Shabbat

Blog 7/18/15

After a memorable experience at the western wall on Friday night, Saturday began with a lovely veggie-filled Shabbat breakfast. We left the hostel at 8:30 to stroll to nahalot for services at a "hippie" orthodox shul. The men headed to the front of the room and the women sat behind a mechitzah (separator) in the back of the room. About 30 minutes into services, we saw an orthodox woman and ended up getting the opportunity to have a conversation with her about orthodoxy and her Jewish life. As a 21 year old married Canadian, she had very interesting thoughts on ideas such as homosexuality and the woman's role in the household. Services concluded around 10:30after which we headed up the stairs to meet an amazing woman named Chana Mason. Chana was born in Argentina and moved to Miami at the age of five where she lived until she was 23. She and her adorable ten year old son gave us a tour of their neighborhood, Nahalot. Her charisma and her son's stories helped make the unbearable heat a bit easier to cope with. If you have never been to nahalot, I highly
Recommend Chana to get insight into the neighborhood and to the uncommon life of an orthodox woman. We met up with Murielle, a friend of Lara's from Hebrew university,  after our tour with Chana was over as she kindly welcomed all of us into her quaint little Jerusalem home. She talked to us about her life growing up in Montreal and how she became 
much more religious when she got to Israel 10 years ago. Our morning programs ended at 1 followed by lunch and a three hour break at the hostel. The day concluded with our maagal layla, dinner, havdallah, and some shopping time on Ben Yehuda street to mark the end of Shabbat.