So I'm back in the airport, two months later, returning to the States. It's hard to believe that the summer's gone by so quickly, but it makes me even more sure that coming back to Jerusalem for the year is the right decision. I had a pretty relaxing last day in Tel Aviv - one last iced Aroma, a trip to the Tel Aviv art museum, and a pretty delicious piece of cheesecake. The art museum wasn't clearly marked, so I accidentally walked into what was probably some kind of office building, and when I started asking people for a map of the place in English, they looked at me really funny.
As I may have mentioned, this past weekend I officiated at a bat mitzvah in Michmoret Beach, which is north of Tel Aviv, near Netanya. The whole weekend was a really interesting and unique experience. I met the family when I worked at Brith Shalom - I was leading a b'nai mitzvah tutoring minyan every other Saturday morning, and right after the first one, a mother and daughter came up to me and told me that they were planning the daughter's bat mitzvah in Israel this summer. When I told them I would be in Israel, they offered me the position of "rabbi" for the event, which would be a win-win situation for both of us - they get to have the same person preparing with Maya ahead of time and have someone they know perform the ceremony, and I get the experience! But if you think that this would be just like any other bar or bat mitzvah.... you'd be mistaken.
1. First of all, it wasn't in a synagogue, but rather in this outdoor event space overlooking the beach. A really gorgeous setting, especially with the sun setting in the background, but when the torah service gets interrupted by "Boys! Don't swim so close to that rock!!" from the lifeguard, you know you're not at the most typical bat mitzvah.
2. This bat mitzvah was a mincha (afternoon) service, while most are usually Saturday morning (shacharit). It's a shorter service (none of the usual lead-up prayers [Pesukey d'zimra] or the prayers surrounding the Sh'ma) and the Torah reading itself is much shorter, and no haftarah reading. This was good for the bat mitzvah girl - much less to learn!!
3. Maya's father is Israeli, so 99% of the guests were Israeli - and secular. So while they understood all of the Hebrew words in the service (and to them it probably sounded like Shakepearean English does to us), they were totally unfamiliar with (and mostly apathetic toward) the liturgy and the tunes. Combined with the fact that the room was set up with tables and chairs for dinner rather than chairs in rows like you would normally see in a prayer service, I decided to coin the event "Dinner Theater Bat Mitzvah." Maya and I literally performed the service for the 50 or so guests who looked on with varying degrees of interest without participating - definitely not your normal bat mitzvah.
Despite all of the unique elements, it really was a very meaningful experience, both for me and for the family. Maya led the service beautifully and chanted her Torah portion flawlessly, and I managed to coordinate between her, her parents giving their speech, the gabbai checking my Torah reading, her grandfathers w/ the 1st and 2nd aliyot (honors of being called to the Torah), the young cousins who read the prayers for Israel, and my own role as "rabbi"/gabbai rishon (calling people to the Torah)/Torah chanter. Whew!
One of the other interesting elements was negotiating my role as "bat mitzvah facilitator" as well as fulfilling my own needs to be shomeret Shabbat (lit. guarding Shabbat - not using electricity, cooking, carrying from inside to outside, etc.) The family had generously found me a guest house 5 minutes from the beach so that I could stay in Michmoret for all of Shabbat without having to drive up Saturday afternoon. I was able to bring food with me to cook ahead of time, but having Shabbat all by myself was a stark contrast to all of my pervious Jerusalem Shabbatot, with meals and company for all 25 hours. I was prepared for the solitude and brought lots of books to read, but it was still a little lonely. Luckily, Leah - the owner of the guest houses - stopped by mine just as I was about to walk out on Friday evening and invited me to the local beit knesset (synagogue) and then to her house for dinner! While she and her family are secular, she still had a Shabbat dinner prepared, and she knew all of the locals that showed up for Friday night services. I really appreciated her hospitality, and it reminded me just how warm and community-oriented Israelis are - it doesn't matter if you've never met before, but if you're Jewish and you need a place to go for Shabbat dinner, you're welcome in any home.
That's about all I have time for before my flight, but I did promise a list of what I've learned after two months here. I'll start with the easy stuff, and then add to it over the course of the flight.
1. Jerusalem cabbies are nuts. If you're a girl, don't ride alone in a cab late at night - it's just asking for trouble. I've heard too many stories of uncomfortable situations.
2. Along those lines... girls/women should get used to being beeped at by male drivers for no other reason than being female. Apparently if you cover your hair (/you're married), the beeping magically goes away!
3. Ice cream on a waffle is DELICIOUS, as long as you don't smear it all around. Matt would say it's still delicious (and perhaps even more so) then, but it loses some of its appeal, in my opinion.
4. There is delicious granola to be found at the shuk and also at T'mol Shilshom's Friday morning brunch. And speaking of which, brunch in Hebrew is "bohorayim" (boker+tzohorayim - cute, right?) But apparently the word hasn't really caught on.
5. Important restaurant words to know: restaurant = misada, check = chesbon, menu = tafrit, change = odef.
6. Mom, this is bad news for you - but Israelis don't really do brewed coffee. It's all dissolvable instant granules here, which I still haven't been able to bring myself to taste. However, there's a coffee shop on Emek Refaim - the Coffee Mill - which apparently has brewed coffee, and AMAZING chai.
More to come!
-Lauren
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