For the first time in a long time here I finally feel like I'm having a Shabbat I really enjoy.
Thursday night, after another great conference call with the Cincinnati campus, I joined a bunch of people out for dinner to celebrate their birthdays. The 2nd dinner of the night was for all of us that are doing the Ride for Reform (starts tomorrow morning, and I'm still raising funds, if you can donate check out this link) and followed that with hanging out with some more friends before heading home.
Friday I cleaned and got ready for Shabbat which I got to spend in the city of Tzur Hadassah. Two of the Year in Israel Cantorial students help lead services with one of the Israeli students in this community. They worked with her to organize home hosting for a Shabbat Dinner. It was amazing.
We had a very Sephardi (Spainish, North African heritage) dinner with our family. Complete with fish, soup, chicken, beef, salad couscous, tea, wine and dessert. It was incredible. I'd love to share with you the "blessing of couscous" with you, but I want to keep that in my back pocket as a story to use as a Rabbi. Maybe I'll put it up on here later, or maybe I can prepare couscous for you sometime and I can tell you then.
Not only was the dinner amazing, but I also got to help lead services for the community and bang of my drum all day. It's so much fun adding that to services, especially Kabbalat Shabbat (Friday Night Services).
This morning I had a hard time dragging myself out of bed to get to HUC on time to rehearse a little more. Running a few minutes later than I wanted to be, I got to school in time and joined in the closing song, "Say" by John Mayer, that Mike really wanted to use. It was a lot of fun, although non-traditional, I really liked it as a closing song. He might put it up online and if that happens I will find a way to link to it.
Services were great, and I really like the Sermon that Beni delivered. I know I'm going to miss all of my friends that are going to be at other campuses, but I am excited to keep learning with the people who will join me at Cincinnati.
Lunch was also really, really good, and I just got back to my apartment. I need to clean and pack up my place so I'm ready to go on the Ride 4 Reform, which starts tomorrow, but the day is just perfect. I don't really trust the weather reports that I get here, so I'm going to venture a guess that it's mid to high 70's right now, and a perfectly sunny afternoon. If I wasn't about to spend 5 days on the back of a bike, I'd be out riding right now.
It might be that I don't have homework to do for tomorrow, since I won't be in class. Or it could be that this is really just an amazing day. But in my world, and in my Judaism, this is Shabbat and what it is supposed to be like.
I know that according to Orthodoxy, Shabbat and the afterlife is a time that there will be no work and complete rest. To me, that misses the mark by a little bit. Shabbat is a time to be with friends, to enjoy the world. It is a time to enjoy the company of other people and to recharge for the next week.
This has been a perfect Shabbat!
Showing posts with label Religion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Religion. Show all posts
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Mevasseret Reform Synagogue
One of our instructors is a lot of fun in class and we've really gotten to know her this year. She lives near Jerusalem in an area called Mevasseret Tzion. It was about a 25 minute cab ride from a square near my apartment to get to her synagogue. We were there for a little while before services started and we got to hear a little about the history of the community.
It was really a great story to hear. Starting with a small community of five or six families, they have built up a community of something like 200 families. Their services reminded me of home in so many ways. They used HaAvodah SheBaLev, the Israeli Reform Siddur, and the melodies were very familiar. I was even more impressed by what I we learned over dinner. Apparently, the cantor position is filled on a volunteer basis and it seemed to work really well. I also loved to hear the different people chiming in and doing other readings during services. It had a strong community feel and I really liked it a lot.
I would recommend making a point to visit Kihilat Mevasseret Tzion if you are around Jerusalem for an extended period of time.
It was really a great story to hear. Starting with a small community of five or six families, they have built up a community of something like 200 families. Their services reminded me of home in so many ways. They used HaAvodah SheBaLev, the Israeli Reform Siddur, and the melodies were very familiar. I was even more impressed by what I we learned over dinner. Apparently, the cantor position is filled on a volunteer basis and it seemed to work really well. I also loved to hear the different people chiming in and doing other readings during services. It had a strong community feel and I really liked it a lot.
I would recommend making a point to visit Kihilat Mevasseret Tzion if you are around Jerusalem for an extended period of time.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Third Time's The Charm
As it turns out, The Dome of the Rock/Al Aqsa Mosque Plaza is in fact open from 7:30 AM - 10:30 AM Sunday through Thursday to allow visitors to see the plaza. It tooks us three tries to figure this out, but we found the entrance, which is just outside the Kotel Plaza near the archeological park. There was a line that took us a few minutes to wait through to get access to the long bridge that takes you up to the plaza.
When we got to the top, the sights were incredible. The massive plaza extends incredibly far and is full of trees and beautifully designed courtyards. There are tons of ritual washing stations for Muslims to purify themselves before entering the Mosque or the shrine, places that non-Muslims are not allowed to enter.
It was amazing to get close to the Golden Dome. The exterior work is so impressive when you are standing at the base of the building. It was absolutely incredible. I want to understand what the writing means that encircles the building. Unfortunately I don't have the words to describe how amazing the site is. I will have to ask the following pictures to try to do the plaza justice.
When we were asked to leave the plaza before Prayer started, we walked back to the Kotel so Kaitlin could walk down to the wall. I was again frustrated by the fact that I couldn't go to the wall with her. She echoed similar sentiments about not having the space to actually get right up to the wall because the Women's Section is so much smaller than the Men's Section.
After finishing up at the wall, we walked back up the long way towards the Jaffa Gate. Kaitlin was excited to look around the Citadel. For 30 sheckels for an adult, we had an incredible two and a half hour tour through their history exhibit. It was incredible to fly through a lot of the history that I had studied this year. I also felt validated since a lot of the information that I had been telling Kaitlin was elaborated on. She had a great time learning about it.
The view from the top of the tower was incredible! It was a different look at the city and we had it framed for us in the history of the space. A great way to end our time in the Old City.
When we got to the top, the sights were incredible. The massive plaza extends incredibly far and is full of trees and beautifully designed courtyards. There are tons of ritual washing stations for Muslims to purify themselves before entering the Mosque or the shrine, places that non-Muslims are not allowed to enter.
It was amazing to get close to the Golden Dome. The exterior work is so impressive when you are standing at the base of the building. It was absolutely incredible. I want to understand what the writing means that encircles the building. Unfortunately I don't have the words to describe how amazing the site is. I will have to ask the following pictures to try to do the plaza justice.
When we were asked to leave the plaza before Prayer started, we walked back to the Kotel so Kaitlin could walk down to the wall. I was again frustrated by the fact that I couldn't go to the wall with her. She echoed similar sentiments about not having the space to actually get right up to the wall because the Women's Section is so much smaller than the Men's Section.
After finishing up at the wall, we walked back up the long way towards the Jaffa Gate. Kaitlin was excited to look around the Citadel. For 30 sheckels for an adult, we had an incredible two and a half hour tour through their history exhibit. It was incredible to fly through a lot of the history that I had studied this year. I also felt validated since a lot of the information that I had been telling Kaitlin was elaborated on. She had a great time learning about it.
The view from the top of the tower was incredible! It was a different look at the city and we had it framed for us in the history of the space. A great way to end our time in the Old City.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Merry Christmas from Jerusalem and Bethlehem
Last night, being Christmas Eve, a bunch of us thought it would be a once in a lifetime experience to go into Bethlehem to the Church of the Nativity to see it on Christmas Eve. It made for a long, long night.
We took a fifteen minute walk from school to the Damascus Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem. There were tons of cabs lined up on the side of the road waiting to take all of the pilgrims who were on their way. After a little negotiating, we got into three cabs, two cars and a bus, and headed towards the Bethlehem Border Crossing. Our unmarked cab took us right up to the crossing, but dropped us off there. There are some laws that require certain licenses to cross the border into the West Bank (or as our driver called it, Palestine).
Since it was a pilgrimage holiday, the crossing was very easy. We showed our passports and crossed in a few minutes. Really not a big deal. Once on the other side of the border, we hired another cab from the border towards The Church of the Nativity. It was strange sitting in the front of the cab and hearing the drive saying, "Shit!" when we ran into traffic. I asked him what was wrong and he started to complain about the police and that they were blocking off roads that were open a few hours earlier.
We got let out a five minute walk away from Manger Square because there were road blocks all over the place and guys with big guns told the car to stop. After a few minutes of walking, suddenly the place was packed with people. Shops and restaurants had people spilling out onto the street and we heard Christmas Music in English playing from some of the stores as we passed them.
Finally at the square, we needed to regroup with all of the people we came with. As we were wandering there was a guy with a large coffee warmer so two of us went to get some coffee, it was pretty chilly. It turns out that he was selling something called "Sachlav." It's heated, sweet-milk, with some herbs and other things mixed into it and put on the top. Super sweet and super tasty. Apparently Cup 'o Joe or Cafe Cafe sells that around Jerusalem. I need to check it out.
We toured the square and looked at all of the people. It wasn't possible to get close to the church because there were barricades all over the place and very large police presence. We kept walking.
There were little kids trying to sell us things all over the place. I felt bad telling them no, but after being asked seven or eight times by the same child, I was getting a little annoyed. But as long as we kept walking, we weren't hassled by them.
Wandering around we found a few other Churches, but I have no idea what was special about them. We didn't get the opportunity to go into any of them because Mass was starting soon. Not that we cared too much, but it would have been cool to see what all the churches we for.
On the way back to the square, we stopped in a shop that had a bunch of olive wood carvings. They were beautiful pieces of art. One that really struck my eye, as well as the eyes of a few other people in our group, was a large carving of "The Last Supper." It was really beautiful. Of course none of us were looking to buy anything, we only wanted to look at the artwork. After a few moments we left the shop and met with the larger chunk of our group that we had come with.
At this point a few of them wanted to leave. Not all of did though. A group of six of us wanted to stay to see Mass.
There was a very large screen that had the service inside the church being broadcast on the side of the building. It started a little bit before midnight and we hung around until about 12:30 in the morning. It was interesting hearing the service in Latin translated into Arabic. This meant that none of us really understood a word. The mass of people standing outside the church was incredible. So many people absolutely fixated on the screen listening to the service.
A few people were pushing through the crowd selling coffee, tea and these paper lanterns. You are supposed to light the lantern and let it rise into the air. A few of them were set off and I liked seeing them rise over the people. Looking around the crowd I liked seeing the lights decorating the entire plaza, complete with a large green tree decorated like Christmas Trees back home. Blue lights strung as icicles made me miss winter.
We left the square around 12:30 in the morning to head back to Jerusalem. Our driver that took us to the border told us that the extra security was because the President of the PA, Mahmoud Abbas, was inside the church. That was probably the man they kept focusing on at the front of the congregation, but I couldn't tell who it was initially. This was also the reason that we needed to walk five minutes to get to his taxi.
Another friendly cab ride later we got to the crossing again. This time it was a little longer of a process to get through. There were more people and we needed to cue in a long line. The guard let four people into the screening area at a time and everyone set off the metal detector. When I got through and remembered that I had a ring on my finger, I was surprised that I didn't continue to set off the alarm. It took me three tries to get through without a beep.
In the large cab, we ran into a group of HUC students that had walked to the church starting at 6:30 that evening. It took them about three hours to get there.
It was a pretty cool experience to have here. I'm really glad I took the time to go, especially because I don't know if I will ever have the opportunity to do it again.
My camera is still broken, so I don't have any pictures until I'm able to take the ones my friends let me shoot.
For those who spend today as a celebration, Merry Christmas from Jerusalem.
We took a fifteen minute walk from school to the Damascus Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem. There were tons of cabs lined up on the side of the road waiting to take all of the pilgrims who were on their way. After a little negotiating, we got into three cabs, two cars and a bus, and headed towards the Bethlehem Border Crossing. Our unmarked cab took us right up to the crossing, but dropped us off there. There are some laws that require certain licenses to cross the border into the West Bank (or as our driver called it, Palestine).
Since it was a pilgrimage holiday, the crossing was very easy. We showed our passports and crossed in a few minutes. Really not a big deal. Once on the other side of the border, we hired another cab from the border towards The Church of the Nativity. It was strange sitting in the front of the cab and hearing the drive saying, "Shit!" when we ran into traffic. I asked him what was wrong and he started to complain about the police and that they were blocking off roads that were open a few hours earlier.
We got let out a five minute walk away from Manger Square because there were road blocks all over the place and guys with big guns told the car to stop. After a few minutes of walking, suddenly the place was packed with people. Shops and restaurants had people spilling out onto the street and we heard Christmas Music in English playing from some of the stores as we passed them.
Finally at the square, we needed to regroup with all of the people we came with. As we were wandering there was a guy with a large coffee warmer so two of us went to get some coffee, it was pretty chilly. It turns out that he was selling something called "Sachlav." It's heated, sweet-milk, with some herbs and other things mixed into it and put on the top. Super sweet and super tasty. Apparently Cup 'o Joe or Cafe Cafe sells that around Jerusalem. I need to check it out.
We toured the square and looked at all of the people. It wasn't possible to get close to the church because there were barricades all over the place and very large police presence. We kept walking.
There were little kids trying to sell us things all over the place. I felt bad telling them no, but after being asked seven or eight times by the same child, I was getting a little annoyed. But as long as we kept walking, we weren't hassled by them.
Wandering around we found a few other Churches, but I have no idea what was special about them. We didn't get the opportunity to go into any of them because Mass was starting soon. Not that we cared too much, but it would have been cool to see what all the churches we for.
On the way back to the square, we stopped in a shop that had a bunch of olive wood carvings. They were beautiful pieces of art. One that really struck my eye, as well as the eyes of a few other people in our group, was a large carving of "The Last Supper." It was really beautiful. Of course none of us were looking to buy anything, we only wanted to look at the artwork. After a few moments we left the shop and met with the larger chunk of our group that we had come with.
At this point a few of them wanted to leave. Not all of did though. A group of six of us wanted to stay to see Mass.
There was a very large screen that had the service inside the church being broadcast on the side of the building. It started a little bit before midnight and we hung around until about 12:30 in the morning. It was interesting hearing the service in Latin translated into Arabic. This meant that none of us really understood a word. The mass of people standing outside the church was incredible. So many people absolutely fixated on the screen listening to the service.
A few people were pushing through the crowd selling coffee, tea and these paper lanterns. You are supposed to light the lantern and let it rise into the air. A few of them were set off and I liked seeing them rise over the people. Looking around the crowd I liked seeing the lights decorating the entire plaza, complete with a large green tree decorated like Christmas Trees back home. Blue lights strung as icicles made me miss winter.
We left the square around 12:30 in the morning to head back to Jerusalem. Our driver that took us to the border told us that the extra security was because the President of the PA, Mahmoud Abbas, was inside the church. That was probably the man they kept focusing on at the front of the congregation, but I couldn't tell who it was initially. This was also the reason that we needed to walk five minutes to get to his taxi.
Another friendly cab ride later we got to the crossing again. This time it was a little longer of a process to get through. There were more people and we needed to cue in a long line. The guard let four people into the screening area at a time and everyone set off the metal detector. When I got through and remembered that I had a ring on my finger, I was surprised that I didn't continue to set off the alarm. It took me three tries to get through without a beep.
In the large cab, we ran into a group of HUC students that had walked to the church starting at 6:30 that evening. It took them about three hours to get there.
It was a pretty cool experience to have here. I'm really glad I took the time to go, especially because I don't know if I will ever have the opportunity to do it again.
My camera is still broken, so I don't have any pictures until I'm able to take the ones my friends let me shoot.
For those who spend today as a celebration, Merry Christmas from Jerusalem.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Quarter Tones
Today our Israel Seminar class took us to a really interesting synagogue in the Nachlaot neighborhood. We got to sit and listen to a Piyyutan (someone who sings piyyutim. Piyyutim are songs/prayers that are part of a service, part of a celebration or other various times). He spoke to us about the revitalization of the piyyut singing, which was an Arabic-Jewish tradition.
The music uses a lot of Arabic melodies and often they are actually popular Arabic Songs from countries of origin. He sang us a few melodies from Spain, Iraq and the city the tradition is from. Unfortunately I don't remember the name of this city. Honestly, it was beautiful to listen to.
Imagine floating melodies in interesting modes and scales that are used. They sound like minor-keys but they also use half-tones and quarter-tones. The pitches are not something that is normal for us to hear in western music and it was beautiful to hear him sing.
One of the other things he spoke to us about was how he learned to sing like that. It was something that he started to learn as a small child. When he was a teen, like most teens, he backed out for a while until he was in the army when he realized that he missed it. The way he learned everything is by going to services and listening to someone else perform the songs. The issue is that there are about 100 different modes/scales. One for each week as well as others for specific services. Yes, there are people that can tell the difference between the scales and the melodies.
This is an incredible kind of music and I would be really excited to go and check one of the services out, especially the winter piyyut singing. However, this takes place only on Shabbat mornings at 0300. That's not a typo, it's only at 3:00AM and lasts until 0700. It would be incredible, but I don't think this is something I will be able to get up for on a Shabbat morning.
Since I highly doubt I will have that chance, I really appreciated hearing him sing today.
The music uses a lot of Arabic melodies and often they are actually popular Arabic Songs from countries of origin. He sang us a few melodies from Spain, Iraq and the city the tradition is from. Unfortunately I don't remember the name of this city. Honestly, it was beautiful to listen to.
Imagine floating melodies in interesting modes and scales that are used. They sound like minor-keys but they also use half-tones and quarter-tones. The pitches are not something that is normal for us to hear in western music and it was beautiful to hear him sing.
One of the other things he spoke to us about was how he learned to sing like that. It was something that he started to learn as a small child. When he was a teen, like most teens, he backed out for a while until he was in the army when he realized that he missed it. The way he learned everything is by going to services and listening to someone else perform the songs. The issue is that there are about 100 different modes/scales. One for each week as well as others for specific services. Yes, there are people that can tell the difference between the scales and the melodies.
This is an incredible kind of music and I would be really excited to go and check one of the services out, especially the winter piyyut singing. However, this takes place only on Shabbat mornings at 0300. That's not a typo, it's only at 3:00AM and lasts until 0700. It would be incredible, but I don't think this is something I will be able to get up for on a Shabbat morning.
Since I highly doubt I will have that chance, I really appreciated hearing him sing today.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
In Joshua's Shoes: Happy Hanukah
With the singing of the Maccabeats, "Candelight", Matisyahu's "Miracle", and Adam Sandler's "Hannukah Song" ringing in my ears, I can't believe Hanukah is already over. I know, I know, it's not that big of a deal. It's a really minor holiday. But that doesn't mean I couldn't have a great experience. And I made sure that happened.
Whether it was unfortunately missing the incredible opportunity to join the "Parallel Lives" soldiers at their base (which I'm still bummed I missed), the latke eating contest at HUC, Kabbalat Shabbat complete with Hanukah melodies for the opening psalms, trying sufganiyot from various bakeries or just having some time off, I had a fantastic Hanukah. Check out my experiences on my new TC Jewfolk post, In Joshua's Shoes: Hanukah in Jerusalem.
Whether it was unfortunately missing the incredible opportunity to join the "Parallel Lives" soldiers at their base (which I'm still bummed I missed), the latke eating contest at HUC, Kabbalat Shabbat complete with Hanukah melodies for the opening psalms, trying sufganiyot from various bakeries or just having some time off, I had a fantastic Hanukah. Check out my experiences on my new TC Jewfolk post, In Joshua's Shoes: Hanukah in Jerusalem.
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