OMG, this is definitely not the Middle East I expected! This makes Jerusalem even more fascinating to me!
..now I wonder what are the camels doing now..
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Saturday, January 26, 2008
my first birthday in J'lem
First off all, it's not the date that appears on my passport, I know. It is the date of my birthday according to the jewish calendar, 19th of Shevat and it was last saturday, and to be honest, I had completely forgotten what day it was. Anyway, the thing is that among all the people I know here in J'lem, NOBODY, NI UNA, NADIE, NIEMAND, NINGUÉM invited me to spend Shabbat with them. Yes, some are secular and don't celebrate it, fair enough, but what about the others?
Anyway, after being really pissed and ignored, I thought it over: This was not going to be just ANY Shabbat in Israel for me, but the FIRST EVER, so it has its own relevance per se. Spending it alone at a hostel? well, I'm already on the donkey, so I guess the only thing I can do is ride it, eh? Plus, I am used to be on my own ahere any better celebration than Shabbat? I doubt it, and not just that, I like to my things by myself, and well, it was going to be my jewish birthday, so is there a better celebration than Shabbat itself? I really doubt it, IMHO. Then I asked in the hostel if they knew if there was a sephardic synagogue nearby, and a lady told me more or less how to get to a synagogue she THOUGHT it was sephardic, in Moshe Hess Street. Well so the thing is that I arrived there as though I knew the way from before, I didn't get lost or anything like that, and natürlich, when I got there, they immediately noticed I was not from their community, and a man stood and handed me a siddur and pointed me where theprayer was at the moment, and another men pointed a chair where I could sit, and after every service, he told me when the next one was. All in hebrew! I didn't use any other language during Shabbat or, nobody talked to me in other language, and I managed :-)
After Mincha (the afternoon service) and the Seuda Sh'lishit (the third ritual meal of the Shabbat) I walked back to the Hostel, but for some reason I didn't feel like it and crossed in the wrong corner and when I realised, I was on Jaffa Gate, one of the entrances to the Old City. I decided I was going to take advantage of the time and go to the Kotel, which I had never done before and I had heard one can get lost the first times without asking and end up in the shouk or worst, in the Moslem Quarter, where the arab fellas look at jews with eyes saying "I want to fry you like a dirty pork rind!", you know? with that kind of resentment (I don't blame them) but no, I didn't get lost! It was as I knew all the way or better, as if someone up there was guiding my steps.
The Kotel..well what can can I say? I simply have no words to express what it feels like being there for the first time. One feels one is not in any place on earth, feels HIS presence surrounding everything, you can almost smell and perceive the air is different! Even though it was freezing (perhaps at around 5-6 degrees Celsius) I took my gloves off so I could feel the Kotel with my own hands and then I took the polar hat off and surprisingly, even though it was chilly, I felt suddenly warm. Simply something human laws can't explain... then I came back to the synagogue (where the prayers are 95% like in my synagogue in Caracas) and followed the evening prayer, Arbit, and then back to the Hostel. Oh, and something else: the weekly Torah reading, the parashah, was Yitro, in which Moses is being given the Commandments by G'd. Isn't it all connected in any way? I think so... and all this has a meaning/message for me, which I will take in my current and future steps in life.
It was so cool to see the city literally stops for Shabbat! At least in Jerusalem, I don't think it happens in Tel Aviv, hehehe! The only people one sees around are policemen and soldiers on duty, taxi drivers (no buses at all) some secular jews, foreign guest workers (filipinos, thais, indonesians) and the arabs, of course, who go out en masse and at some point is when you see them all like taking control of the (ir) city, but after Shabbat ends, all the jews flock the streets, boulevards and eateries to eat, drink, and there are singers and musicians on the street. That is cool :-)
This was definitely the BEST Shabbat I have ever had, and all of its messages will ever be on my mind. That's for sure.
Anyway, after being really pissed and ignored, I thought it over: This was not going to be just ANY Shabbat in Israel for me, but the FIRST EVER, so it has its own relevance per se. Spending it alone at a hostel? well, I'm already on the donkey, so I guess the only thing I can do is ride it, eh? Plus, I am used to be on my own ahere any better celebration than Shabbat? I doubt it, and not just that, I like to my things by myself, and well, it was going to be my jewish birthday, so is there a better celebration than Shabbat itself? I really doubt it, IMHO. Then I asked in the hostel if they knew if there was a sephardic synagogue nearby, and a lady told me more or less how to get to a synagogue she THOUGHT it was sephardic, in Moshe Hess Street. Well so the thing is that I arrived there as though I knew the way from before, I didn't get lost or anything like that, and natürlich, when I got there, they immediately noticed I was not from their community, and a man stood and handed me a siddur and pointed me where theprayer was at the moment, and another men pointed a chair where I could sit, and after every service, he told me when the next one was. All in hebrew! I didn't use any other language during Shabbat or, nobody talked to me in other language, and I managed :-)
After Mincha (the afternoon service) and the Seuda Sh'lishit (the third ritual meal of the Shabbat) I walked back to the Hostel, but for some reason I didn't feel like it and crossed in the wrong corner and when I realised, I was on Jaffa Gate, one of the entrances to the Old City. I decided I was going to take advantage of the time and go to the Kotel, which I had never done before and I had heard one can get lost the first times without asking and end up in the shouk or worst, in the Moslem Quarter, where the arab fellas look at jews with eyes saying "I want to fry you like a dirty pork rind!", you know? with that kind of resentment (I don't blame them) but no, I didn't get lost! It was as I knew all the way or better, as if someone up there was guiding my steps.
The Kotel..well what can can I say? I simply have no words to express what it feels like being there for the first time. One feels one is not in any place on earth, feels HIS presence surrounding everything, you can almost smell and perceive the air is different! Even though it was freezing (perhaps at around 5-6 degrees Celsius) I took my gloves off so I could feel the Kotel with my own hands and then I took the polar hat off and surprisingly, even though it was chilly, I felt suddenly warm. Simply something human laws can't explain... then I came back to the synagogue (where the prayers are 95% like in my synagogue in Caracas) and followed the evening prayer, Arbit, and then back to the Hostel. Oh, and something else: the weekly Torah reading, the parashah, was Yitro, in which Moses is being given the Commandments by G'd. Isn't it all connected in any way? I think so... and all this has a meaning/message for me, which I will take in my current and future steps in life.
It was so cool to see the city literally stops for Shabbat! At least in Jerusalem, I don't think it happens in Tel Aviv, hehehe! The only people one sees around are policemen and soldiers on duty, taxi drivers (no buses at all) some secular jews, foreign guest workers (filipinos, thais, indonesians) and the arabs, of course, who go out en masse and at some point is when you see them all like taking control of the (ir) city, but after Shabbat ends, all the jews flock the streets, boulevards and eateries to eat, drink, and there are singers and musicians on the street. That is cool :-)
This was definitely the BEST Shabbat I have ever had, and all of its messages will ever be on my mind. That's for sure.
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