A long awaited update

This past Thursday we had our first Israel field trip day. The first day was a trip to around Jerusalem starting with the Tayelete and leading to the Kotel in the evening. It was an early morning. We arrived at a spot which overlooked the entire city and had Shacharit (morning) services led by Lauren (cantorial), Faryn (cantorial), and Dara (rabbinical). It was a beautiful service and they all did a great job! It's very exciting to see these beginning steps towards becoming professionals in the field.

Lauren leading services.

In the middle of services a friend leaned over to me and we had a conversation that went something like this:
Friend: You know Jeff Klepper?
Me: Yeah...
Friend: Well that's him sitting over there.
Me: Woah...

It was pretty cool. After the service I met him and we had a conversation! It was pretty exciting. After the service, we all had breakfast together. It was a good time and gave everyone a little more time to wake up.

Following breakfast we began our tour of Jerusalem entitled "Jerusalem in Poems and Psalms." My group was led by Rabbi Wilfond but better known around the HUC community as Gingi (Gingi is what Israelis call people with red hair). He first gave us a visual tour of the area. I will try to do the same more or less through my pictures.

This is a view of the security wall. It it my hope (and others as well) that someday this wall will not be necessary any more.

In this picture you should be able to see three towers. The one of the far right is the Church of the Ascent were Jesus is thought to have been buried. In the middle is Augusta Victoria and on the far right is Mt. Scopus.

We stopped our tour around noon (hottest part of the day. Thanks HUC!) to take a rest, but of course "this is not an easy year!" This meant that I had several more cantorial meetings to go to and really only got about an hour and half worth of rest/nap time rather than the 6 hours that I wanted. However, I did get to go to a workshop with Jeff Klepper. I didn't want to be "that girl" and take a picture with him, but I did get a picture to document the experience.

The day ended with a trip to the Old City. As the sun set I got to see "Y'rushalim Shel Zahav" Jerusalem of Gold. It was pretty spectacular. I took a picture, but I have to tell you that it's much better in person.

Friday we traveled to Tel Aviv for a fun day of shopping and the beach! We arrived and walked around the open market of crafts for a little while. However, it was packed (Friday is a day off) and a bit overwhelming so we decided to just go and find lunch instead. We found a cute little restaurant with HUGE salads. It was delicious! I love myself a good salad. After lunch, we headed down to the beach. The water was so incredibly blue and even more wonderful, warm! Imagine the temperature of the Atlantic in late August and then up it by about 10 degrees. That's what the water was like. Very much like the Caribbean. I did a little walking along the shore line and then went to read for a bit. I finally decided that it was way to hot to sit in the sun and went into the ocean with Aviva, Amanda, and Deana. As I got in they were very excited to tell me about a game they were playing. They would stand with the backs towards the waves so that they would be surprised when a wave finally arrived. Sometimes there would be little waves, sometimes large. The large ones were obviously the best because they would knock me over. After 30 minutes or so of enjoying the water I went out and basked in the sun and read my book. There are few things in life that I love more.

After the beach we went to Shabbat services on a pier. The seating was set up so that you could watch the sun setting over the water. It was spectacular watching the sun set and the skying changing to different colors. There were three parts of the service that were particularly moving for me. The first was more silly than funny I guess. We sang "What a Wonderful World" in Hebrew. It felt a bit bizarre. Amy pointed out that this would be another wonderful addition to our new musical "Shacharit: The Musical." The next moment packed a greater punch. As we prepared for the Shema, I closed my eyes in the moments of silence before we began singing. I listened to the sounds of the waves, people talking nearby, and seagulls squaking. It made the first word, shema -- listen! all the more poignant. And then we got to the second word Yisrael and I almost started crying. It's particularly amazing to be praying in Israel and to remember that I am actually here! In Israel! The final moment was right before the Amidah when we sang Eli, Eli. The words are (translated into English)

My God, My God
I pray that these things never end.
The sand and the sea
The crashing of the water
The lightening of the sky
The prayer of people's hearts.

Sitting and praying on this pier in Tel Aviv and explicitly seeing all of these things in Israel suddenly provided a new layer of Hannah Senesh's poem. For me, it was the perfect meditation before entering into prayer and beginning this week's Shabbat experience.

Saturday morning I went to services at Temple Harel, the oldest Progressive (Reform) synagogues in Jerusalem. It was a fantastic service! Both the Rabbi and the Cantor were spectacular...very warm and welcoming. The Cantor has an amazing voice and seems like such a wonderful person. I really want to go back and try to form a relationship with the congregation. A synagogue "home" in Jerusalem. There was a bar mitzvah and it was one of the most moving I have ever been to. The bar mitzvah was very well prepared and (from what I could translate) gave a very nice speech. The aliyot were the most moving though. First to be called to the Torah were his maternal and pateral grandmothers. They stood and recited the blessings and shared a tallit as they sang. I find one of the most wonderful things in Jewish life is when an elderly woman takes an aliyah. Many times, it's so against their nature because of the way that they grew up. The second aliyah were the grandpas and the subsequent aliyot were other members of his family. Contrary to the tradition of only the bar mitzvah and parents giving speeches, all grandparents spoke to their grandson as well as his father. Another nice tradition that I would love to bring back to the states was throwing flowers (rather than hard candies) at the bar mitzvah. It seemed so lovely to shower him with sweet smelling flowers (that don't hurt when they land on you).

The rest of my Shabbat was very relaxing. I took a nap (fabulous), took a walk (also lovely), made black bean soup (yum!), and did homework (yuck). Now you are up to date. I'll try not to take so long next time to update. Shavuah tov!