Chag Sameach!

Chag Sameach (Happy Holiday)! Last night started Sukkot, another of the fall holidays of the Jewish calendar. Over the last few weeks, I have celebrated Rosh HaShanah (the Jewish New Year), Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), and Sukkot (Festival of Booths). Sukkot will continue through next week (the holiday is a week long), ending in Shmini Atzeret (the 8th Day of Assembly, the 8th day after the 7 days of Sukkot) and Simchat Torah (the day celebrating the Torah and the reading of the last part of the Bible and then the first part). While these holidays are important in the US, especially Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, this season of holidays are of the utmost important and are the center of attention here in Israel. Think Christmas... but instead of pictures of Santa and "Merry Christmas" on the Coke bottles, here there are streamers and "Chag Sameach" written on my 1.75 (usually 1.5 L, but apparently there is a 1/4 L "bonus" for the holiday!) Liter bottle of Diet Coke! Now for a run-down of my holiday experience thus far...

Israel's version of Santa Claus Coke bottles!

Rosh HaShanah

I just have to mention, before I talk about Rosh HaShanah, that I held a 5am football watching party at my apartment for the OSU vs. Wisconsin game… needless to say, we had some rivalries going on, especially between Ari (Wisconsin alum) and me. As the picture shows, we handled this extremely maturely!

I spent Erev (evening) Rosh HaShanah services at HUC. Services were led by our rockstar Dean, Rabbi Dr. Michael Marmur, Cantor Dr. Eliyahu Schleifer (a 70 year old cantor who is one of the foremost experts of European chazzanut (Jewish liturgical music), especially the music of the old Reform European communities), and the HUC student choir, composed of our all-female cantorial class and several of the rabbinic student men. Services at HUC were familiar as far as music goes, but there was very little congregational participation and there were very few people there, even as compared to my smaller congregation in Cincinnati. After services, the majority of the HUC class gathered for a catered Rosh HaShanah seder (festival meal and service where we blessed the seven species of Israel- pomogranates, dates, grapes, figs, wheat, barley, and olives) and dinner. After dinner, Harrison (another rabbinic student with whom I intern at the Kibbutz) led a song session for all of the students.

The first day of Rosh HaShanah was spent at HUC services again- they were a bit better than the first day, but still disappointing in the lack of participation and the small number of attendees. After services, I brought tuna salad to a lovely brunch held by Amy and Sarah. A Rosh HaShanah nap was followed by dinner at Adena's, to which I brought my first ever homemade fried rice.
As I don't usually attend 2nd day Rosh HaShanah services in the States, I wasn't sure that I wanted to go to HUC services again. Jaclyn, Joel, and I decided that we would "shul hop" for the 2nd day instead of going back to HUC for the whole morning. We visited (in this order) Masoret Yisrael (the congregation affiliated with the American Conservative movement), the Great Synagogue (the official Orthodox congregation of Jerusalem), the Italian Synagogue (a historical synagogue that was essentially disassembled in Italy and rebuilt here in Israel), and Har-El (the oldest Progressive congregation in Jerusalem, with whom HUC held services that day). Masoret Yisrael was a perfectly lovely and familiar if not boring experience- my classmates and I brought the average age of the congregation down about forty years, and most of the congregants were clearly native North Americans. The Great Synagogue was certainly busier than Masoret Yisrael- there were a few hundred people there at least, with men and women praying in their respective parts of the synagogue and children running all around with their snacks and toys. I truly enoyed the spirited singing of the Cantor and (all-male) choir, but because I a) was not too familiar with the tunes and b) was given a Siddur that was Hebrew/Russian, I had a hard time following along. I felt very much on the outside because I was sitting in the women's section (a HUGE balcony) but I enjoyed observing this unique experience. The Italian Synagogue was the most physically beautiful of the synagogues we visited. There was an intense feeling of prayerfulness in the shul, both in the women’s section (which had room for about 20 and was packed with at least 40 people plus their children) and the men’s section (which women freely stood on the edge of and peeked in to). I had a hard time participating here due to my lack of seat/space to pray and prayerbook, but it was very cool to see this close-knit of a community (in fact, my roommate Deana's aunt married an Italian guy and this is their congregation). Our last stop was at Har-El, though unfortunately we only caught the sermon (given in Hebrew!), shofar blowing, and closing prayers.

Rosh HaShanah was concluded with a GREAT dinner at Leslie's, which featured about 20 guests, my regular AND sweet potatoes, lots of other great food, and at least 15 bottles of wine... OY. We had a practical seminar day after Rosh HaShanah ended, and then had another two days off for Shabbat! I got to spend a great Friday in Tel Aviv with Leslie and Jaclyn that was full of all kinds of crazy adventures, including a Sherut car accident, cab drivers predicting Armageddon, and better food than can be found anywhere in Jerusalem. We then had three regular days of school before Yom Kippur started.

OSU v. Wisconsin pillow fight prior to the game

songleading at the HUC dinner

dinner at Leslie's... see my potatoes?

Yom Kippur
In preparation for the break fast meal that my roommates and I held on Thursday night, I spent my day on Wednesday running around the city to various Holy Bagel locations attempting to pick up our bagel order- clearly not as easy as it is in the States! Because Yom Kippur evening services start much earlier here than at home (daylight savings time starts on the weekend between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur here, meaning that the sun now goes down around 5pm!), Joel and I, along with classmates Benji and Leah and a friend of Leah's from home, went to classmate Daniel and his girlfriend Jessica's apartment for a pre-fast meal at 2:30pm! Dinner was GREAT, but it was weird to be eating this big festival meal in the middle of the day. Kol Nidre (Yom Kippur evening services, named for the important prayer found at the beginning of the service) services were the best of all of the HUC services, in my opinion. There were TONS of people there, every sang along, and services were held in a room that has a huge picture window overlooking the Old City (this was also the case for Rosh HaShanah). The cantorial students sang many of the major pieces (they also did this for Rosh HaShanah) during services, including Sh'ma Koleinu, Avinue Malkeinu, and Unetaneh Tokef- they were SO impressive! After services, a bunch of us walked together down to the German Colony neighborhood to see one of Jerusalem's most amazing sights of the year. Yom Kippur is the one day of the year in Israel where truly NOBODY drives (this is not necessarily the case on Shabbat, even in Jerusalem)... as a result, you can literally just walk around in the middle of huge streets- and everyone does! I walked down the middle of some of the largest, busiest streets in the city during Yom Kippur- totally crazy! That night, we went to see the Jerusalem phenomenon that everyone's been talking about- after services, people come out onto the streets of their neighborhoods to make in-person apologies to their friends, neighbors, and family (as required in Judaism in order to be forgiven for the offenses against other people). It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

On Yom Kippur, I attended services ALL day, except for a quick hour break during which I took a nice nap. I had two favorite parts of the services that day. First was the addition of a Sephardic (Jews originating from Spain- including Morrocan, Yemenite, Spanish, Italian, etc. Jews today) Slichot (service asking for forgiveness) service- this was very new to me but very easy to participate in. The other moment was when the congregation sang Hatikvah ("The Hope" the national anthem of Israel) while overlooking the Old City at night- it was SO powerful and the first true moment of this year that I felt completely content being here in Israel. After services, about 60 people gathered at our apartment for a break fast!!! It was so great to get the entire class together, but it was very smushed and definitely crazy!

sampling some of the break fast food

Josh, Jason, me, Jimmy, Lisa, Joel, and Jaclyn enjoying the food

Sukkot
The three and a half days leading up to Sukkot after Yom Kippur were fairly eventful. On Friday, a bunch of my classmates gathered to decorate the Sukkah (festival booth) at school- it kind of looking likes it was decorated by 8-year-olds, but we're proud of it! Afterwards, I went on an excursion with some classmates to see the temporary shuk (market) set up for the selling of the Arba Minim (the four species- the three kinds of branches that make up the Lulav (myrtle, palm, and willow), and the Etrog, which sort of looks like a lemon- you hold these four together and shake them during Sukkot services and while in your Sukkah). This was a very unique experience, and I even got to buy three Etrogim with which I will eventually make jam or liqueur, whichever I decide sounds like more fun later on- for now, they're just smelling up my room! That evening, after a trip to the regular Shuk to buy food, Joel made a great Shabbat dinner at his apartment. Shabbat was spent, for the fourth weekend now, with Joel and Ari- our thing is to have a completely relaxing day… SO, we make breakfast for lunch (it’s been French toast, this week was cottage cheese pancakes- very good!) and then watch two movies, usually at least one of which I have never seen.

Joel and me in the Sukkah at HUC

Dean Marmur joined in on the fun

an Orthodox man inspecting palm branches for his Lulav

Saturday evening was Jason’s 25^th birthday dinner, followed by my first ever experience at Babette’s, this amazing waffle place (see the pictures to catch my drift). On Sunday, our class took a field trip for our Israel seminar class to Tel Aviv to learn about the founding of the country, the Palmach army that fought for Israel’s independence, and Tel Aviv’s unique identity. Sukkot started yesterday evening not with any Sukkot celebrations, but with a lovely dinner with friends. I spent the day getting work done, running errands, having a nice lunch and relaxing afternoon with Sarah, and making brownies. I brought my brownies (as did Joel and Leslie) to Jaclyn’s house to have dinner with her mom who is visiting from the States! This morning, I attended Sukkot services at Har-El- I got to shake the Lulav and Etrog, act as the golelet (the person who dresses the Torah after it’s read), and take a shot of brandy with the cantor in the Sukkah- it was quite a day! The city has been gearing up for Sukkot, and rumor has it that all kinds of awesome things (an Evangelical Christian parade for their celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, live music and concerts, dancing in the parks, and Sukkahs EVERYWHERE at every apartment building, hotel, restaurant, and synagogue) will be going on here- I’ll keep you posted. After Sukkot will be Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah- the evening of this day will be spent at Kibbutz Gezer, the kibbutz where I am the intern. They have invited our entire class to the Kibbutz for the holiday, so Harrison and I are taking 25 classmates there to visit. The next morning, I, along with many of my classmates, will be playing music at Har-El for the hakafot (dancing with the Torah).

waffle eating is clearly a skill that I do not possess

I’m sorry that this has been the longest post EVER… however, I am spending the rest of my Sukkot break (that’s right, I’m on break for 10 days, not that I’ve been to more than 6 days of school in the last month!) in ISTANBUL!! Joel, Ari, and I are traveling to Istanbul for four days at the end of this week. My next blog entry will be all about our trip.

Chag Sameach!

Meredith