Loving It
I really am having such a good time here. Shabbos was really nice. I had it over at Adina and Aaron's place. Noa is adorable - I can't handle it. She's so much fun. She's got the peek-a-boo thing going on now.
I walked to the Kotel from their home, which was closer than Har Nof by about a half hour, forty minutes. I'll say that was a pleasure. Then I walked back after I davened. What is interesting that I had not noticed before was that there's Shalosh Seudos/3rd Meal at the Kotel. Adina had mentioned it, but I hadn't known. In the little tunnel area heading into the Arab quarter, there's a whole set up of bags of pita, potato salad, and I'm sure other food I just didn't see. Kinda cool. I didn't have any, I had come prepared. Maybe another time.
Shabbos at the Kotel is not really what I expected it. Not that I'm really sure what I expected. This is the second Shabbos there. It's pretty crowded. There are families, and just people wandering through. All in their Shabbos clothes. It's really something. I ate the sandwich I brought in the overlook area of the Kotel, up the stairs of the Jewish quarter. It really hit me last time (the first time) when saying Shir HaMa'alos (the psalm before the thanks for the food) while looking at the Kotel. I'll try and find a translation for the blog, but it's really something -- talking about the time when we return to Zion, we will be like dreamers, and our mouths will be full of song. Really beautiful.
Usually when I walk to the Kotel (only on Shabbos and Shavuos, I have a car other days - thanks to Mom and Abba) I walk through the Jewish quarter. There's an Arab shuk that is just inside the Jaffa gate that it is possible to get to the Kotel... the only problem is I'm never quite sure how to do that. So I don't (anymore). This time I was trucking along and I saw quite a few religious Jews walking through, and I heard a lady say to her daughter to come with her through the shuk to the Kotel. It really hadn't occured to me before hearing her. So I thought -- why not? Some of you who know me might say -- no Shira - why not?! Oh well. I found a couple Chassidim to follow and stuck with them on the way through. I've never seen so many t-shirt stores in such a small area before. Kinda funny. On the way back from the Kotel I came through the Jewish quarter since I wasn't sure about the way to go through the shuk. Maybe I'll go through the shuk a few more times before I experiment...Just joking...sure.
Today was very cool. Right now I'm sitting here with a coffee and typing away. This is the life. Coffee and the internet. Just a note about coffee. I "found" something called coffee hafuch (coffee upside down). I'm not sure what the upside down part is but maybe I'll find out. Anyway, I'm enjoying it. They make the coffee with a milk base instead of water, then put the coffee in. I am going to have to find a way to make it when I get back. Maybe the hafuch part is that they use milk instead of water?
Oh yeah. Very cool. I was driving into the Old City to do Mincha at the Kotel (as I am wont to do) and there's a tour group crossing the road. I noticed that one of the ladies was wearing a t-shirt that had Detroit written in English and in Hebrew. I thought to mineself...only Detroiters would have a shirt like that. There was a break in the group and I was able to park right there. I ran over to the group and found a bunch of Temple Israel teachers!!!!! It was so exciting!!!! It was great to see them. I followed them back to the buses and saw a few of the Adat Shalom teachers at well... how cool is this, it really made my day. I jumped on the Temple Israel bus and said hello to everyone. They were so excited to see me, it feels good you know. They were on their way to Tel Aviv. I had to jump off pretty quickly, they had already closed the door and were about to get a move on. The whole incident was about 5-10 minutes total. It was soooooooo nice. I can't even say.
All I know is that I am a lucky (thank you G-d) girl. I have a wonderful family, great friends and I work for really nice and good people. Wow. Baruch HaShem.
I just realized that I didn't send a majority of this entry to the next page, and on the computer I'm using I don't a cut/paste option, so it's a bit long on the main page...oops, sorry.
Anyway. I went to daven Mincha and was on my way through the Rova back to the car, and who do I see? Maya! So I went to talk to her for a while. She's also here on an extended visit. That was nice.
I was going to join the protest today, but I ended up running late, big shocker. I found out this morning when hanging out with a friend (going wedding dress shopping, yikes) that we weren't going to be blocking traffice, but the idea was to have lines of cars on the side of the roads, since this friend who read/translated the ad for me explained that blocking the roads would be illegal. Kinda takes the fun out of it. I really wanted to block traffic. Oh well. By the time I left the Old City, it was 5 minutes to 7. The protest was supposed to last from 6-7pm. On my way back into town I saw that there were lines from the government buildings for about a mile (I took pictures) and also in the entrance of the city there were really tons of people, all kinds too. Religious, non-religious, big signs, just orange strips from cars (I took pictures). I was on my way to the bus station to use the internet to post for the blog and I picked up a lady (50s) who needed to go this direction. As we passed the crowds along the streets, she took out of her bag an orange hat and waved it out the window and wished the people well. I spoke to her for a few minutes (we were just around the corner) and she said she didn't think the disengagement was going to go through. I hope she's right. She also told me that her son who lives in Passaic, NJ had told her that there had been a huge anti-disengagement rally in New York. That's good. I think I remember hearing about it, but I was already going to be in London at that point.
What a day. Yesterday was kinda quieter. I went shopping for cleaning materials for the dorm and washed the floors. Of course the Kotel and then in the evening I with a bunch of the girls to a hotel and some of them had dessert. I, of course, had coffee hafuch. HaHa.
I think I have an idea of what I would like to do tomorrow afternoon. I'd like to visit the kever/grave of Rabbi Kahane. I haven't been there since we came to Israel as a family about 13 years ago. I'm not much of a kever hopper, but I think I need to show appreciation for what he did for me. I think that he really started the religious process for me. I spoke to him when I was in high school, he was asking me about how I was doing in school and I responded that I was doing well and then he asked me if I was a good Jew. I froze. Of course I was doing what I knew (but not really - I knew more than I was doing), but what he said really struck me, and stuck with me till today. He was the fire that got me started. It's time to go visit.
Oh man, there's so much more to say. Should I stay or should I go (no, I don't know the rest of the song). Every time I'm here there's the same discussion in my head. I really do love it here, but I don't know if the reason I like it here so much is that I'm really here only on vacation. How can you not like the place you hang out when you're on vacation? On the other hand, I've been thinking about what Rabbi Kahane used to say. This is the only place on Earth where you can walk where Abraham, Isaac, Jacaob, the Prophets, all those people we learned about lived and breathed. Not New York, not anywhere else in the world. Everybody (for the most part) really loves where they come from. There is a soft spot where someone spent their childhood and adulthood, when you return there -- you're home. I have that with Detroit. The thought is sitting in my head...I think I would like my kids to have that feeling with Israel. No matter where they are, home (that soft spot) would be Israel. I don't know. I've always said that I was moving here. Over time I've been moving more toward the idea that I was staying in the United States. Now I've been considering a move to New York, when I was younger I always said that I'd never move to New York, I'd move to Israel first. What happened? Maybe I need to revisit that. So I'm going to Rabbi Kahane's kever tomorrow. I was going to go today but I realized that I didn't have enough time to get that in.
Enough philosophizing and examining my belly button. It's been a busy, wonderful day with good coffee, what more could I ask for?
Comments
This is the place where we say that a really cute, smart, nice, mensch-lich, and super duper rich guy (who owns villas in both the US and Israel) really needs to come to the rescue.
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Sigh.
I guess there's always our comic book writing idea where we'll strike it rich enough to loaf around in Israel forever.
Posted by: Batya | June 27, 2005 3:03 PM
Which teachers did you run into? That's so frickin cool. :) Say hi to Adina and Aaron for me!
Posted by: Talya | July 5, 2005 1:26 AM
Who said you had to leave? Stay a while....(Hi Mrs Drissman don't kill me please!). As someone who was there, and left i say - don't leave! There's nothing like life in Eretz HaKodesh, everything else is just a poor imitation. Alternatively, move to London and risk bombs every day!
Have a lovely week - btw now I've discovered you blog instead of email - thanks! At least now I can get news of you. enjoy the coffees hafuchs!
Did you get to R' Kahane's kever?
Aliza
PS - no more walking thru' the arab shuk ok..
Posted by: Aliza | July 12, 2005 8:30 AM