Shabbat: a Jewish Innovation

Saturday, July 18th, 2015 Written by Leaders of the Day- Aleeza Schoenberg & Eitan Galper Yesterday was our first shabbat together as a group in Israel. After a great start to the shabbat on Friday night, everyone was eager to continue their shabbat journey in Jerusalem. We started off by discussing the theme of the day, Shabbat: A Jewish Innovation, in our ma'agal boker (morning circle). Fellows talked about the different ways that they innovate shabbat and Jewish customs to make it more meaningful to them. We also discussed famous quotes about innovation and how they can relate to shabbat and Judaism. Next, we walked to the Israel Museum. Assaf, our tour guide, told us that it is considered one of the top five museums in the world! We saw the replica model of what Jerusalem looked like at the time of King Harod and the temple as well as the Dead Sea scrolls. Assaf also showed us the "nano-bible", an entire bible printed on a tiny piece of silicon that looked like a speck of dust. It was really cool to see this piece of Israeli innovation and it went very nicely with the theme of the trip. After we walked around the Israel Museum and looked at many of the fascinating exhibits, we walked a long way to the Old City where Assaf gave us a tour of many of the sites and talked to us about the history. We had an interesting discussion about Jews living in the Muslim quarter of the Old City and the tensions that this issue brings to the already tense relationship between Muslims and Jews. We then had Seudah Shlishit (third meal) with other Diller groups in the Old City. It was great to meet the people who we will be spending a lot of time with over the next couple of weeks. After we left the other Diller groups, we hung out in a park until it was time for Havdallah that Aviva did a great job leading. We wrapped up the day by eating dinner on Ben Yehudah street and exploring the many shops. Some of the shops even had special discounts for Diller members! It was a very fun and exciting day and I'm so glad that I had the oppurtunity to be a leader of the day on this shabbat.