Entry written on Thursday

We left kibbutz Lavi this morning. Unfortunately, it was too early in the morning to get another ice café, since the machine wasn’t ready. (Yes, I’m addicted.)

After leaving the kibbutz hotel and driving to Tel Dan we took a Jeep tour through the Golan Heights. I took a billion pictures, though it was hard with the movement of the Jeep and the sun being in my eyes. Eventually I realized that sports mode would be perfect since it’s made for bright light and has a fast shutter speed. You can see the results of my excursion.

Golan Heights

The Golan Heights is such a beautiful area, and I haven’t been here since 2003. I was glad to be able to visit.

Then we went to Tzfat (Safed) and met up with my cousins L. and J. They’re in the car with us now, heading to Jerusalem. We visited the Tzfat candle factory and bought lots of candles. I’m now all set for Chanukkah next year. (And so are two other shiny people who might happen to be my current housemates but forget that I said anything.) Then we got lunch, which involved climbing a lot of steps. (Still no ice café.) Then we went shopping in the galleries, though I didn’t buy anything.

We were going to go to Beit She’an and Beit Alpha, but we were behind schedule. Alas, no shiny archaeology. We talked about Beit Alpha in Shaye Cohen’s class, so I’m sad that I can’t tell him I went there (he’s told us in class a few times that we should go and visit certain places in Israel, and this was on the list. I’m sure he doesn’t expect anyone to actually go and visit these places and tell him about it, which is why it would have been amusing to come into the final and say “I went to Beit Alpha!” So I can tell him I almost went to Beit Alpha.)

So now we’re on the road to Jerusalem, and unless I find wireless here, this will be posted from Jerusalem. I’ll be in Jerusalem for the rest of the trip.

In other news, Shabbat is all set. I’m staying with M. and A., and they’re going out for dinner, so it works out perfectly since I’m going to rachinisrael’s for dinner. And that means in all likelihood I’ll be davening somewhere fun.

I love how no matter how bad of a situation I’m in, I always manage to pull together Shabbat plans at the last minute. Once I even figured things out on Friday afternoon. Usually I tried to get things settled by Wednesday when I’m staying at other people’s houses. When I’m making plans on Thursday that’s close to last-minute for me, and that’s when I start to get nervous. Many people feel relieved when Shabbat starts and the working week is over, but for me the relief comes when my Shabbat plans are set.

And the shawl is almost done. Hopefully I can find a pin for it tonight or tomorrow and can wear it on Shabbat.

Shabbat and Motzei Shabbat and Sunday

So Shabbat at MM and AM’s was fun. For Friday night services I went to Shira Chadasha¹ which normally meets on Emek Refaim, but since their building is undergoing renovations they’re now meeting at the Hartman Institute. I met up with rachinisrael there, and we went to her place for dinner.

It turns out her house is pretty much right across the street from the King David, (where I’m staying) which meant it was about a 30-40 minute walk from her house to MM and AM’s house. Dinner was nice and alissainisrael was also there, which was cool because I met her a long time ago when we were both in youth group in high school but haven’t seen her since.

As alissainisrael and I were walking out of rachinisrael’s place she pointed out graffiti, which originally said “Homosexuals are unsafe for children,” but then “sexuals” was crossed out and now the graffiti reads “homophobes are unsafe for children.” I was glad that someone changed it to what it currently is. I’ll upload the photo that I took today [Sunday] at some point.

When I got back to MM and AM’s apartment, their infant daughter was still awake, and in no mood to go to bed. It was almost midnight, and it took us forever to get her to fall asleep, but finally she did.

I slept in until 11:30, finally catching up on all that missed sleep. This meant that I missed services, but I didn’t mind.

Lunch was really good, and I got to see my friend N, who is British and awesome.

Then we had a bit of Shabbat afternoon left, but Shabbat is really short. After Shabbat ended, MM and N showed me “Achmed the Dead Terrorist.” Quite amusing.

Eventually I went back to the King David. ( vegetarians should skip this if they don’t want to hear me gloat about eating meat )

Today we did a bit of touring, though our van broke down for a while and that was not fun. And I took lots of pictures, which will go up eventually, i.e. when I stop being lazy.

And now I’m chilling with spin0za1, who just gave me an awesome back massage. (This is the first back massage I've had in months. I think the last one I got was from MZ and the previous was from pastwatcher. Both of these were in October.)

¹A minyan where women lead all the things that don’t require a minyan² and men lead all the things that do require a minyan, and both men and women read Torah. And men and women sit separately. And they sing everything. Basically it’s my ideal prayer situation except for the fact that I would never be able to lead anything there because it’s huge and I’m not a member. But everything is well-led so it’s not the end of the world if I can’t lead.
²[Insert whole explanation about levels of halachic obligation and how one can fulfill another person’s obligation for something and the differences between men and women’s level of obligatedness here. If you’re really curious I can explain it, but it’s much too involved for me to actually write it out]
³Norman’s is the best meat restaurant in Israel. They have amazing steaks and burgers. And for the really adventurous eaters, they have a “sumoburger” which is a hamburger with 1 kilo (2.2 lbs) of meat. If you finish it you get a T-shirt and your name in their guestbook and on their website. I have friends who have eaten this burger and somehow survived the ordeal