You may only know him as the former host of Man v. Food, wincing as he slurped down 180 oysters or a 190-pound burger, but Travel Channel star Adam Richman has been keeping busy since he gave up competitive eating in 2012. He’s written two cookbooks, hosted a bunch more shows, and, most recently, visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
This week marked his first visit to Israel and, like a good Jewish boy, he went with his mom. He’s been posting about his trip on Twitter, documenting Tzfat and Jerusalem’s machaneh yehuda market, AKA the classic Birthright itinerary minus hooking up with a hot soldier who turns out to be a total sleaze. However, Monday saw his first Instagram post.
Decked in tefillin (phylacteries) and a snazzy tallis (prayer shawl) with his eyes closed in prayer, the Brooklyn native paired his pic with a seriously long, candid caption.
He started out by sharing that he’d been waiting to visit the Western Wall since 1987, when his grandfather had arranged to take the family to Jerusalem for his bar mitzvah. However, a terror attack a couple of months before they were due to fly “scrapped the whole idea.” He was, he shared, “unprepared for the scope of emotion” that came with approaching the wall for the first time and “began to weep” as soon as he lay his hand on it.
Who else is weeping at his sweet words? Just me? Cool.
He went on to speak about the significance of visiting so close to Tisha B’Av, a day of mourning and fasting that commemorates the destruction of the two Temples, and the diversity of the crowd, including “people of every shape and color.” He said he “felt connected to the traditions of the past, and to the spirit of the Holy Land.”
He ended with a touching wish: “May all your dreams come true, and may your life be full of everything you wish for yourself.”
