Israel

I did not post anything about Israel. Here are some notes I made while at work one night.

I haven't really got much to say. We went to the wall. I went to the dead sea. I went to Masada. I reluctantly went to the wall. At first I didn't know what to do, but I did put two notes into the wall, that I'd written earlier in the day.
1) to have more patience with Alan, and 2) for some guidance with my life. I should have said Misheberach's for my friends - am I too selfish? - I say it at services when I can. I then went to the wall and basically said the same things.

The best part of the trip, for me, was going to services. We went to services in Tel Aviv - a reform service. It's always fun to be a visitor. We were told that our own bus driver had to get back home in time for Shabbat, so we could only stay a half hour if we wanted to go back with him. I didn't want to go back, so Alan and I figured we'd have someone call a taxi for us. After the service, which was a mix of old and new songs - the Cantor did Lewandowski's Mah Tovu, and Craig Taubman's L'cha Dodi (a very odd mix)- we went to their oneg shabbat, and when we told the woman who was in charge where we were staying, a man overheard us and said he was staying there too and would give us a ride. they had a lovely kiddush - pita and hummus of course!

We also went to a Friday night musical kabbalat shabbat service at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem. Rabbi Kudan met a student who invited us. We walked over from our hotel, only a couple of blocks, and it was being held outside on a big plaza inside their gates. it was a celebration of the end of their school year. I wanted to sit close but everyone else chose a row in the back, so we moved back. We were sitting among American teenagers - Alan was sitting next to a couple from Tufts. The students leading the service were Rabbinical and Cantorial students. And I was smart enough to have brought my itouch and microphone along and I recorded a lot of the service. I loved the melodies they used. I kept worrying about my battery but at HUC I got some of the nice tunes they sang, and they had a guitar, a tof, a trumpet, and some sort of accordian like thing that a young asian girl (the Rabbi's wife), played while sitting down. They repeat the melodies enough so you learn them anyway. I sang along, and so did Alan. Perhaps recording a Friday night service breaks some rules, but it was so important to me to capture it, and I'm glad I did.

I did get on the computer a couple of times in Jerusalem, first in the hotel, at a cost, but then realized that the cafes across the street had wireless, and a few times I just sat on a bench on the corner of the busy intersection and got on their network and checked email and wrote quick notes to people. it was fun... very hot.

I'll write more later.

Here's some notes from 5/6/10 - Israel
today Thursday, to the old City. Our guide loves to talk and talk and talk. We didn't get to the Western Wall until after 2 PM. We walked all over. I found Alan's cousin Donny by accident. I went into his shop and he commented on my Sox cap, asked me where I was from - "Boston", really, me too. he asked if I was on a tour? Yes.. maybe my cousin is on your tour? Who is your cousin? Oh!! are you Donny??? I called to Alan, then everyone came over and I was not able to buy anything as we were running late, and some of the other couples kind of took over and were demanding things they wanted to buy. We stopped for a snack, but after the Wall it was so late that we came back to the hotel and Alan and I went to lunch across from the hotel.