Recent Shabbat Escapades

 בס”ד

I believe I have a few Shabbatot to touch on, so here it goes:

Weekend of 4/10

Tel Aviv for Ally’s birthday! And Jonny’s too!  Both rented apartments on Ben Yehuda Street (not too far from the beach) and invited people to stay with them, and I was in Ally’s apartment.  Thursday night we hung out in the port area and eventually went into a club.  Friday we had breakfast and then went to the beach for most of the afternoon.  I played paddleball with some old man who wanted someone to play with; it was legit.  I also finished The Thurber Carnival.  Ten of us did Kabbalat Shabbat together on the balcony, and then we had a pizza Shabbat dinner.  For dessert, we had cupcakes for Ally’s birthday, and they all had different flavors (I don’t know what to call them) – there was red velvet, lemon, Crembo, Oreo, and other good stuff that I don’t remember. For the rest of the night we basically chilled at the beach.  I went on a walk with Ariella and we had a deep conversation about the things we feel like we lack in our current lives.  And then I got a good night sleep.

Shabbat morning I went to a Yakar schul.  Not the same as Jerusalem, but they were friendly and it was a nice davening.  After schul I met up with everyone on the beach and read, played Bananagrams (which we did a lot of that weekend), went into the water with Ally, got burned... It was hard not being in the most Shabbosdik of environments, but I like being on the beach for Shabbat.

Weekend of 4/17
I stayed in Yeruham for Shabbat.  As usual, I had dinner with the Strausslers (my host family) after schul.  Pini, the teacher I work with at the high school, was also there with his family.  Time flew – I left at 11:25 almost!  But it was a great dinner.  Pini and I talked a bit about Hassidut (that’s his area of interest in life) and we also sang a bit.  The walk back went by fast since I sang a niggun the whole time.

I overslept in the morning – David did not succeed in waking me up, plus my Shabbat alarm clock was still set on Standard Time, and I slept through the alarm I had set anyway.  So that was aggravating, getting there mid-Torah reading.  I was sha”tz for Mussaf.  For lunch David and I went to Tzachi, one of the MADA drivers, and I actually know his wife from the high school.  They have two cute little kids.  They were a very sweet, hospitable family and it was very homey being there.  I basically napped through the rest of the afternoon.

Weekend of 4/24

I was planning on going to the MASA Shabbaton for people potentially interested in Aliyah, but I instead went to Yossi.  Rebeeca K, Josh O, Ilana, and Laura also went.  We had a really nice time – Yossi’s kids are adorable and it nice spending Shabbat with them.  We went to schul, which is Torah egalitarian with a mechitza, and had a nice meal.  I learned how to eat an artichoke.  The group dynamic was great and it was far from dull.  At dessert we had a Muscato that we brought with us and it ended up being great. In the morning of course we went to schul and I ended up being sha”tz for Shacharit.  Josh (my Talmud teacher who also goes to that schul) said it’s not too often that a guest, especially an English speaker davens so it was a nice honor.  I had Bailey’s for Kiddush, which I had never had before, and it was tasty.  Laura and Ilana brought a Marzipan cake made of chocolate rolls, which we also had for Kiddush and it was good.  After lunch we napped, I got up and played Chess and Checkers with Nadav, wnet to Mincha, and Shabbat ended shortly after.  Fun weekend!

Kol Tuv,

Judah