Not in my wildest nightmare could I ever imagine the reality that we are witnessing today at the heart of Israel, in Jerusalem, where the Kotel plaza is virtually empty for days prior to Pesach and during the holiday due to the security concerns and following regulations. 

It does not look surreal to me. It looks as if time has stopped at the place where it feels so incredibly tangible and multidimensional always. 

I tried to remember when it had happened the last time after 1967, and I failed. 

I tried to check, but my checking came out fruitless, with regard to the post-1967 period. 

I know that many of us are going back and forth in our heads to our own Kotel moments, so many of them, so different ones, so memorable all of them. 

One of the ever-present sensations there is that on the way to the Kotel, one has an extra-speed, and this walk towards the Kotel is always uplifting, under any weather and circumstances. There is always the presence of that extra-dimension there. 

And on the way back from the Kotel, it is always slow, as if the Kotel keeps you still. 

And our Kotel birds, those eternal doves, are such an integral part of it. I can be wrong and I would like to be wrong in this case, but I cannot see any of them at this frozen empty Kotel plaza these days. Not in the photos that I have been seeing, at least. 

In my travels back in thought to our many Kotel moments, I also thought about how it was reflected in both of our artworks, Michael’s and mine. 

I have a special story with regard to my........

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