When people go to a foreign country, like Israel, for Chagim- holidays- the general complaint is homesickness due to a new place, new people, and new customs/tefilah. Though I knew that I would sidetrack at least 1/3 of those issues being at the Jacobson's, I was far more than pleasantly surprised with the end-results.
Sunday Night- First Night.
Though every second leading up to Chag was chaotic, the moment the candles were lit in the Jacobson household the calm ambiance of the holiday ruled the air. All five Jacobson women, three other guests my age, and myself (yes- nine girls) made our way to Mrs. J's brother and his family's house a few short blocks away where we would be eating dinner. Although it is true that I have most definitely met, and even known, this Maimon family, it has been quite a number of years since those days and I didn't totally know what to expect. Immediately welcomed with happiness and warmth, I knew that dinner would be a great experience. A couple of minutes after the men came home from synagogue we all gathered around the very long, and beautiful looking, table arrangement for Kiddush. As soon as I saw that sugar was on the table for Challah (as opposed to honey, though both were present), a new level of comfort had been achieved. The real moment of comfort was when the Yehi Ratzoni booklets were passed out to each guest after Ha'motzi... Seeing the apples, prasa (leeks), spinach, pumpkin, fish head, dates, and pomegranate on the table, and reading the Ladino words in the booklet, I was totally prepared to be 100% on my game. We had a beautiful seder of Yehi Ratzonis, not only in food but also in company, and I could not have felt more at home. I sang an abbreviated version of Fish Heads with Elana Maimon herself, which was lovely. And, I was unusually adventurous in terms of which of the Yehi Ratzonis I ate... Instead of sticking to my usual limited duo of apples and prasa, I ventured to eat each and every dish-- though I cheated a little bit for the fish head and ate a tomato off of the plate of the fish head, while my partner in crime Sammy Maimon ate a piece of garlic. All I know is that there was a little baby piece of cheek meat on that tomato somewhere, so I'm counting it. We of course had a most beautiful meal following the Yehi Ratzonis, and the culmination of those two parts with dessert created a full that I had not experienced in a very long time. Special recognition must go to the apple cake, which was so dense and delicious that I could have just eaten that for my meal.
Monday Morning- First Day.
Mrs. J woke us all up at 8:30 to get ready for synagogue, and we were ready to go by about 9:15. Machzor (which I bought for 20 shek- $5 last week) in hand, I was prepared for what I thought would be a difficult-to-follow-along Tefilah service. We walked a grand total of a few hundred feet and arrived at the beautiful synagogue, which I later found out is home to five different minyanim and about 1200 people- crazy! Mrs. J walked me downstairs to the new Sephardic minyan where I went to pray, as opposed to the upstairs Ashkenazik minyan where everyone else was praying. I walked in, found an open seat in the back row (coincidentally next to the seat I was actually supposed to sit in), and sat down. Within seven seconds I recognized the Tefilot and knew exactly what they were saying... Wow. I was not expecting that. So I opened my machzor to the appropriate page, and began to follow along. It came to my complete surprise that not only was my machzor 97% accurate to that minyan as well as what I remember from past years at Ezra Bessaroth, but the tunes that the chazzan was using were also more familiar than not. And when I didn't know the tune it was similar enough that it was more than easy to sing along. Unbelievable. Truth is, the Maimon family for real runs the show at the minyan which is probably why the tefilah and tunes were so incredibly familiar. Shout out to Bension, Abe, Sammy, and Joe Maimon who lead different parts of tefilah, musaf, and blew shofar expertly. The only only thing that could have enhanced my tefilah experience would be the inclusion of Ladino, but aside from that it was perfect. We finished tefilah at 11:15ish, and because the Ashkenazik minyan would not be done for at least another thirty minutes I went back to the Maimon's house for kiddush and a light snack/dessert. Fresh, awesome grapes and the marvelous apple cake were perfect for me, and afterwards we walked back to the synagogue where I immediately ran into Jacobsons. We walked down the street and back to their apartment, where after about ten minutes everyone trickled in. We all hung out there for a little bit before making our way back to the synagogue where we would meet the family whose house we were all invited to for lunch. Their minyan had finished, we found them, and we walked for about four minutes until we reached their home.
First thought: this is very simply a beautiful home, no further words can describe it. We walked into a magnificent entryway, with a huge staircase to the right and an open, spacious sitting room with a piano covered in desserts to the left, as well as a wide walking area straight ahead which lead to the kitchen and table area. The walls were all painted a deep, plum-like purple and covered with beautiful artwork. We all went to sit on the couches in the living room/sitting area, and after a couple of minutes heard kiddush from there. Afterwards we were all directed to the washing area, then found our seats by looking for our place cards which were made out of wax or plastic (don't remember which one) apples. The table was decorated exquisitely, with all different kinds of objects which represented any one of the Rosh Hashanah simanim- including five little glass bowls which each held two swimming goldfish. Then the meal started. After hamotzi there were four different kinds of fish, a huge green salad, and many salatim available on the table. Amazing. After that course, I went to the kitchen to help bring food out. . . Seriously I've never seen so much food made for a singular meal. She had a very organized buffet system where prior to the meal she put out dishes on the buffet, each with a piece of paper taped to it stating which food would go into that dish. Smart. I'm serious there were two kinds of chicken, chulent, brisket, stuffed cabbage, sweet potatoes, couscous, rice, rice with chicken soup over it, a huge vegetable platter, carrot muffins, and more that I am not remembering.... Insane! For real I've never seen anything like it. And it's not like there was just a whole bunch of food, it was all BEAUTIFUL and DELICIOUS. No words. After the meal we were invited to make a dessert plate from on top of the piano in the living room, and that was indescribable. Cakes, cookies, brownies, candy, fruit, and any other dessert one could have wanted. SO good. All of it. I had apple cake, a chocolate chip cookie, grapes, watermelon, some gummy candies. Yum. After lunch I was again full to the brim, and Carol and I walked back to the Jacobson's while everyone else went either to friends' houses or tashlich. I had a great time just hanging out with Carol for a while, until more people shuffled in and we were all just kinda hanging out for the afternoon.
Dinner took place at the Jacobson's, and the Maimon's came as well. The food was awesome! Hello- obviously it was; Mrs. J made it. We started the meal again with the Yehi Ratzonis and continued with a beautiful salad and matbucha among other salatim, then continued to an awesome main course. Chicken, meat philicas, vegetables. . .I don't even know. But the food was amazing and in abundance, and combined the fun and funny company the meal could not have been more of a party. Dessert was delicioussss as we had world-famous Mrs. J carrot cake, among other things. YUM.
Tuesday Morning- Second Day.
This time around, Mrs. J and I woke up a little earlier than everyone else and departed towards synagogue at about 8:30 after everyone else was woken up. We went to hear Bension lead Shacharit, which we both got a little of until Mrs. J left to meet everyone else in the Ashkenazik synagogue upstairs. My tefilah experience was similarly successful and enjoyable to the first day, and we even finished an extra five minutes earlier. I again went to the Maimon's for a kiddush and light snack/dessert, which was fun and yummy. Afterwards I met the Jacobsons at the synagogue, from where we walked back to their house for lunch. We hung out for a while as lunch was warming up then began the food thing all over again. This time it was only with the ten people who were actually staying there, which made things calmer. Another helpful calm meal tool was that Mrs. J made a light but filling and scrumptious meal of amazing chicken/pasta/pesto salad, potatoes, and a meat + dough recipe... It was awesome. Of course dessert was way too much for me to handle, so I postponed carrot cake until later in the afternoon. But Shana and I did decide to try the extremely hot fireball-like candies, which created a ridiculous fire in my mouth that couldn't really be cooled. After lunch and clean up, I joined Docta J, Mrs. J, Shana and Carol for a long game of Trivial Pursuit- won by Docta J himself, with Mrs. J in a close 2nd. We spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening just hanging out until Chag was over.
Tuesday Night- The Adventure.
After Chag, I just hung around the apartment with everyone for a good while until Docta J offered to give me a ride to the bus stop. I had a great plan for how I was going to get home, and I was totally prepared to be back within an hour or so at the most. Let's just say that didn't work out... Of course due to a scheduling error on my part. The 567 bus to Tzomet Gehah was not actually supposed to come at any time after 9:30, which I didn't figure out until I had been standing there for about half an hour. I asked a taxi driver how much it would cost to get home and he said 120 shekel which was not happening, so I bargained for 80 but decided against it when I thought about how a bus would be less than 20. I sent him on his way and called Ilana who helped me find a bus route which would technically get me going in a positive direction. Waiting for the 501 now, I went to a different bus stop and resumed my standing position. haha. I realized that sitting right across for me was, in fact, the 501 bus itself. However, it wasn't lit and there was no driver so I lost a little bit of hope. I started looking for other buses that said they were headed towards Tel-Aviv, but no such bus came around. After about twenty or twenty-five minutes a bus driver got into the 501 and a little party happened inside of me. Oh, a really exciting part of standing at the bus stop was that there was a man standing next to me who was actually just standing there holding a bunny. I was wondering why on earth he thought a bunny would be a good bus companion, but I refrained from asking. I boarded the 501, but the perfect seat at the front and had no clue when I wanted to get off so I paid close attention to each stop. We drove for about forty minutes, through Ra'anana, Hertzliya, and other cities, until a kind Israeli woman boarded, asked where I was going, and told me which bus she thought would be best for me. Keep in mind that this all took place in Hebrew, so I was quite proud of myself when I understood from her to get off at the next stop, cross the street, round the corner, and take the 55. I wished her a Shana Tova, and began my journey. I may or may not have jay-walked a little bit, but I made it in one piece with both my backpack and suitcase to the bus stop. I knew she was right about the 55 because before Chag, when I walked with my friend to the bus station to go to the Jacobson's she was waiting for the 55 to get wherever it was that she needed to go. Hurray! I was finally confident that I would make it home soon. Unfortunately I was wrong. Despite the fact that the bus map thing said that the 55 should come every 12 minutes, it didn't come for twenty-five or thirty. And when it did come, though I had another internal party, I was a little bit rudely welcomed by an angry Israeli bus driver man who was not in the mood to give me change for 100 shek bill. I really didn't think that I had anything less than that, but I managed to find the 6.60 that he was looking for and he was much happier with me. Pause: My favorite thing about Israeli buses is that they can give change. Coming up with exact change when I took buses in Seattle, back in the day, was not a positive experience for me. Un-pause. Let me just say that angry Israeli bus driver man went approximately forty miles an hour around a traffic circle! Let's talk about traffic circles for a moment... The purpose is most definitely to slow vehicles down, and the width of the road around them, especially in Israel, is not exactly made for a bus. So, flying around a traffic circle was somewhat of a roller coaster ride. But definitely like thirteen-million times scarier because of the lack of seat belt or safety assurance. Regardless, we made it out alive. Although many people's personal items ended up very far away from their person. Needless to say, I made it back to the appropriate bus station and was totally able to walk back to my apartment. Although it may have taken an extra sixty to ninety minutes, I made it back to my apartment. And on the upside, I got some quality Hebrew-speaking and bus-taking experience.
Wednesday Morning.
I woke up at 11:30ish, took my time to get out of bed and everything and slowly made my way to getting dressed. I was super productive today in that I opened an Israeli bank account (finally!), and went shopping at Mega- the all-kosher store down the street. I purchased all the basics, and feel set for a pretty long time right now. The only thing that would help would be the ability to eat... Hurray fast days! Actually though, after the non-stop eating fest that was Rosh Hashanah, my body is more than happy to take nice, day-long break from food. I'm looking forward to a good apple to break the fast, though. Since my trip to the bank and the store, I have just been sitting on my bed watching TV on my computer and writing this blog post.
Here's some pictures of what's going with me:
My apartment building!
Entry-way to my apartment
My area in the apartment, and our closet
Our kitchen!
To all of you who are in Seattle or somewhere else in the US, have an
easy fast today! And if you're in Israel, we're almost there :).
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