Simchat Torah

Simchat Torah dancing

The holidays create their own rhythm and in Jerusalem, the preponderance of very observant people creates a unique pulse. Businesses start to shut down around 3 pm the day before, traffic thins, buses stop running and quiet reigns. I am getting into walking the city on holidays and Shabbat because everything slows down.

We enjoyed a nice Hakafot service at Kol Haneshema on Erev Simchat Torah but the real action took place on Thursday evening. Virtually every synagogue hosts its own outdoor dance party, some with live music, some with DJs but always with the Torah Scroll as dance partner 'Eser'. (I felt for people who live near the synagogues because the music was so loud that it was blasting over the neighborhood.) There were also big parties in city squares with entertainment, food etc.  It's a relaxed holiday with a great vibe but there is a bit of an edge because people are preparing to face reality and 'back to work' after the long break.

Dance Partner 'Eres'

Sometimes of course, a boy just has to take a break from all of this religion business and chill out with friends.  (Which we did with the Israeli-Roths on Thursday).

Chillin

Visiting President Peres

Peres Speaks

One day during Sukkot break we visited President Peres along with several thousand of his best friends.  A tradition here that during Sukkot the President opens up his residence and Sukkah to the public.  Supposedly everyone also gets the chance to shake his hand.  Long lines for everything and so much speechifying and performances before the main event - we got bored and left but it was fun to see his house. The Ministry of Agriculture is on a big healthy living kick so they handed out little packets of a tomatoes, a cucumber and a pepper.  Good photo ops, if nothing else.

Call Any Vegetable

Sukkot is a Party

Sushi at the Ba'ka Steet Fair

You would not know there is a war on next door.  The country is partying for Sukkot.  Free music everywhere, street fairs and festivals galore.  Giant Sukkot in the squares, of course the Old City is a magnet for every tourist in town.  Toby and Dan have been a bit under the weather with 'flu like' symptoms so we have been laying low.  But we buzzed through a street fair in the Ba'ka neighborhood last night (and ate crepes and sushi and heard a Beatles cover band, of all things - the falafel line was too long.)  Starting to get cool at night, even put on a long sleeved shirt for the first time.

Beatles Cover Band on the Balcony

Sukkot with the Israeli Roths

Under the waterfall

Spent the day with the Israeli-Roths, enjoying nature near the Dead Sea.  Sharona is one of the best tour guides, knows all the 'in' spots and has not steered us wrong yet. Started out at Ein Gedi Nature Reserve, a fantastic oasis of waterfalls and freshwater pools.

Fun in the Sun

Then we stopped at an archaeological site just a few hundred meters away from the Nature Reserve - remnants of a synagogue and other buildings dating from the Second Temple period.

Mosaic in Synagogue Prayer Hall

Ended up at another nature reserve with a number of endangered and threatened species.  The shoreline of the Dead Sea used to be at the margin of this reserve but has receded dramatically over the last 30 years.

Steps to old shoreline - Dead Sea in the distance

And to top it off, we had some visitors to our Sukkah.

Dinner in the Sukkah

Erev Sukkot

It takes some effort to be a good Jew (and we are barely in the ball park in this town.)  No sooner do we finish atoning then we start preparing for Sukkot.  Have to get that Sukkah built and ready for action.

Buckminster Fuller has nothing on me

The Finished Product

Balcony Sukkah

Balcony Sukkah

There are all kinds of Sukkot around town. And the sidewalk Sukkot can make walking down the street a challenge.  It is also always striking how things shut down the afternoon before a holiday. But finally we are done and can enjoy our first meal.

Mamilla Mall Shutting Down

First Meal in our Sukkah

Sidewalk Sukkot

Getting Ready for Sukkot

Finish atoning and start building the sukkah - that is the drill. I am told that a big mitzva is to have one bite of food to break the fast and then immediately start building your sukkah.  People take their temporary shelters pretty seriously around here and we want to keep up with the neighbors, even though there is no way that we can :)

Toby watches the experts

So we ventured to the Shuk for our Lulav and Etrog.  Lots of intense shopping to get the best and most kosher material.  I hope our purchases measure up but it is tough to compete with the experts.  (Also picked up some smoked fish - the cats in our neighborhood loved the skin.)

We are doing the best we can and it will have to do.  I always tell the kids that the process of doing something is where the learning takes place - the outcome is secondary.

Getting our stuff

So build we must.  Not totally sure what we are doing but one of the children of our house swappers is going to drop by tomorrow to advise us.  Stay tuned for a picture of the final product.

Building the walls and roof frame

Breaking Fast

Break Fast table

It was SRO at Kol Haneshema for the Neilah service so Michelle and I walked by the Sephardic Shul near our house.  Talk about a different vibe!! Main room packed with men, women in the balcony or sitting outside. All the men in white tallitot, dahviding like crazy. The Bi ma is in the center of the room, slightly raised and the leader chants the call and response. The congregants are all crowded in front of the open ark in the front of the sactuary, with their heads inside, almost touching the Torah. (I kept thinking of the contrast with Emanu-El, where you can't get anywhere near the ark.)

It just seems like a much more personal way to worship.  The leaders kept switching off and at one point, a young teenager took over as leader, he could not have been more than 14 and he was wailing away with the best of them. It was very soulful. The funniest thing was that a baby girl wondered in and sat on her Abba's lap eating potato chips.

Anyway, if I come back, I hope it is as Sephardic - better chanting and better food.

Broke fast with just the family.  Some great smoked salmon and herring from the Shuk, fresh cream cheese and Michelle's apple cake.  Can't be beat.  After dinner, the kids turned on Nickelodeon and there is no TV service, only a message saying 'May you be inscribed in the book of life'.

Day of Atonement

Yom Kippur dawned hot in Jerusalem.  If it is 90 here with some elevation, it's got to be in the high 90's in the Galilee and on the coast.  At least in Tel Aviv you can hit the beach.  Today the lower Galilee has got to be akin to Bakersfield in August.

Looking northeast on Emek Refaim Street

We decided to attend a service in English this morning so we trekked up to Hebrew Union College on David Hamelech Street, where the rabbis and cantors in training conduct services and practice their chops.  (We have been attending Kol Haneshema where the service is in hebrew - more soulful but certainly harder to follow.)

Streets empty again - so weird in a city usually buzzing with life and choked with traffic.  The kids had a great time on their scooters in the middle of the street, Toby doing jumps off the curb. (We are getting pretty lax as parents, not making the kids wear helmets, even as they barrel down the hills.)

The Hebrew Union service was nice, beautiful setting, lovely campus.  But the traditional reformed service leaves me a bit cold - give me the Ati/Ferris folk rock approach every time :)

Still, for atmosphere you can't beat listening to the melodies and looking out the window at the walls of the Old City...

Looking north on David Hamelech Street

Atonement Jerusalem Style

Normally Busy Street

After Kol Nidrei, Jerusalem turns into a giant pedestrian mall.  At least our neighborhood (Katamon) and the surrounding areas.  It is crazy (and lots of fun) to walk down normally busy streets that are completely devoid of any automobile traffic.  No one is driving. And people are just walking around, hanging out in the streets. Very casual and relaxed.

Warm weather + no cars = impromptu street fair, without the food and drink, of course.

Emek Refaim Street around 9:30 pm

Preparing to Atone

Week before Yom Kippur and Jerusalem vibrates with anticipation.  The kids have 4 days of school (Sunday through Thursday) and then a two week Sukkot break - much needed as they are both pretty stressed out about having to face the alien environment each day. However, even with the difficulties, they are anxious to get to school each day, do their homework on time, etc - I am so glad I learned some shortcuts to get around the Jerusalem rush hour traffic!!

I started the week with a visit to Yad VaShem.  Spent 4 hours and did not come close to seeing everything - suffice it to say that the museum blew me away to the point that when I returned the audio tour headset, I completely forgot to get my drivers license back.  Had to return the next day to retrieve it.

I decided to brave the Shuk Wednesday morning to get provisions for the holiday weekend. But first I had to brave the Jerusalem traffic - it can be pretty harrowing as the Israelis tend to drive on the aggressive side - definitely brings out the New Yorker in me.  But I cut my international driving teeth driving a stick shift in London in 1984 (right hand drive, other side of the road, shift with your left hand), so after that Jerusalem is cake.

Crates of live chickens in the Shuk

Big chicken market at the Shuk for the holidays and Kaparot (more on that later).

On Thursday Michelle and I went to an informal memorial concert that my violin teacher held to honor his father, who was a cantor.  He chanted and played with a trio (violin, guitar and keyboards). The guy can really play!  Then we went off to the Kotel with Sharona, Shanie, Toby and Gabriella (Gal took a pass) and about 20,000 other people. Unbelievable scene - people everywhere, partying, praying, hanging out, eating, drinking, shopping.  We stayed until around 12:30 am Friday and things were just getting started!! Apparently the group praying (all 20,000 or so) started a few hours later culminating in a blessing by the Cohanim at 0400 Friday morning.  But the kids were falling asleep on their feet so we went home.  Susan did have her sins transferred to a chicken in a Kaparot ritual (not a bad deal for 20 shekels...but I felt for the chicken).  Whatever you do, don't tell PETA.

Kotel, around midnight on Thursday

Kaparot in the Old City 

The girls in the Old City

Shabbat after Rosh Hashanah

Spent Shabbat after Rosh Hashanah recovering on the beach in Tel Aviv.  We had 3 consecutive nights of dinner with various people, starting with the Israeli-Roths on Erev RH, then parents of our house swap the second night of RH and then the best friends of the house swap for Shabbat dinner, so by Saturday we were wiped out.

Sign Giving Gender Rules 

So we escaped to Tel Aviv on Saturday for some sun, sand and sea.  Very relaxing - Tel Aviv has a totally different feel from Jerusalem.  (Although religion continues to show its face everywhere you turn).  The beach next to the one we visited is billed as a 'religious' beach with strict rules governing use by men and women - separate days for each gender.  It is surrounded by a 10' fence, I guess to discourage peeping Tommy or Tammy.


     To paraphrase one of my guitar heroes, '..and so castles (and names) made of sand melt into the sea eventually'


Dad kicking back and Toby avoiding the camera

Rosh Hashanah, 5774

Started off Rosh Hashanah 5774 almost the same way as 5773 - a New Years 'Seder' dinner at the Israeli- Roths with Sharona's parents, brother and his family.  Last year in San Francisco, this year in Israel. Very different venue, always the same great food.  It is definitely different here, to wake up to the sound of the shofar - Israel's answer to the rooster this time of year.

"Seder" Plate

Dome of the Rock from the Checkpoint

Low Door in the Muslim Quarter

After services on Thursday (all in Hebrew did not understand a thing except for the familiar prayers and melodies) I took a long walk in the Christian and Muslim quarters of the Old City.  Even during the high holidays, these areas are bustling with activity.  I got deep into the Muslim quarter this time, to the point where the guards at the checkpoints turned me back from the Muslim- only areas.  A bit menacing but not too bad. I asked the guard how he knew I was not Muslim :), he answered  me (in my NY Knicks hat) - "I just knew".  I did buy a white shirt for Yom Kippur but Michelle thinks it's an Arab style, so might not be too well received in certain quarters (but better than wearing my jalabia).

Quiet Corner in the Christian Quarter

Every time I go to the Old City I see something new - this time it was an area of street where Byzantine era cobble stones had been exposed in the course of building a new sewer line.

Byzantine Era Cobble Stones in Christian Quarter

 Ended up the day with dinner with Chana's (the woman whose house we swapped) parents and her brother's family.  Lovely evening, super nice people, another late night for the kids but they can sleep in...

Nursing Home Gig

Sara, a woman from Kol Haneshema, our congregation, enlisted me to play some music at the nursing home where she works - a pre Rosh Hashanah party for the residents.  Figured I would do a mitzvah and either get a jump on next year (or more likely offset some of this year's sins, for the upcoming Atonement). Tried to get Gabriella to come and sing with me but she would not bite.

Getting Ready

It was fun and I think the residents appreciated it, at least those who were aware and awake.  Only one or two ambulatory, most everyone very old and infirm.  But I connected with a few people - pulled out my one Mexican folk song, La Llorona, for one guy from Argentina, a Dylan tune for a woman who requested Leonard Cohen, some fiddle for a woman whose son is a violinist in the Los Angeles Symphony.

 

Mid Song

 Some interesting stories - one resident a 105 year old survivor of the Soviet Gulag, another a Yemenite who worked as a guard during the Eichmann trial, because the authorities were afraid that Ashkenazi guards would lynch Eichmann before sentencing. 

The staff gave me a plant as thanks for coming.  All in all, a good way to get ready for the new year.

Muslim Quarter and Going Native

Dome of the Rock from the north Ramparts

Muslin Quarter Housing from north Ramparts

Took the north Ramparts walk this morning above the Muslim Quarter in the Old City. Fascinating to see the city from above and to be so close to private residences at the same time.  The housing is so dense and close to the Ramparts, that I felt as if I was intruding.  Passed several schools, people hanging laundry, working on their roofs.


At the end when I descended, I passed a stall selling thin, cotton jalabas - just had to get one to go with my wool jalaba from Morocco (circa 1972). At first they tried to sell me some cheap, poly blend jalaba made in China - I said "why would I come all the way here to buy something made in China?  I could go to Beijing for that." So they showed me the "good stuff" - Al Haramain brand, all cotton. Got the price down from 180 to 100 NIS.  But the funniest thing was that I offered to play them a fiddle tune in exchange for a lower price and they gave me the lower price so I would stop playing :)  

So Gabriella and I are 'going native' - her with a kippa from the Kippa Man on Ben Yehuda Street and me with a jalaba.  (I think Gabriella gets the nod from the fashionistas.)

German Colony and a Violin Lesson

House on Hovevei Zion Street

Michelle and I took a nice walk around the German Colony neighborhood, although it is still pretty hot in Jerusalem. We started on Hovevei Zion Street, named for the Lovers of Zion movement of the late 1800's, a precursor of the modern Zionist movement. Gorgeous old homes on this street and Martin Buber lived at number 3.

The German Colony is near where we are living and was founded by German settlers in 1874. They were transferred to internment camps by the British during WWII and many immigrated to Australia after the war.

On 9/1 I had my first Klezmer violin lesson with Lior Kaminetsky, a fine violinist from an old Jerusalem family.  Check him out on this link:

http://www.liorviolin.com/site/detail/detail/detailDetail.asp?detail_id=500934&depart_id=31252

Water Pump from Original German Colony on Emek Refaim