Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Shana Tova!

So I recognize this blog is a total snooze-fest without any pictures. So, I’m going to try and condense my experiences into three different things I learned for every post. Here goes.

1. Happy New Year! Today is the first day of the two-day Jewish New Year because they just can’t fit that much celebration into one day. And as Dr. Chadwick said, “Tonight is the craziest night of the year and they probably have you scheduled to be in some forum…I would never do that to you guys.” We do have a forum, but fortunately, the forum is optional. I think we’ll all being celebrating tonight. It is also the last day of the Islamic Ramadan. The streets are absolutely wild. For Ramadan, the prayer in the morning is especially long. Like, 15 minutes of Surah Al-Fatihah blasted at 4 in the morning. Sometimes it doesn’t surprise me at all that no two religions can make peace here because so many of religious traditions are so intrusive. But that’s also what makes Jerusalem the miraculous mosaic of culture that it is. It just comes at a price.

2. Jerusalem Pomegranates in September are divine.

3. The secret to Jerusalem at night is Ben-Yehuda Street. As soon as the sun goes down, they turn on all the lights, blast the music, and everything comes to life. It’s just nuts down there.

I don’t have a chance to post every day, but whatever isn’t written here is recorded in pictures and likely far more interesting.

3 comments:

  1. Is it BRUCE CHADWICK? He was my Soc teacher, and he is awesome! In fact, Dallin took him too, and loved him so much. Seriously, if it's the same guy, you are one lucky son of a gun.

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  2. Your blog posts totally inspire me. The lucious details grab me and put me right there with you in the streets of Jerusalem. Keep up the powerful posting.

    I love the idea of three seprate thoughts for each post. Great model. Three cups of Tessa is just the right amount.

    PS You made me want to go find a pomegranate. I wonder if there are any available in stores here. Yum.

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  3. Linds, it's Jeff Chadwick, sorry. But I'm sure they're both equally brilliant. And mom, "Shana Tova" means "Have a good year (Happy New Year)" in Hebrew. "Shana" means year and "tov" means good. P.S. We sang two songs in Hebrew. Shabbat Shalom and Havenu Shalom Alechem. It's like Passover every day here!

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