Passover. Synagogue. Israeli Dancing.

 Passover 

We were able to celebrate Passover, even though it was early. Passover is a Jewish spring festival that celebrates the deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage. It is held through the 15th to the 22nd of the Hebrew month of Nissan. It is suppose to remind them of what their ancestors went through, and how much God has done for them. It was super interesting.  They had a very specific layout of when you eat, drink, sing, say certain passages, etc.

Ophir, our Israel teacher, reading a passage.  He is holding Matzo bread. The Matzo bread symbolizes the hurried flight of the children of Israel. They left so early they did not have time to have their bread rise.  It also could symbolize pride and not being puffed up. This is just one example of an item of food that has lots of symbolism in the meal. 

More symbolic food items. For example we dipped the parsley in a bowl of salt water to symbolize the tears of their ancestors. 

We volunteered to sing "Dayenu." It is in Hebrew and it is super upbeat. It was so fun. It basically means that the Lord has given them so much. They would have been good with so much less then the Lord gave them, yet he continued to bless them. 

Synagogue

 Every student gets the opportunity to go to a synagogue with Ophir, our Israel teacher, once during the semester.  It was so interesting.  We went to a liberal orthodox synagogue which is actually one Ophir goes to a lot. I went on a Friday night for us, but to them it is really Saturday evening which is their Sabbath.   They usually pray three times a day;evening, morning, and afternoon. The evening prayer is the first one.We went to the overlap session of Friday afternoon and Saturday evening.   We watched them welcome their Shabbat, their day of rest.

Ophir gave an interesting little riddle.  He personified the Sabbath day. Sabbath went to God and told him that he felt very left out.  Sunday had Monday, Tuesday had Wednesday, Thursday had Friday, but Sabbath had no one.  God then told Sabbath that he could have the children of Israel.  This was a mutual commitment by the Children of Israel.

Jews generally treat the Sabbath with a ton of respect and excitement.  They look forward to it each week.  They also have strict rules.  For example they can't drive a car.  This is why Ophir and his kids walked home from the synagogue after the service.  They generally try not to do any work.  They don't write, use electronics, some people don't even use lights (use candles instead), etc.  Most all of the woman's hair was wet there. Probably because they didn't use a blow dryer.

The actual service was interesting. They sang prayers in Hebrew the whole time.  The prayer book I was using had the English translation next to it. I tried to follow along but it was kind of hard. But the prayers were super tender.  All of them were praising God and saying how thankful they were to Him.  At one point during the service they had a man come up and give like a five minute sermon. Ophir told us that he was talking about Purim, a Jewish Holiday that celebrates Ester.  Essentially from what I have heard it sounds kind of like Halloween.   For the Holiday they dress up and read the story of Ester.

Because of Purim, they tried to mix things up in the service .  They did this by allowing people to dress up if they want and by switching the sides the men and women sit on. Ophir's son, who is darling, was wearing a skeleton sweatsuit.

On Monday and Thursday mornings they read the Torah. Shabbat service is generally always the same where they sing the same prayers. The other services are usually shorter, like 15 minutes.  The Shabbat service was like an hour in a half. .

Israeli Dancing

Unfortunately, I don't have a picture. But this week we also had an Israeli dance class. An instructor came and taught us a handful of dances. It was way fun.  

Basically this week I had a lot of first hand experiences learning about Jews and Jewish traditions.  They really are incredible people.