Shabbat Minucha?

Last night's Kabbalat Shabbat was awesome. We had a study session followed by very energetic services. I really enjoyed the song leader/rabbinical student that helped lead T'fillah. I don't remember his name, but he had a lot of energy and was a fantastic guitar player. After our services we all went into one of the courtyards for Shabbat dinner. It was really cool to have the entire school together eating at school.

After dinner we all sang Birkat HaMazon. I really liked that we did the whole blessing for after the meal and there was a lot of energy with us praying together after we were done eating. Once we finished the Birkat HaMazon and some Zmirot, a few of us who had been asked, got up and lead some songs in Shabbat Shira style. Some of the songs worked really well and I had a lot of fun helping to lead the songs. It has been a long time since I've lead songs like that.

Marina and I went back to our apartment and cleaned for a little bit and had some people over to our house. It was very chill and relaxing. We had maybe 10 people hang out and we just chatted for a while. I stayed up a little too late because we got up really early so I could talk to Kaitlin and then go to Shabbat Shachrit. There were some things that I really liked about T'fillah this morning, and some other things that I'm still learning.

They invited up the entire first year class to come up on the Bimah for an Aliyah. It was really cool to hear all of the voices singing the blessing together from the Bimah. I really like our class and I really liked us together. Once services were over, we had a Shabbat Kiddush in another courtyard. After a little bit of talking to people, I went home to relax and drink some water.

For the early afternoon I went to Gan Sacher with Brian to play some Ultimate Frisbee. It was a lot of fun to toss the disc around and once a few of this other guy's friends came, we got a pick up game going. It had been a very long time since I had played with anyone my age and I felt really out of shape. The other mistake that I made was to play without shoes. You see, I haven't been wearing real shoes since I got here and today I think that streak needs to come to an end.

I ended up getting huge blisters on my big toes and the game ended because I tore one of them open. Seriously, it was a brutal looking blister at the bottom of my foot. I'm annoyed with the fact that my streak is at an end but it's all good.
יהיה בסדר (It will be okay)

We still have Havdallah tonight and that should bring this chapter to it's conclusion because I start school tomorrow. Hebrew Ulpan at 8:30 in the morning.