Shabbat at the Beach (saturday)

We woke up in Ashdod, and with no transportation until that evening, decided to spend our day at the beach.  You can see the beach from the balcony of the apartment.  It's just a few minutes walk after a short elevator ride (we were on the 8th floor).  I didn't want to eat their food, and so we stopped at a small restaurant near the beach that was open.  I decided to go for the hamburger, despite it being Pesach.  Turns out, it was kosher for pesach (even though it wasn't kosher for shabbat being that it was sold during shabbat).  It was served on a salald instead of a bun.  Either way, it was pretty awful, but did the trick of satiating my hunger.

Jeff and I took a walk down to some ruins which were right on the beach.  I haven't been able to find any information yet on what they were.

Post Shabbat dinner activities

Before we lit shabbat candles, we did a group photo using a timer (hence my awkward place basically on my roommates lap).
Jeff made his typical toast, which drives home the point that there are only a few times in history when jews were really able to sit down and enjoy a shabbat meal together without worrying constantly.  He finished with the Ramla toast to Honor, which while not necessarily appropriate for the shabbat dinner table, brought smiles and laughs and broke and remaining tenseness in the group.  After Argentinian Jonathan and I did dishes, we all went to the beach around 11 just before the building quiet hours began.


At the beach, we played the guitar and had a bonfire.  Josh and I went to find another bottle of wine for the group, and we sang and chatted until late.

Our Bonfire.

Friday Night Shabbat

I ended up coordinating with my friend in the Ashdod group to do Shabbat together.  I was planning to do something small and low key here, and they were planning something similar as well.  In the end, I rounded up 6 people from Ramla, and we had dinner for 12 in Ashdod where we ended up spending the night.  Not only was the apartment awesome, but they also have a great location just a few minutes from the beach walking.  We went down almost as soon as we arrived, where I took an opportunity to take a late afternoon swim in the Mediterranean.  All clean (maybe a little sandy and salty) we headed back to the apartment to begin our cooking.  Being Pesach, there were of course a few questions - like can we say Hamotzi over the matzah?  We ended up finding the prayer for the matzah from a haggadah, and going with that.  I offered to do Kiddush, which was nice.  On the left is a picture of the table which I set, you can see our contribution - the wine.  Plans to save some for Havdallah didn't really work out so well, it was a thirsty table.
Dinner was Matzah ball soup, some salads of different vegetables and chicken.
You can see us preparing the meal in the third photo.  Sasha, Jeff and Josh all contributed towards the tasty treats we later consumed.  In the photo below, Allison pauses from tending the stove where the main course is being prepared.

Pesach: Questions, Answers, Family and Friends

I went with Nicole to the airport to pick up Whitney.  Our timing was perfect - scarcely had we found a place to fit where we intended to play scrabble when Nicole smiled, and walked quickly towards the arrival gate.  After the squeezed the life from each other in bear hugs, Whitney and I were introduced, and we headed back to Ramla in a taxi.

The next morning it was off to the Rubin's where we would be celebrating Pesach.  We arrived and were greeted with open arms.  Keeping Pesach like shabbat is something new for me, but made the holiday much more relaxing.  As we prepared for the seder children and family friends streamed in and out of the house with a chorus of Chag Sameach's ringing in our ears.

Josh was kind enough to give the girls the same tour that I did of the area, and I tagged along.  Nicole and Whitney both had many questions - and Josh took the time to answer them, it was absolutely wonderful.  After lunch, there was napping and lunch, then Shul in the evening.

Finally the Seder began around 8 in the evening.  It was unlike anything I had ever experienced.  We didn't just read the Haggadah, we dissected and discussed it, it was a night of many many questions - in fact the least important were probably the four traditional ones.  At around 11, we combined a night of learning with eating, consuming a small feast.  And then, it was back to the Haggadah.  It was nothing like the painful experiences I have had and heard about from friends of just trying to get through the book.  There was singing and dancing, and laughing.  Everything was about questioning and understanding, enlightening.  It was quite magical.

I awoke early, as always when in another bed, and played some backgammon.  After lunch, I said I would catch up with the girls in a moment for a walk, but never found them.  Instead, I meandered to a park where I layed down to watch the clouds go by.

Nicole said she could see me from a distance as I had fallen asleep in the park, I was curled up in a ball, the only identifying factor being my purple Kippa fluttering in the wind while still attached to my hair.

We headed back in time for a drumming havdallah like closing of the holiday.  Every few minutes, the door would open and another small child carrying some instrument large or small, would enter and join into the jam session.

Whitney impressed me immensely, despite having arrived only the night before, she managed to stay awake and soak up everything through the 5 hour long ritual.  

If continuing this tradition is a desire, it seems like I would be restricted on where I leave - certain parts of brooklyn or the upper west side come to mind as two examples of places where location plays a critical role and offers individuals the opportunity to live in a jewish community.  Keeping shabbat is beautiful, if you share with family and friends, but I can't imagine it being a healthy and relaxing experience were it to feel like I was sequestered from society.

Being back with my family gave me a second chance to reflect on the nature of community in Judaism.  We talk about the ghettos in such a negative way, in yet, they say that if they really wanted to get rid of the jews, they should just leave us to fight amongst ourselves.  Between inner arguments and assimilation, the physical violence is barely anything.  Being in a small entirely Jewish community was different and was nice.  I commented to my friends how it was almost kibbutz like with the children running in and out of houses without a concept of property or ownership necessarily.

We decided to come back last night, after the sun went down and the busses were running again.  Our return was relatively smooth, and I fell asleep shortly after arriving back in Ramla.

Now it is time to figure out the rest of my vacation.  I lent my backpack to Ben, so hiking is out, and travel will have to be in my duffel bag, which decreases mobility.  I am looking at some last minute options, but most of the things coming up are still expensive when flights and taxes and fees are involved.  If nothing international, I will head up north with a friend or two whom rented a car and have invited me for some domestic travel.

Tour of Ramla

You can see in the distance the two largest (everything in Israel is a superlative) cement factories in Israel.  This photo is being taken from the tower in Ramla.

Apparently, this is an illegal meat operation near the shuk, hence the guys yelling at me for taking this photo - which only prompted the rest of the group to start taking photos as well.  

In the grounds of the mosque.

There is a cistern in Ramla that is quite famous, and so we went down into it, and chased each other around in boats for a while.