69 יומ

Ok, so I'm gonna start now with this writing more often thing. It works so well that one of the most interesting days I've had coincides with my goal to update more often.

So after writing my last post, I went out with Abby and Sruti around midnight. We went to central Tel Aviv near the intersection of Rothschild and Allenby. We haven't gone out here much, so we figured we'd do something different. Unfortunately, when we got there, lots of places didn't want to let us in because we're all 20. This whole 25+ thing is weird. I would've never thought age would be an issue here. Luckily, we went back to Lima Lima and after giving my scouts honor that I'm 25 and an Israeli vouching for us, we were let in. So much fun. Great music and we got to dance again. I've decided that I really love dancing. As great as bars are, I love dancing. Anyways, we had a great time and left around 4.

Three hours later, we woke up to take a day trip to Jerusalem. Sritu and Abby were planning on going and I decided to tag along. So painful, but ended up being so worth it. We started off at the shouk which I always love. Everything looks so delicious and smells great.

From there, we went down Ben Yehuda Street,which is a mojor street in Jerusalem. We found our first bagel shop in Israel (They were ok) and a whole store just for Kippots. I almost got a new one, but they were kind of expensive. I would come to regret this decision later. We then went into the old city through past the Kotel (Western Wall) to the Mount of Olives. It was a tiring walk, but it was interesting to see all these (supposed) sites I grew up reading about. Gethsemane is there and some churches on the top. I've decided that the religious stuff isn't as aggravating when it's not so hot out. IT was interesting because Sruti and Abby aren't Christian, so Laura and I had to explain the significance of places. While we were at Gethsemane, I tried to explain the atonement to Sruti. It was such an interesting expereince to try and explain the concept to someone who's never grown up with it. It seems a lot less intuitive when you haven't always been taught it. I in fact had to stop and think about how exactly it's supposed to work. Definitely something I'm glad I had to do.

From there we went into the Muslim Quarter and got some lunch (Mmm kebab :) We then walked around and found a sweets shop with lots of little Arab pastries. Sooooo good! At one point we came to an intersection. All of a sudden, it went from everyone being Arab to A mob of Hassidic Jews on their way to the Kotel for Shabbat. It was like some magical line was between the two sides of the street dividing the two communities. We decided to go to the Kotel with them and see what Shabbat is like there. There were so many people (mainly very religious people). I stuck out like a sore thumb in shorts carrying souvenirs. The crowd was full of everything: tourists, pilgrims of varying religiosity, and soldiers who wanted to celebrate Shabbat carrying their rifles. I've never seen anything like it. People were dancing and singing at the top of their lungs. It was like a party to usher in Shabbat. I even got to dance in a circle with them. At the end, we happened to run into the American friends from Jeruslaem we had met at the Port last weekend. They were waiting to go to a hosted Shabbat dinner. As they were leaving, the program director asked if we needed dinner. we decided to let Abby ask since she's the only Jew. They said ok, so we followed them to a religious neighborhood in West Jerusalem. We walked with a group of very religious kids, most of whom are studying in seminary. I talked with a kid named Israel who was telling me that the fact that Jews have lasted this long with relatively little change proves that God exists, delivered the Torah, and that the word of the Torah and it's interpretation in the Talmud must be correct. I really didn't know how to have this conversation, but I liked hearing what he had to say. I'll have to think about it some more. When we got there, we waited for a while and met some of the people there. In that time, about 150 people showed up, mainly very religious people. Turns out that this rabbi who was hosting us does this for every meal of Shabbat (Friday evening, Saturday morning and late afternoon) and literally anyone who wants to come, can. I met some really nice girls, but when we got in, I couldn't sit with them or anyone in my group because tables were divided by sex. I felt kind of uncomfortable as my presence seemed to also make those at my table uncomfortable. Maybe I was just being paranoid. Luckily, I talked to a really nice guy sitting next to me from Canada. He's here for his undergrad in Talmudic studies. The night was so crazy. I've never been to a more orthodox Shabbat- or as crowded of one. All those people fit into a relatively normal size living and dining room. We were quite squished, especially as we tried to pass around buckets for hand washing and trays of food started going back and forth. They kind of would just plop everything down on the table where there was room even if it was on top of other things and get it out to everyone as quickly as possible. A lot of it was like what I've seen. Kiddush, hand washing, bless the bread, and eat. However, there were also lessons and lots of singing in between courses. The rabbi gave a nice talk for this weeks Torah portion, which is the story when Abraham is at his tent, looks up and sees 3 holy visitors and invites them in. He connected that to how there is a blessing to say before performing every mitzvah (good deed) in Judaism, except for ones that are acts of interpersonal kindness live visiting the sick and mourners and acts of charity. He said that the reason for that is that there is often no time to be lost when helping our fellow man and so we help them first and bless the act afterwards. He interprets the scripture as telling us that there is always someone to help if we are looking for it. Just as Abraham we looking up, we should also for the opportunity to serve our fellow man. It was a beautiful message. The ones after I didn't really get. some people kind of just got up and said things about the portion that didn't really seem to have any significance, but I liked the first one.

Finally, we washed our hands again and said the closing blessing and left. I got so much out of that in terms of how I see Israel. I decided that Jerusalem is a Jewish city (you know what I mean) and Tel Aviv is an Israeli city. For the most part, people who make aliyah for religious reasons (which is most) move to Jerusalem and those who just like Israel move to Tel Aviv. Obviously this is a generalization, but I think it captures the essence of each city. I am sure if I were to move to Israel, it would be to Tel Aviv. When I was talking to Abby about it afterwards, she said she would move to Jerusalem because if she were to make Aliyah, it would be with a family for religious reasons to a place with a strong American community, which is exactly what Jerusalem provides. I would want to opposite. I would leave America to leave America and become a part of another country and culture rather than religion (although obviously to at least some degree, Judaism and Israeli culture are inseparable). Plus, Tel Aviv's more fun :)

This 24 hour period really highlighted a lot about Israel, its diversity, and some of the problems. In the Jewish State of Israel, what does it mean to be Jewish and what does it mean to be Israeli and what's the difference? As they say, ask 2 Jews, get 3 answers (AKA it gets really complicated really fast and leaves a lot of questions, especially when you consider the relationship of Jews outside of Israel and non-Jews, or even secular Jews, in Israel). Studying this country is like studying philosophy: just when you think you've figured something out, you find 10 more questions than what you started with. Luckily, I study both. At least I'll never  be bored.