First Shabbat

January 25, 2008
Up and at it relatively early we spent the first half of the day at Mahane Yehuda (the Jewish shuk). This was an amazing experience. Mahane Yehuda is a huge outdoor market with so many vendors selling fresh produce, dried fruits, nuts, pasta, hand-made hummus, cheese, bread, and all sorts of miscellaneous household items. We walked around for about 3 hours listening to shouting vendors competing for consumers, maneuvering through the packed aisles, and stocking up on delicious Israeli foods. All of this in the morning of course, because this was Friday, Shabbat, where everything shuts down completely in the afternoon until Saturday at sunset.

After getting locked into campus after using the internet we wandered around trying to find an open gate. The campus beautiful and full of cats just like the US is full of squirrels. They are adorable and look well-fed. I am a little weary of petting them though. We finally got out and had to walk a round about way back to the Student Village (the new set of dorms). On our way we stood and overlooked a small Arab village with children playing soccer in the streets, clothes hanging on lines outside, and a horse hanging out in a backyard. With the campus up on a hill (Mount Scopus) we have great views all around.

I dragged myself out of bed from a nap (still recovering from jet lag) to make it to a free Shabbat dinner. This was put on in one of the dorms by a Jewish group on campus, who apparently are very welcoming at first but eventually want you to become more and more Jewish (according to a friend we met). It was an hilarious first Shabbat experience. It began with singing in Hebrew, then we all went to “wash” our hands. Traditionally you wash your hands before eating the bread by pouring water over each hand with a basin 3 times. Things started to get interesting when the Rabbi went around to each person pouring Vodka shots or mixes with cherry liquor, which quite frankly just tasted like cold syrup. Not to mention pouring some for himself. The food passed out was not very good quality, but gave me a general idea of the types of foods served. Although our table did not get much variety as they ran out of food before reaching us. At one point we had to “de-fishify” the table, discarding anything that touched fish. Throughout all of the eating the Rabbi was singing songs, banging on the table, and drinking vodka. At one point he attempted to make a speech, standing on his chair, cradling the empty bottle of vodka, and rambling on about the “metaphysical” and the “finite and infinite” claiming that “believe it or not, I am making sense right now.” I was assured multiple times that this was not a typical Shabbat dinner and that Rabbis usually hold their liquor a lot better.

The dinner was still a lot of fun, and we met 2 Israeli students who go to Hebrew University (this is rare since we are surrounded by other international students attending the Rothberg International School at Hebrew U. We invited them up to our apartment after dinner and ended up talking until late. They were fun and nice and we discussed our different cultures.

There is a lot that I do not yet understand. I still have so much to learn about Israel, Judaism and their respective traditions and cultures, and am looking forward to it!