People vs. Architecture. What is the importance of Jerusalem?

Shavua tov (great week ahead) to everyone!  Lots of love from somewhat chilly Jerusalem. (although as Bostoners it was practically a spring day).

It's been a very full and busy day and a half.  Our plane landed over an hour late so we rushed through the airport and quickly got on our bus to drive to Jerusalem.  The views from the bus windows as we wound our way up to Jerusalem were spectacular.  As Naomi Shemer's Jerusalem of Gold played over the loudspeaker we thought about what Jerusalem represented to the Jewish people and our own personal connections to the city. 

We had an hour back at the hotel to shower and change and get ready to welcome shabbat.  After we lit shabbat candles we headed out to three different synagogues.  Some of us opted to walk to Kol HaNeshama, a reform synagogue, some to Shira Chadasha, an egalitarian Orthodox service, and some to Yakar, a spirited Orthodox service using the tunes of Shlomo Carlebach.  Although we didn't understand all the Hebrew of the services, we totally understood the communities' love of the services and we enjoyed being part of it for the evening.  Men and women sang and danced with so much spirit and warmth we couldn't help but feel swept up in their momentum.  We also loved that at many of the synagogues the community made sure that anyone who wanted/needed a shabbat meal had somewhere to go afterwards and that on our walk home the streets were filled with people pouring out of various synagogues and wishing each other "shabbat shalom".

On the walk home we all stopped by the tent that Gilad Schalit's parents set up outside the prime minister's residence.  Gilad is an Israeli soldier who has been missing for over four years.  His parents continue to pressure the Israeli government to find him and bring him home.  In a certain sense this was another shabbat evening experience, a group of Jewish people gathering together to sing songs and pray to the heavens that Gilad is brought back soon.  Noah honey commented that he had two intense shabbat evening experiences, one a prayer service that was so full of joy and one a 'service' that was so full of sorrow. Many Fellows talked about this being a quintessential Israeli experience – living with the highs and the lows back to back.

This morning we had the option to visit multiple synagogues – The Great Synagogue, Yeshurin Synagogue, and the Italian Synagogue -and talk about what we saw and the differences between the experiences.  From there we headed off to a tour of some of the oldest neighborhoods in Jerusalem - Mishkenot Sha’ananim and Yemin Moshe.  We talked about the layers upon layers of history of Jerusalem, the various names Jerusalem has been called by its inhabitants, and the tensions that surround the city nowadays.  Yehuda Amichai, the famous Israeli poet, was our tour guide as we made our way through the neighborhoods.  His poetry challenged us to think about issues of co-existence, religious hegemony (SAT word of the day!), and people and not places being important.   

In the afternoon we headed into the old city of Jerusalem.  We learned about an ancient walled city expanding into a city that now houses 700,000 citizens.  We walked through the Muslim and Armenian quarters for a bit before heading into the Jewish quarter.  We visited the Cardo, the ancient Roman pathway which was the bustling marketplace of Ilia Capitolina.  The best part was not seeing the ancient pillars and roadway but watching the young Israeli children play kickball around them.  We cheered every time one little boy kicked the ball up high to his friends and laughed that we didn’t know any other places were ancient ruins became the play grounds of 4 and 5 year olds.  We guessed that this was also uniquely Israeli – merging the ancient and present in totally organic ways.  We continued on and explored the quarter and met people who loved there.  We eventually made our way to an overlook of the Western Wall, the Kotel, where we talked about what the wall is and what it represents to the Jewish people on a spiritual, national, and universal level.  For some of us this was the first time seeing the Kotel in person.  One Fellow said later that the thought that all over the world Jews were directing their thoughts and prayers towards this exact (and same) location was overwhelmingly powerful.

We headed down to the Kotel plaza to end Shabbat together with a havdallah ceremony (a ceremony marking the distinction between the Shabbat day and the beginning of a new week).  We started off in a relatively small circle of just Diller folk, but, more and more people came over to join our havdallah circle.  Some girls ran over because they wanted to hear the blessings, some people came over because they were curious about what we were doing, and some came over because we welcomed them in.  Soon enough, Rachel and Liat were pouring juice for the guests, Caleb was offering them spices, and we were all singing together. A few of our more religious guests, as they walked away, mentioned that it “was a very nice service.” We then had half an hour of free time at the wall. Some did personal meditation, some joined in minyanim, and some simply people watched, but everybody was moved. We finally arrived to dinner at 8:30 and had a nice Italian dinner at Ana Ticho House, a delicious dairy restaurant. The group met Haifa’s Junior Counselors, Yisha’aya and Limor, who shared their excitement about the groups meeting. Noah S, today’s Chanich Toran, leader of the day, received an assessment from the rest of the group about his leadership style, skills, and decisions and announced that Carly would be tomorrow Chanichah Toran. The fellows each mentioned a powerful experience from the last two days and all seemed to have had many. Brynn mentioned that she had “felt ever emotional possible over the last twenty four hours.” At eleven, we returned to the hotel and we happily went off to bed, ready for an early morning tomorrow.