Fateful Decisions - the Citizens' Perspective

Friday's theme was the title of this entry, but it should have been Preparing for Shabbat in Jerusalem because that's what we did...and Shabbat in Jerusalem is like Shabbat no place else (more about that on Saturday's blog). We had a FABULOUS teaching by Yonatan Mirvis who is the head of curriculum development for Melton. His topic was Symbols and Signs - Mapping Jerusalem's Multi-faceted Population. He gave us a fairly in depth look at the different groups of people - not just "religious" and "secular" but the divisions within those broad categories and how they deal with Torah learning, relationship to the State of Israel, and the "New Morality" in Israel. He went from some fairly spiritual topics to how people place ads in the Personals section of the paper in order to get the right group to reply. "Woman seeks man with small knit kipa" would be different from just "knit kipa." Sleeve length is also a telling factor. We then were asked to do a survey in different neighborhoods and actually interview people on the streets. While doing that, we also observed much of what he told us to look for. Several of us actually were invited into people's homes to talk to them and were able to see the Shabbat preparations at home. EVERYONE is on the streets in Jerusalem on Friday, so if you want to talk with people you may need to follow them around the market while they shop or help them with their grocery bags. I would NEVER do such a thing in Palo Alto, but I tried it and it was great fun. I also learned that my Hebrew is now good enough that if I craft my questions carefully I sound like I know what I'm saying...this is good news and bad. Good stuff should be obvious - bad is that they then answer me in Hebrew and sometimes I have no idea what they are saying. It's been fun. We then got ourselves ready for Shabbat and went to light candles together at King David's tomb and a Kabbalat Shabbat at the wall...things have changed there. The women's section is now as rowdy as the men's - although of course still separate...and on the plaza there are tons of mixed groups having Kabbalat Shabbat together. It is not perfect, but sooooooooooo much better than it used to be. Maybe progress is possible?? One couple that is on our trip also has an apartment in the old city overlooking the wall. They had all 22 of us for a fabulous Israeli Shabbat dinner. Their apartment was beautifully furnished and decorated with modern things only from Israel - what a contrast between the old and the new! We then got to walk home ( at 1AM) through the EMPTY streets of the old city - what a treat! Shabbat Shalom, Randi