Well, here we go. Two and a half weeks in Israel, a trip that began the Thursday before Yom Kippur and ended after Sukkot. Rather than attempt to write a day-by-day account of this 17 day adventure, we’ll be doing something a little different.
To start, musings on the beginning of this trip.
The Journey to Israel
I’m trying to think of what’s actually worth mentioning from the plane. Not much. As discussed, we left on a Thursday on the 530 pm flight. Behind us was seated a woman who’s mother had just died. In fact, her mother was traveling with us, under the plane. The flight wasn’t awful, aside from the kids sleeping on me for seven straight hours, during which I couldn’t move and needed to pee. Amazing I didn’t get a blood clot. At one point I was able to stand up so Tzvi and I went to the open area just to stretch our legs. That’s when the husband of the woman behind us said “no fornicating in the alley.” Mind you, this was a man who had been conversing in yiddish with a chasid over seats. The icing on the cake was at the end of it when Tzvi put Madeleine’s shoes on her, and the same guy told him he was a really good dad.
We got off the plane, made it through immigration and customs, and got our luggage with no problems. As we exited the airport, we obviously stopped at Aroma for coffee, and then we met our driver, whose name I could not remember. I’m pretty sure it was Oren, even though I called him Ofer at least three times.
The ride into Jerusalem was uneventful, and then we pulled up to Mordechai Yehudi 6, where my parents were standing on the curb waiting to greet us with open arms. Here is a photo of my parents greeting us in the lobby of their apartment building.
Isn’t it amazing what you can make with Chat GPT?
We arrived and nobody was there to help us. So we schlepped all of our bags into the elevator in three separate trips, made it upstairs, went into the apartment, and finally saw my parents.
We’ve stayed here before, so we got ourselves settled and then decided that we needed to go out for lunch. We walked down toward Emek Refaim in search of food and somehow decided on Kum Kum, which is apparently a tea house that has been there for several years. We’ve always said we wanted to try it, and my mom thought that Erev Shabbos, immediately after landing from an overnight flight, was the perfect opportunity. It’s a little restaurant with some outdoor tables, tea, and a few other things. All of the china is mismatched and looks like it has been collected over the years, which is kind of cute. There isn’t a huge menu. I got a tuna sandwich, Madeleine got lasagna, and Hallie got a salad, which basically meant she ate some lettuce. We also got scones, except they were out of most of the scones, so we ended up with chocolate chip. They came with butter, jam, and cream—except when I say cream, I mean whipped cream. And Israeli whipped cream isn’t that great. So it was an interesting experience. As Tzvi put it, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, in the sense that he never needs to go back there again.
Shabbos, or, How My Husband Slept 16/24 Hours
Shabbos was uneventful. My mother made two very nice meals in her apartment. She also got Tzvi a birthday cake from a local baker and it was delicious, especially for a pareve cake. We almost made it to shul, went on several walks and took the girls to the playground.
Meanwhile, Tzvi slept sixteen hours.
After Shabbos, we thought about going out, but everyone was tired, so we ended up ordering pizza instead. I don’t remember the name of the pizza place. The pizzas were square, and we also got garlic bread, bourekas, and a tuna salad. I’m fairly certain the tuna salad was full of dirt because I kept crunching on something and could see little black flecks all over it. So that was truly appealing. The pizza itself was mediocre.
Yom Kippur, or, On Monday’s we Wear White
Sunday we had a nice pre-Yom Kippur meal, got ourselves ready, and headed to shul at around 6:15 for Kol Nidre. For Yom Kippur, we were davening at my parents’ shul. We were in the downstairs minyan because, apparently, if you aren’t a member, you can’t sit in the upstairs minyan for the High Holidays. The davening was very nice. Everyone was extremely quiet, and overall it was just a great] atmosphere. The girls stayed in shul for the entire Kol Nidre service, which was [really nice].
After davening, we walked up Emek Refaim because that is what everybody does. One of the things that was most striking was seeing Jerusalem on Yom Kippur night. The roads are basically closed, and even the ones that technically aren’t closed have almost no cars on them. Everyone is walking around. Everyone is dressed in white. Kids are riding bikes. There is just this sea of people in white filling the streets. Everyone is wishing each other a G’mar Chatimah Tovah, and there’s almost a festive atmosphere to the evening. At home, Yom Kippur always feels more like, “Okay, good luck. Have an easy fast. We’ll get through this.” Here, everyone seemed happy to be outside. It was just a really beautiful scene.
The next morning, we got to shul pretty late. I don’t think I got there until after 11:00, which I thought was a perfectly normal Yom Kippur arrival time. Apparently not. By the time I got there, they were already well into Mussaf. I will say, this was an efficient shul. The davening was once again very nice, and somehow they were completely finished by around 12:45. The girls were in and out during the morning, but enjoyed. Apparently you can have a nice davening without sitting there until 2:30 in the afternoon. Tzvi was also one of only two Kohanim there for Birkat Kohanim that morning.
We walked back to the apartment and spent the afternoon hanging around. We read, played cards, and relaxed. I will not discuss whether anyone packed or prepared anything for after the fast, because of course you are not actually supposed to do that on Yom Kippur.
Eventually, we headed back to shul for Mincha and Ne’ilah. I got there toward the end of Mincha. The Kohen who had received an aliyah that morning had told Tzvi that if Tzvi made it to Mincha on time, he would give him the aliyah instead. Tzvi actually got there on time, so he got his aliyah. Then, to his surprise, he ended up doing Birkat Kohanim again during Ne’ilah, which he had not realized was going to happen.
Ne’ilah itself was very nice. They finished a little early, so they stretched things out with a few additional prayers, including a prayer for the soldiers and some Tehillim. For Avinu Malkeinu, they did every line responsively, so they were clearly doing their best to drag things out until the proper time. Finally, the shofar blew. We walked home and had break-fast, which obviously included Toddy’s bagels that I had brought from home and frozen. You can take the family out of the Five Towns…
After that we packed up and got ready to head north the next day.
My dad vomited, presumably because he did not want to go north.
And that pretty much sums up the first leg of the trip.