Jerusalem for Shabbat

Marzipan about to go into the oven

A few weeks ago, I went to Jerusalem for Shabbat. My good friend from Camp Ramah, Yaela Garr, invited me to stay with her. It was a great Shabbat. She and her friends are shomer Shabbat, which means that she does not work, drive nor use electricity (among other things) from Friday at sundown until Saturday night. I haven't observed Shabbat like this since camp, and it felt so refreshing to be observant for one Shabbat. I took the hour long bus from Tel Aviv (only 19 shekels!) and easily found the bus from the Jerusalem station that took me to Jabotinsky street to meet a good friend for coffee. I then took another bus to meet Yaela at her parents' house and helped her bring the food she prepared for dinner back to her apartment. We did some pre-Shabbat cleaning and as the sun set we welcomed in the day of rest. We walked about 10 minutes to her friend's apartment for a great dinner. All of her friends were very welcoming to me, and I was proud that I followed most of the conversation in Hebrew! The following day we woke up late and walked to Yaela's sister's apartment for lunch. At lunch was Rabbi Loren Sykes, the new head director of Camp Ramah in Wisconsin. It was nice to meet him; he'll be a great addition to camp. This meal was even more delicious than the previous night's, with a yummy baked pear pie for dessert. After lunch we went on a long walk from Yaela's sister's to the David Citadel Hotel. Although chillier than Tel Aviv, I thought it was still beautiful weather to go on a shabbos walk. We saw some camp friends at the hotel and eventually walked the 45 minutes back to Yaela's apartment in time to make Havdalah with her friends to close shabbat and welcome the next week. It was a great feeling to turn off my cell phone for the entire Shabbat and really feel like I was observing the holiday. I hope to return to Jerusalem for Shabbat soon.




Kotel

Side note: the pictures in the post were taken on a day trip to Jerusalem with my program.