my journey
 
So I know it's been two weeks since I last posted, but I did that purposefully. I wanted to experience the High Holy Days in the Holy Land before I took time to reflect on them. Let me tell you how awesome and amazing this experience has been. I am so blessed and thankful to have the opportunity to be here for this. 

Rewind to last Wednesday. We didn't have any classes, so I had the day to do some homework, sleep in, watch TV, and get ready to welcome in the New Year. Services at HUC started at 6, being in the choir I had to be there at 5, so I left my apartment around 415 to take my time and get to services without getting too sweaty (that didn't work; my clothes were still soaked as the sun is quite strong here at 415 in the afternoon).  The choir folks were all there and we warmed up and had time to schmooze and take some pictures before the evening began. I'm really glad that I joined the choir because I learned the High Holiday nusach (chanting pattern) and was able to participate more in the service. Services were lovely and the sermon charged us with the task of seeking more scheheyehanu moments (first time momement when we say a blessing thanking God for allowing sustaining us and allowing us to reach this point in our lives). Afer services, I went to my friend Ally's house for a delicious holiday meal with a great group of people and some really yummy homemade challah. 

Thursday and Friday there were no services at HUC and Rosh HaShana is the only holiday that is celebrated for two days in Israel (more on this later). Thursday, I along with the majority of HUC, went to Kol HaNeshema for services, a local reform synagogue, where our provost was giving the D'var (entirely in Hebrew). I enjoyed the services as it felt like a combination of Reform and Conservative traditions (there was a lot of music, but also a lot of mumbling silently to yourself) that worked well together. I stayed through the end of musaf and then went home to relax. Thursday night, an HUC apartment was hosting us for a potluck dinner and so I went over there with some chocolate covered pomegranate seeds (a favorite among my classmates). The food (the obscene amount of it) and the company were both wonderful. 

Friday I went for something a little different than the traditional synagogue service and went to a meditative service at the nature museum about ten minutes from my apartment. I really enjoyed the silent meditation and chanting that they incorporated into their service--really good for contemplation and self-reflection. However, I would have benefited from a machzor (High Holiday prayer book) and wish I had one with me during this service. I left right before musaf started because I was meeting friends to go to a potluck lunch at my Education Seminar teacher's (gorgeous) house. There were a few people that I knew (one that I had met at my meditative service earlier) but mostly it was my teacher's family friends whom I didn't know. So I talked to my friends and had a lovely time eating some delicious food (are you sensing a theme yet?). Afterwards I went over to a different apartment to talk and eat some yummy cookies before heading home and prepping the food I was going to bring to Shabbat later that night. Yes, after the craziness of Rosh HaShana we still had Shabbat. Because so many of us had spent enormous numbers of hours in shul, three of my friends hosted a group of us for maariv services in their house before dinner. These kinds of intimate services are my favorite (it also doesn't hurt that the three people living in the apartment are cantorial students and that several of the people leading and participating are musically inclined, meaning we had a very beautiful musical service). 

Sick of services and synagogues, I spent Saturday in bed watching TV and not doing much of anything. Sunday thru Thursday I had normal classes and Friday evening was the start of Yom Kippur. 

Rosh HaShana is nothing compared to Yom Kippur in this country. On Rosh HaShana, like Shabbat, there are still cars on the road, fewer than a typical afternoon, but still cars. On Yom Kippur, there are no cars in the streets, except for the occasional emergency vehicle. Also, everyone wears white. Everyone. And crocs are really popular (on Yom Kippur it's customary to not wear leather shoes, leather of any kind but most specifically shoes). In America, most people are wearing their nice suits with their obnoxiously white sneakers. Here, the crocs and sneakers don't stand out as much. Rosh HaShana was in the normal sanctuary at HUC where we have Shabbat and daily services. Yom Kippur services were held in the mostly glass windowed event hall overlooking the Old City. So, everyone (this was the most packed service of any of the high holiday services at HUC) was sitting looking out at the Old City in their white clothes and crocs and sneakers as the sun sets. Try to picture that. The choir starts singing Adon HaSlichot followed by Or Zarua and then Kol Nidre, the reason everyone came out to services (on time). Last year at Penn State, my good friend Sarah, a voice performance major, sang probably the most beautiful Kol Nidre I have ever heard (including this year), but there was something magical about hearing the words that have been chanted for hundreds of years while overlooking the place where the temple once stood that you just cant experience in America no matter how beautiful the singer's voice. The rest of the service was lovely. The Cantorial students in my class are just incredible and I am so fortunate to have the opportunity to pray with them all year. They each had several solos throughout the holidays and they all did an incredible job. Also, there was a last minute change in service leadership as the Rabbi who was supposed to lead Kol Nidre services was sick. Major props to the rabbis who filled in (including doing a sermon last minute). The walk home was also an amazing experience. Remember how I said there were no cars on the roads? Well, as services were finishing the roads were filled with people walking home. It honesty felt like a giant block party that included the entire country. Kids were out on roller blades and bicycles, dogs were being walked, groups of friends and neighbors were stopping in the middle of the road to catch up and talk. Truly a once-a-year opportunity. 

Saturday I woke up early to head back to HUC. My "Yom Kippur Moment" happened when my classmate sang Unetaneh Tokef (the prayer, in addition to Kol Nidre, that signifies Yom Kippur for me). She sang so eerily beautiful in the way you can only sing this prayer. My second moment came when Cantor Evan Kent, a new oleh (immigrant) and teacher at HUC sang Sh'ma Koleinu (Hear our voices). My only words were wow and wow. I had goosebumps during the entire prayer. It was just incredible. Shacharit was a typical Yom Kippur shacharit service. For musaf, a few of my classmates put together a meditative/reflective service that was really nice. We had the opportunity to sit back, relax, hum, think, meditate, read, listen, question and just be in the moment. Then it was time for a short break. I went out onto a nearby lawn to read and relax. 

We came back around 4 for study sessions. Eight of my classmates led four study sessions related to Yom Kippur. The one I attended looked at our rituals (like sending a goat off into the wilderness with all of our sins) from an anthropological perspective and questioned the relevance of these practices in our current style of worship. It was a good discussion that made me think about what we do and why we do it. Then came the afternoon service where I read Torah in Israel for the first time since my Bat Mitzvah ten years ago. That was pretty cool. The community we have here as students is wonderful. When I finished chanting, I got a huge chorus of yasher koach (nice job, essentially) from the student section. It just made me smile :) 

After mincha, we transitioned into Yizkor, the memorial service. In the States, this is the service where you get a booklet listing the names of people in the congregational family who are remembered at this time of the year. In Israel, it is a time to reflect on the 1973 War, and this year was the 40th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War. While we still remember people in our families who are no longer with us, that is done privately while the collective memory is placed on the 2000 and some soldiers who were killed during this war. It was very powerful to be looking at the Old City during the Yizkor service, looking out at the land that so many had died to protect and defend. 

Ne'ilah came next, the conclusion service. Using the traditional ne'ilah nusach for some prayers and a more joyful melody as the end of ne'ilah grew closer, as the gates of heaven were closing more and more, as we made one final push to have our pleads for forgiveness heard and answered. As we finished the service, I had a moment to just stop and be. This Yom Kippur is one that I will remember and cherish for a very long time. 

Two other random less serious topics: the lines in grocery stores in Israel before the three day hag of Rosh HaShana/Shabbat were like the lines in Pennsylvania before a week-long blizzard was supposed to hit. OMG I have never seen more people shopping in a grocery store in my life. I can only imagine how crazy and crowded the shuk was two Wednesdays ago. Also, never have I ever seen a group of 40 some students rush to set up a meal so quickly as I witnessed us setting up break-fast last night. 

So that's all for now. Two more days of classed before the ten-day sukkot break. I'm off to Vienna and Madrid :) 

Shana Tova u'Tikatevu, Gmar Hatima Tova, Shavua Tov, and Lilah Tov!
שנה טובה ותיכתבו, גמר חתימה טובה, שבוע טוב ולילה טוב

9/15/2013 06:06:38 am

Sarah, I'm so happy that you are expierencing this most holy of holidays for Jews in "Jeruslem." This is something you can tell your children and grandchildren some day. Now you are off to Vienna and Madrid? Do you keep a suitcase packed at all times? Have bags will travel. Enjoy your next Adventure!!!!!

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Helen Feinberg
9/15/2013 08:09:01 am

What wonderful special memories you are making and sharing!! Be sure to go to the old synagogue in Vienna; I was there for Yom Kippur 25 years ago, will never forget the experience

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