av8rmike | Shabbat in Jerusalem

Today was going to be the most free day on the schedule, because most businesses in Jerusalem are closed on Shabbat. One group of people were going to meet and walk over to the Kotel (the Western Wall) to pray with the Orthodox, while another group would leave a little later for Reform services. I wanted to go to the Wall, but I didn't wake up in time and ended up going with the Reform group to the HUC (Hebrew Union College), where many rabbinic students come to study. I knew a few of the people I was with, but I got to meet Hal Applebaum, who was the staff person for the west coast bus and was leading us around town. I didn't like the services much, mostly because they reminded me too much of the services back home, and now I'm more used to the Conservative or Orthodox way of doing things. We walked back to the hotel for lunch, then in the afternoon we'd have some free time to hang around the hotel and have a few discussion groups. I didn't go to the discussions, opting instead to sit by the pool with the others and update this journal.

At 4:00 we were going on a walk to the Old City and the Jewish Quarter. None of the shops would be open, but we'd be coming back on Monday anyway. We walked past several very observant neighborhoods, complete with signs reminding visitors to wear modest and respectful clothing. We walked all the way to the Zion Gate and there were told not to smoke or take pictures once we were inside, because it's a very observant area. The Old City is beautiful, but very crowded. Everything in the city, even the city wall, is made of the same kind of limestone as in Safed. I'm told that the building materials are mandated by law that goes back to the British Imperial days, so that the new city would match the old. It especially gives the Old City a monolithic look and feel, as if it were carved from a single piece of stone. We stopped and talked for a while before entering the actual area where the Western Wall is. There is a security perimeter and checkpoint to pass through, complete with metal detectors and bag searches. Since it was Shabbat, there were a lot of people praying, but it wasn't as busy as I was expecting. I went down with Yonatan, one of the Orthodox people on our bus, and he & I prayed Mincha, the afternoon service, before our time was up and we had to join everyone else again. We didn't have much time because, as usual, we were running late for dinner and the evening's activities.

Havdallah came after dinner, and is a sort of "concluding" service for Shabbat and the beginning of the new week. We got changed afterwards to go out to a "trendy" Jerusalem nightclub called "Tinkerbell," which despite the name, was not a gay bar. However, the music was very Euro-techno, and even the American songs sounded like they were re-mixes. We had only rented the place out for two hours, so without cover they were charging a lot for drinks, though not a lot by, say, New York standards. We only stayed until midnight, but the afterparty in the lobby continued on for a few more hours.