at the Kotel

It’s been a busy few days, but I guess I should be used to that by now.

Wednesday night started Tisha B’Av. I decided I would get more out of the day if I didn’t fast, so I ate less, and more boring food than usual, but I did eat. The class met in a garden behind HUC for a service by candlelight (and later in the service, by flashlight light). It was a beautiful service, with some nice, sad melodies, some chanting of Eicha, the book of Lamentations, traditionally read on Tisha B’Av. Possibly the most amazing part of the service was that from our seats on the grass, we could see, all lit up, the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. So during our service commemorating the destruction of the Temple and the city of Jerusalem, we could see its walls, alive and well.

After the service, we screened a movie put together locally about a family member of hers who is a Holocaust survivor. The movie was about his story and the family’s trip back to his hometown. It was a fascinating story, as they all tend to be, and then we had a long discussion about whether commemoration of the Holocaust belongs with Tisha B’Av or where it is, on its own separate holiday.

By this point in the night, it was about 11:00, and the most moving part of the night was still to come. This was the end of the required portion of the evening, but an HUC professor was going to walk into the Old City, to the Kotel, with whoever wanted to come. A good half the class went along, myself included. When we got near the gates to the Old City, traffic increased. It was crowded. We sat down on benches just outside a gate and learned a beautiful tune to the Hebrew words of “On the shores of Babylon.” We just sat there singing for a few minutes, with lots of people streaming past us into the walls. Eventually we went within the walls, but rather than take the direct route to the Kotel, he walked us around a much emptier route, along the walls, past some modern day playgrounds and basketball courts, to show us how alive and vibrant the city is right now.

We got to the Kotel area, and it was PACKED. It was a bit frightening how thick the crowds were to just get through the tight security—metal detectors—to get into the Kotel plaza. Even the metal detectors are separated by gender, although everyone comes back together as soon as they are through security. A friend and I stuck together to try to get up to the wall itself, which was not an easy task. Tradition teaches that both the first and second Temples were destroyed on Tisha B’Av, and the Kotel, a piece of the western retaining wall, is all that is left of the Temple. As a result, it is packed on this holiday, and many people spend all night there, so even at midnight, there were so many people, some standing, some sitting, and a few already laying down. These human obstacles made it far more complicated to get all the way up to the wall, as did another tradition, not to turn one’s back to the wall. Because of this tradition, many people back away from the wall. On Tisha B’Av, this is not a good idea. There are so many people trying to go towards it, so many people backing away from it, and so many people sitting on the ground. It makes for an interesting environment for sure. My friend Rebecca and I eventually got up through the crowd to the wall itself, but once up there, we were basically pushed against it, so I got up close and personal with the wall. It was really nice. I hadn’t been there for nine years, since I went on my NFTY trip, and I was almost surprised at how moved I was to be there and to be connected to so much history and so many people who had been there before me and would be there after me. I thoroughly enjoyed my few minutes at the wall, and I also was not looking forward to getting back out through the crowd! Once I did, we met up with a small group of friends, and chose to stay longer and study rather than heading back with the rest of the HUC group. Six of us had a copy of the Tanakh and read through all of Lamentations in English, stopping every few sentences to discuss it and comment on things and just talk about the text. It was great. We were surrounded by so many people doing more or less the same thing, and it was so wonderful to be with other people in my class who just wanted to learn for the sake of learning. I look forward to many such experiences in the future. I finally got home around 1:30 in the morning and collapsed into bed.

On Thursday, we did not have to be at school until noon, which was generous of them after the late night. We did group text study of some stories about Tisha B’Av, and had an afternoon service, and then a break before we met up at the Israel Museum that evening. Behind the Israel Museum is a model of Jerusalem in the time of the second Temple. It is a huge model put together with a combination of textual sources and archeological finds, and we studied second Temple Jerusalem while looking at the model of what it might have looked like. Some friends and I took a loooooooong walk home (it would have been shorter, but we took a “shortcut” hoping to find restaurants sooner, and instead we found ourselves very far away from home), got some falafel, and went to hang out and play cards.

Friday was a day of errands and cooking, as it usually is. The biggest challenge was baking brownies. It turns out that unsweetened chocolate is not available in Israel. So in addition to figuring out how much butter to use from my 200 gram block, I had to figure out how to convert a recipe with unsweetened chocolate to one with sweetened chocolate. I did a good job, and they were delicious! Friday evening, some friends and I went to check out a synagogue that none of us had been to yet. It is a Reform (“Progressive”) synagogue, but I was a little skeptical, since I haven’t really loved services at the other local Progressive synagogue. This one was actually great. The congregation skewed somewhat older, which was interesting, but the service itself felt very homey and very comfortable. The cantor had a guitar, many of the melodies were familiar, and the service included the very long Kabbalat Shabbat service that I have grown to love here. The cantor even stopped us on our way out to ask where we were from, since he had noticed a whole group of us sitting together. I am sure I will be returning there again!

Today (Saturday) someone in the class had volunteered to host a Shabbat potluck lunch, so I was at their apartment for a few hours enjoying that many of my classmates seem to be great cooks. I relaxed for the rest of the afternoon, alternately reading a book and dozing off on my bed. It was nice to not have to do anything else! This evening we had a group Havdalah service, which I enjoyed, and an impromptu song session in the park, which was fun and made us all feel like we were back in NFTY again. Then it was back to the grind, and home to do Hebrew homework and get ready for the week.

I haven’t taken many pictures recently, but as I take them from friends’ websites, I will post them on flikr. Talk to you soon!