Yom Kippur in Jerusalem

I spent Yom Kippur here in Jerusalem. As with Rosh Hashanah the streets here began to get deserted early Friday. This time it was even earlier than Rosh Hashanah and the buses stopped running earlier as well. By 2 in the afternoon there was not a traffic sound to he heard.

I had a nice, relatively small dinner with my flat mate. This was intentional in order not to make the fast harder. (Yom Kippur includes a 25-hour total fast where neither food nor drink of any kind is permitted except in a life-threatening situation.) We then went to services together at a local synagogue. The service was very nice, but almost none of the melodies that they did were familiar. There was also a significant lack of melodies.

While I was still able to follow and keep up with most of the service, I really missed hearing tunes and especially any that I know. It was a bit difficult to keep pace as the people that make up this congregation are all either native Hebrew speakers or fluent immigrants.

I decided to do something entirely different for Saturday morning. Since this will be my only Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in Israel (unless something drastic occurs that I don’t know about) I thought that I should go to the Western Wall for the morning service. This put me within mere meters of where the original Temple service was performed over 2,000 years ago.

I actually got up and left the apartment at just after 5 AM. I was hoping to insure myself of a spot in the air-conditioned inner area as it still gets quite hot quickly here. (I was successful in this endeavor.) I actually walked the long way to the Old City, so the trip took a total of 55 minutes and I arrived at the Western Wall at 6:10 AM. On the way I saw a total of 4 vehicles, one of which was an ambulance. I was actually disappointed that I saw that many as I was led to believe that absolutely nobody drives in Jerusalem on Yom Kippur. This is obviously not entirely true.

When I arrived at the Wall there were already many different services in progress. I was invited to join one immediately, but declined as they were a Sfardi group and I am Ashkenazi so the customs (and book) are different. The area in front of the permanent fence was about 1/3 full by the time I got there.

I opted to go inside. There were 6 services in progress inside as well, but all were Sfardi. I chose to take a chair and do my own service. Having settled in, I started reading my prayer book. There are certain things that require a minimum of 10 men, so I briefly joined other groups when I needed this. I did the same in order to listen to the Torah reading.

Just after the Torah service I decided that this was not really giving me the experience, or the connection, that I wanted. It was also taking me a VERY long time to go through all the material due to the slow speed at which I was reading the Hebrew and looking at the translations. At about 11 AM I went to the outside area in order to find a relatively quiet spot. By this time the outer area was over ½ full.

I was able to find a spot where I could lean against the Wall. I closed my eyes and, with my face against the wall, started offering my own prayers instead of those that are pre-written in the book. I stayed like that, without moving, for about 45 minutes praying and meditating. In this way I felt a strong connection with G-d and was able to express the things I wanted to in my own words. The connection that I felt made me feel that my prayers were being heard. (No word on an answer, of course.)

After this period I went back inside for a little while, then “packed up” and started walking back to the apartment. It had, as I expected, gotten MUCH hotter and more humid. Although I took a shorter route back (only about 35 minutes) I had to stop a couple times to sit down to rest and cool off.

On the way back I saw only 1 guy on a motorcycle. All of the streets were deserted except for people walking to or from shul or just out for a walk. I talked to one older couple that had made aliyah a few years earlier from Philadelphia. We walked down Emek Refiam together chatting for several minutes until it was time for me to make my turn to head for the apartment. They told me about someone that lives in Austin now that created a scale model of modern-day Jerusalem that is used for city planning. Apparently the model is downstairs in city hall and is open to the public to see for free. Well, the price is right so I may go check it out.

As you can imagine, I was a bit on the tired side when I got to the apartment and went immediately to sleep after cooling off in front of my fan.

At about 4 PM I headed back to the synagogue up the street for the concluding services for Yom Kippur. This time there were a few melodies that I had at least heard before, but they went so fast it was difficult to enjoy any of them. Yom Kippur ended here at 6:18 PM, and we did the evening service after that. I then headed back to the apartment and had a nice pasta dinner with my flat-mate.

This was a most memorable and meaningful experience, mostly due to the experience of being at the Western Wall, the holiest Jewish site, on the holiest Jewish day.

Rosh Hashanah at a Settlement

As I mentioned, I went to one of the settlements outside of Jerusalem for Rosh Hashanah. The experience was absolutely wonderful. I was rooming with the cantor for one of the Sfardi synagogues but only rarely actually saw him. The one meal we had together is described below

Well before sunset all traffic in the yeshuv (settlement) ceased and a sense of calm, quiet solemnity started to settle in. There was absolutely no sound until just before sundown, when I could hear people starting to walk to the various synagogues in the settlement. Everyone on the street was happily greeting everyone else and wishing them a happy new year.

After services on Wednesday night I was treated to a wonderful dinner at a friend’s home. We had ALL of the traditional, symbolic foods for Rosh Hashanah with the appropriate blessing said for each of them. This was followed by singing and pleasant conversation. There were people there from other parts of Israel as well as California.

Services on Thursday morning started at 6:45 AM and we were done by about 11. One of my friends met me after services, and we went to one of her friend’s homes where we had a wonderful lunch. Even though these particular people spoke only limited English, we had a wonderful time and stayed for several hours before I headed off for a nap.

Dinner Thursday was at the same friends where I had dinner on Wednesday, and was equally as good. We had different food, but again had all of the traditional symbolic foods.

Friday morning services also started at 6:45 AM and once again we were done by about 11. This time we went to yet another family for lunch. This one was particularly interesting as they all spoke English. It turns out that the man of the house is extremely well educated and speaks several languages fluently. He is also in the Bet Din (the Jewish court) and is a member of the Sanhedrin (the highest judicial and ecclesiastical council of Israel, see http://www.thesanhedrin.org/en/index.php/The_Re-established_Jewish_Sanhedrin for details). To say that the discussions we had over several hours were “interesting” would be a gross understatement.

After services Friday afternoon I was waiting for my friend outside the synagogue. A total stranger, whom I had never seen before, saw me standing alone. He came over and asked if I was alone for Shabbat and if I wanted to come over for Shabbat dinner. What a wonderful way to live! The openness and warmth of that invitation and of all the people whose homes I was at is incredible, but is commonplace here. I know I have commented on this before, but it is so magnificent that I felt it deserved mention again.

Friday evening dinner, after Rosh Hashanah had ended and Shabbat had begun, was at yet another friend’s home, and was equally as wonderful as Wednesday and Thursday. Again we stayed until late in the evening enjoying each other’s company and pleasant conversation.

Saturday morning services started at a more reasonable 7:30 AM. This was followed by lunch at a friend’s home, and the cantor from the Sfardi synagogue joined us. In addition to that, there was a rabbi there. Before we actually started eating, the 3 of us (the cantor, the rabbi and I) started sharing melodies and wound up doing a significant amount of singing. This went on for about 40 minutes. Needless to say, I had an absolutely marvelous time here.

I went to the afternoon service at the Sfardi synagogue and was honored with an aliyah (being called up to the Torah).

We had a wonderful dinner after the evening service.

All in all this was an experience unlike any Rosh Hashanah I have had before.