Shabbat Is Hard Work

We spent Shabbat in Jerusalem. Never before was I so appreciative and understanding of the purpose behind Shabbat. For the past week I had been getting close to 4 hours of sleep each night. Trust me I planned on getting more, but some how a conversation arouse, a TV show became enthralling (like this National Geographic show about this rancher in Thailand that kept pigs, monkeys and tigers in the same cage) or somehow it became an opportune time to review the 400 pictures I had taken that day. And then Shabbat came, the day g-d rested, and although I am not literally comparing the creation of the world to my 5 days of traveling, I was defiantly deserving of some R&R. Israel Outdoors brought in an organization called Shabbat Experience. We did a short service and then had the best dinner I ever ate in my whole life. The service I might add was in the hotel bomb shelter. This was quite strange and disturbing at the time. But looking back I remember this was my first Israel bomb shelter experience, there were many more. Shabbat in the bomb shelter was done more out of convenience then necessity. Bomb shelters, especially hotel bomb shelters are the conference halls of Israel. Bomb shelters are also used as synagogues. Maybe the prevailing theory is that if you are going to build a synagogue you might as well make it a bomb shelter. It’s practical. Or it might be due to the fact that these bomb shelters already exist and they figure they can get more use out of them if they are synagogues. A least it’s comforting to know that services out number bombings and missile attacks, making the idea feasible. The service wasn’t all that interesting. I was mostly focused on the fact that we were praying in a bomb shelter and trying to decipher the crayon scribbles on the walls. I was later told that this shelter was being used as a play center for children that were displaced from the Gaza Strip withdrawal. Wow.

The Room We Were In

Shabbat dinner was amazing. Not only was the food amazing and the wine flowed profusely, but there was a group of Chasidic Jews that would embrace and sing songs of redemption and calls for the messiah. They even had a messianic flag that they would waive while they chanted “we want mashiach, we want mashiach now!” Afterwards we gathered upstairs where I began talking to a Rabbi who was involved with the Shabbat program. Not surprisingly talk turned into debate, which then turned into flat out debate, Torah debate, heavy stuff. My goal, use everything I know about history and Judaism to completely 100% negate the notion that the Torah was written by g-d. I talked about all the religions and traditions that predate and influenced the Torah stories. I called upon the themes in the Kemet tradition, and similarities between the Babylonian creation story and Genesis. No luck. He actually gave me a good one two-counter punch with the Sinai Witness theory. This theory goes that it is written in the bible that G- spoke to the Hebrews at Sinai. Documents like the Dead Sea Scrolls confirm that the bible we know now is the same document as the bible of the past (truly amazing) so would the Jews of the past wouldn’t accept the authenticity of the bible unless, their parents, or great grandparents had past down the story of how they heard the voice of G-d. My counter point, then why doesn’t it say G-d spoke when Moses descends from Sinai, why wait to use the words G-d spoke to you later in the text, when recounting the story. Sounds a little fishy eh? Of course there was no resolve. I actually got into the same skirmish with a younger Chasidic student from Flatbush. Really nice guy, down to earth, could dispel any and every religious Jew stereotype in 5 minutes or less. And if for some reason he couldn’t by talking to you (pretend your mute or something) then his friend “Gangster Ska Jew” that’s the nickname I gave him, would do the trick. Gangster Ska Jew, was one cool Chasid. Sporting an opened suit jacket and seet seet (religious fringes then hang out of your shirt), he also replaced the so over worn, 3,000 year old yamuka for a vintage porcupine hat. Half blues brothers, half Hebrew, Gangsta Ska Jew had the attitude to match his appearance. The only things this guy enjoyed more then Talmud was weed and girls. I would be talking to his friend, good Chasid when Gangsta Ska Jew would jump in with something like “You ever try Tye Sticks, that stuff is the shit, oh and Aaron was the real hero of Passover, not Moses, Moses was a stupid ass!” What????? Never in 5766 years did I expect to be having this conversation with a Chasid in Israel. All the prophets where probably rolling over in their graves.