shabbat dinner with family

its 2:30am and i am so exhausted i can barely keep my eyes open but i felt like writing a little bit about my day today. sherri, my one cousin who lives in israel, invited me over to her mother in law's house for shabbat. i have only met her once before this. my grandpa put me in touch with her as she is his first cousin's daughter (i think). i met her at my apt around 1pm to go to the artist market that is near my street. the artist market is one of my favorite places to go but today it was SO hot out. after the market we came back to my apt because i had to pick something up, and i looked in the mirror--i had sweated so much that my hair was so wet it looked like i had just gotten out of the shower.

i stood under my air conditioner for a good 5 minutes, then we left to go to her car--by the time i got there i was drenched again. i love you israel, in the summer. 

next we went to the namal for lunch. although it was hot out, it was surreal to be on the water. the ocean was so blue i almost started crying because for some reason i felt like i was in the most beautiful place in the world at that moment. 

after the namal we went to her house. i haven't been to a suburb in israel yet besides the hotel owner's house of north tel aviv. their neighborhood was very peaceful. it felt like the desert with olive trees and quiet. we went to her house and i met her husband, son (17 yrs old) and daughter (9 yrs old). sherri and zeev (her husband) kept trying to think of guys to set me up with so i would stay in israel haha. she kept saying "you have to staaaay. we need to find you a man so you won't leave" 

at 7pm we went to her mother in laws home for dinner. zeev's sister came with her family as well and she has 3 daughters. im going to call zeev's mom safta. safta made SO much food. they are iraqi so it was all of this amazing iraqi food. one problem though--my new founded vegetarianism. safta came over, she is probably around 85 years old and said "try, try this" and kept putting all of this meat on my plate. i felt AWFUL saying i was a vegetarian--i couldn't say no to safta after she made all of this food so i just ate it. goodbye 5 weeks of vegetarian life. so now i am back to day one of being a vegetarian haha. you just can't say no to a bubby putting anything in front of you. bubby guilt.

for a lot of the dinner hebrew was spoken when they would talk to each other. i would pick up on a few things but not enough to join the conversation. after dinner, we had dessert and sat around and spoke in english. i cannot put in to words the emotions i felt being in an israeli home that considered me family, having shabbat, reading the blessings, saying amen together, eating a ridiculous amount of food, and them allowing me to be in their home and experiencing this culture. at the exact same time i felt as if i was in another world and also seeing part of my identity.

i've realized that one thing i am taking home with me after israel is a stronger sense of identity. it isn't being religious per say, because i still dont consider myself to be religious, but i feel a strong sense of identity because i feel so warmly wrapped in the traditions and my ancestors. i looked at safta, who came to israel from iraq, and i think of my family from poland and russia, and all of the polish and russian jews that came to israel after they survived the holocaust. i look around, and see all of the jewish people from all over the world who are now israelis and i feel such a strong sense of identity finding a people that i am a part of. 

after dinner and dessert

after the dinner zeev and sherri took me out for a drink in neve tzedek at a beautiful georgian bar called 'nana" (mint in hebrew) and then dropped me off at home. meaningul day i'll never forget.

lyla tov.