Shabbat was great. Went to
Yakar Friday night for services. hadn't been there in ages, and although it was ridiculously crowded (I ended up
davening outside on the balcony!) it was still awesome. Saturday we had some people over for lunch. The apartment is coming together pretty nicely. Still need to fix it up a bit, but I'm hoping to put off buying things until I have a job. Not a huge fan of spending money when there's none coming in...But a blanket might be kinda important, huh?
Today Marc, Andy & I went to the
shuk so Marc could buy a lulav.
First we wandered through the normal market (check out the...whatever it is Andy's holding in the pic.) It wasn't too crowded, which was nice. When you only go the shuk right before Shabbat (the way we take groups on Birthright) it can be a bit overwhelming. Don't get me wrong, I totally love the overwhelming-ness, but sometimes it's nice to have it be a bit more chill.
There's a whole separate market set up, called
"Shuk Arbah Haminim"("The Market of the
Four Species"). It's full of tables and tables of what looks like exactly the same things, with people examining them trying to get the "perfect" specimen.
Not gonna lie, it was pretty awesome...for the most part. I need to go on a quick little rant here about the lack of parenting that I keep seeing among the ultra-religious. So while Marc was buying his lulav, I saw this little boy walk by, crying. When he walked back for what must have been at the least the fourth time, I finally got his attention.
"Atah tzarich ezra?" ("Do you need help?") He didn't really want to talk to me, but he answered when Marc spoke to him (maybe it was the girl factor?) Marc let the kid use his cell phone to call his dad, and then we waited for the father to show up.
1 minute. 2 minutes. 5 minutes.
10 minutes.
The kid just stood there, clutching the pole of one of the stands, anxiously looking around. Finally he agreed to call his dad again, and the boy ran off. We watched to make sure he met up with his dad--the dad looked unconcerned. His child had been
crying, he was
scared, and the dad was just worried about what lulav he was buying.
Seriously??!!! Blows my mind. How could a parent not care like that?? Later on Marc saw the boy point Marc out to his father--nothing. No "Oh my goodness, thank you so much!" or even a nod of thanks...just continued with what he was doing...
I was FURIOUS. I tried not to be, I tried to just forget about it, but I don't get it. I keep having similar experiences to that... The woman who sat next to me in Frankfurt during my layover, who just stared straight ahead while her infant kept crawling away and and strangers kept bringing him back....or the child (couldn't have been older than 3) who kept wandering to the back of the bus while her mother sat with her other 3 kids and kept chatting to another women...What is it about that culture that seems to accept that type of parenting??!!! I know it's not everyone, but it's enough to create a trend. A disturbing trend... Okay, enough for now. Thanks for hearing me out...
Succot begins tomorrow night. Super excited. I totally
LOVE Succot in Israel. Having dinner tomorrow night at my friend Ezra's, founder of the
Jerusalem Soul Center. Super excited. Ezra's an awesome guy, doing some amazing things... Then on Tuesday we're going over to Uri's for lunch, also exciting :)
Okay, all for now!
First we wandered through the normal market (check out the...whatever it is Andy's holding in the pic.) It wasn't too crowded, which was nice. When you only go the shuk right before Shabbat (the way we take groups on Birthright) it can be a bit overwhelming. Don't get me wrong, I totally love the overwhelming-ness, but sometimes it's nice to have it be a bit more chill.
