"Abracadabra"
Is actually a Jewish phrase meaning,
"I create what you speak."
-Ancient phrase
I know, I know, it's been weeks since I last posted. It's been hellishly busy here, but that's little excuse for laziness.
September 28th, just as the violence was beginning to stir in Israel, we had a somewhat of a surprise trip to Jerusalem. It
was a nice experience where we got to visit our boss’ apartment in the city,I got to return to the infamous shuuk, and visit the kotel again. We also got to see the
new movie Everest, based on the book by John Krakouer. That last one was really, really random, but nice. I didn't expect it at all really.
So where to start? We left from Arad around 6 p.m. in the
evening and reached Beer Sheva close to 7. We then left from Beer Sheva for
Jerusalem. I do have some small complaints to make about the bus system when
you go to Jerusalem. While the busses seemingly everywhere else in Israel
have internet, the busses either to or from Jerusalem always seem to never have
it. Part of me thinks this is some weird deliberate move by the bus company,
but I cannot imagine why.
At Beer Sheva we disembarked in the central terminal, which as it always is, was absolutely flooded with soldiers. I don't think I've ever actually seen that many guns in one place. I ended up getting pasta from a nice place where everything sold there from coffee to sandwiches was five shekels. The food wasn't great of course, but it was filling.
We arrived to Jerusalem and went to the house of the head of
our division of Masa-Tlalim, where we were greeted with pizza and drinks. More
of the unusual Israeli pizza you come to expect in the country.
We then crashed at our employers home which was fortunately
nearby. It was already 2 .am. and by the time we figured out who of the six of
us volunteering was sleeping on the couch, the bed, and the floor, it was
around 3 a.m.
The only intelligent solution ended up being to write down the location where we were sleeping and let people draw it from the bag.
I slept on the floor on a shag carpet with the pillow I
brought. I’m not complaining, I prefer the floor. I have a relatively bad back, so sleeping on the floor always goes a long way to reducing any discomfort. Unfortunately, we woke early after only a few hours of sleep. I suspect part
of our trip was to exhaust us into compliance.
We walked to a youth center in the middle of Jerusalem, near
the Shuuk, and then wandered through the city visiting multiple cites as part of
a scavenger-type hunt. We visited one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city,
then schlepped through winding corridors and side alleys near the marketplace,
many of which were hasseidi and where great rabbis from the past had once lived. We saw this great painting on one of the walls within;
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| A man with the letter Aleph coming out of his Head. |
What was pretty cool was learning from one of the
locations that in the section we were in many of the hasseidi Jews were part of
the Chabad sect of Judaism. A form of Judaism I embrace wholeheartedly, though
I do not practice it in their extreme. I liken it to appreciating their
philosophy and worldview.
You see people who dress so differently with such a
different culture sometimes you just forget that perhaps there is more in common
than you realize.
We then wandered the shuuk looking to complete our task,
even finding the small synagogue within it. Who would think one would be there?
One thing that was particularly interesting was on the bus
the night before when we arrived to Jerusalem I noticed a pretty young woman with curly blonde hair. The
night we arrived I perused tinder, because I guess, why not in Israel? It's a funny app (I even found a fellow volunteer on it) I don’t think I’ll ever take a person up on a date from
the app, but it seems like a fun way to get to meet new people.
Anyway, she popped up on my feed, and it was in the shuuk when I ran
into her again! When life puts a random person in front of you multiple times
with no discernible reason for the sake of the coincidence, it’s worth at least speaking
with them. Turns out she was from the north, and visiting a friend from the
army who lived in Jerusalem. That’s about as far as the conversation went
before I was dragged off by my friends.
We ended up then going to what is called the kotel, though
more famously the Wailing Wall, the last remaining portion of the Hebrew second
temple that was destroyed by the Romans.
A kippeh, or yarmulke is provided for those who come, and it
was packed in the square. Men and women are separated for the conservative Jews,
and though the women’s section was much smaller, it was also much more crowded.
Apparently from what the girls told us there was hardly any room.
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| Looking up the wall |
There is a tradition to place a prayer in the wall on a
small piece of paper, and it is filled with every nook and cranny containing
one of the prayers. I took a friend’s prayer to the wall and placed it there;
there is the belief that anyone’s prayer which is placed there will be express
sent to God and fulfilled. I myself have never placed my own prayer in the
wall, I do not pray. But I am always happy to take other’s prayers and place
them there. It is what I did the first time I visited the wall.
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| My close friend's prayer |
We then spent the afternoon trekking back through Jerusalem
and watched the Jerusalem Day parade, where Jews from all of the world come and
represent their countries. The parade lasts for hours, and winds throughout the
holy city. The most memorable groups for me were the Russians, English,
Americans, French, Swiss and Chinese. Especially the Chinese, and I even saw
one woman dressed as Moses, and under her shepherd robes she was wearing what
looked like a kimono, even though it was Japanese and she helped carry a
Chinese flag.
Later in the evening we went to a movie theater and saw the
new movie Everest. What surprised me is I read the book it was based on by John
Krakauer years ago, and didn’t have a clue Everest was based on it.
We then wrapped up the evening and returned to our program
coordinator’s home, where all six of us spent the night.
Our group’s morale had been low, which was why we came to
Jerusalem, and because the general sentiment of the group hadn’t changed, we
ended up canceling the rest of the time to be spent in Jerusalem to come back
home in Arad early and do some group activities. Between the upwelling of
violence and the poor morale, it was deemed necessary.
