Yom Kippur in Jerusalem

Getting ready for Yom Kippur involved some advance thinking. In Israel, at least Jerusalem, most places close at 12pm before Yom Kippur so everyone can get home to have time with their families to prepare for the holiday. Fortunately, my roommate and I did some grocery shopping Thursday night. We went to SuperDeal, right on our corner, so we could price shop against Supersol which is also nearby, across from the mall. It's also a much shorter walk and Marlowe wanted to buy as much bottled water as we could carry back here. We were happy with our new purchases, but man, groceries here are so expensive!

Yesterday (Friday), I woke up at 10am (lucky me!) and bummed around until after 11 before doing anything, so when I decided to leave to go for a walk, everything was already closing down. I just ended up going for a walk around the neighborhood. A few minutes into my walk, Debbie called to tell me she and the rest of the Goldsmith/Wolf crew would be meeting me at Bagel Bite, a place on Derech Beit Lechem (Beit Lechem Road) and Yehuda Street, right in my neighborhood. Lunchtime with the fam! I finished my walk, came back to the apartment, and grabbed the few things that I was supposed to bring to them, including a sleeping bag they had lent me so that I had something to sleep on the first 2 nights I was here. When they parked the cars, Yael (now 7 years old) jumped out of the car. "Doof, I made you a necklace." It was beautiful and colorful. "Can I put it on right now?" She nods her head and I put it on. "OK Yaeli can I get a hug hello now?" Her arms go out and I pick her up and give her a big hug! "You cut your hair cousin Doof." "I did, I cut it last week, do you like it?" She nods again. I say my hellos to all the cousins and we walk the block to the bagel store. We all ordered our bagels (I ordered mine in half Hebrew, half English, hey, I'm working on it) and sat down together. I sat in between Yael AND Kerem (now 4 years old)! They are both so sweet. Shai (20 months old) sat with Josh and Debbie, and Helen and Paul. He has such long curly hair now! He is getting so big. Yael had seen the silly bands on my arm and when we got back to the car, she showed me what was apparently only a small collection of hers, about 25 in all different colors. All the kids climbed into their carseats and we said our goodbyes, only temporary though; we will probably see each other next week sometime during the next fall holiday, Sukkot (the festival of booths).

The other bit of preparation involved in this holiday is FOOD! Because most people fast during the holiday, it is customary to have a large dinner meal before sunset and before rushing off to religious services. Some of the WUJS participants decided to gather at 4pm (who are we, senior citizens in south Florida?) for a meal in one of the boys' apartments; they have an open room with 2 tables and lots of chairs, so they invited everyone to bring their own dinner, and eat together. Of course we all ended up sharing what we brought so it was very nice and communal. Marlowe and I decided ahead of time to attend services at Kol HaNeshama, what was labeled as a reform congregation with mostly English speakers, and an English sermon. We left a few minutes before everyone else left dinner (they were planning to go to the Kotel/Western Wall) so we could get there early and ask if there would be 2 available seats. We walked the few blocks, a short walk, and outside the synagogue, we heard more English being spoken than Hebrew! We introduced ourselves to some people who were very kind and helpful, and waited patiently as instructed to find seats. A few other WUJS participants came in after us, so we told them we were just waiting for seats; they joined us. The service was supposed to start at 5:15 but we didn't even sit down until about 5:40. I guess Jewish Standard Time is taken to the extreme here in Jerusalem! Anyways, the service began and so much felt familiar to me. Although the prayer book had no English, the rabbi sometimes said the page numbers in English (of course numbers are one of the few things I know relatively well in Hebrew and I didn't really need the translation), so I was able to follow the service with relative ease. Unfortunately, this so-called English sermon was all in Hebrew, so Marlowe and I did not follow a thing. We wanted to try and find some meaning in this crazy holiday of fasting and spirituality and contemplating, so we were a bit disappointed in this aspect of the service. Maybe their sermons are in English on Shabbat; I have a feeling I will be back there again at some point. Services lasted about 2 hours and we returned home to apartment 8 (and up the 39 stairs). I pulled out my book and read 2 more chapters before going to bed. Another relaxing night; can't complain.

Today I woke up on my own, no alarm, at 9:46, to some young boys bouncing basketballs outside on the street below my window. Really kids? I'm just trying to SLEEP! I lounged around with no agenda for most of the morning, said hi to Marlowe as she left for the Kotel around noon, and then picked up my book to read. Two chapters later, I was feeling pretty sleepy so back to bed it was, snuggled up in my covers, room dark, blinds closed. I woke up around 3pm and checked in with Marcus, a friend of mine who came to visit me a few nights ago, and who happens to live very closeby to me. We agreed on a time I'd come by, and I took the short stroll to his place. Along the way, I counted the number of cars I saw driving on Hevron Street, normally a very busy street, a main artery of the city from what I understand. A grand total of 3 cars. I thought I'd see zero, from what everyone had told me, but I figured there had to have been a few cars. Only 3. The road was so empty that people were walking in the middle of the roads and children were riding bicycles!

Anyways, I arrive at Marcus's place and he gives me the grand tour. Fun fun fun! His couch is really comfortable. While he was finishing something in the guest room, I picked up a magazine - Time Out Israel. Although it was from May, it was a great edition for tourism around the country. (I'm going to borrow it again and try and make some travel plans while I'm here to make sure I maximize my experience in this fabulous country.)

Around 5:40 we decided to head out for our walk to the Kotel/Western Wall, anticipating a 45-minute walk, to arrive in time to see all the services let out and people return to normal life. It took around that time to get there, but I think we overestimated the time until breaking fast. During our walk, I attempted to count more cars but it was already over 25 by the time I gave up. That may seem like a lot, but this was over a very long time period. This does not happen in America as far as I can tell. On the walk, Marcus pointed out a few shops that obviously were not open on Yom Kippur but would be open other times, including 2 24/7 shops, just incase I ever would need one. He also quizzed me on the geography and layout of Jerusalem (I think I failed miserably, I have a lot of work to go) and we practiced some of my Hebrew!

As we walked through security to the Wall, we saw tons of people all busy, some already eating and drinking; some were still davening (praying) at the wall or in minyanim (groups of people). We kind of stood there for 2 or 3 minutes just watching and trying to figure out what exactly was going on, and even heard the blast of a shofar (how cool!). When we determined that nothing in particular was going on, we decided to go get some water at the fountains on the north side of the plaza. The walk was long and we worked up quite a sweat! After a few sips, we found 2 chairs to sit down on for a few minutes and just observe the people, a variety of clothing styles and languages, large groups, children, individuals, embraces, laughs, the works. We heard a few more shofar blasts from different parts of the Western Wall plaza; they must have been from different minyanim finishing their prayers. We heard singing, chanting, and out of nowhere comes a group of probably 150 young men, all walking together from the yeshiva/school. What they were chanting, we have no idea, but they sure all knew what they were saying! They were so spirited and joyful; it was great to see. Another group of about 50 young men were right behind them, following them into the men's side of the wall.

All in all, we probably spent about 20 minutes there before making the decision to head back. Certainly we had already spent more time walking there than we did actually there, but that was part of the day's experience! Upon departing, we saw two signs: men and women, and we weren't sure what they were for until we approached the exit. It was bread! Marcus went to the men's sign, took a baggie with 2 small rolls in it and said, "Here, it's from the Jewish people." How true! We began our walk back, going a completely different way than how we came; this way Marcus could show me some different sights on the way back. We walked through Mamilla, a shopping area, he pointed out which way was toward Ben Yehuda Street (popular for tourists, clearly I've been there before on all my Birthright trips), and all of the fancy hotels on King David Street. I'm getting my bearings of this city. There is no logic to the layout so I have to just figure it out on my own. We got back to Hevron Street for a bit of overlap in our walk there and back; I recognized a few things from our walking tour a few days ago, and from our walk to the wall just a few hours prior. I'm getting the hang of it...I think. We veered off a bit from Hevron, just so I could see yet another different way, and we get back to the apartment around 8:20. Excluding the 20 minute break at the wall, we basically walked for over 2 hours non-stop! I am definitely not going for a run tomorrow (depsite considering it before). We tried to estimate how far we walked and it was probably about 5-6 miles total. Not bad, eh? Well lucky for me, Marcus likes entertaining, at least tonight he did. I got to sit on the couch looking pretty while he made a beautiful salad with, yes, Jason Bird, my favorite, melafafonim, cucumbers! And cabbage, carrots, peppers, bulgari cheese, and avocado (which, in Hebrew, is called, avocado!) and whole wheat challah bread, pesto sauce and tahini. What a treat. We watched CNN International for news (we don't get it in the States, so don't even try to find it on your cable network), Martina Navratilova's breast cancer story, followed by a few minutes of "Brothers and Sisters" (which I was shocked was on here!) and then a 2 hour episode of "Extreme Makeover Home Edition," which had no commercials so it was an hour and 25 minutes, lovely! We were both teary eyed by the end of it, and so exhausted. I think it was well after 11pm; he did me the favor of driving me back to my apartment. I hung out with some WUJS kids for a bit until I decided I should put this on the blog before my memory became too clouded. It's after 2am here but I've managed to stay up, probably because I slept half the day away.

Tomorrow I don't have to be anywhere in particular until 5pm, so hopefully I will make use of some free time and go to the home store to get a few more things I think I need to feel a bit more settled in my apartment. Wish me luck!