The Holidays in Israel

One of the really cool things that I may have missed mentioning in the previous two entries is a lot about what's been going on here in Israel...Holidays! And there doesn't seem to be an end of them! And the holidays in Israel are absolutely awesome. Rosh Hashanah, marking the Jewish new year, started when I landed in Israel from the States. Yom Kippur, the day of atonement and likely the most important of the holidays, was 10 days later. And then comes Sukkot, Shemeni Atzeret and Simchat Torah.

First, to start off, the High Holidays of Israel have been very fun. As I mentioned, Rosh Hashanah was the first, and I just happened to land in Israel right as the festivities were ending. Then came Yom Kippur, where I went with Lauren to her school for a long and full day of services and such. We went to a potluck afterward and broke the fast with some of her friends from HUC.
The services were held in Blaustein Hall of Hebrew Union College (pictured to the right), which was a gorgeous room. And it definitely made the fast a little easier to be in such a huge place with a ton of people. Toward the end of the final service, called the Ne'ilah Service, about 10 people or so crowded on the stage to sound the shofar, the rams horn, to indicate the end of the holiday. Another cool thing was the singing of HaTikvah, I even got to meet a few Ben-Gurion University people afterward, and I know we'll be in touch when school starts in a few short weeks.

And now, we are in the festival of Sukkot, the festival of tabernacles or "booths." In fact, a lot of places around Israel have these makeshift built booths with palm branches on them where people eat meals, enjoy each other's company, and depending on the tradition, sometimes even sleep in it! The picture to the left is Meir and I standing under his sister's family sukkah. They are lit at night with hanging lamps or bulbs, and are enclosed on the sides. The first night of Sukkot usually involves a big dinner with lots of family, and that's exactly what we did! I met up with my friend Carly, who is a graduate student at Tel Aviv University, and Meir, one of our scouts from Greene Family Camp in 2006. Meir invited us to his family's house in the east part of Tel Aviv for some dinner and good times with the folks. As you can probably notice in the photo, we definitely ate our little hearts out on good hummus, chicken, this amazing salad, and of course wine and ...(oh my!) sunflower seeds. Yes indeed, for all of those who know me, I was very happy :)

Anyways, we are now in the process of ending all of the holidays, and then it's a trip up north to the Yam HaKinneret (the Sea of Galilee) for a few days with some friends from Greene Family Camp. Keep stay posted for pictures!