Shabbat, again

Over the weekend, I had yet another great Shabbat. Please tell me if you get tired of reading about them! To me, each Shabbat here has been different and amazing in a variety of ways, and so different from anything I experience at home, which makes them more interesting, at least to me, to write about. If you have questions about anything I'm doing that I haven't mentioned, please let me know!

Fridays in Jerusalem are still so funny to me. I don't think the grocery store in Maryland before a snowstorm can compare to a grocery store in Jerusalem on a Friday. Everyone is stocking up for their Shabbat dinners, and also has to plan ahead a little bit. The stores close around 2 or 3 in the afternoon, and they don't reopen until Saturday evening or Sunday morning! Needless to say, aisles are crowded, lines are long, and Israelis are...well, Israeli. I succeeded in preventing a pushy one from taking my place in the checkout line! I met up with a couple of friends to brave the crowds. I've found grocery shopping in a group to be more effective: it's more people to figure out what's on a label or whether what you're buying is really what you think it is. (It usually isn't. I have yet to find out whether my intended tomato paste really is. I'm hoping.) In addition to the three of us who went together, I think we ran into another 8 or 10 HUC people inside the supermarket, and that was just in the 45 minutes we were there, and only at the one supermarket! It's always nice though for making last minute plans and getting extra recommendations on food. Then it was back home to get ready for Shabbat.

I had decided for Shabbat to meet up with a group of people who I haven't spent much time with, but really had fun with during our Jerusalem Days trip on Thursday. A few of us met up before services to walk to Kol HaNishamah, where I had been on my first Shabbat but the later arrivals had not yet experienced. About 8 of us walked down there together, a leisurely 30 minute walk away. We were slightly worried about finding seats together, knowing that this synagogue tends to fill up, but we also have to keep reminding ourselves that early for an Israeli is the published start time. Needless to say, arriving 10 minutes before services were scheduled to start, we had no problem finding seats. And then we watched the door as more and more HUC people walked in. There was a good sized group of us by the time we got started. I liked the service there more this time than I had when I went a few weeks ago, possibly because it felt like a more authentic experience and less like they were performing for so many guests, and possibly because I appreciate the looser form more after having been to a few fairly classical Reform HUC services. I was also excited because the announcements and D'var Torah were given only in Hebrew, and I understood some of what was said!

After services, we went to one of the few restaurants that's open on Shabbat. We had agreed that none of us felt like doing all the work necessary for hosting, and that therefore we were really going to rest, and let someone serve us. Yes, that was the rationalization for going out to eat on Shabbat. It was enough. We ran into two other groups of HUC people there as well. Their food is really yummy, and a great Shabbat dinner was had by all...and I even had leftovers! Shabbats get late though. Services run from about 6:30 until 8, so we didn't get to dinner until almost 8:30. The restaurant is not speedy, so we left there around 10 or 10:30. It just doesn't matter though, because we really have nothing else to do for 25 hours aside from eating, sleeping, and socializing! And some services.

After dinner, we hiked (really...another half hour walk) to Emily's apartment in a part of the city I had not yet visited. Her apartment is beautiful though, and the night was worth the walk! A bigger group, probably about 10-15 of us, got together there for dessert and fun. We hung out, ate some more, played cards, and just enjoyed each other's company for a couple of hours until our exhaustion caught up with us and we all decided to call it a night. A lot of us were walking back in the same direction though, so we took a shortcut through a park. And stopped to play on the playground for a few minutes. (Yes, it was after 1 am. Playgrounds are more fun that way.)

Saturday morning services were not in the cards this Shabbat. I slept until I had to get up to get ready for lunch. Another classmate had invited my roommates and I over, so we went to her place. It turned out that in addition to the three of us, also there were her roommate, a friend from outside HUC, and two other non-HUC friends. The food was really good, and it was one of those long Shabbat lunches that covers almost every topic you can think of. I had a great time! I think we left around 4, all intending to go home and nap. I got around to the nap eventually, after some reading, some laundry, and some phone calls. It was shorter than I would have liked, but it gave me enough energy to get through the rest of the day.

We had another group Havdalah this week. I think Havdalah is one of my most favorite services. It always sounds good and starts the week off right. Unfortunately I couldn't linger for the post-Havdalah jam session that generally occurs, because I had a Hebrew essay to write.

And so the week began. Bonus: today in Hebrew, the teacher told me to stop looking so worried all the time; I was doing great! I thought that was encouraging:) That, and I really understood everything that happened in class today. It was a nice change!

More soon...keep the emails and comments coming:)