The holiday started off with my group being invited a banquet on Wednesday for what seemed like all the important people in Nes Zionna. It was at a banquet hall and there were probably over 200 people there. They gave out awards for the past year to teachers, policeman, serviceman… and showed a long video of everything that happened in the past year. The whole thing was in Hebrew so I couldn’t really follow, however I did enjoy the 4 course meal that came with the banquet and finally got some red meat for a change. Apparently the night before Rosh Hashanah in Israel is the like the night before thanksgiving in America. Went out to a dance club, everywhere was packed had a great time even though it was really crowded.
For the first night of Rosh Hashanah went to my friend Daya’s grandparents house for dinner. Her parents and cousins are not religious but her grandparents are and even have a synagogue in their back yard. This was an orthodox synagogue (although I think that’s all they have here) so the men were in the main area and the women had to sit in a separate room. It was a tiny synagogue, no more than 25 men praying. After services they gave me a very quick tour, there is at least 7 Torah’s in this Shul which seems like a ridiculous amount for the size of the Shul. When I first got to the house, my original impression was that it was to religious for me but shortly after I arrived the services were over, everybody left and we had a normal Rosh Hashanah dinner with just the family. Food was good not great, when I got home from dinner and talked to my parents about what they were doing for the holiday, it was the first time since I got here that I kind of wished I was home. I was really craving some brisket, Matzo ball soup and half sour pickles.
I had heard before I came here that secular Israeli’s don’t feel the need to go to Shul because what can you do that is more Jewish than live in Israel. For whatever reason, I have the same feeling being here. If I was home and didn’t go to Shul yesterday I would have felt really guilty about it. However, being in Israel I didn’t feel the need to go to Shul yesterday so I decided to go to the beach with some friends since there was really nothing else to do. To my surprise the TLV beach was packed once again, with families, friends, couples just like on a normal Shabbat. I know Yom Kippur will be different but my overall impression was that Israel treats Rosh Hashanah as a day of celebration where in the U.S. we treat it much more as a religious holiday.
Looking forward to the weekend, going out in TLV tonight to an area called Florentin that is supposed to have a lot of artsy bars and clubs so it should be fun. On my way to the bar Wednesday came across the New Years celebration, I thought my new years was fun last year, not like this (check out the video). The pic is of my Argentina friends and roommates Emi, Cecila and I at the Nes Zionna Banquet.
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