Shabbat

On Friday night, after dinner, everyone chose between 4 service options (Conservative, Orthodox, Reform and alternative), just like we have at Texas Hillel.  To give you an idea of how pluralistic Hillel’s approach to Jewish community is, the Orthodox service was led by Texas Hillel’s executive director who is a Reform rabbi.  Where else in the world could you imagine such a thing?

There were also some optional discussion groups on topics of interest to Jewish college students.

The Taglit-Birthright Israel participants were able to sleep late today!  Some chose to attend worship services in the neighborhood (a planned walk to the Western Wall had to be cut short because it started to rain).

Everyone enjoyed a festive Shabbat lunch and then we had the Shabbat afternoon service (mincha), including 3 B‘not Mitzvah from our group.  They were called to the Torah for the blessings and had a nice celebration.

In the afternoon we had a program with our 8 Israeli soldiers.  They gave a mock boot camp experience and shared with the participants what daily life in the IDF is like.  They are a delightful group, and have built nice relationships with everyone.  They personalized what being an Israeli is really like.

We joined all of the other groups at the hotel for Havdalah (the end of Shabbat) on the hotel rooftop.  Jerusalem is very quiet on Shabbat, but comes to life when the sun goes down on Saturday.  We saw this firsthand on Ben Yehuda Street, where we spent the evening shopping, eating and enjoying the street performers.  Ben Yehuda Street is a long pedestrian mall in the city center, full of shops and cafes.

Tomorrow we will begin another full day in Jerusalem.