Hodgepodge 146/365 - Shabbat

We just returned from a delightful evening with a young Orthodox couple, Yoni Zierler and Yochi Rappeport, who participate in a local Jerusalem organization called Shabbat of a Lifetime. They invite total strangers—up to sixteen, in our case—into their home and share the Shabbat meal and some of the ceremony. There was no candle lighting (I would have liked that), but we did sing the song "Shalom Aleichem," and Yoni sang "Eishet Chayit," or "A Woman of Valor," to his own tune, which he said he also sang to Yochi during their wedding. And of course there was lots of delicious traditional food to go with the weekly holiday. We also got a booklet full of information about Jerusalem, the Western Wall, and of course Shabbat.

Yoni, originally from the U.S. (Cleveland mostly) but living in Jerusalem these past thirteen years, is a tour guide—one of thousands in Israel; his special beat is Jerusalem, though he sometimes wanders farther afield. He acknowledged admiringly the various spots that we mentioned that we'd visited, saying very few visitors get to go there. Yochi, from Safed in the north, works for Women of the Wall, a multi-denominational feminist organization whose goal is to secure the rights of women to pray as they wish at the Western Wall. They both spoke to us at length about that and similar projects and what they mean culturally, socially, and politically. Although they didn't mention Palestine or the settlements, several in our group concurred that they are probably "right wing," meaning pro-settlement and believing in a "one-state solution." Another fascinating discussion to add to many others from these past ten days, highlighting the great complexity and contradiction that is modern Israel.

We walked to their house from the hotel, and of course back again, a good three-mile round trip that gave us a nice nighttime glimpse of Jerusalem neighborhoods. Tomorrow we'll get to see this great city by daylight. I'm ready!