Shabbat at the Rabbi's house in the old city

After spending time dancing and praying at the cotel, we finally found the Rabbi despite there being hundreds of orthodox men that all look and dress the exact same! Because he was leading a service on the men’s side, we found our way to his house. The door was wide open and when we walked in, we saw five other American girls sitting on the couch who he also had invited over. Every minute, more and more people trickled in and soon enough, there was barely enough room to move. I looked at the table and didn’t know how in the hell all 20 people would possible be able to fit. When the Rabbi walked in, he saw the apprehension in all of our faces and told us a story. In the ancient temple, he said, everyone was packed like sardines and there was barely enough room to move. A prayer came where everyone was supposed to bow down together and everyone was nervous that they wouldn’t have space to do so. Miraculously, he said, everyone bowed in motion and the prayer was successful. So we all grabbed chairs and squished ourselves in, fighting for a bit of elbow room or space to put our plate down.

 Despite it being overcrowded, it was one of the most enlightening dinners I’ve ever had. He brought out all different types of wine and said, “Throughout the dinner, if you every get shy to ask me a question about god, Kabbalah, Judaism, or life in general,  take more glasses of wine until you feel comfortable.” After a dinner of potato coogle, shnitzel, pita, hummus and salad, hours and hours went by with the Rabbi telling us stories, singing songs and teaching us about Jewish theologies and ideas of god. The rabbi’s three little girls were also really active in the discussion and excitedly pounded on the table in rhythm as we benched after the meal. At about 10.30, most people started leaving but the Rabbi invited everyone to stay as late as they wanted if they had more questions. Because my curiosity level had skyrocketed in the last couple of hours, four our other girls and I girls ended up staying until about 2.00 in the morning drinking whiskey and debating about god. There’s nothing like getting drunk with a Rabbi! The whole night, yeshiva boys would stroll into his house, sit for a little bit drinking wine and arguing about torah, and then leave and find another Rabbi. I guess instead of going “party hopping” for fun, the religious go “Rabbi hopping”.  I could tell at about 1.30 that the Rabbi and his wife were getting exhausted and although my interest and curiosity were not completely satisfied, we left his house and went to the Cotel for a couple of hours and then walked forty five minutes back to our apartments.

Dome of the Rock

Muslims taking off their shoes before entering. This tradition is practiced because when Abraham approached the burning bush, God told him to take off his shoes because it was holy ground. For some reason, Jews haven't adopted this ritual.

Whenever I picture Jerusalem, I see a white city scattered with ancient buildings and a huge, golden dome that looks like the sun. I never thought I’d be able to get up close to the bright dome that  pierces my eyes  but lucky enough, my Comparative religion class finally. We were told to cover every inch of our skin and our class of 17 ecstatic students walked to the bus stop together, caught three different buses, and arrived in the old city.  To get to the dome of the rock you first have to walk through the Jaffa gate, through the Jewish quarter of the city, down a couple hundred stairs, pass 2 security check points, up a long bridge over the woman’s section of the Cotel, then you go through the Arab market and you finally come to a huge, ancient courtyard. No outsiders are allowed into the mosque nor could we go into the dome of the rock castle but walking up close to such a beautiful, holy place was truly astonishing.

            There was a line of Muslims at the front door who would say a prayer and then take their shoes off and float into the building. When I tried to walk in, the Arab guard at the front shooed me away and yelled something in Arabic. At this moment, I thought about the orthodox synagogue that welcomes anyone in graciously and the holy church in the old city that let me in with open arms and gave me a tour of the church even though they knew I was Jewish. It upset me a bit that they exclude everyone who is not like them and fail to greet newcomers or foreigners. Also, the Dome of the rock isn’t just significant for Muslims, but to Jews as well. The rock is supposedly where Abraham was going to sacrifice Jacob and where Noah brought his ark but because the Arabs have control of the area, Jews are not allowed in and there’s only one hour a day when Jews and tourists are allowed to walk into the courtyard and up close to the dome. This separation exists everywhere in Jerusalem and because we can’t live to learn together, both sides are missing out and living with fear and hate. I felt very fortunate for being able to see this beauty up close, but the conflict and hate that surrounds the area diminishes the sanctity of the building and in turn, reminded me of the partition that both Judaism and Islam live with in Israel.

            When we returned back to campus, a Muslim speaker came to talk to us. He used to be a Muslim extremist who worked for Fatah who hated Jews, but two life experiences altered this perspective and made him realize that peace will only come when both sides see each other as human and not as an “Arab” or a “Jew”. When his father had cancer, he took him to the Hadassah hospital and was very skeptical about this because he assumed that the Jews wouldn’t treat his father well but it was his only choice of action. After spending lots of time at the hospital with his father, he saw his father joking around with the Jewish nurses, he saw doctors treating him extremely well, and he saw that the Jews were taking care of him with all their power. A year or so later, he took his mother to Tel Aviv on a Friday afternoon. His mother had asthma and started having an attack but her inhalers were all out and because it was Shabbat, everything was closed and they couldn’t buy one nearby. He got her into a car and the closest thing that was open was the Ben Gurion Airport. His mom fainted in the car and when he drove her into the airport, he expected the Jewish security officers to turn him away. Instead, they called ambulances and right there on the floor, performed some sort of surgery and tried to save her life. Although his mom died on the way to the hospital, he saw that the Jews didn’t care that he was an Arab and tried to help him. These two experiences brought him to an understanding that Jews were not his enemy and that he needs to learn to live side by side with them.

            Now, he spends his time preaching at schools about negotiation and tries to steer Arab children away from hate. He explained to us that in almost all Muslim schools, hating Jews is in their curriculum and from a young age, they are taught that in order to please god, they must kill Jews and take back Palestine. He taught us how they twist words and meanings around from the Quran to justify the killing of Jews. His goal is to educate kids and teach them the real messages of the Quran which he believes to be the peaceful and beautiful words of god.

Western Wall

It's forbidden to take pictures on Shabbat so I couldn't take any pictures of the wall itself, but I snuck this one from the top of my purse.

  It’s inevitable to seek out god or some aspect of spirituality in this city because very corner and stone has some historical or meaningful significance and every person has a some sort of deep connection with god, a religion, or the land itself. Tonight 14 of us walked down to the cotel(the Wailing Western Wall) which was bustling and teeming with ecstatic Jews. Groups from all over the world were singing, chanting, praying and dancing. I slowly worked my way around people and approached the wall where I saw thousands of prayers and hopes stuffed into corners and wedges of the yellow ancient stones. Whether it be a historical or religious significance, I put my head and hands to the wall and instantly felt an ardent energy percolate through to me. I felt that by touching the wall, the spirit of the entire Jewish people flowed through me with an immense, empowering force; from my biblical ancestors to the millions of Jews who passed away during the holocaust to the orthodox men and women currently praying at my side. I looked around the woman’s section at the diversity of the Jews: there was the ultra-orthodox woman with head coverings pushing little babies in strollers, young, Zionist Americans with cameras and tourist backpacks, Israeli scouts (tzofim) dancing and singing, and old, round Russians pushing everyone out of their way to get to the wall. Although there is a great range and multiplicity of Jews, the values and history we all share are the same, which in turn, unifies us as one people and one nation. 

Roommates

Hannah my bunkmate!

  The time is inching forward; Jerusalem is warming up and I'm hearing more and more  talk about this summer and post-year course plans. Me and my roommates are starting to realize that soon, we wont get to fall asleep to Iron and Wine music each night or go lie out on the grass together drawing or frantically go grocery shopping while drinking chocos besakeet(chocolate milk in a bag) or drinking wine and taking buses around Israel for the fun of it or even just sitting around together talking and listening to phish and Lucy Michelle! Although we have some arguments (usually about who ate all the cottage cheese or who forgot to do their dishes), I've really come to love my roommates and we've become a little family. It's going to be extremely hard saying goodbye and having everyone disperse back all around the states in the US but It's cool to know friends all around America and hopefully be able to visit a decent amount of them sooner or later in life. This summer, a group of us are all going to All Good music festival in West Virginia!!!!!  I'm flying into Maryland with Alana and staying with an awesome friend, Eric, and then driving up to meet everyone. After all the hours and hours of work on college application and stressing out about where I want to go last eyar, there’s nothing I’d rather have done than come to Israel. This has been the best learning and growing opportunity for me and I wouldn’t have changed this for anything else in the world.

Old city Food Festival

Wine and cheese tasting

Seth,Eli,Jared,and Simon

  Last night was amazing. I went with a group of friends to the old city for a food tasting festival. In every quarter (the old city is split up into different sections; Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim) there’s music and food tasting. The old city at night is absolutely breathtaking. The majestic lighting, smooth stone and enchanted alleys that wrap around through the different neighborhoods with colorful stores and vibrant, orthodox people give you the atmosphere and feeling of the ancient times. There was music and people everywhere. At some of the stands I tried Turkish coffee, strawberries, cheeses and wine, bread with raisons, nuts, and apricot spread, nan bread, and a chocolate crepe. In the Jewish quarter, an old couple who was impressed by the music started dancing. My friend, Seth, and I thought it was adorable and went along to join. Sooner or later, ten more elderly people came and we all held hands and danced in a circle. A couple minutes later, two Haredi, orthodox men came and started yelling in Hebrew. I couldn’t understand him but right away, everyone stopped dancing and dispersed from the area. I soon realized that because were in the Jewish quarter, it’s against the rules to touch the opposite sex. There’s nothing like wandering around the old city at night.

God Talk

 

Today for my God Talk class, Rabbi Eliyahu Yaakov, an orthodox rabbi with a long scruffy beard, came to teach our class instead of our usual teacher. His passion and perspective on the subject of God inspired me and captivated my interest right away. Of course I don’t agree with everything he offered us, but for the sake of writing, I’m going to lay it out in his perspective to the best of my ability.

First of all, everyone in the world wants pleasure and happiness. Because of this strong desire, people are attracted to many different things such as rock and roll, sex, and drugs. But all of those things are finate. The only thing in the universe that we can connect to which is infinite is god. The Jewish idea is that by building a dynamic relationship with the infinite, we can experience the deepest joy possible to human.

Then we talked about human relationships versus god to man relationships. God isn’t gaining anything whether you believe in him/her or not. Even if you don’t acknowledge his presence, he is still the infinite and the all-knowing so really, he’s not benefiting off of your relationship with him in any way. The only side that’s benefiting is you. Because of this, god is the ultimate giver by allowing us to have the opportunity of connecting with him because all other animals (that we know of) do not have this capability. 

Next, we talked about the pure goodness that god possesses. To understand this, we brought the discussion down to a connector of God; the angel. If an angel ONLY attains pure goodness, then the angel never actually expresses goodness because with bad, there is no good, just like there is no Ying without Yang. If there is no contrast between good and bad, then goodness can never be manifested. So just like the angel, how can God, who has never made a mistake and is pure good, express goodness? That’s where we, humans, come in to the picture.

Each person has a spark of god within them and our souls are a reflection of god himself.  His goodness is represented in each person. Every person is born pure and when a person commits a sin or an act against humanity, he is driving away from his natural intuition because of all the garbage that’s dumped on him/her during his/her lifetime. My question was, “Why does god get the credit for all the good we do but not the bad?” The rabbi said that god gave us all the tools to be good, but there’s a difference between our internal essence and our external expression. Everything good that you do brings you closer to god and when you are “bad”, you’re pulling away from god. This can explain why suicide bombers believe they are doing good. They believe that they are carrying out god’s wish and performing a godly act, which in truth, is the best thing a person could do. Of course I am not justifying the acts of these terrorist bombers, but it’s foolish to call these people “crazy” or “evil” when they are actually doing something which they think is heroic and pure.  The difference between the commandments made by god and the commandments made by man is this: in Western society, there is basically one commandment that all of the laws follow which is do whatever you want as long as it doesn’t bother anyone else. Commandments made by god are all to improve your relationship with god, which in turn, refines yourself as well.

Because all humans are a spark of god, we all came from the same light which means we are all metaphysically and spiritually interconnected. This is why when orthodox Jews wear Tzistzit or perform mitzvoth, they believe they are bettering humanity as a whole because when one becomes more connected to god, the entire human race benefits. 

Just like when an author writes a story, each character is as aspect of that author. In every writing class I’ve taken, my teacher has always told me, “write what you know.” In the same sense, I have to relate to each character at least a little bit in order to write about them. God, too, created each of us in his image and every single character has a purpose. The villain in stories are there to bring out the awesomeness in the hero. Without Haman in the Purim story, Mordechai wouldn’t have had the ability to be a hero. Bad people in our world should be thought of as “yeast to the bread,” because without them, there would be no need for amazing people to step up and do sensational things. Because of this, we must pray for both the hero and the villain.

            Because our class was only two hours and there was a billion questions (how do you expect us to learn about the entire existence of god in one class time?) the Rabbi invited all twelve of us over for Shabbat at his house this weekend! We’re all going to the cotel (Western Wall) tomorrow night and then he’s taking us back to his home in the old city. My first Shabbat dinner in the old city! He also told us about his website which is www.lightontoournation.com . Feel free to look through it!!