From darkness to light, and from mourning to festivity מאפלה לאורה, ומאבל ליום טוב

I chose to title this post such because it describes, to some extent, the intense experience of observing יום הזיכרון (Memorial day for Israel’s fallen) and then transitioning into the joy of יום העצמאות (Israel’s Independence Day), and is also a quote from the ‘Kiddush for Yom Haatzmaut’, compiled by the Religious Kibbutz movement (of which Ein Tsurim is a member) and chanted on erev yom Haatzmaut by Kobi Ableman at Yedidya.

As I often do, I’ll take a few steps backwards a return to where my last blog entry left off. This past Friday, I woke up early for Shacharit, went back to sleep, and then ate breakfast around 8:45. I relaxed for most of the morning, and then because I’m not the biggest fan of the dairy pasta lunch on kibbutz, I took a trip to into Kiryat Malachi with my roommate Matt and had a delicious Shawarma lunch at ‘Shawarma shel Shuki’, my first since Pesach. I went back to Kibbutz and relaxed again for a little while, called home, and got ready for Shabbat. I davened in the Kibbutz Beit Knesset, which was a very quick and unelaborated service, but still included Yedid Nefesh and the traditional nusach. I ate dinner in the kibbutz dining room, with a number of people from our group, as well as my friends Cynthia and Daniel who are in B’er Sheva, and Shira who is studying at a seminary in Ramat Beit Shemesh. After dinner we had an Oneg with Marzipan Rugelach that our madrich Mike had brought back from Jerusalem.

Shabbat morning, I went to tefilllot as usual, and then had lunch with my host family. We had some beautiful weather in the afternoon and I spent part of the time reading outside on the grass. This week I decided to go to the late Mincha service at 5:30, because following tefillot there was a shiur taught by one of the kibbutz members about saying Hallel on Yom Haatzmaut. It was very interesting, especially the fact that I could tell that I was on a Kibbutz, because of the fact that the members had no problem chiming in with a comment or objection no matter what the teacher was in the middle of. By the time the shiur was over, it was time for seudah shlishit, and later, Maariv and Havdalah.

Sunday was supposed to be a regular work day, but four of us were given some random jobs to do around Massuot instead of the usual pipe laying. Shosh and Aviva were assigned to spray paint signs, and Tani and I were given the task of marking every six metres on a line of steel rope by fastening a bolt, all for the tree-planting division of the Moshav. To make our job a little harder, the 100 metre long rope was pretty tangled, and two hours later we hadn’t made it too far. We took a mid-morning tea break, and afterwards we checked out Shosh and Aviva’s spray-painting. I even tried my hand at it, and it was a lot of fun! We spent the rest of the morning, especially after Shosh and Aviva finished their task, with a combination of trying to work on the rope, taking pictures, and visiting the small horse stables which Aviva had discovered on the Moshav.

We returned to Kibbutz, and chilled for the afternoon, culminating with dinner and Mincha.

Around 7:30, the mood began to change as the country prepared for the beginning of Yom Hazikaron, the Memorial Day for Israeli soldiers who died for the state, as well as the recent addition of victims of terror to those we mourn. Shortly before 8:00 we joined the entire kibbutz for their Yom Hazikaron service, which began with a 1 minute siren heard throughout the country. The ceremony included prayers, songs, poetry, the lighting of a torch, two personal stories, and one of the most moving parts, a slide show on a large screen showing pictures of all 153 soldiers killed this past summer. It was a very moving טקס, and our presence was an important sign of us becoming a part of the kibbutz community, as we joined with them on this sad occasion. After the kibbutz ceremony, which was about 45 minutes long, we came together as a group for our own commemoration, which included watching a movie about Alex Singer, an American who joined צהל and was killed in Lebanon in 1987. Alex also had a personal connection, as he had become part of the community and had planned to make his home on Kibbutz Ein Tsurim. We concluded with a discussion and Maariv.

Just as with Yom Hashoah, all of the entertainment channels on TV went off the air for 24 hours. However, the Knesset Channel is unique in that the entire day it screens a list of names of those who died for the state, from before 1948 to today

The next morning we davened Shacharit as a group, and shortly before 9 we departed for Jerusalem and the Har Herzl Military Cemetery, where the nation would focus at 11:00 as a siren is sounded throughout the country. We managed to get to Jerusalem in about 45 minutes, driving by way of Ein Kerem, but when we got off of the bus and started walking towards the cemetery, it was packed with people, most of them family or friends who had somebody to visit at the cemetery, though there were also a few groups such as ours who had come to pay their respects. I walked around for a little bit and spent a while in חלקה ד, the newest section of the cemetery which contains the graves of those killed this past summer in Lebanon, including Michael Levin z”l, a בוגר נתיב (Nativ Alumnus). Although I was not able to get close enough to watch the official state ceremony, it was broadcast via loudspeaker throughout the cemetery, and you can listen to my recording of it here.

After the ceremony ended, we took a bus back to Beit Nativ and had a surprisingly tasty fleichig lunch, followed by a video and short program related to the day. We were finished around 3:30, and spent a little time downtown with some friends, picking up a special siddur for Yom haatzmaut from one of the bookstores. Later on, I took a bus down to Talpiot, where I stayed with the Moshe family again. After catching up with Janet and having a light dinner, I walked down the street to Yedidya for a service marking the transition from Yom Hazikaron to Yom Haatzmaut. We began with Mincha, which was followed by a short memorial service. To mark the transition from sadness to the joy of independence, we joined in a collection of songs of peace and hope, including אלי אלי, עושה שלום, לו יהי, שיר הרעות and לו יהי. We then began the Yom Haatzmaut service with psalms of thanksgiving and the recitation of Shehecheyanu. We then heard a beautiful drasha by Rabbi Michael Melchior, the head of the Meimad political faction, the religious wing of the Labour party. We then had a festive Maariv service including full hallel, which was followed by a nice Kiddush. Because I was pretty tired and also relatively far away from downtown, I went back to Janet’s and called it an early night, though at one point I walked out to the Tayelet and took a look at the beautiful view of Jerusalem at night.

In the morning, I returned to Yedidya for a festive holdiday Shacharit, which included Hallel, and a special Torah reading and Haftarah. Later in the morning, Nahum picked me up and we drove downtown to Beit Nativ, where I took part in the Yom Ha’atzmaut tradition of watching the finals of חידון התנ''ך, the International Bible Contest on TV. It was really neat to watch, for a number of reasons. First of all , as someone who loves Tanach and was in chidon for two years, it was an event that was made for me. It was also especially neat to see Joshua Satok, who many of you in Toronto know, a graduate of Associated and a student at CHAT, compete in this prestigious competition. Although he didn’t win, he can in very close (about 6^th place), competeig against many Israelis, and deserves a huge Yasher Koach. Another neat thing was that two of the people sitting in the honorary dais were those I had heard speak this year, Ze’ev Bielski, the chairman of the Jewish Agency, who spoke to us during leadership week, and President Yitzhak Navon, who I had the privilege to hear at the Israel Bonds Rabbinic Conference back in January with Abba. One last neat thing about the Chidon was all of the different ‘celebrities’ who asked questions in the first televised round. These included a 92 year old window-washer who has been washing Jerusalem’s windows since 1947, the daughter of former Mayor Teddy Kollek z”l, and the wife of captured soldier Ehud Goldwasser. As per tradition, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert read the final question.

The culmination of my Yom Haatzmaut experience was the annual Nativ Barbecue to end all barbecues, with tons of good meat, and more importantly time to hang out with the rest of Nativ. As barbecuing (מנגל – Mangal in Hebrew) is the semi-official way to mark Yom Haatzmaut in Israel, the entire park of גן העצמאות was filled with different barbecues. We returned to Kibbutz in the early evening, and after davening mincha and maariv, our staff ordered us a pizza dinner!

חג עצמאות שמח – Happy 59, Israel!

A solid Shabbat and meaningful Yom Hashoah

This past Shabbat was closed, meaning that our entire group spent it together on kibbutz. Although beforehand I wasn’t so sure how much fun this past shabbat would be, in the end it turned out to be one of the nicer closed shabbatot. After a long Friday just for relaxing., we gathered together to bring in Shabbat as a group around 6:30. We davened Mincha and Kabbalat Shabbat, and had a discussion about פרשת השבוע (the weekly Parsha) before continuing with Maariv. As a funny aside, a Chassidic group (with Streimels and all) was staying in the kibbutz guest house last Shabbat and it was a little funny (and a bit disruptive as well) when they kept poking their heads in and were astounded to see us davening together with a girl leading Kabbalat Shabbat. Well, only in Israel. We then had a nice Shabbat dinner in the kibbutz Chadar Ochel. After dinner we had a really great Tish, one of the first in a long time, which was led by our fearless assistant director, Nahum Binder, and included some good desserts, and more importantly, spirited singing.

Shabbat morning, we also davened as a group, which was pretty nice to be able to pull off, and I read an Aliyah and recited birkat hachodesh. Musaf ended with a bang as Josh, Shosh and Phil led Anim Zemirot to the traditional ECRUSY nigun. Lunch was a pretty quiet affair, as Abbie and I ate at our kibbutz family’s home with one of their sons. We finished around 12:30, and I had a good five hours to relax and read a bit. Over the past few months, I’ve been reading many of the various Parashat Hashavua fliers that are distributed in Israeli shuls (such as on Kibbutz), and this Shabbat I got through all of them, which gave me some Hebrew practice as well as some food for thought. The day ended with Mincha, a discussion about issues facing Iisrael led by Nahum, Seudah Shlishit in the Chadar Ochel with zemirot, and finally, Maariv and Havdalah.

Sunday began as a normal working day, and we did some random irrigation work in the fields near Ashkelon (Today’s crop: corn!). When we got back from work we only had a little time to unwind, because that night began יום השואה והגבורה, Holocaust remeberance day, and the next 24 hours would be filled with interesting and meaningful activites appropriate to the day. We had an early dinner and at 6 PM, headed off on a bus to Jaffa and the Gesher theatre. You might be asking why we’d go to see a play on such a sad day like this, but the reason will become clear as I explain. The first thing to note is that as we arrived, we realized that this was yet another MASA event, and the famous poster featuring yours truly was prominently displayed in front of the entrance! The evening began with a discussion with the director of the theatre and two of the actors, a short intermission, and then an introduction by an Israeli author. The play itself was called ‘Momik’, and was a based on a book by author David Grossman. It told the story of Momik, a child of Holocaust survivors growing up in Jerusalem in the 1950’s whose grandfather comes to live with him. He spends much of his time trying to fight the ‘Nazi Beast’, and so the play is an interesting way to see how the younger generation, and especially children, struggled with the legacy left to them by their survivor parents.

One of the most important and amazing elements of Yom Hashoah in Israel (which be repeated again next week for יום הזכרון לחללי צה''ל, IDF Memorial Day) is the element of national mourning. The first thing I noticed while we were in Jaffa for the play and on the way home was that all places of entertainment (excluding our theatre), and even restaurants were closed for twenty-four hours, since they were not in keeping with the mood of the day. When I got home, I followed our staff’s advice and turned on the TV and radio briefly. All of the Israeli channels were either showing Yom Hashoah specific programming, or were totally off the air from 8 PM Erev Yom Hashoah until the same time the following day. Galgalatz, the Israeli music station that I often listen to on the radio, was playing a mix of slow, sad music as opposed to their usual repertoire of current Israeli and American hits.

Programming the next day began with Shacharit, which Josh and I led most of without a melody, as per the custom I had learned when I was back at Schechter in Philadephia. I also got to read torah, and recited the special El Maleh Rachamim in memory of Holocaust victims.

We then moved into one of the Moadonim for the day’s programming, which was planned by some of the Nativers and turned out quite well. They began by reading different stories of righteous gentiles, some of whom I had heard of, and others that were new stories for me. We then had some people tell their own families’ Holocaust stories, many of which were very sad and moving. A little before 10 AM, we went outside and stood in respect as a siren wailed for two minutes, as it did throughout the entire country. It was a very emotional moment as an entire country stopped what they were doing, no matter where they were (even in the middle of the highway) and remembered the tragedy of the Shoah.

To hear a live recordingt of the Yom Hashoah siren, click here.

We continued the programming by seeing a recent film based on the story a Jewish boy from Cracow who hid with a Polish peasant family during the Shoah. While I though the movie was okay, the next part of our day was probably the most moving, when Esther, a member of Kibbutz who is a Hebrew teacher told her own story of survival, from being born in Lithuania at beginning of the war, and ending it as a six year old child the only one from her family to survive, and miraculously making it to Israel. It was also nice to hear Esther’s story in Hebrew, which she spoke at an easy level and slow pace so almost everyone could understand.

After a pretty delicious lunch of tongue and schnitzel, we had a short wrap up for the day, and had the rest of the afternoon to relax. We again had an early dinner, and around 6 left for the short 20 minute ride to Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, located south of Ashkelon, for one of the official closing ceremonies for Yom Hashoah. The ceremony began with many speeches, including one by Defence Minister Amir Peretz, and a girl just a few years younger than me, who represented the Hashomer Haztair youth movement who helped organize the ceremony. Because Hashomer Hatzir is a very secular youth movement, the ceremony was very different than others I had been to in the past for Yom Hashoah, in that poetry was read in lieu of Kaddish or Yizkor. As well, the tone of the many musical selections, including one that sounded like an eighties rock song, was radically different than the somber ones like Ani Maamin or Eli Eli (both of which have religious connotations) that I am used to hearing in connection to Yom Hashoah. The ceremony ended with the emotion singing of Hatikvah, which gave me the most amazing feeling of the privilege we have to be living, after the devestation of the Shoah in a sovereign Jewish state. Overall, although the ceremony was totally different than how I am used to marking the day, it was definitely a very enlightening and worthwhile experience.

To hear a recording of this Hatikvah, click here.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were relatively normal workdays, with a few small exceptions. Our boss, Hanan, realized that my friend David knows how to drive stick shift, and on Tuesday and Wednesday, he got to drive the pipes (and us) around the field in a tractor, which made our work much more efficient.

On Tuesday afternoon, our staff organized an outing and barbecue for us at Nitzanim beach, located on the coast between Ashkelon and Ashdod. It turned out to be a nice way for us to bond and get off of kibbutz for a little while, as well as have a tasty meat dinner compared to the dairy stuff we usually get.

Finally, Wednesday and Thursday were Rosh Hodesh Iyyar, and as usual the Kibbutz Beit Knesset didn’t disappoint us in its ability to finish the entire Shacharit service, including Hallel and Mussaf, in 45 minutes! Hodesh Tov!

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!

לשנה הזאת בירושלים L’shana Hazot birushalayim

This year in Jerusalem!

What an amazing feeling it was, to end the Seder with the words ‘Lshana Habaah birushalayim habnuyah,’ ‘next year in Jerusalem rebuilt, at the Friedgut’s Seder in East Talpiot, and then on the way home, to walk by the Tayelet and see the rebuilt city shining in the moonlight.

I’m now going to backtrack a little and talk about what I’ve been up too from Shabbat Hagadol, this past Shabbat up until now. I decided to spend Shabbat on kibbutz, since I would be away all of Pesach. Friday night tefillot were pretty nice; while the Shaliach Tsibbur didn’t sing Carlebach, he had a beautiful voice which made the standard Nusach all the more beautiful. Dinner was held in the chadar ochel, and all of the food, with the exception of Pitot that we were given for motzi. The food itself was pretty satisfying for institutional Pesach fare, but the service wasn’t as great because half the families on the kibbutz decided to take advantage of the food being serverd instead of cooking, and room was actually filled with families from the kibbutz, a far cry from the three kibbutz couples who eat there on a regular Shabbat.

Shabbat morning I davened in the Kibbutz Beit knesset, where we had a beautiful d’var torah (in Hebrew) by the Kibbutz Rabbi, who also chanted the Haftarah in special sefardi trope. I ate lunch with the Slaters, my adopted kibbutz family, who made a nice Hametz meal, and we also had some nice conversation as well. I then took a walk with them after Birkat Hamazon. Our fiest stop was at a neighbour’s plum tree, where we gathered to recite ברכת האילנות, the special b’racha said over the first fruit tree that one sees blossoming during the month of Nissan. We then took a stroll through the Kibbutz garden, with a variety of beautiful trees and flowers. We then made it over to the beit knesset for mincha, after which I read and slept for most of the afternoon. Shabbat ended with a chametz party-seudah shlishit in our Madricha Yael’s room, followed by a quick maariv with the kibbutz and a Nativ Havdalah.

Sunday was a Yom Nativ dedicated to Pesach which began with shacharit, and continued with session such as making chametz dioramas which depicted יציאת מצרים, making up songs that described our various family seder traditions, and a game show put together by my friend Yosef to test our knowledge of the intricate halachot of chametz and matzah. The rest of the day was spent cleaning our caravan for Pesach, rounded out with a deli dinner, Maariv, Bedikat Chametz, and of course packing for the week of Pesach.

Monday morning, being Erev Pesach, was also the fast of the firstborn. While most years the fast is broken by a siyum (celebration making the completion of a tractate of Talmud), this year was unique in that instead was able to eat by being part of a celebration of the bris of the kibbutz rabbi’s new son. Similar to what I’m sure my bris was like, the whole kibbutz was invited to the bris, which took place at the Yeshiva, and after a sefardi shacharit, the brit milah ceremony went by pretty quickly. On interesting note is that at the end of the service, when the rabbi explained the significance of his new son’s name יוחאי אשר, he metioned that his is proud to name his son Asher after his father (who was the sandak at the bris), which is a totally foreign concept to me as an Ashkenazi.

I quickly gathered my bags, and walked out the main highway outside of the kibbutz, where I waited for the #437 Egged bus to Jerusalem. Although I had heard horror stories about traveling in Israel erev Pesach, it seems that early hour at which we left provided perfect traffic conditions, including less traffic at the entrance to the city than I had ever seen before. One I got in I stopped near the bus station to say hello to the Haber family, and pick up a bag that they had left for me at their hotel. I then caught a city bus which took me to my next destination, the apartment which Avram’s family is living in on Derech Hevron for a month, in one of the sparkling new condominiums behind the Tayelet. We spent most of the afternoon relaxing, spending time together, and taking advantage of the wireless internet. Around 5:30, we showered and got ready for Yom tov, and about an hour later, we left to walk over to Kehilat Moreshet Avraham, the Masorti Kehilla of East Talpiot. A beautiful and festive Maariv service, including a full Hallel as is the custom in Israel, was led by Nahum Binder, the assistant director of Nativ. It was then time for the (only) Seder, and I was privileged to attend a very lovely one, along with Avram’s family, at the home of Jac and Diane Friedgut. From what I am used to, it was a relatively large Seder with 22 people, most of them from the extended Friedgut family. It was a lot of fun, especially because of all of the young children, as well as the ‘assignment’ that Jac had for us, to have each of us pick a character from the past (real or fictional; I actually chose Harry Potter), and speak in first person as if we were leaving Mitzrayim. The Friedguts’ children and grandchildren who were present represent the spectrum from secular to orthodox, as well as both Ashkenazim and Sefardim, and this as well added to what I was able to get out of the Seder.

On Yom Tov morning, we again davened at Moreshet Avraham. Tefillot started late at 8:45 knowing that people had been up late at the Seder, and was very nice as usual. I received third aliyah, Rabbi David Golinkin, one of the most important leaders of the Masorti movement in Israel chanted the maftir (and as a very nice note, the Rabbi of the shul even called him up as מורי ורבי, my rabbi and teacher), and we began praying for dew in musaf. The service ended with a bang as the Shaliach Tsibbur led anim zemirot to the rocking ECRUSY melody. We had a very nice and delicious lunch with a friend of Avram’s mother, and when we returned to the apartment, I took a much needed nap for a while. After davening Maariv and begging to count the omer, as well as making Havdalah, I walked over to Emek Refaim and had dinner at Norman’s restaurant (one of many open for the week of Pesach) with Dean Shuly Rubin Schwartz of List College, and a nice group of current sand future students, which made me very excited for next year.

Wednesday morning started off with me waking up pretty early (around 6 am) and went over to Yedidya for a festive Chol hamoed shacharit. I led p’sukei d’zimra, and compared to the kibbutz we took our time and had a much more festive Hallel. I packed up, said goodbye to Avram’s family, and took a bus over to Rehavia, where I met my former teacher, Rabbi Barry Rosen, at his pesach apartment, where I stayed the past two nights. After schmoozing for a bit, he went out for the morning, and in response to an ad I had seen in a newspaper that morning, I headed downtown to the plaza in front of the Hamashbir department store to donate blood to Magen David Adom. After waiting for a few minutes, I filled out the form in Hebrew without a translation, and then went into the bloodmobile to give the donation. It was such a great feeling to take just a little bit of my time and make a difference. I then strolled over to the Old City ad walked around for a bit before meeting Rabbi Rosen. We stopped at a few bookstores, I got a ‘shwarma on a plate’ for a lunch, and ran into my friend Koby Geller and his family, who my parents, and even Rabbi Rosen knew. What a small Jewish world! We ended the excursion by davening Mincha at a more crowded than usual kotel, and taking a cab back to the apartment. In the late afternoon I took a #14 bus over to the Renaissace hotel, and had dinner with Steve and Jeremy Haber. We davened maariv first, and then had a very slow, but delicious meal (including a main course of Prime Rib), which gave us plenty of time to catch up and talk.

Thursday morning I also woke up early and left the apartment at 6:45 to walk down to the old city, so I could get a prime spot at the Kotel for the annual Birkat Kohanim (Priestly Blessing), where hundreds of Kohanim come to blesses the thousands who fill the kotel plaza to be blessed. The Shacharit service began at 8:45, and used a microphone so everyone could hear the leader. The tefillot, including Hallel, torah reading and musaf went until 11, and ended with the recitation of a special prayer for the return of captive soldiers. Even though it was a very long service, it was a fascinating and worthwhile experience.

to hear part of the Hallel service and the actual Birkat Kohanim, use these links!

In the afternoon I spent some time studying from the אנציקלופדיה תלמודית (Talmudic Encyclopedia) with Rabbi Rosen. For dinner I went down to Ben Yehuda and ate a Burger King, where I had a whopper, fries and a drink, on a special Pesach bun.

מועדים לשמחה Moadim lsimcha!