Israel, Part 4

Today is Friday, July 4th.   I am reminded that today is a very patriotic day (for the U.S. that is) when Dawn and I decide to take a detour on the way to the Aish Hatorah Center where we will hear our next lecture by Lori.  Somehow Dawn and I took a "shortcut" that turned out to be a very long scenic route around the Old City.  I guess you could say we got a bit lost.  However, we did manage to end up right where we wanted at Holy Bagel.  It was in Holy Bagel that they were playing over the speaker system, "The Star Spangled Banner".  The gentleman who worked behind the counter was from Brooklyn.  We all stood there briefly with our hands over our hearts and paid tribute to the great country the United States of America is.  Then proceeded with bagels and coffee to go!

I should back up a bit and say that we were supposed to be in the lobby ready (showered, dressed and having eaten breakfast) by 7:45am.  The wake-up call we requested never happened and the next thing you know, it was 7:38am before I opened my eyes and took a look at my watch in horror. Uh-oh!  I convinced Dawn to quickly throw on some clothes and skip breakfast.  We made it down to the lobby in record time and was not even late.  Then when you throw in our "short cut" and stop at Holy Bagel, we managed to pull off the impossible and join the women for "Light up your life -- Here comes Shabbat" by Lori just in the nick of time.  In a nutshell, Shabbat is all about "Disconnect in order to reconnect."  After hearing Lori talk about the importance of Shabbat and seeing it in action, I am more inspired than ever to make Shabbat a priority in our home.  Afterwards, Nili spoke to us about "The inner beauty of the Jewish women".

A challah baking class was next.  I LOVED this!!! Tamar Ansh taught us how to make all these gorgeous designs and braided challahs.  She was amazing!!  And funny!  And totally adorable to watch.  We were each given dough to try out some of her techniques. Braiding challah is much easier to watch than to actually doing it yourself.  I attempted a 6 braid challah.  What fun we all had trying.

Hahaha, that's mine on the left.
The one that starts out all funky looking and ends up not too bad.

Once we are done making our individual challahs, we finally have some downtime and head to the Shuk (Mahane Yehuda Market).  It is a huge open-air market, filled with vendors selling everything from spices to nuts to chicken to fish to pastries to candy and so much more. This place is the coolest!  It would easily be a weekly stop for me if I lived in Israel.  Everyone is there getting ready for Shabbat. Dawn and I have such a great time going from vendor to vendor checking out everything they are selling. 

It's time for Shabbat!

Dawn and I head back to the hotel to make ourselves "Shabbat pretty" as the itinerary called for.

Our attempts at "Shabbat Pretty".  Too much or not enough?

We head to the Aish Hatorah Center to officially kick-off the Shabbat festivities. I don't think I mentioned this previously but everytime we walk to or from the Aish Hatorah Center it is a mile and half -- longer if we are taking our "short cut" which we seem to do now on a regular basis out of habit.  We are treated to a pre-shabbat concert with Yom Tov Glaser.  He is rocking out and getting the group of women moving.  Then we do individual candle lightings and head outside to the Kotel (Western Wall) where we proceed to sing and dance.  It is quite a sight to see all 200+ women forming circles dancing.  It is so joyous that other groups of women nearby join us.  What a beautiful night!  Dinner came next and was very yummy.  Rabbi Friedman led our Shabbat dinner.  The more he spoke, the sexier he became.  Can I say that about a Rabbi?  He was awesome!!  While he was speaking he would randomly break into song to help make his point.  So much personality.  I think I could become orthodox if it meant he was at my synagogue each week.  :)

On Saturday morning, we finally get the chance to sleep in a bit.  We don't have to be anywhere until 10:15am.  Lori speaks to us about "Putting the "Jewish" into Values."   Lori showed us this really cool trick for remembering all 10 Commandments using our fingers/hands.  That night I go to sleep practicing it.  I can't wait to show the kids this trick.   Rabbi Friedman is back and talks to us about "Heaven on Earth".  I am really enjoying listening to him.  He is very high energy, so dynamic and incredibly funny. 

One of my favorite activities was next.  We went to a local young family's house for a Shabbat lunch.  Ben and Jenna and their 8 month old son were our hosts.  Both the DC group and the Rochester group were treated to a fabulous lunch at their house.  Ben and Jenna had moved to Israel from Ohio.  I am so impressed that these Israelis do this and open their house to have complete strangers over.  This would be unheard of in the U.S.  It was so wonderful hearing their background and what inspired them to make such a big move.

Our day of rest is packed full of activities!  It is now time for "The Four Things You Never Knew About Judaism".  I am not a huge fan of this lecture and would rather it had been optional.  I felt like the four things were pretty obvious.  Dawn and I sneak out early and make our way back to the roof top to take more photos of the spectacular view.  We soon see a few others of our group who had the same idea. 

We end the day at Pamela's house for the 3rd meal of Shabbat.  She has been very instrumental in starting the "Thank Israeli Soldiers" program and has hosted thousands and thousands of soldiers at her home...which is absolutely stunning!  Pamela is a beautiful person inside and out.  She gives off this glow and you just want to be around her. 

Since my diagnosis of Celiac Disease (over 4 years ago), I have been incredibily dilligent in making sure I only eat gluten-free foods.  I've never knowingly ate something I knew was going to do damage internally. However, at Pamela's house, the rugelach she served was from Marzipan.  I HAD TO do it.  I had to eat one.  If there was ever going to be a reason to break the gluten-free eating, this was it.  And let me tell you, it was worth every single bite.  Oh my!  I can still taste that chocolately-goodness.  With each bite, I thought of my Grandmom Syl and how we'd make rugelach together.  She would've definitely approved of these. 

On the way back to the hotel Dawn and I stop in some of the stores and shop.  We have such a great time negotiating!  This was definitely a highlight.  This guy Solomon fell in love with Dawn and wanted to keep her.  We made some very good deals his shop. :)

We had been hearing so much about celebrating Shabbat in Israel and what an event it is. It did not disappoint! 

Stay tuned for Israel, Part 5......I feel like I've been gone forever, fortunately I still have plenty of clean clothes left to wear.