Sukkot

Well this blog is a little out of order, but oh well. During the week of Sukkot (The Feast of the Tabernacles) the Jewish people build Sukkots (tabernacles) and live or eat under them. Every synagogue and restaurant in West Jerusalem had one of these sukkots. The sukkots are just tarps wrapped around 4 poles with willow branches or other leafy tree branches laid across the roof. On one of our free days we went to West Jerusalem to eat under a sukka and celebrate on Ben Yehuda street.


Ice cream on Ben Yehuda Steet


Eating under a sukka


We ended our day in the city in this grocery store. We were so excited to find an acutal grocery store, not a mini mart, or a sketchy street vendor.

The Whacking of the Willows

So While we were talking to the Jewish girls from New York at the Western Wall the other week they told us that some interesting things would be happening at the Wall for the next few weeks. Interested in what was going to happen we asked our Judaism professor about it. He was a little hesitant to tell us about this particular tradition at first, but eventually he told us. Apparently the morning before the last day of Sukkot (or something like that) Jews gather at the wall at 6:30 to pray. While they are praying they begin to whack the ground with willow branches. Our Judaism professor related this tradition to a temper tantrum. During the week of Sukkot the Jewish people pray for rain and on the last day they, according to my professor, throw a temper tantrum and start begging for rain.
So Monday morning at 6:30 a big group of us walked over the wall to watch this tradition. It was quite the event, I have never seen so many people at the wall. The men were partying, they stood in circles while they prayed sang and whacked their willows. The women like always were a little more
mellow, but they too had willows to whack.

I LOVE JERUSALEM STUDY ABROAD

I Love...

The Jerusalem Center

The Biblical Gardens
The amazing view from my balcony
The view from the chapel

Hanging out in Bedouin tents
The diversity of dress
The misspelling of Spanish and English words
Genie pants

The people who walk around Jerusalem with huge guns

Falafels

The Shekel Shack

Concerts in the Chapel on Sundays

Taking a whole week off of school to go to EGYPT!
Riding camels
Carriage rides that are cheaper than taxis
Pyramids
The Valley of the Kings

Aladdin’s

The Cairo Museum

Yad Vashem

The Old City
The vendors in the city that say "BYU over here, Mormons, Mormons over here! We have good prices"
Mercedes Buses
Dramamine
Technology
Security!
Living in the same building as my Professors
Brother and Sister Allen, Huntington, Huff, Wilson,Squires, Thomas, and Thomson
My BYU backpack
1.5 litter bottles
Room Checks with treats
chocolate wafers
Donkeys

Mt. Sinai
T-shirts from the Old City
The exchange rate in Israel and Egypt
Herding Sheep
Clean water in Israel
1 Shekel ice cream bars
Lana's
The Palestinian Costco
Bartering and getting the prices I want
Shopping and wandering through the city


Dormition Abbey
Olive picking and crushing
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher
Olive wood and Omar
The roses on my balcony
The Prayer Calls
Hebrew and Arabic
Damascus Gate

Ben Yehuda Street
Cute Jewish girls with their black skirts and headbands
Little Palestinians kids that live in the neighborhood
Augusta Victoria
Eating under a Sukkot
Jaffa Gate
West Jerusalem
The Jewish Quarter


The Western Wall
Jewish Holidays
Going to the Western Wall for the beginning of Shabbat
Eating chocolate pudding with whip cream everyday for breakfast
The green Orange/Lemon fruit
U.S. Consulate families
Hebrew U
Awesome movie Collection
Learning about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict
Learning about Judaism
Kissing the Sphinx

Day trips to Tel Aviv
The Mediterranean Sea
Rosh Hashanah
Parties at the Wall
Palestinian parties on Friday nights
Head Scarves
The cafeteria
PITAS
Honey
Forums
Learning about the Old Testament