Sunday, September 11, 2011

Connectedness

     Shabbos was absolutely incredible! Friday night one of the madrichot, two other girls, and I walked to shul in Har Nof and davened mincha and maariv for Shabbos. As we bowed down to welcome the sabbath bride during L'Cha Dodi we turned around to face the door. I was met by the window with the skyline pastel pinks and baby blues. Oranges wove in and out of the sky. I couldn't believe my eyes! I walk through Har Nof every day and can't beleive how beautiful Jerusalem is. After a delicious dinner and oneg, I fell fast asleep. I awoke in the early morning, with just enough time to see the sun return over the same horizon I had previously seen it set. I walked around the vacant campus admiring the flowers and cold, due-soaked grass. The grass has a much different texture than the grass in America. You can feel the water-soaked ground beneath it. I walked up the stairs, leaving wet-foot prints on the concrete. I waited for my roomate to get ready, and we went to shachris. After the Amidah, sleep overwhelmed me. I returned to my dorm and fell back asleep until lunch.

     With all the meals and sleep on shabbos, one would think it was a day of rest. In reality, however, it is a day with conectedness to Hashem. This is why two friends and I walked an hour and a half to the Kotel to daven. After saying the supplication for being at the Kotel in English, and painstakingly slow in Hebrew, I finished with the Shma and a personal bracha. It felt right to be there. Here I was truely keeping Shabbos for the first time, and I stood at the Kotel to fully experience the conectedness with my God and my people. We ran into my friend's friends from NCSY (this seems to happen alot!), so the afternoon in the Old City was full of cheerful laughter and musings. Once, a long time later, we were back at the dorms we literally had to leave to go to our rochezet (a young married women who we informally learn things with), Adar. Here we had the third meal and watched the sunset with the same pastel pinks and baby blues, with oranges scattered across a soon star-lit sky. Once we saw enough of the stars we held a short havdallah service. With fire Shabbos enetered, and with fire it exited.

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