The Happiest Yom Kippur Ever

To pick up right where I left off - I didn't go on the Slichot tour. I set my alarm (which has the annoyingly polite quirk of turning itself off after 30 seconds so as not to disturb my sleep) and asked a staff member to knock on my door - neither method proved effective. The sleep that I got was quite worth it though.

Friday was a pretty lazy day. We hung around base and didn't really do anything. Josh was out of town, so I was in for a lonely weekend. Just before everything closed for Shabbat I took a walk to Ben Yehuda with Gabe and Tyler which was fun. We got back to base and hung around until Shabbat started. After lighting candles, David, Judah, Joey, Tyler, Noah (the staff member who I often call Noiach) and I went to Yakar for Kabbalat Shabbat which was fun, but, like Kedem, everyone seemed to find it more moving than I did. We got back to Beit Nativ for a lovely dinner, and then it was time for the tisch, filled with rugelach, coke and singing. There is a booklet called the Nativ-a-tisch filled with 146 short songs. We went around the circle of all of us who had chosen to stay on base for the open Shabbat (I just felt it was time to have a Shabbat in Jerusalem, plus there were good people staying behind) and everyone led a song. Thinking back on it, David and Judah and I may have seized leadership of the tisch to some degree, but it was David's birthday, and Judah and I were on either side of him, so it just naturally happened. The singing was wonderful and beautiful and so much fun. Judah led us in a piyyut (Jewish poem, i.e. adon olam, yigdal) from the RH service called Yitnu Lecha Keter Melucha which was wonderful and very fun to sing.

After the tisch, we hung out for a while, just talking, and then it was bedtime. In the morning, I again slept through knocking at my door, but again, the extra sleep was appreciated. We ate lunch and hung out, then we had a parshat hashavuah session led by Joe Ornstein and Josh Orol which contained many interesting discussions. Then I led Mincha and we had seudah shlishit and finished up Shabbat with Maariv followed by Havdalah outside. Then we went out and hung out around Ben Yehuda St and other places for a while. We had a little extra time because Israel changes the clocks before YK to make more of the fast be during sleeping hours. I saw Josh and gave him a big hug after having missed him all Shabbat - we are the best roommates ever.

Sunday was filled with preparations for Yom Kippur. In the morning we had study sessions about different aspects of YK. I went to one on the '73 war followed by one on Jonah - both were interesting. We had lunch at 11:30 and seudah mafseket (the last meal before the fast) at 3:30 so that the kitchen staff could get home before the fast started (they are all Arab [I'm not sure if they are Christian or Muslim] but no one drives in Jlem on YK). Seudah Mafseket was delicious and very filling, and pretty soon after we headed out for Kol Nidrei.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that we (the same group as last time) went to the mikveh before YK. I have often been asked before about the difference between being physically clean and being ritually clean. I now have a personal example. When you go to the mikveh erev YK, you are most definitely NOT physically clean, but you are ritually pure. Just saying.

I went with friends to Kol Rina which seemed interesting but I wasn't there for too long. I wasn't feeling well, so after Kol Nidrei and the Maariv personal amidah, my friend Michael and I headed home. Even though we weren't feeling well, I insisted that we walk in the middle of the road on the way home (even when it was less convenient than the sidewalk) because it is just such an incredible thing to be able to do. I had asked people to wake me if they were going to be singing in the (usually traffic filled) intersection outside of Beit Nativ, but they didn't come inside before starting and I slept through which was irksome. I woke at 6:30 (after 11 1/2 hours of sleep!) and headed out to Shira Hadasha (a torah-egalitarian shul with a mechitzah that can be pulled aside. They have many interesting quirks to their service, one of which is waiting for ten men and ten women before they consider themselves as having a minyan). They have a reputation for turning away groups of people on RH and YK to make sure that they have room for their congregants and other visitors, but my friends and I had no trouble getting in. We got there right for Hamelech (the start of Shacharit) and everything was lovely. Once Musaf started though, everything became incredible. My teacher, Alick Isaacs (a wonderful Scottish Jew and a real scholar) has the most incredible voice and his Musaf was the best I have ever heard. Everything he did was just so happy. The tunes he picked were often familiar to me, and he would wave his arms, beseeching the congregation to join him in song and prayer. YK is so often misunderstood. It really is meant to be a joyous holiday, but that so rarely happens in America. Alick's Unetaneh Tokef was especially beautiful (he, like most shlichei tzibur in Israel, did the Yair Rosenblum version which so beautifully translates the meaning of the prayer into music - click here and scroll down to the video then skip the first 20 seconds or so to watch it performed), along with a piyyut called Mareh Kohen. We sat there for six hours, enjoying most of it. I really loved Shira Hadasha, the first shul I've been to on Nativ about which I can say that, and I look forward to going back.

We went home during the break and we to sleep. I slept from 3 until ten to 6, with the fast ending at 6:10. I realized that I wouldn't be able to make it anywhere in time for the end of the service, so I got dressed and did Neilah in my room - it wasn't ideal, but it was strangely pleasant. Then I headed downstairs to break my fast. We hung around Beit Nativ for a while and then headed out for an hour or two. I came back and watched Gossip Girl with some friends and then headed back to the room for roommate time with Josh. Now I'm headed off to bed.

Talk to you soon,
Seffi