This morning I opted for getting up at 4 am to go on a Selichot tour of the area of Nachalot in Jerusalem. We visited about 5 or 6 different shuls to get a feel for what their selichot practices were. It was really interesting to see how each shul, despite saying the same prayers, had different customs and styles. We were not the only group going out so early in the morning. I saw at least 10-15 other groups of students, soldiers, and tourists who were out to observe selichot because it was the last day of selichot in the world just prior to Yom Kippur.
After we finished our selichot tour we ended up at the world famous Marizpan and we all got goodies for breakfast as well as Shabbat. I bought 2 kilos of the famour rugalach for Shabbat as a treat for everyone in honor of my birthday. It was a good morning because it ended with me going right back to sleep around 6am and not getting up until lunch at around 1ish. After lunch I met my friend from high school, Micah, for ice cream and then headed back to base so I could get ready for Shabbat.
I davened with several people at Yakar on Friday night and then headed back to base for dinner and a Nativ-a-Tisch. A Nativ-a-Tisch is when we all get together on Friday night and sit and eat, schmooze, and sing songs. It was a great Tisch full of lots and lots of rugalach that everyone seemed to buy for Shabbat. I also shared my birthday cookie cake with everyone at the Tisch that my family had sent me.
Shabbat Shalom
Saturday September 26,2009
This morning I went to Shira Hadasha with my friends Judah, Gabe, Michael, and Jacob. It was a great davening for a Shabbat. Everyone at the Shul was still in the mood from Rosh Hashanah and were excited for Yom Kippur so the Ruach was incredible. After Shul we headed back to base for lunch and my personal favorite, a nap. After I napped, we had a Parasha class and then Mincha followed by Seudat Shlishit. After Shabbat ended a bunch of people wanted to go out to celebrate my birthday so I said why not. They asked me where I wanted to go and I immediately said, lets go to Emek Refaim and get waffles and ice cream. So we did just that. We ordered four huge waffles with a scoop of each snickers and twix ice cream and split them amongst 15 people. After we ate waffles and ice cream everyone sang to me, and not only my Nativ friends, but the people in the ice cream place. We then decided we would walk off our fabulous desert and head to Ben Yehudah street and meet the people who spent Shabbat off base. We got to Ben Yehudah and I decided I would be myself and started jumping over parking meters and then when we got to Ben Yehudah I continued to be myself and dance crazily to some Israeli street drummers. It was a solid time. We then met up with more people at Ben Yehudah street and went to a place for some people to get drinks and we ran into our staff member Cori who also shares the same birthday as me. We took a picture and here it is. She looks so happy to see me... or does she?
We all got back to base around 1:30am and went straight to bed after we all set our clocks back one hour. What a great Shabbat and great way to spend a birthday. I am adding pictures for everyone to see. I hope you enjoy.
David
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