YOM KIPPUR/ IT WAS A BITTER SWEET DAY

   Well with Yom Kippur finally behind us may i just say that it was definitely an experience as everything else here has been. It first started out with me going to my host families house for a quick yet as usual delicious meal. then it was off to the synagogue. it was interesting, I wound up at a orthodox sephardic temple the tunes were beautiful and kol nidre was simply amazing. what made it even more interesting prior to the start of the service they wound up auctioning off various parts in the service involving the torah service. prices wound up being anywhere between 100 shek's to 1000+ shek's. it was pretty different then the states. also I noticed that it was a big day for kids to rent bikes and terrorize the streets j/k on the terrorizing part but it was kinda cute it was like swarms of kiddie biker gangs almost. sat was nice too, I wound up sleeping till 2 in the afternoon and then went to services close to the end of the evening around 530. it was  beautiful shofar blowing they had a few shofars around the room and just them sounding together was breath taking. After the service Sabrina, Jon and I went to Our neighborhood friend/ neighborhood mom had us over for break the fast. and we had blintz's sorry mom these were actually good and had potato and mushrooms... so it wound up being a nice holiday.  

    Now the bitter sweet side of things... today we were taken to Jerusalem we started at this over look of the entire city just next to Hebrew univ. It was a breath taking site. it's amazing I've been to Jerusalem a few times in my life and I always seem to be seeing new perspectives and views of the probably most gorgeous city's around in never stops amazing me what so ever. after that we probably made the biggest mistake ever. (this is the bitter part) so we were going to see the sukkot preparations going on with-in the city and where else would we go to see that but the infamous maya sharim neighborhood. so as we walked along we went into a little area where erez wanted to show an example of what the film  ushpazin was trying to portray. and we were intercepted by a woman who said some of the women were dress a bit immodestly when it came to their tops and on top of that we also got bitched at by a orthodox man. the woman was nice though she was going to invite us into her place for a bit. how ever we wound up pushing on which was our first mistake we wound up going down some and after walking a bit out of the blue someone randomly threw a egg at us and hit few of the guys of the group it pretty much didn't really sit well with us and kinda made us uneasy. See here's what I find interesting and hypocritical of the whole Jewish religion and what not. The last two days we were all standing side by side with these guys, and eating by them in some cases. and the orthodox and the Jewish religion preaches acceptance of all, righteousness, and what not. But it'svery said when you see something like this where Jews are hating upon other Jews just for the slightest difference. I'm making this stand in saying this! THIS WAR AND HATERED OF OUR FELLOW JEWS HAS TO COME TO A STOP! THIS IS BECOMING EXTREMELY RIDICULOUS! WE ARE ALL THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, WE ARE ALL HAVE THE SAME FOUR FATHERS! FOR THE LOVE OF G-D JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE A BIT MORE RELIGIOUS DOESN'T MEAN JACK SQUAT! A JEW IS A JEW! WE ARE ATTACKING OUR OWN FAMILY MEMBERS! GROW UP! A STAND HAS TO BE TAKEN AND TAKEN NOW! BUT I DIGRESS NOW!

    Now back to the sweetness :-) after that little fiasco we wound up going to the kottel and had the chance to pray at the Western wall... I got lured into doing t'fillen prayed briefly at the wall. and actually met a guy who was from the Cleveland area who made A and now lives here there is some good in the orthodox world. it was interesting too; as we were there i noticed a couple squads of troops as they took their first trip to the wall. its apparently a tradition for the troops as a group to go to the wall. it was kinda humbling to see them. you see them and you are honored to know that they are there to protect you. and then you see them at the kottel praying and its an experience for them for some it would have been the first time for them to go to the wall. but the same time you see the respect that these soldiers receive where ever they go especially at the wall. you see the people around them occasionally approaching them and shaking their hands and thanking them for their service to such a country. I wound up approaching one of them too and thanking them for what they do, and he was flattered he said it's tough to do what he's going through considering now its just training but to know that someone appreciates them for what he was doing just made things a 100% more meaningful. its interesting how in the states we see the soldiers around us and we really don't show them much respect as the deserve they do so much for us and sacrifice so much for us back home. I think people should take the initiative to take it upon themselves to reach out to at least one uniformed soldier this year and thank them. trust me it would make their day let alone life probably after all they have been through.

    After we finally got our of dodge in Jerusalem, came the biggest honor and sweetest moment of the day...DINNER AT MOMO'S!!!!!!! WOOOOHHHOOOOO!!!! ( for those who don't know who Momo is he is the president of oranim i mentioned him in past blogs) anyhow.... He wound up BBQing for us MMMMMMMMMMM schnitzel, burgers, kabob's and chicken shwarma on a stick (Drool!) hehe! OH MY GOD!!! IT WAS THE BEST FEAST WE HAVE HAD IN AGES! AND IT WAS AT HIS SECRET APARTMENT THAT HE NEVER LETS PEOPLE FROM WORK OR ANY ONE TO. SO FOR US WE WERE SPECIAL!!! it was beautiful! and it was the best view in the entire area! it seemed to be in the center of Kfar saba. He lives all the way up top and has a patio with a hot tub (NICE!!) but from there if you look to the left you see the coast like netanya and a couple other cities, and on the right the west bank and into Jordan. yes i said the west bank clear as day. It just goes to show you how small the country truly is! we wound up stuffing ourselves pretty nicely and we now have some bragging rights. He said that he doesn't let anyone up there ever not even people from his work well ok so he had a few people from work there today but that's b/c they were with us. but he said we were invited b/c we are special we are his dream coming true! So as y'all can tell its been a hell of a 48 hrs to say the least but its been interesting and fun at times to say the least... well people thats it from here for now i hope you all had a easy fast. I love you all very much and will keep you posted. Till next time Peace out from the middle east!