Chag-tober Fest Part II

Keep reading! There are dragons in this post!

Aaaaand we're back!

In case you missed the first post, it's been a near-eternity since our last post, so there's lots and lots to catch you up on. In the first post, I recapped our experience for the holidays and a little shpiel on school and expressed my feelings about life here while Gavi is in America (in short, it sucks).

So, while Gavi is on the plane flying back to Israel, I have free license to rant and ramble about what's been going on here and share all of the lame puns that I can come up with! (In theory, this would good be a good place for one such pun, but I've got punner's block...hopefully I'll redeem myself later). In this post my plan is to talk about some of the interesting things from Jerusalem over the last few weeks and, as per the custom of the Fenster blog, tell you about some of the key delicious things from the past month.

Jerusalem is...Jerusalem
By now, I imagine many of you have heard about the arrest of Anat Hoffman at the Kotel. I wasn't there that night for the Hadassah 100th anniversary celebration, but I did attend Rosh Chodesh services at the Kotel with Women of the Wall the next morning. There was a sizable group of women who stood on the Women's side of the wall and held a morning service, saying the prayers out loud. A number of the women were wearing tallitot, two of them were deemed to have been violating the law by the tallis design and the style in which they wore it and were arrested as well. I stood behind the Women's side with a few other men who had joined in solidarity. We were hassled a bit by the police and were asked to move, but, in reality, they had no legal reasons to ask, and when I protested they quickly lost interest and let me and the others stand nearby (behind a partition) and join the prayer service. For the Torah service, we transitioned from the Kotel to the small jail inside the Old City. They bring the Torah there and join in song to show solidarity with the women who were arrested and detained.

Attending Women of the Wall services had been something I had hoped to attend and become involved in during my year in Israel. It was a troubling yet empowering experience. Afterwards I shared with some friends that it was the first time in quite a while that I felt proud and excited to go to the Kotel instead of just feeling uncomfortable or troubled by the inequalities and prejudices that are often found there. I am looking forward to next month when Gavi and I can go and experience it together.

While there is this troubling and activist side to Israel prayer experiences, the last month has also been marked by visits to new synagogues and minyanim that I found welcoming and spiritual.

The Shabbat after Women of the Wall, I again joined Nava Tehilah, but this time for Kabbalat Shabbat. A number of my classmates were helping to lead the music for the service, and it was exciting both to be a part of the prayer service, but also to see my friends in that leadership role. It was undoubtedly the longest Kabbalat Shabbat service I had ever been to, but it was so full of song and gave me a great opportunity to think about my past week, relax, and prepare to enter Shabbat. It was beautiful, and I will definitely be going (with Gavi next time!) again.

This past Shabbat I went to a very different community: the Yakar Synagogue, a community that labels itself as a “center for tradition and creativity.” The room for the service was split by a mechitza and small, but by the time we got to the crux of Kabbalat Shabbat, the room was packed and there was only enough place (on the men’s side at least) to stand. The davening was joyous, passionate, and full of a slightly frenetic ruach. In one prayer (Ana B'Koach for those who are interested) one of the last words is "our shouting cry" and when we reached that part of the song, it was one of the most sincere, honest, and vulnerable moments I had witnessed in services. Unsurprisingly, this is also a place I will be taking Gavi in the very near future.

On an utterly different note...during the Thursdays of October and November, in the Old City of Jerusalem there is...a Medieval Festival! Replete with dragons, fire, and people dressed in silly costumes! I went with a number of friends to see what this was about. Of course, on the way we stopped and purchased balloon swords. It would have been dangerous to go into a walled city full of dragons without any means of defense. The festival was a fun, silly, and slightly weird experience. To be walking around the Old City filled with exhibitions and performances of Medieval dance, song, and dragon-ing and surrounded by families and little kids was definitely not something I had expected coming into the year in Israel. Nevertheless, we made friends with some dragons, slayed others, and watched a few fly through the air in the large plaza just inside the Jaffa Gate. Most importantly, however, was that they set lots of stuff on fire.

All the Delicious Things!

The past month has provided many opportunities for both delicious food and great company while eating said delicious things. Here's a quick rundown:

Between Yom Kippur and Sukkot, we met up with some very close family friends of Gavi and her family. The Weiningers were in town for a quick visit to spend time with their son who made aliyah and is now in the Israeli army. We had a great coffee/dessert date at Cafe Kadosh and talked about the wedding, school, and some of our plans for the future. The Weiningers were incredibly gracious to spend time with us while they were here on a short visit to see their son. It is always nice to spend time with close family friends and I'm feeling particularly lucky that I get to add some many new circles of people because of Gavi and her family. Marriage FTW!

After Simchat Torah ended, we met up with one of Gavi's council members and coworkers from Theater J and the DCJCC. Another really wonderful evening of delicious food and great conversation. We got to catch up on life in DC and talk about some of the exciting things happening in theater both in Israel and back in Washington. The Sterns were in Israel to, among other things, visit the Acco Fringe Festival. You can read about their trip and experience in this Theater J blog post.

Now, there were plenty of wonderfully tasty things consumed over the last month. But one thing takes the cake: Chicken Wings. For Simchat Torah (a Sunday, so we watched football once we made it back from the Kibbutz) we had purchased a mass of wings from the shuk and went to town. I made Buffalo Sauce and oven fried the wings. Suffice it to say, the meal was glorious and Gavi was a happy camper.

We enjoyed the meal so much that we decided we had to share it with other people; SO, the next Friday we invited a bunch of friends over for Shabbat dinner (the Shabbat right before Gavi left for the States) and made them buffalo chicken as well. We opted to skip the wings for this go around, because, as you may not know, when you buy wings from the shuk, they still have feathers in them. Plucking out feathers for wings for two is a bit of a pain, so buffalo chicken breasts for Shabbat it was! Gavi perfected the meal by making mushroom barley soup. I quite easily could have eaten the entire pot, but I was wise enough not to, so I got to have some for lunch later in the week once she had left. In case anyone was curious, I have the best wife.

Ok. Now it's time for bed. Getting up early to pick Gavi up from the airport and end this silly 3ish week period of being not together. There will be no more of that. BUT! There WILL be more blogging, so check back soon!