Yom Kippur/Olive Picking

Nathan, me, and Andrew getting ready to go to The Great Synagogue

Appartenly this is holiday month for the Jews. Just last week they had Rosh Hashanah (their new year). On Rosh Hashanah several of us went to the Great Synagogue and took part in the services. We had to dress very modestly (floor length skirts and elbow length shirts for the girls, and the boys had to wear kippas ) and once you are in the synagogue, the men go in one way and the women another. I did not know what to expect at all, so it was really interesting to just jump in and experience it. The services were held in Hebrew, of course, and The Great Synagogue is one of the few in the world that has a choir that sings all of the scripture that are being read for the services. The rest of the worshippers follow along in the Torahs and rock and sway back and forth as they read along. I am not quite sure why they do it, but they do. I just stood in the back and listened as the choir of all men, and occassionally one young boy, sang beautifully. After about an hour of watching the service, me and a few of the other students snuck out. The streets in West Jerusalem were absolutely empty. It was so weird walking around the usually busy streets. Only one store was open...McDonalds. I got me a huge hamburger and fries and I have never been happier with McDonalds. Rosh Hashanah happened to fall on the last day of Ramadan as well, so the Muslims were celebrating that day as well. We walked through the Old City on our way back home, and it was like it was a completely different city. There weren't near as many vendors, and the were tons more young people out walking the streets. Everyone was all dressed up. Something they must do for the end of Ramdan is give their children play guns. All of the little kids were pointing their pellet guns at us and either pretend shooting us, or really shooting us with pellets. I now understand why so many parents won't let their children play with toy guns. It was kind of scary to see all these little Arab children with guns that looked so real, even if they were just toys. That night it was like the town never went to sleep. Music was blasting, lights were everywhere, and parties were definitely going on. I wanted to go check it out so bad, but couldn't for some obvious saftey reasons. The week from Rash Hashanah on has mostly been a bunch of school work and a few field trips, but tonight is the eve of Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement. Luckily we had our Jewish class today and our Jewish professor dedicated the whole 2 hours to educating us about Yom Kippur. At the end of class, he played a song for us that they will sing in synagogue tonight for the holiday. He got choked up and it was really neat that he would share something so sacred to him with us. I love it here! I am so blessed to be able to rub shoulders with all of these people and learn from them. After class and lunch, they hauled all 80 of us students outside and had us pick the olives from the trees lining the street to the Jerusalem Center. It ended up being a lot of fun and I think I threw more olives at people than I picked. We will pick more tomorrow, and then later this week we are going to press them to make our own olive oil. Today we are not allowed out of the center because...well, I don't know why...but I am kind of sad because I really would have liked to have headed over to West Jerusalem and gone to another synagogue and seen the city on Yom Kippur. I am sure we will find something exciting to do around here.