Shabbos Koidesh

September 4 -- Shabbos Koidesh

After roughly settling in over the first few days, Shabbos was finally here.  Since camp, my Shabbatot had really been turned down a few notches.  No kids to look after, no camp friends, no Sichot, no nothing.  My Shabbatot had been limited to my experiences at shul on Saturday, which just wasn't the same.  Going from Shomer Shabbat for 9 weeks to the opposite was also saddening.  Shabbos just wasn't the same.

Shabbos could not have come quicker on Nativ, and I knew I would get right back into the swing of things as my USY/Ramah filled Shabbat was about to begin.  We toured Jerusalem, got to know each other through icebreakers and our crazy, off the hook, outing to Ben Yehuda that Thursday night, which was unlike any Thursday night I had ever experienced in my entire life (Thursday and Saturday are huge nights in Israel) and were ready to go.  

Our first order of business was to walk to Yemin Moshe to daven Mincha, Kabbalat Shabbat, and Ma'ariv, overlooking the old city, with a cool breeze, a setting sun, and an enormous rising moon.  I wanted to make sure that my first Shabbat experience in Jerusalem was special, so I stepped up to lead Mincha for our "Kehilla", and davened like a true macher.


Dinner that night was more than lively, and the notorious Nativ Tisch soon followed.  We were handed an enormous song sheet packet filled with 136+ songs that hopefully we would get through by the end of our time in Jerusalem.  Although I never had the chance to start one of my new favorite songs, Im Eshkachech, I was overwhelmed by uplifting nigguns, Acheinu, Tov L'hodot, D'ror Yikra, etc.  Too bad that the Tisch will only happen about once a month, due to the fact that there is only approx one closed Shabbat a month, but the suspense and ruach will only continue to build until the next one.


Next came shul on Saturday.  After trekking around the alleys of Jerusalem for 50 minutes with a few day old friends, and new ones, we finally found our destination, Kol Rina.  As we had heard, Kol Rina was a hippy shul in a converted bomb shelter near the shuk.  We thought it would be an awesome place to start our shul hopping journey, and were told that it was relatively easy to get to.  Apparently the street we were told to turn on didn't actually exist, although our staff was positive it did, we must have just missed it, but nonetheless it was a 15 minute walk, not a 50 minute one.  Along the way we met people who had no clue what Kol Rina was, some people who thought they knew where it was, some people that didn't speak English, and finally one person that actually knew where the shul was.  We walked past the street two or three times, but had no clue what a bomb shelter looked like, so there was no way that we could have figured out where to go.  Finally though, after schvitzing like chazers and ready for some hardcore davening, we had found the bomb shelter with the green door, Kol Rina.


When we walked in, we weren't too sure what to expect.  Would it be small and cramped?  Air conditioned?  Would there be NaNachers?  Or just young Israelis looking for a good time?  After walking through two small hallways, we found ourselves in a "sanctuary" which was really a basement with a low ceiling, fans, and a beautiful Aron Kodesh in the front.  I felt right at home when I walked in, immersed in a young Modern Orthodox with one of the greatest chazans I have ever witnessed.  The chazan was a young, good looking guy, with a beautiful voice, beautiful English, beautiful Hebrew, and beautiful leading skills.  He lead P'Sukei, Shacharit, Torah Service, read the whole portion, read the Haftorah, lead Musaf, and gave the D'var.  This guy was a MACHER.  The one thing he didn't do was lead Anim Zemirot, which he cordially invited the 4, 5, and 6 year olds in the congregation to lead...what yids.  Although we were disappointed that there was no Kiddush, we found a BOMB shul (pun intended), and knew we would be back for more.


The rest of the Shabbos was pretty relaxing, and we ate, chilled, and walked around trying to find a basketball court.  After realizing that the ghetto court near us was unacceptable to play ball at, we ventured down to Gan Ha'Palmon to play on a real court.  We balled hard, and then it was time to go back to Beit Nativ to finish up Shabbat, and get ready for the ISRAEL vs. LATVIA WORLD CUP QUALIFIER SOCCER GAME!!!


I guess that Israelis understand that people enjoy affordable entertainment, because we only paid 20 shekels (about 5 bucks) to see the game.  After choosing seats in our selected gate, we cheered on the Israeli soccer team, and stood up every time they got close to scoring a goal.  The crowd roared in some special chant, but unfortunately the Israelis lost their qualifying game at a score of 1-0.  While this seems very simplified, and yes it is, the game was a while ago, and I can't recount every single detail.  I didn't paint my face completely white, eat an ice cream cone, and have fun though...and fun is what really counts.


Shabbat in Israel cannot compare to Shabbat in America.  I'm glad I'm back home.