We love vacations Eilat!

The morning after Yom Kippur Laurel, her roommates Chelly and Miriam, Laurel’s friend Teri, and I all went to Eilat. The girls had ordered the tickets ahead of time to insure seats, and got to the central bus station 45 minutes early to reinsure seats incase the situation was different (which happens a lot here). After going through security, asking about the tickets, waiting for the bus to arrive, and pushing with the herds of people, the girls finally settled down for a nice little four-hour bus ride. Laurel took Dramamine and knocked herself out for the ride. She was smart, I not so much. A family of the loudest Americans, the kind that give everyone else a reason to hate us, kept me awake. If the ride had been any longer I think someone would have off-ed them.

When we reached Eilat we took a cab to the Guest House. We had no idea what to expect and were pleasantly surprise. The guesthouse was a few steps up from a hostel, and by a few we mean leaps and bounds. The four girls and I had four beds, a shower, two sinks, a bathroom, fridge, and a TV. We felt like we were living in luxury. Laurel, who had mentioned a sore throat stayed in while the Chelly, Teri, and Miriam all went walking on the boardwalk. Being kind of shy, I stayed back and slept.

That night they went to dinner at Patty’s Irish pub, in Israel. I was amused. They traveled all the way to Eilat to go to an Irish pub. Even though it was Shabbat almost everything was open! They got ice cream and walked along the boardwalk. The Eilat boardwalk is lined with shops selling smoothies, ice cream, dresses, henna tattoos, bags, scarves, rings, t-shirts, pizza pockets, corn on the cob, and anything else you might possibly want. Beyond the shop on the left are stores and hotels, and the right is the beach and Red Sea. We could look out and see the Jordanian mountains on one side and Egypt on the other, with the tip of Israel right in the middle. Eilat is like a small resort city, nestled in between two sometimes-unfriendly neighbors. It is hard to fathom a time when the mountains on either side produced falling rockets. The picturesque city glitters at night, lit up by the bars, restaurants and hotels all within walking distance from  the borders of Egypt at one end and Jordan at the other.

The next morning they set out for the beach, and lay around in the sun all afternoon. The water was warm and there was just enough breeze for the heat to be bearable. I even tried to get a little more color. Laurel almost left me because I had snuck out of her bag and was sunning myself in the sand at her feet. I had to jump out and trip her to get her attention! I hope she doesn’t form a habit of forgetting me. That night the girls went to a nice Asian restaurant for dinner, and then off to bed early because Laurel, Miriam, and I were going to go to Petra in the morning! That adventure was a story in itself, one I will have to save for another post.

When we returned Laurel and Miriam napped, and then we went to a bar called The Monkey Bar, which had live music! At midnight the band stopped playing, which was around the same time Chelly and Ter decided they were too tired and had to go back. When the band left the bar put on dance music. Laurel and Miriam stayed and danced until 3am, when the bar made it very clear they were closing. I was very proud of Laurel, who normally is the first one to go to bed! She told me she had never literally danced the night away, and thought there wouldn’t be a better place to do such then looking out over the sea, with the warn night air around her.

Every day the girls were given a complementary breakfast buffet. Many times in the history of hostels, hotels, and what have you this means toast, bagels, doughnuts, and maybe a yogurt or two. This breakfast buffet was the mother of all buffets. A large table of different cheese and salads, a table with cold cereal and cakes, bread, coffee, tea, yogurts, and a hot table with cheese cake, eggs, French toast, and Laurel’s favorite Israeli dish, shakshuka. Shakshuka is a made of tomato, bell pepper, and onions cooked together to with a tomato sauce to make a stew. Then eggs are cracked on top and the pan is covered so the eggs cook. The end result is a wonderful mix of tomato and egg goodness, to be scooped up with thick slices of bread. 

Yom kippur, daylight savings give us a fast fast

The Wednesday following Rosh Hashana was Erev Yom Kippur. Laurel and her friend Annie made pre-fast dinner for a group of nine people, including Brian from Herzl Camp who stayed with Laurel for the Holiday. Israelis are smart, and daylight savings was a few days before so the fast would end earlier, but this also meant it started earlier. The 25 hour fast lasted from 4:35pm until 5:35pm the following day. That night Laurel, Brian, and Suzy all went to Kol Nidra services at Kol Hanishama, the Reform Synagogue in Ba’ka, an area of Jerusalem 15 minutes walking distance from Laurel’s apartment. The entire service was in Hebrew, though Laurel told me it was beautiful singing Kol Hanishama at the end of the service with a whole congregation of people she didn’t know, but who all knew the tune she so dearly loves.

 

When they left Synagogue, Brian and Laurel walked up and down Emek Rifiem, one of the normally busy streets in the German Colony. The eerie silence of  no cars on the streets was another reminder of the significance of the holiday in Israel. The streets were full of people walking around, and children on bikes and rollerblades. They walked the whole way home in the middle of the street, meeting up with other people from the WUJS program as they were leaving their respective services. I sat on Laurel’s balcony and just watched the normally bustling city in its cocoon of silence. The only disruption to the quiet would be the occasional ripple of laugher from children still playing in the streets, way into the wee hours of the night.

 

At 3:00am Laurel, Brian and a small band of people on the WUJS program woke up to go to the Kotel, or Western Wall. I was not to be disturbed, knowing the long day of fasting I had ahead of me. The group set out on a 45minute walk in the cool early morning stillness to the Old City. When they reached the Kotel there were already groups of people assembling at the wall to pray. Laurel and Brian met up with their friends Scott from Jerusalem, and Evan from Tel Aviv. The boys went off to the men’s side of the wall, while Laurel stayed with her friend Lisa and walked around taking everything in. There were people camped out in sleeping bags around the courtyard, and religious families standing shoulder to shoulder from tallest to shortest with the father on the left, the oldest son, and so on to the youngest son on the right. At around 5am the sun began to rise, and Laurel, Brian, Scott, and Evan all went to a balcony atop the Old City to look down over the Kotel and watch the sun rise above it. As Laurel, Brian, and Evan walked back through the streets still void of cars, they passed people just getting up and walking to Synagogue or to the Old City. It was a really moving experience, seeing everyone walking to services as they were just on their way home.

 

The rest of the day was spend in Laurel’s apartment with the theory that if they had woken up at 3am to walk to the Kotel, they were for sure in good standing and could rest for the majority of the day. By evening Laurel was weak with hunger, and helped set up long tables for the break fast. Everything was ready yet she didn’t want to break fast until she new it was really over. Laurel and a boy Ben went up to the roof of the apartment building and looked for three stars in the night sky, which meant the end of the fast. They counted one star, then slowly a second was seen, and finally a third star was found in the sky. They stood for a moment, and realized that for them it wasn’t just the three stars, but they were waiting to hear a shofar being blown, signifying the end of fast. Next door to the apartment building is a Yashiva. The boys at the Yashiva had been singing, dancing, and praying all day long. As dusk began to settle groups of people gathered across the street from the Yashiva, just like Laurel and Ben standing on the apartment roof. It was as if everyone around had come out into the streets to wait for the mournful sound of the shofar ending the fast. From within the Yashiva they heard the sound of Avinu Malkanu, and knew that any moment the fast would be done and with the blast of the shofar the fast was over. Laurel, Ben, and 25 other people from the WUJS program all sat down together to break fast over bagels, salad, tuna, salmon, and pasta. 

Rosh Hashana, have a Happy New Year!

Let me step back a little and catch you up on the holiday season. Most people think of the holiday season as December, when in reality the lalapolooza of all holiday seasons would be the beginning months of the Jewish calendar. Starting off with Rosh Hashana, the new year followed closely by Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. Five days later is Sukkot, which last for 7 days, wrapping up the holiday season is Shmini Atzeret and Simhat Torah. For nearly a month there is no school, shops are closed, no one goes to work, and my friends, I found it glorious. Laurel got bored a lot, but she doesn’t appreciate sleeping in and doing nothing as much as I. My kind of a As we are fast approaching the end, I will recap some of the highlights.

Rosh Hashana was spent at the Sareet’s family’s house. For Laurel the High Holy Days are synonyms for sending a day in synagogue. Rosh Hashana for many Israelis is a time for family to come together, a day off of work, and a time to relax. Much like a family would come together for Thanksgiving in America, so is Rosh Hashana celebrated in Israel. At 6am on September 29, (Laurel’s 23^rd birthday) we took a bus to Hod Hasharon a suburb of Tel Aviv, where Sareet and her cousin Tom picked us up at the bus stop. That evening there was a huge dinner for 25 of Sareet’s relatives, and Laurel. I was too shy, and stayed upstairs. The next two days were spent lounging around, reading books, and watching TV. The TV was a big deal, because we do not have a TV in Laurel’s apartment, and it had been about a month since I last saw reruns of Gilmore Girls, which oddly enough is an Israeli favorite.

Going back to Jerusalem was a truly Israeli experience. The autobuses, or coach buses in Israel do not have a maximum capacity limit. If you want to get to another town, the autobus is the best way to go. You better push and shove to get a seat because when they are all taken the only spots left are standing room only in the aisles, which is exactly where Sareet, Laurel, myself and Sareet’s new fish Mishuggy ended up. For the first ½ hour Laurel stood in the aisles, and the rest of the trip she sat on the floor in a puddle of fish water that had sloshed from Mishuggy’s traveling case. I was safe and sound in Laurel’s overnight bag.

- Mo the Shalom Gnome