The End of the Holiday Season

Hey All,

In my last post, I mentioned that I would talk about life in Jerusalem after desert survival, so here goes.

When we got back from the desert, our program director mentioned to us that the final day of Sukkot (which was Tuesday) is a very fun day in Jerusalem as their are parades, art shows, festivals, free live music, and much more. He wasn't wrong. I just went to a lot of the wrong places and therefor only got to see a small amount of the festivities.

My friend and I walked to a park called Gan Sacher where the international parade was beginning and a fun festival was taking place. We saw delegations from all over the world wearing some really wacky costumes, throwing us flags, singing cheesy Israeli songs and speaking in more languages than I could count. I took a lot of pictures, but my camera is currently getting repaired so I can't upload them. I'm sorry. I'll describe some of the best outfits though. There was a group of about 30 people wearing outfits appropriate for high priests in the 2nd Temple Period. They were wearing long robes with fake breastplates on them and pope-like hats. Another group of Christians were walking around holding signs with verses from prophets which confirmed the holiness and importance of Jerusalem. Many of my friends were in other places and were able to watch the actual parade, but I couldn't.

Because my friend and I missed the parade, we walked back taking a leisurely route stopping at pretty much every jewelry show we could find. There were TONS of tables selling some beautiful work, but I didn't have enough money on me to buy any of them. Some day I'll go back...

Sukkot ended, but as has been the case with every other Holiday during the High Holiday season, it was only time to prepare for yet another Holiday: Wednesday Night was Erev Simchat Torah. Again non Jews, I'm sorry for confusing you. To give the best explanation I can though, I'll just say that Simchat Torah is the celebration of finishing reading the whole Torah, celebrating it's existence, and then rolling it all the way back to the beginning to read it over again.

Wednesday night, a large group of us went to a shul called Shirah Chadasha to celebrate the Holiday. It is a Modern Orthodox shul that I really enjoyed. The men and women are divided in prayer (as they are in all orthodox shuls) but they sit side by side with a divider in the middle (like Beth Jacob in the Bay Area), AND women are allowed to lead certain parts of the services and read torah. The Chazzan stand is split down teh middle of the shul with part of it on either side of the Mechitza. When the Hakafot were going on (rounds of dancing with the torah), the men and the women each received 3 Torahs. While I prefer to pray in an Egalitarian Setting, I enjoyed feeling as though I was at least wanted in an Orthodox Shul.

The Hakafot were insane. Women were going NUTS jumping around, clutching on to the Torah as though no one could ever take it from them, and everyone was grinning from ear to ear for the entirety of the hour and a half long song and dance session. It was so much fun to dance along with total strangers in such a joyous manner.

For the non Jews, I'm realizing that you're just going to want to stop reading all together here since none of what I have left to say will mean anything to you (I'm really sorry, but I miss you all and hope to speak with you soon).

The next morning, I went to Simchat Torah services at a small Egalitarian Minyan made up of mostly American rabbinical students in Israel for a short period of time called Kedem. I hadn't even known that Simchat Torah morning had services, so it was quite an experience. There were a few things that set this service apart. I'll just list a few of them.

1) It is the longest service of the year. LONGER than Yom Kippur
2) Though It's not a specific commandment to get drunk, people have no problem dishing out alcohol to celebrate the joy of the Torah (and Dad you'll be proud of me, but I enjoyed the whiskey that I was handed).
3) There is a kiddush break in the middle of the service BECAUSE it is so long.
4) When they read the end of the Torah, anyone who wants an Aliyah gets one, therefor, congregations split up into as many rooms as they have Torahs so that they can move faster. Also during this portion, they reread the same 4 portions of the end of Deuteronomy over and over and over and over and over again. Cohens and Levis are VERY important here and tend to have to do many more aliyot in order for the readings to be halachically legal.


I got to services at about 8:30. Hallel lasted until roughly 9, Hakafot (dancing) lasted until roughly 11, Kiddush took another half hour and reading the end of the Torah took another hour, so I decided to leave the service at that point. I talked to a few of my friends who stayed, and they explained that I missed the rolling back of the Torahs and the reading of Breishit (which I was prepared to miss).

THIS CONCLUDES MY DISCUSSION OF SIMCHAT TORAH, SO EVERYONE CAN RESUME THE READING HERE.

High Holiday season is officially over. As much as I don't want to be saying this, I will say that I've been holiday-ed out, and I am more than OK with the fact that I will not be celebrating any big Holidays (obviously Shabbat will still happen) until Hanukkah in December. Having said that, the High Holidays in Israel were truly magical, and I hope that people who have been reading my blog consider the prospect of spending them in Israel at some point.

On Friday, I had a very low key morning, but for Shabbat dinner i had a real treat when I went to Rachel Heinstein's house for Shabbat dinner. Rachel is a former Hebrew/Judaic Studies teacher of mine from Middle School. She lives in Talpiyot, which is a neighborhood of Jerusalem about 35 minutes walking from where I live. I took a bus to her apartment and enjoyed a very nice home cooked meal (with amazing Morrocan food) and the most incredible Challah I had ever eaten (it was cooked with Zatar (a classic Middle Eastern spice) in the dough).

It was very nice to catch up with a person whom I hadn't seen in over 4 years, but more importantly, it was refreshing to see the incredible hospitality of Israelis. She mentioned as I left that I was welcome any time, and furthermore, if I wanted to bring a friend, I should feel more than free to do so.

I am not spending my Shabbat studying for my first "college" final which I have tomorrow in my Jerusalem class. This post is so long since I've been procrastinating doing that, so I'm going to get back to studying now.

Until next time, have a great Shabbat,
Becca