בחזרה לשגרה-Back to the routine

As I had done once before, I’m writing this entry on the egged bus from Jerusalem back to Kibbutz, after a great chag in Jerusalem and Haifa. I’ll begin right where I left off on Friday morning. I woke up around 6:30 and davened at the Yeshurun Central Syngogoue, where I went for Shacharit every Friday during first semester, and a few times for their Cantorial Carlebach Kabbalat Shabbat. Rabbi Rosen had told me an interesting fact, which I confirmed when I went to daven, is that the shul, which is today slightly to the right of modern Orthodox, was actually founded, and that plot of land on which it stands was donated, in 1926, by the United Synagogue of America, today known as the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. It’s very interesting to see what turns history makes, especially in the Jewish world. On the other hand, I hope it can help reinforce the lesson of כל ישראל ערבים זה לזה, that all of Israel is responsible for one another.

After I got back from tefillot I had a light breakfast, went down the street to help Rabbi Rosen with his Shabbat shopping, and then said goodbye to him. Shortly before noon, I walked north to the Goldberg family’s apartment, who have become close to cousins for me, and who I spent the next few days with. I had a lunch of salami on matza, and soon after we got ready to walk over to the תחנה מרכזית (central station) to leave for what would be an amazing Shabbat in Haifa, a beautiful city that I had previously only been in for less that and hour on pilgrimage a year and a half ago. Luckily, there was an extremely short line for security, and we arrived at the gate for the last departure of the 940 express to Haifa. Unfortunately, we weren’t the only ones, and Josh and I ended up sitting in the stair well, which although mildly uncomfortable, got the job done and even allowed me to get in a nice half-hour nap. About two hours later we arrived at the sparkling new Haifa Hof Hacarmel central bus station, which was inaugurated to replace the antiquated downtown one recently, and quickly walked to the other side of the station to catch a city bus to Neve Shaanan, the neighbourhood where Josh’s Aunt Shirley lives. We had about a 25 minute bus ride through the beautiful residential areas of Haifa, and then got of and walked the few blocks to Aunt Shirley’s apartment. We arrived, I met Aunt Shirley, and settle in and relaxed a bit. A little later, Josh’s cousin Yoni from England and his friend Josh from Australia arrived to also join us for Shabbat. Pretty soon it was time to shower and get ready for Shabbat, and around 6:30, which was candle lighting time, we all left go to tefillot, which were at the shul complex, which consists of two large, multi-storied buildings, with a total of about 7 minyanim running simultaneously. We davened at Aunt Shirley’s regular minyan, on the first floor building, which was pretty nice and goes at a good pace. We returned home for a delicious and leisurely Shabbat dinner. Aunt Shirley has the same idea about the essential character of meat for Shabbat and Yom Tov as the Goldbergs and I, and Josh even joked around and told Aunt Shirley that I was a vegetarian. We relaxed for a little while after dinner, and I got to bed around midnight so I could wake up in time for tefillot the next morning.

I woke up around 7:30 shabbat morning, had a cup of tea, and made it to shul by the time it began at 8. As per the beautiful Israel minhag, following hallel and Anim Zemirot, the entire book of שיר השירים (Song of Songs). Josh and I were honoured with opening the ark and carrying the Sifrei Torah, and the entire service was over by 10:30. We went back to Aunt Shirley’s and entertained ourselves with her book, ‘The Top 100 Jews’, as we laughed while evaluating this interesting list, and discussing why people should or shouldn’t have made it. Around 11, we had Kiddush, along with a plethora of dairy delights, including gefilte fish, herring, and all sorts of other Kiddush food. After this, I ended up taking a nap. Around 2, we had a nice fleichig lunch, and we spent a lot of the rest of the afternoon playing fun word games like speed scrabble and anagrams. Before we knew it, it was time for mincha, and we ended up in the large beit Knesset in the shul complex-it was a pretty standard service, except for the fact that it was full to more than its capacity, and we were packed in there like cattle. We had a bite to eat for seudah shlishit, and soon it was time to daven Maariv and make Havdalah. We left pretty quickly after Shabbat ended, and the seven of ended up catching a Sherut to the central station with three Israelis, which filled it up. We had a little time to kill until the bus left for Jerusalem, and Lani Goldberg treated us to Kosher for Pesach Burger Ranch, which was pretty good. The bus left Haifa at 9:30, arrived back in Jerusalem at 11:15, and got back to the Goldbergs’ apartment by midnight.

On Sunday we also began the day by davening at Yeshurun, after which we had a breakfast of matzah and delicious homemade omelettes by Joel. I spent a lot of the morning out and about doing some Yom Tov Shopping for the Goldbergs with Josh, and helping a bit with the cooking. After lunch, I went with Josh and his Abba to their cousins’ house as they had a draft for their eighth annual hockey playoffs pool, where eleven different teams of their friends make different fantasy teams for the upcoming games. By the time I finished watching the proceedings and resting a little bit, it was about 4:30, and I walked down the street to catch a bus to Talpiot, where I spent Yom Tov with my father’s close friend from his childhood in New London, CT, Kobi Ableman, his wife Nadia and four of their five children. I arrived at their apartment and helped get ready for the chag, including making a salad and showering. We davened at Yedidya, almost definitely my favourite shul in Jerusalem, and which Kobi helped found 25 years ago. After Ma’ariv, we returned home and had a delicious yom Tov meal with some friends of theirs from the shul. I was quite exhausted to the extent that I was almost falling asleep by the end of the meal, so I went to sleep around 10:30.

The next morning I again davened at Yedidya, for a service which was long by Israeli standards (but still under three hours), but very spiritually uplifting with a beautiful davening (including one of the best hallel’s I have had in a while), a special prayer available during Yizkor for those with two living parents, in deference to the shul’s custom that everyone remains in the service for Yizkor, and an otherwise great davening environment. After Kiddush, during which I chatted with my friend Daniel Peaceman who was there with his family. We returned to Kobi and Nadia’s for a delicious lunch, where most of the guests were Nadia’s aunts and uncles. I must have been pretty tired, beause after Birkat Hamazon and reading the newspaper (in Hebrew , of course) I fell asleep for pretty much the whole rest of the afternoon, and I woke up just in time for Mincha. After Mincha and before Ma’ariv, we followed the Hassidic custom of having a ‘סעודת משיח’, and we learned some sections in Massechet Sanhedrin about the Messiah while having our last Pesach meal. We davened Maariv, and I went back to Kobi and Nadia’s for Havdalah and to pack up. I then caught a bus to the תחנה מרכזית (central station), and met up with four of my friends, with whom I was able to make the 9:30 bus back to Kibbutz.

On Tuesday, after returning to Kibbutz we found out the moshav (where I usually work) had assumed we weren’t working, and the six of us ended up doing different jobs on Kibbutz. Along with my friends Tani and Shosh, I spent the day in the kibbutz laundry, mostly folding towels and sorting sheets. It was a pretty relaxing and fun job in the end.

On Wednesday, we finally returned to the fields, and spent the morning moving irrigation pipes to prepare for another parsley harvest, since the crop had already reached its previous height and then some. Beginning that afternoon and continuing into most of Thursday, we had an Israel advocacy seminar, where we were given tons of background information, tips, and hands on practice. Wednesday night and Thursday also marked the seventeenth yahrtzeit for my grandfather, Harold Ascher ז''ל, and I made sure to light a Yahrtzeit candle in his memory. In the morning, I got to read torah, and it was pretty interesting because it was probably the smallest Kosher sefer Torah I had ever seen. Here you can see a picture of my friend Tani doing hagbah on it.

Thursday ended with a sad sign that the year is starting to come to a close, taking our group picture, followed in the evening by another fun barbecue!