10/5 to 10/6 | Yom Kippur Preparations

Big news first: I moved rooms!  This was as unexpected to me as it was to everyone else; in fact, it all happened in less than an hour on Wednesday.  A friend of mine named Steven had an open room in his apartment.  I had known about this for quite some time but had never really considered moving.  Eventually, however, I realized that it would be foolish not to take advantage of such an opportunity!  The apartment is in a much better location (ground floor as opposed to the eighth floor), it faces out instead of in towards the plaza, and it just has a good overall atmosphere.  After talking with the Student Village front desk, they told me to get approval from the lady in charge of international student housing.  Not only did she do this in five minutes, she did not even ask for a reason!  I was very impressed; it was like the complete opposite of American University Housing and Dining.  Now I am comfortably moved in to my new room (just a little bit more unpacking to do) and am really enjoying the change of scenery.

The night after I moved in, I had the chance to experience a very old Jewish ritual called kapparot.  Just a waning: it sounds a bit barbaric and has largely been rejected by mainstream Judaism; however, the haredim, or ultra-Orthdox in English, of the neighborhoods of Mea Shearim and Beit Yisrael continue to carry on this practice.  Kapparot, which is the plural of atonement in English, is a Yom Kippur custom in which Jews swing a live chicken over their heads three times to symbolically transfer their sins to the chicken.  I had heard of this tradition before, but I had never seen it in practice.  Fortunately, Steven knew of a group who were going to experience kapparot, so I tagged along.

A chicken about to be used for kapparot.

Kapparot was an experience I will never forget.  At a busy intersection, there were hundreds of haredim surrounded by crates full of chickens.  For 18 shekelim, it was possible to "buy" your own chicken.  Each of us were given a ticket to exchange for a live chicken.  One by one, each of us transferred our sins to the chickens.  Some of the people I was with chose to swing it themselves, while others chose to have someone do it for them.  I was part of the latter; swinging a live chicken by its wings did not seem like a good idea for me.  After we were all done, a group of small children grabbed the chickens to be prepared for slaughter.  Once slaughtered, they are distributed to poor families in need of dinner before the Yom Kippur fast.  Like I said, it seems/is a little barbaric and bizarre, but it is a Jewish tradition nonetheless.  At the very least, I can say I have seen it now!

Crates of live chickens.  You can imagine the smell.

The practice of kapparot in action.

Today, I had class (Hebrew and Business Ethics) followed by an afternoon of relaxation.  Oddly enough, I met another person from American University in my Business Ethics class named Charlotte.  How fantastic to meet another person on the other side of the world that not only knows many of the same people, but knows AU as a whole!  We had a great conversation on our way back to the Student Village about both of our interests, studies, etc.  It was really nice to have such a conversation; just makes you realize how small the world really is.

After I got back to the Student Village, Rachel and I headed to Ben Yehuda Street for dinner at McDonald's.  Israeli McDonald's are just as good as American McDonald's, and I needed McDonald's to start preparing for the Yom Kippur fast.  I plan on eating all day tomorrow because fasting can be really painful if started on an empty stomach.  After dinner, we headed to the shuk so that I could buy a yarmulke.  The journey both there and back was hilariously miserable.  The light rail was completely overwhelmed with travelers to the point where the doors would not close.  It was also experiencing some technical difficulties which made things even worse.  The shuk is only two stops away from Ben Yehuda Street, but it took us well over an hour to get there.  If not for the cold, it would have been faster to walk!

The light rail is Jerusalem's most convenient mode of transportation, but it is so slow!

The shuk on the eve of Yom Kippur is incredible.  Everybody there was busy purchasing food for their meals before and after the 24 hour fast.  It was fun to visit at night, when all the items in every color are lit up.  I could have spent many hours wandering the narrow streets, listening to all the vendors peddle their goods to everyone who passed by.  I found a guy selling yarmulkes for 10 shekels and bought a black one in preparation for sitting in synagogue on Friday night and Saturday morning.

The ride back to the Student Village was almost as bad as the ride to the shuk.  We had to wait over 30 minutes waiting for a train (both of us needed to use the bathroom, so this was not so pleasant).  In the mean time, Rachel tried to get a hold of the people we are staying with tomorrow (her mom set it up).  After several failed attempts, she finally got a hold of the lady, named Lemore, who told us where to go in the morning because the busses stop running around noon.  This family is supposedly very religious, so this will be an interesting experience!  As soon as Rachel hung up, the train came.  This one was even more packed than the last one.  Rachel managed to squeeze her way in, but there was no way for me to fit.  She single-handedly pried the door back open and jumped out right before the train took off.  Luckily another train came four minutes later, so we managed to catch that one and go straight home to do laundry.  

Today possibly ranked among the most quintessential days I have had in Israel so far.  Nothing is more typical than going to Hebrew class, playing Jewish geography with someone you just met, making a visit to the shuk, and complaining about something (in this case, the light rail)!  Just several more reasons why I love it here.