"Jerusalem, Here I Come"
By Lauren Meier
Woken up by the early morning sounds of our stunning kibbutz at 6:30 am, all 46 of us snoozed our way on to the bus and slept our way to the holy city itself, Jerusalem. Three hours, many sleeping photos and dozens of Israeli pop songs later, we arrived to a lookout point with a breathtaking view of the Old City. To many, it made us realize the vast significance of this diverse, historic and incredible city. "I truly felt as though I was in the center of the world," said a member of Bus 909.
After crashing a professional photo shoot and learning about the history of Jerusalem from Ido, we caught our breath, took our selfies, and made our way to one of the most popular shuks (traditional Israeli market) in Jerusalem, Machane Yehuda. Upon our arrival, we did our best to maneuver our way through the thousands of Israelis shopping for their Shabbat feasts. With one simple instruction from our leaders of picking up a snack to share with the group for our post-Shabbat dinner oneg, we committed to the rush of the shuk. As we searched for our "Jerusalem mix" pita lunch, we had the chance to use some of our new Hebrew vocabulary (sababa [cool], chips [french fries], and glida [ice cream].) Some of us even practiced our bargaining skills...courtesy of our new Israeli friends. With our bellies full of pita, humus, ice cafe and rugelach, the time had finally come to make our way to the old city.
Dressed to the nines in long skirts, pants and, of course, covered shoulders, we were greeted by a harpist as we entered the 3,000 year old city. Our veteran tour guide, Ido, gave us an incredibly detailed private tour of the Old City. He walked us to various gates such as Gate Zion where you can still see the bullet holes of where the Haganah military group (pre-IDF) fought to liberate the Jewish people during the 1948 war of Independence, and the original street stones of King Harrod's city. After slipping and sliding our way through the limestone streets of the Old City, all of a sudden, we found ourselves in front of the most holy site for the Jewish people, the Western Wall. Each one of us had the opportunity to say a prayer, a wish, a thanks, and send it up to God, a higher power, or whoever we believe will read it. As I continued this tradition and left my note in a small crack at the bottom of the wall, I stood up to see dozens of hands of women, all having their own unique experience with this sacred monument. It was unbelievable to see all of these strong women, from around the world having their moment, saying their prayers, grieving or giving thanks, all through the same place, regardless of belief.
Filled with spiritual satisfaction, it was time to clean up and welcome Shabbat. The girls were asked to enter first and, much to our surprise, we were then greeted by the men of the group who gave a yellow rose to each of us (a Shorashim tradition.) All of us from varying religious backgrounds joined together to share our unique experiences of Shabbat, our faith, and the trip so far and to collaborate in saying various traditional Shabbat prayers.
It wouldn't be Shabbat without a feast! And a feast did we have. Schnitzel, roast beef, and humus galore. Of course, you can't forget dessert. With our snacks from the shuk, we all gathered to share our baklava, rugelach and fresh fruits as we celebrated this day of rest. Needless to say, it was truly a Shabbat for the ages.
