Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem
Shabbat
We had the lucky chance to spend Shabbat in Jerusalem. We started off with a tour of the gorgeous city, all laid out of smooth white Jerusalem stone, and we moved through the twists and turns of the small streets, taking photos of the intricately twisted gates and the menorahs still sitting on windowsills. Together we came to the Wailing Wall, and though we had to divide the group to go to the respective men’s or women’s sides, we came back to cry together and laugh together and to share our experiences hand in hand. It was a touching experience, and we all smile to think that with our tiny folded up pieces of paper, we left something behind in Israel. Afterwards, we sang a few songs by the wall, harangued the other tourists to take a thousand or so group pictures of us, and we went back to the hotel to prepare for Shabbat.
During the service, again we at first split into men and women’s groups for a short discussion, and we came together again to bring in Shabbat. With our Israeli friends to help us through the prayers (some of us are admittedly a little rusty, to say the least), we sang our way through the service. We may have stumbled and tripped along the way a bit, but we got the point across (we hope). We celebrated together.
We then made our way down to Shabbat dinner, where we said the prayers and then feasted. After a half hour break to digest, we got together once again for feast #2: a collection of goodies that each person bought for the group from the market. We played improv games and laughed and licked our fingers, and then headed to our much needed sleep.