The Old City and Shabbat Dinner (Plus Lots of Hebrew Words to Learn)

We slept in a little bit on Friday morning, while Pentheus went to synagogue for morning services. (The WK had the day off!) When Pentheus returned around 9:15 or so, he and I went to Palmach Street, home of Café Duvshaneet (my favorite, although my friend the manager Uriel was not there this week at all because he had some surgery), Grill Plus prepared foods, Angel Bakery, Co-op Shop grocery store and a few other stores. After we put together the menu we wanted to serve at Shabbat dinner that night, we started our purchasing at Co-op Shop . From there we went to Café Duvshaneet in hopes of buying the "upside down chocolate babka" that the boys, Pentheus, and apparently everyone else (except for me) love but they were already sold out for the day. Instead we bought some other desserts - a pie tapuach aitz v'duvdevanim (apple and cherry pie) and oogat choco (chocolate cake). Then we were off to Grill Plus to buy lots of (mainly) meat dishes for the evening - oaf paprika, goulash, oaf perot, kishuim yarok eem shum shum, orez eem hummus, marak katom, and kruv malei (paprika chicken, goulash, chicken with fruit, green beans with sesame, rice with chickpeas, orange soup, and stuffed cabbage.) While there were only 12 of us at dinner, we sure ordered and ate a lot of food!! We then stopped at Angel Bakery to buy challah. Our final stop? Back to Café Duvshaneet for natool eem chalav (decaf with milk) for me and a natool eem harbei sucar (decaf with lots of sugar) for Pentheus.

After walking back home with bags of food, our family (the 4 of us, minus my sister and bro-in-law) took a taxi to the Old City. While we would have preferred to walk or take a bus, it was already past 11 am, and we wanted to get to the Old City already before we had to return to the dira to prepare for Shabbat and our dinner guests. I love the Old City. There's something holy about it, and I don't mean to be facile. It's seems impossible to me not to be moved by it. We walked around for a bit and saw some of the archaeological stuff and wandered through the Cardo, an upscale shopping area that used to be the marketplace in Roman times.

(My Mom z"l loved the Cardo, especially a jewelry store named Mira. I have great memories of Mom when I am in the Cardo. I remember our wandering together through the Cardo together with my Dad and brother in May 1995. My Dad z"l made us go back to one store again and again, so that he could "visit" a print of religious Ethiopian men carrying the Torah. After having visited it at least 4-5 times, my Mom finally ordered my Dad to buy it already. My brother and I had to hold the print across our laps for many hours in the car as we drove all around Israel after we left Jerusalem. At Mira, I picked out my 28th birthday present - a beautiful gold and silver ring with a garnet stone.)

And, of course, the highlight of this visit to the Old City was going to the Kotel, the Western Wall of the original Temple. I am always in awe when I see the Kotel after we go through security and start the walk down the ramp to the entrance. I had brought a pad of paper and a pen specifically so that I could write notes to put in the Wall.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placing_notes_in_the_Western_Wall)  I wrote my notes and folded them into the smallest pieces that I could, and put the notes in the Wall. I put my right hand on the stones and said the Mourner's kaddish,(http://www.shiva.com/learning-center/prayers/kaddish/). I was very emotional, as I always am at the Wall. I keep telling the boys that I can't come to Jerusalem and not go to the Kotel at least once.

We took a taxi back to the dira and did a little bit of straightening. The boys went back out to the park (that soccer ball we bought on Yom CK was used a lot on this trip), while Pentheus and I napped. Pentheus only slept for about 45 minutes but I was out for almost 2 hours! When I woke up, we cleaned the apartment for our guests, started heating up all the food, and set the table for dinner. We had a great Shabbat dinner that night. As I mentioned, there were only 12 of us, and we all fit, albeit snuggly, around the table. We talked about all sorts of things from politics to religion to our experiences in Israel. We did a lot of laughing, too, and it was wonderful to be with friends! What was amazing to me was that the evening was exactly like a Shabbat dinner would be in Cambridge - the same traditions, same laughter, and even same foods! At around 9:45 pm, we kicked everyone out so that we could clean up, get some sleep, and prepare for the WK's Bar Mitzvah - Part 2!