To Jerusalem and back x 2

I spent the last two Shabbats in Jerusalem at the Heritage House Jewish Youth Hostel. Heritage House is actually two separate buildings – one for men, one for women – located a block apart in the heart of the Old City’s Jewish Quarter. The women’s hostel is a close-quartered, two-story house with enough bunk-beds for at least thirty guests. Amazingly enough, the hostel is free. Local Orthodox families host students for meals on as part of a Shabbat hospitality program.

I stayed at Heritage House during a previous Shabbat (see blog entry from March 25) and had such an interesting experience that I decided to return. I was somewhat reluctant to go on my own, yet it turned out to be easy to meet other visitors. Two madrichim (i.e. counselors, or guides) welcomed people to the hostel and answered questions about Shabbat observance. Although I am still unfamiliar with some of the halakhic guidelines, I have gained a much better understanding of Orthodox Shabbat observance through my experiences there.

On Friday night I went to dinner at the home of a family who personifies open-door hospitality. The first floor of their home had been transformed into a dining room packed full of guests. There must have been upwards of sixty people, yet the mother had cooked more than enough food for everyone who walked through the door. Her kids busily ferried food to the guests; apparently they do this every Shabbat! I simply cannot imagine a similar scenario happening in New York.

On Saturday I went to the home of a family I had met during my previous stay at Heritage House. Their very cute seven-month-old son quickly recruited me into his fan club of Shabbat visitors. I probably asked them more than my fair share of questions regarding Orthodox observance, but they were incredibly nice about answering them. I was reluctant to return to Haifa at the end of Shabbat. I like Haifa for plenty of reasons, but Jerusalem is as interesting as it gets.

As Shabbat rolled around the following week, a friend and I decided at the last minute to take the two hour bus ride back to Jerusalem. Heritage House was much more crowded than it had been the week before, and I saw lots of tour groups traipsing around the Old City.

On Friday night my friend and I went to the home of a family who lives in one of the best-located apartments in the Old City. The entire family was very nice to us, but what struck me most about them was how funny they were. I had not previously envisioned very observant Orthodox Jews as being particularly humorous, but with this family I had to be careful not to choke on my food while laughing. Unfortunately not every subject of conversation turned out to be so funny. One of their guests was a woman visiting from Paris who plans to move to Israel in the near future. She explained that she no longer feels safe as a Jew in France. She mentioned feeling targeted at work, so you can imagine my shock to learn that she works in a government office.

The following day I went to lunch at the home of a lovely young family and then spent much of the afternoon talking with other people staying at Heritage House. Many of the guests at Heritage House are Americans, but I also met people from Brazil, France, Australia, Latvia, Russia, Canada, and Israel. I enjoyed spending Shabbat in Old City and taking a break from the rest of the week. I could really get used to this holiday.