My Israeli friend compared passover seder to the way (she thinks) we celebrate thanksgiving. This made me think about something fundamentally different in celebrating Jewish holidays in the US versus celebrating them in Israel. In the US when a Jewish holiday roles around, it's generally known but always something Jewish. I'm celebrating because I'm Jewish, I have to miss school or work. There's something to explain about the holiday to non-Jews. It's something different. But we all celebrate thanksgiving. No one needs to explain to a non-celebrator why we have thanksgiving, no one has to take off work or school. It's expected that everyone will celebrate the holiday with their entire family and for one day the country seems to pause. That's what Jewish holidays are like in Israel. There's nothing different about celebrating the Jewish holidays, it's the only kind. Just like thanksgiving at home, everyone is off work or school. Everyone knows this festive meal happens each year with the entire family gathered for the occasion.
So many of these holidays have gone by and I haven't taken the time to sit down and recount my experiences. So I thought I'll do a quick recap of the holidays that have passed.
Passover:
The first night of passover fell on the day my parents flew into Israel to visit. Luckily, everything went just right and we were able to make it to the seder we were invited to. We spent the night with my friend's entire extended family reading from the Hagaddah, just like we do every year...except this time it was in Hebrew! The country literally shuts down on holidays, as it does every Shabbat, and with my parents visiting it was slightly more annoying that exciting. The holiday got in the way of our travel plans! Only the first and last days were holy days so on Chol Hamoed (the days in between) were able to fit a lot in to a short trip. Some restaurants were entirely kosher for passover while others shut down for the week, of course there are those which fall into neither of those categories: some continue business as usual, others stop putting out bread but still have pasta, etc.
One day during the holiday we spent the day in Tsfat (I made a deal with my parents that as long as they were in Israel they were not allowed to call the city "Safed"). We spent most of the day shopping in the mystical city where we generously donated to the Israeli economy. I started looking at the kipot in a few different stores. My mom pointed out one kipah to me that I particularly liked and so I tried it on in the store. Seconds later a woman who worked there came rushing over to me saying, "Oh, honey, those aren't meant for women." I politely explained to her that she wasn't exactly correct and a few days later I was wearing a kipah for my first time in Shabbat services!
Yom HaShoah:
Holocaust Remembrance Day was the first time in Israel that I heard the siren. At 10:00 am on Yom HaShoah a siren goes off in the country and for one minute everything in the country stops. Cars stop moving, drivers get out of their car and stand on the side of the road, people walking freeze, and everyone is silent. During Yom HaShoah we were in the middle of a seminar in Jerusalem. It was strange because we did discuss the day and we experienced the siren but somehow after the siren, people started moving again and going back to their normal lives. I was told that I missed a significant part of the experience by not having access to a television. On TV, the entire day is dedicated to Holocaust related programs.
Yom HaZikaron,
Memorial day in Israel is quite different than Memorial day in the US. Instead of the diving for coins in the neighborhood pool, a memory I will always associate with the holiday, it's a very solemn and self-reflective day in Israel. There are two more sirens like those on Yom HaShoah. On the eve of the holiday I went to an interesting ceremony. The event was in English so there was a trade off experience. Because it was in English I was able to really understand the ceremony rather than just getting the "feeling" or "idea" of it. At the same time, the content of the ceremony was also different than it would have been in a Hebrew language ceremony. The focus was centered on families and soldiers who moved from the US and made aliyah. It was interesting and thought provoking but not the typical experience of an Israeli on the holiday. The next day was similar to Yom HaShoah for me. I lived my normal life, looked at apartments in Jerusalem for next year, froze while I was walking during the 2 minute siren and continued with my day. TV programs, I was told, were again dedicated to Memorial day themes, remembering fallen soldiers with a solemn tone to each program. While it was disappointing that I didn't have a television on either day the experience was still one unparalleled by any other country, and...there's always next year.
Yom Ha'atzmaut:
See below!
Lag B'Omer:
What is Lag B'Omer? I didn't know until I celebrated it a few weeks ago! Apparently there are several reasons for the celebration of this holiday. The first is that it is the day Rabbi Akiva's students stopped dying from the plague. We commemorate the day with a celebration. Another reason is to remember the Bar Kochba revolt around 135 A.D. Supposedly, the different groups communicated to each other with fire so the celebration of Lag B'Omer is marked with bon fires all across the country. The day, TERRIBLE for the environment, was a lot of fun. I spent it with an Israeli friend of mine and her friends where we sat in her backyard roasting vegetables on the fire (get a chance to roast something over a fire and Israelis choose vegetables instead of marshmallow...go figure). We spent most of the night trying to keep the fire from going out (well to be honest, I watched them try to make sure the fire didn't go out) and we played taki...the Israeli version of Uno (and so much better!).
Shavuot:
I spent Shavuot in a small city called Netivot that is in the middle of the Negev Desert. When I was living in Yokne'am my friend was living and volunteering in her partnership city, Netivot. We went down overnight and visited with all the families she become close with during her three months there. Eve of Shavuot we ate a festive dairy meal. The meal is traditionally dairy because Shavuot marks when Moses received the Torah on Mount Sinai. In the Torah the land of Israel is called the land of milk and honey. For this reason there is bountiful amounts of cheesecake being consumed throughout Israel. This was my first time celebrating Shavuot and was marked as most other holidays have been for me here: a big meal with a gracious and welcoming family. We didn't stay up for all hours of the night studying Torah as is traditionally practiced on Shavuot, instead we got a good relaxing night sleep. The next day some families have another dairy meal while others have their own Al Ha Ashe traditions (literally means "on the fire" or barbeque). Shavuot offered a nice relaxing break in the week where I was able to wander a new city and see little kids with water guns spraying each other and anyone in sight (but not me, fortunately!).
It's hard to believe but Shavuot was the last holiday I'll celebrate in my 10 months on Otzma. I've celebrated in new ways and familiar ones and always appreciated the days off the many many holidays provided. With only one remaining month on the program I've already started to ask myself "where did it go?!" and the only thing I find comforting is that I get to do the holidays all over again next year in Jerusalem.
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