Sunday, September 24, 2006
L'shana tova! Happy New Year!
Saturday officially marked the beginning of the Jewish year 5767. We spent the last two days in services and visiting and eating A LOT. It seems that Rosh Hashana in Israel is a lot like Thanksgiving in the states, only there are many more meals than just the one big one. Jamie was in the choir with the rest of the cantors and singers. He gave a couple of beautiful solos. Now that he's ready to catch his breath, he's rehearsing for Yom Kippur, beginning on Sunday night. Of course, not only does he have to sing all day again and will have more solos, but this time he does it while fasting. No pressure.
The highlight of the weekend was unexpected. We signed up to host some American students studying in Israel for the weekend. Thinking we were simply doing something nice for college students as many had done for us in the past, we had no idea how much they would bring to us. Three girls, in different years of college, came to stay with us for two nights and quickly adopted us, calling us "Ima and Aba" (mother and father). On the second day, their friend came to hang out for a little while and ended up spending the rest of the weekend with us. It was touching to have these sweet, young women with us. We spent a lot of time laughing and eating, and also missing our "kids" (youth group) from home. Anyway, here are our girls:
We ended the weekend with Tashlich, a symbolic ceremony of casting away your sins into the water, usually with bread crumbs. There is only one natural source of water in Jerusalem, so everyone goes to the same place, where we had to hike down a huge hill and worse of all, back up! The flow of water is so small, you can't see it in the picture, but maybe you can get the beauty of the ceremony.
Rosh Hashana celebrates the beginning of the world and it purposefully falls during the new year of agriculture. Here in Jerusalem, the weather has begun to change,a little cooler in the mornings, even chilly at night, the peaches and watermelon are harder to find, the pomegranites and dates in abundance. As the season changes, we are asked to look inside, to evaluate our own lives, to make changes too. We have entered into the days known as the Days of Awe, the 10 days between Rosh Hashana, the celebration of creation, and Yom Kippur, the day of repentance. This year has been a whirlwind for us, changing our lives, our direction, getting rid of our things and spending most of the year in preparation for change. In that time of constant change I think that it's quite likely that we over looked our friends and family at times, that we weren't as careful or gentle as we should have been. If in any way I have offended or committed any wrong, I sincerely ask for your forgiveness.
Wishing you all a Shana Tova, a Shanat Briut and a Shana Mitukah, a good year, a healthy year and a sweet year.
Saturday officially marked the beginning of the Jewish year 5767. We spent the last two days in services and visiting and eating A LOT. It seems that Rosh Hashana in Israel is a lot like Thanksgiving in the states, only there are many more meals than just the one big one. Jamie was in the choir with the rest of the cantors and singers. He gave a couple of beautiful solos. Now that he's ready to catch his breath, he's rehearsing for Yom Kippur, beginning on Sunday night. Of course, not only does he have to sing all day again and will have more solos, but this time he does it while fasting. No pressure.
The highlight of the weekend was unexpected. We signed up to host some American students studying in Israel for the weekend. Thinking we were simply doing something nice for college students as many had done for us in the past, we had no idea how much they would bring to us. Three girls, in different years of college, came to stay with us for two nights and quickly adopted us, calling us "Ima and Aba" (mother and father). On the second day, their friend came to hang out for a little while and ended up spending the rest of the weekend with us. It was touching to have these sweet, young women with us. We spent a lot of time laughing and eating, and also missing our "kids" (youth group) from home. Anyway, here are our girls:
We ended the weekend with Tashlich, a symbolic ceremony of casting away your sins into the water, usually with bread crumbs. There is only one natural source of water in Jerusalem, so everyone goes to the same place, where we had to hike down a huge hill and worse of all, back up! The flow of water is so small, you can't see it in the picture, but maybe you can get the beauty of the ceremony.
Rosh Hashana celebrates the beginning of the world and it purposefully falls during the new year of agriculture. Here in Jerusalem, the weather has begun to change,a little cooler in the mornings, even chilly at night, the peaches and watermelon are harder to find, the pomegranites and dates in abundance. As the season changes, we are asked to look inside, to evaluate our own lives, to make changes too. We have entered into the days known as the Days of Awe, the 10 days between Rosh Hashana, the celebration of creation, and Yom Kippur, the day of repentance. This year has been a whirlwind for us, changing our lives, our direction, getting rid of our things and spending most of the year in preparation for change. In that time of constant change I think that it's quite likely that we over looked our friends and family at times, that we weren't as careful or gentle as we should have been. If in any way I have offended or committed any wrong, I sincerely ask for your forgiveness.
Wishing you all a Shana Tova, a Shanat Briut and a Shana Mitukah, a good year, a healthy year and a sweet year.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
We're back home from Barcelona. It was an amazing trip! We had great food, perfect weather and kef, kef, kef! (Fun, fun, fun!) Jamie started school on Sunday and is already sleep deprived and working very hard. Next week, we're going with HUC on a 3 day extended field trip, so there will be more pictures to share shortly!
Our trip to Barcelona:
We stayed in a resort town called Calella. Here's Jamie in the cold Mediterranean:
This is my diet coke, exactly the same amount of liquid as Jamie's sprite (oh those Europeans!)
Here's a church in Calella. I said, "Wow! That looks just like a California Mission... oh, I guess that makes sense..."
On our second day, we made it to Barcelona and saw some beautiful stuff:
This is by a famous architect called Gaudi. Everything he built looks like it's from Disneyland or a Tim Burton Film.
We went into the Gothic Quarter and found the oldest synagogue, possibly in all of Europe. It's only been open to the public for a few years now. On the wall, there is a sign that reads, "The Holy Jewish community of Barcelona has been praying in this direction for over a thousand years." Jamie and I spent a long time in this small room, feeling right at home.
Here are the boys from our trip. So tough, aren't you nervous? The scenery behind them is pretty cool.
In Barcelona, there are lots of street performers to take tourists' money. Poor Zorro. He had no idea that these guys are actual fencers. Jamie and Phil created a whole crowd of tourists with video cameras! (I should have taken money!!)
The next day we travelled to Montserrat, a monastery built right into an enormous mountain.
We had to take a cable car all the way up, but we were happy at the top.
Here is the church:
We made it just in time to hear the oldest boys choir in Europe sing two songs for afternoon services.
Afterwards, we followed some very easy and gorgeous paths all over the area, with artwork built right into mountain.
At the end of our trip (literally 30 min before leaving the hotel) we had Team Barcelona shirts made. I wonder if they'll take us on their team...
Our trip to Barcelona:
We stayed in a resort town called Calella. Here's Jamie in the cold Mediterranean:
This is my diet coke, exactly the same amount of liquid as Jamie's sprite (oh those Europeans!)
Here's a church in Calella. I said, "Wow! That looks just like a California Mission... oh, I guess that makes sense..."
On our second day, we made it to Barcelona and saw some beautiful stuff:
This is by a famous architect called Gaudi. Everything he built looks like it's from Disneyland or a Tim Burton Film.
We went into the Gothic Quarter and found the oldest synagogue, possibly in all of Europe. It's only been open to the public for a few years now. On the wall, there is a sign that reads, "The Holy Jewish community of Barcelona has been praying in this direction for over a thousand years." Jamie and I spent a long time in this small room, feeling right at home.
Here are the boys from our trip. So tough, aren't you nervous? The scenery behind them is pretty cool.
In Barcelona, there are lots of street performers to take tourists' money. Poor Zorro. He had no idea that these guys are actual fencers. Jamie and Phil created a whole crowd of tourists with video cameras! (I should have taken money!!)
The next day we travelled to Montserrat, a monastery built right into an enormous mountain.
We had to take a cable car all the way up, but we were happy at the top.
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Here is the church:
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We made it just in time to hear the oldest boys choir in Europe sing two songs for afternoon services.
Afterwards, we followed some very easy and gorgeous paths all over the area, with artwork built right into mountain.
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At the end of our trip (literally 30 min before leaving the hotel) we had Team Barcelona shirts made. I wonder if they'll take us on their team...
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