Observing Services

We were given multiple choices for services this morning, an Ashkenazi orthodox synagogue, a Sephardic orthodox synagogue, a conservation synagogue, the Kotel, or Hebrew Union College. I choose the Sephardic orthodox synagogue because when I talked to mom last night she told me to experience something that I wouldn’t be able to experience at home. The temple its self was unlike anything I have ever seen. It was painted in purples, blue and turquoise. The ceiling had stars painted on it and the upper part of the walls had clouds painted on them. The chandelier had pieces of colored glass in pinks, purples, greens, blues, and oranges all over it. The room was also full of windows and it was very airy and refreshing. The bima was in the middle of the men’s section, so that they were all surrounding it. The women had a box on the left side, a little above the men’s section and another box above the first one. The service its self didn’t feel very serious and solemn like it would have at home but it was interesting to observe other people praying. The men acted like everyone at Grammy and poppy’s(Hansen) temple in the way that they all had side conversations going on. Before we went to the temple we were told that they were very focused on community. The community aspect wasn’t very evident between both men and women b/c the service was mostly for the men, but when the men were all together it was very easy to see they were all on the same page. As soon as one of them would get louder all of a sudden all of them were singing and chanting loudly. It was also kind of funny to watch because the rabbi would chant something and then you would hear a lot of rambling that sounded like the chant but not really. I couldn’t really understand what was going on so I learned some vocab words that I brought with me. But overall the service was something different and cool. At 3 we had a torah study with our principal on Jonah (the one from Jonah and the whale). It was pretty interesting but no one really wanted to be there cause we all had to wake up from our naps. Then we were given 4 choices for the closing service, The Ashkenazi orthodox synagogue, Sephardic orthodox synagogue, conservation synagogue, or HUC. While I know that I am supposed to experience new things and wanted to go to the Ashkenazi orthodox synagogue also but this morning didn’t feel like Yom Kippur. So I picked HUC b/c it is a reform American service and I wanted to feel like I had actually participated in the holiday. It was nice having a service that was closer to being at services at home. After the service we grabbed some apple juice and challah (break-fast #1-I was sooo happy to have food) and went back to the hotel for a 2nd break-fast. The hotel had cakes so I had a few small pieces of honey cake and some apple pie. As we were walking back from HUC cars started to get back on the road and we couldn’t walk in the street anymore (I so wish there was a day in America where everything was silent and no one drove anywhere and we could walk in the middle of the street without the fear of being hit). Then we packed up our stuff and got on the bus. When we got back to tzuba we were told to put our stuff in our rooms and go to dinner, but they forgot to mention that none our keys worked so we just left all of our stuff sitting outside our door. Then we went to the dinning hall expecting meat and found out it was a dairy meal ☹ ) but I still ate and felt sick after. Then I got my key fixed, talked to mommy, talked to grammy and poppy, and did homework. Currently as I am writing this, I am attempting to get homework done and my room has apparently become the chill homework room that all my friends come to. I feel so popular!