PANHANDLED AT THE WESTERN WALL
W/M: Bob Bennett
Just a middle-aged boy band
From Middle-America goy-land
Through Athens on the way to Tel Aviv
We're hopelessly delayed
And our nerves are pretty frayed
Over missing bags that we can't retrieve
You know there's nothing like the sight
Of the Golan Heights at night
But no one's really here to make a fuss
Still there's never time enough
To see a country's worth of stuff
He is risen ... time to get back on the bus
Soon the morning comes and we
Pass through security
At the Temple Mount in Jerusalem
A squad of stern inspectors
Uses metal detectors
To find the bad guys, but we're not them
Then every woman, child and man
Joins as best we can
The solemn and sober Congregation
Knowing God is everywhere
Still it's great to be right there
At the original franchise location
My cardboard kippah cap
Petition on a paper scrap
I approach the Wall reverently
I close my eyes in prayer
Suddenly somebody's there
It seems a guy wants to talk with me
Dressed in Hassidic clothes
There's some things he'd like to know
My name, my family, where I'm from
But I'm innocent this time
Cause there's just no way that I'm
Prepared for what's about to come
He's on a money mission
Hopes that I'm in a position
To be "generous to the children" right away
He doesn't think that it's a scandal
To blatantly panhandle
I guess we both went there to pray/prey
Now I don't mind if someone takes an offering
Money's got to pay the bills, it's true
But there's a proper time and place
That does not bring disgrace
To the business that a family's got to do
In every faith and every creed
Some joker always feels the need
To beg money for a purpose divine
They never seem to learn
That it's never right to turn
The "s" in scripture to a dollar sign
Oh it's always been the news
Whether Gentiles or Jews
After the Original Fall
In one form or another
When we do it to each other
We're all panhandled at the Western Wall
No matter the location
It's such a sorry situation
To be panhandled at the Western Wall
Panhandled at the Western Wall