the great schlep

while "the great schlep" might be referring to my recent 11 hour flight, but now that i'm briefly back in the states, the "great schlep" instead, is sarah silverman's idea of how to rock the bubbe vote.

pre-sunrise selichot

today turned into an early morning. instead of waking up at 4:30 am to catch the end of a late-night football game, we were up at 4am to check out 5am selichot services at the ades synagogue - בית הכנסת עדס in jerusalem's nachlaot neighborhood.

the synagogue was built 100 years ago by a community of jews from aleppo, syria. this jewish community had been the guardians of the aleppo codex, the 1000-year old biblical manuscript that is now in the israel museum. the synagogue is sephardic/mizrachi, so selichot services take place during the entire month of elul, not just the last week or so, as is the ashkenazi practice.

you can listen to a melody used at the synagogue here. (click on the "play button" in the upper-left part of the page, and then a pop-up window will start playing the piyut).

there's also an interesting article on ynet news (in english) about early morning selichot services in nachlaot, including a video (in hebrew). the first synagogue featured in the video is ades, the one we visited.

afterwards, following some much-needed caffeinated beverages at aroma, we were off to the nearby shuk. mmmh... shopping for fresh pita and veggies goes so well with repentance ...

obama's rabbis

though i wasn't yet able to be part of it, yesterday obama convened a conference call with over 900 rabbis, from across the denominational spectrum. it was live-blogged by rabbi danya. כן אנו יכולים !

tasty teshuvah

last night we took a break from talmud, sleep, and high holiday prep, and went to the taste of jerusalem - food festival, on the heals of the jerusalem beer festival held in late august. i had a really good kosher chicken burrito.

maybe tomorrow i'll head into the old city for a late night selichot service and get in some good old-fashioned repenting, along with a cacophony of shofar tekiah-ing, before the big day...

but, i guess if that doesn't excite, there's always the evening laser light show to bring on the (shock and) awe. what better way is there to say "teshuvah", than writing it with lasers on the darkened white stone walls of jerusalem?

soulful davening in a bomb shelter

last night we attended services and had a delicious shabbat dinner in the captivating neighborhood of nachalot:

referred to by some as “jerusalem's soho” area, nachlaot it is home to a diverse population, which includes the jerusalem hareidi-religious population, followers of the late rabbi shlomo carlebach, members of the national religious community and many non-sabbath observant residents. There are members of both the ashkenazi and sephardic communities.

it is one of the city’s older and more colorful neighborhoods, retaining much of its original 19th century architecture, narrow alleyways and cobblestone streets. the neighborhood was planned to accommodate the yemenite, kurdish, jerusalem sephardi (including the famous banai family), greek, and galician Jews. the communities had their own synagogues (many still exist today) and were each housed within a walled compound, built around a common courtyard and a water cistern in the center.

the residents of the community serve as an example to am yisrael (the jewish people), living side-by-side in harmony, including sabbath observant and non-sabbath observant families and singles. “tolerance and good vibes” would well describe life in this increasingly popular area of the capital.

located in the heart of jerusalem, opposite the well-known machane yehuda outdoor marketplace, nachlaot is situated in the heart of downtown jerusalem, serving as a gateway to the government complex and sacher park, as well as being situated in easy walking distance to major downtown hotels, the city center, and neighborhoods including Rechavia and shaare chesed.

there are many synagogues, including kol rina, an orthodox synagogue which offers prayer services modeled after the tunes and spirit of the late rabbi carlebach, with spiritual leader rabbi aaron leibowitz, who is bilingual, making a concerted effort to make his house of worship a comfort zone for all those who visit and worship regularly.

nachalot was the neighborhood where the movie ushpizin was filmed, which in itself was an attempt to bridge some of the secular-religious divide in the city and israeli society. there are apparently free mp3 walking tours of the neighborhood available at jerusalemp3.com.

we attended services at kol rina, the carlebach-style shul mentioned above, which meets in the neighborhood bomb shelter. the diversity of the minyan attendees matched the neighborhood - with folks wearing rainbow kippot happily sitting next to shtreimls, their voices all joining together in the many yi-di-di-di and yi-bi-bi-bum refrains.

however, with the mechitzah that created a women's section behind that of the men's, i felt like the women were relegated to praying in the "back of the bus" (even though i know that other folks might disagree with me).

i guess i have the year to continue to reflect on what it means to have male privilege here in jerusalem, and to have access to prayer spaces from which others are excluded.

jazzing it up on emek

on monday night, a friend told me about the opening/rededication of a new progressive community center, called מרכז תרבות העמים , in the emek refaim neighborhood of jerusalem. the center aims to create a pluralistic environment for cultural and social activities for all of the diverse residents of the "garden neighborhoods" of jerusalem.

the event featured:

Marsh Dondurma - The street band is known to change a humdrum day of wandering up and down Ben Yehuda street into a festival when they wip out their drums (as well as percussion instruments.) To avoid being accused of favoritism, the Marsh Dondurma plays gypsy traditional, Jewish klezmer, Latin beats, Middle Eastern tunes, and more. They've also played at art festivals all over Israel and the Serbian Guca Trumpet Festival. The group covers much ground at this festival first playing on Emek Refaim (the street itself) and then at 20:30 inside the new center.

• 19:30-Reception
  
• 20:00-Fixing of Mezuzah
  
• 20:30-Marsh Dondurma at the new center
  
• Special guests: Rabbi Benny Lau, Professor Ariel Hirschfeld, and poets Haim Gouri, Almog Behar, and Benyamin Shvili

let me just tell you that the group, מארש דונדורמה, is awsome. imagine a 8-10 piece new orleans-klezmer-funk brass band, complete with trombones and a tuba, imported to israel. i'm now a big fan. music clips are available on their webpage, and on their myspace page, and via the youtube clips below: