there are lakhs a month so check it out pretty much completely empty all the restaurants are closed which is I mean a regular day this place has hundreds and hundreds of people you know young people old people kids people eating out - everything's closed look [Music] listen one place said that is open actually but it's only for take away it's completely empty bring our bars closed hold it now all these places are closed on a regular night you cannot find a seat at any of these restaurants you have to wait in line uh but the world has changed the whole other world and it was a few weeks ago these are the famous steps leading down to the Western Wall never in my life seen them empty the silence here is deafening it's usually so loud so they created all these separate areas to separate praying areas each one has no more than ten chairs and they're all spread two meters apart so that hopefully people will not come here and contract the virus so if you're coming down here now and you see there's like I don't know 50 people here you think wow that's a lot of people except right now it's morning time this is like rush hour at the Western Wall this is like regular day could be a thousand people here but yeah it's not business as usual okay so the yeah the indoor part is closed outdoor part is open and just afraid here for about 20 minutes and now we're gonna go hopefully hopefully good times are coming for for all of us for the whole world so as I mentioned earlier starting tonight everyone has to stay home not a lot of we found more than 100 meters from your home which is about I don't know three hundred and thirty feet or something so basically I when I stay home which is why helps so important to come here today all these places and pray who knows when you know one will be the next time that I'm able to come here but anyone's able to come here I don't know you know I hope this thing will pass quickly won't do any more damage and hopefully the world would be a much better place very soon I did most of the shopping I was supposed to do thank God and now I'm at holiday month went inside there's no seating allowed but I got one last forma before this before Pesach I don't know I don't know how long this whole thing's gonna last in less than an hour the whole country has to shut down and everybody is going home for seven days so making the best of it you know and so I'm back and twelve stone right now and check this out they've built a gigantic grocery store temporarily it's an attempt that's supposed to be up and running today and at 6 p.m. let's see maybe it's already well it's great to come in somewhere the first thing I see is toilet paper that's a very good sign okay so this place is gonna be open later today God willing and yeah let's do this it's the right now there's an international prayer going gone juice from all over the world are praying at the same time for the safety of the world and for all of humankind and people are out on their porches and the parks and everyone's volcano a lone male 8 a lot oh oh we know mal que no I say Iman only man Jimmy so we just passed one group of people and here's another one [Applause] [Music] [Applause] situation is very serious people are dying many people are unwell and so far it's only been spreading so we have to pray a lot and we have to pray that our prayer is good answer thank you so much for watching see you next time