Saturday (shabbat) morning was a slow start for most of Group 121. With a late rise and late breakfast everyone was able to recover from the night before. Our day started at 11:30am with an activity where we picked from a list about what we thought best described our perceptions of judaism. There was some obvious discrepancies between the Israelis and Americans for example marrying a Jew in Israel is a lot like shooting fish in a barrel, you're bound to hit one. Yet in the states the dating game is not so simple. After some interesting discussion we had ourselves a nice Shabbat lunch at the hotel.
The next activity for the day was the Bat Mitzvah of our own Sarah Montgomery. Rabbi Rich lead a beautiful ceremony and emphasized the importance of love between siblings which Sarah's Torah portion touched on. Candy was thrown, songs were sung, and Sarah came away giddy with self content. It's not every day you get to be Bat mitzvahed in Jerusalem.
As the day progressed so did the excitement of New Years. We met for a havdallah service where the soldiers pumped us up by teaching us the cheer of "A'him", or brotherhood, and setting the tone for the night. With everyone looking sharp we loaded up the bus at 7 o'clock and headed to Jerusalem's main strip, Ben Yehudah, to bring in the new year. Everyone dispersed to end their year to enjoy a night of great food, music, and fun by ringing in 2012 in one of the oldest cities on earth.
L'shana tovah from group 121,
Stacey Weinstock
Love, love, love this blog! It is the highlight of my day!
ReplyDeleteI too would love more pictures.....b'vakashah!