Shabbat

Today we only had a half day at school because it is the Sabbath. We had lectures on Nazi Racist Ideology and the Persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany: 1933-1939. When we were returned to the hotel at 12pm another teacher from the course and I went fro a walk to the Old City to begin souvenir shopping. It was a freezing cold day in Jerusalem today with severe winds and torrential rain but we both needed a walk and figured that a bit of rain wouldn't hurt us. We were absolutely drenched when we returned to the hotel. Here are some pictures of the market.

I love to take photos of the spices and different types of dried fruits and nuts that you can buy. Next Friday before Shabbat I am going to go the Shook which is a market not unlike our Vic Market I've been told but on steroids.

There were lots of stalls selling livestock.

 
All of the stalls are in tiny little areas and the merchants harass you for your business. My bargaining skills are getting better. As it is the Sabbath it is very quiet because Jerusalem basically closes down from sunset today to sunset tomorrow being Saturday. I arrived last Saturday morning so missed the beginning of the Sabbath but when it is welcomed in a siren goes off to alert everyone to this. It sounds like an air raid siren but we were warned about this at school so knew to expect it. There are lots of Americans at the hotel and they didn't know this and they were really scared and trying to run out of the foyer.

I bought myself a fruit bowl for home and some trinkets that say Jerusalem for my two History classes. I haggled the man down from 50 Shekel for 52 trinkets to 20 Shekel for 54. Not bad!

We then had a very special experience by attending a Shabbat service at the Great Synagogue. We were given all materials in English alongside the Hebrew but really couldn't follow so just sat and watched. We weren't allowed photos in the Synagogue and I wouldn't have taken any out of respect either so have just provided a Google image of the Great Synagogue.

The male teachers were given skull caps to wear before we entered and then the female teachers were sent to the upstairs area you can see. The men sat at the bottom. The men only take part in the service with the Rabbi leading the service and the congregation singing with him often. The women followed the service from the balcony and stood up and sat down and turned around at different times throughout the service and we were told to just follow what they did. The service went for about 50 minutes. This was the only Shabbat service that we were obliged to attend with the Yad Vashem staff but I think I will probably go back to synagogue next Friday Shabbat as well.

After the service they put on a lavish dinner at the hotel for us and all the other Jews who went to synagogue. It was so interesting to see the different Jewish communities all in one room. There were tiny boys wearing black suits and black top hats with side curls, men with side curls and big furry circular shaped hats on their heads and men wearing everyday clothes with colourful skull caps. There was such a mixture of religious devoutness amongst them. The Jewish women were very much dressed in the style of the Amish women without any head coverings. After the initial blessing of the bread and wine and washing our hands at the communal cleaning station, we drank and ate and celebrated the Shabbat. Israeli alcohol is so strong! The dining hall was full of Jewish families and every now and again then the room would erupt with Jewish nationalistic song. It was lovely. At one point our host Ephraim got up and told the room that along with our group of 35 there were another 80 Australians just arrived for a teacher's tour of Israel. He asked us to sing an Australian song so all 115 of us sang Waltzing Matilda.

After the dinner we listened to our second survivor speech from Mark Spigelman. Mark was a child survivor of the Holocaust and survived only because he was made to dress as a girl and grow his hair long from when he was born. This was because the German soldiers pulled down the pants of all little boys and if they were circumcised, therefore a Jew, they were killed. This deception kept him alive. He is the youngest survivor remaining, in his 80's now, and he told us of the horrific nightmares that still plague him to this day. He lives between Israel and England today but when he was liberated by the Russians his parents wanted to move as far away from Europe as possible so he spent his life from 10 years of age in Australia. He is in Art Spiegelman's graphic novel Maus, a text which is on the current Year 12 booklist for English.

Due to the terrible weather we will only find out of our tour for tomorrow in the morning. Either the Dead Sea and Masada, the Jewish and Christian Quarters of the Old City or the Israeli Museum with an archaeologist tour guide. Either way we will fit everything in but they may move them about so we get the best experience possible.

They are really looking after us here.