Day 6 Israel 2023. Shabbat

{Not many photos for Day 6, but they will be on the Resplendent Daughter Ministries Facebook page!} 

Before I tell you about this Shabbat, I want to preface my post with a few introductory remarks:

Most of my readership here is Christian or some other variety of seeker after righteousness.  Therefore, what I am about to relate may sound very foreign to you.  As you read, please keep these things in mind:

The services and practices I have participated in over this Shabbat were done in the first century CE, in Israel.  They were developed hundreds of years before the birth of Messiah, and they have endured relatively unchanged since that time.

Secondly, and this should go without saying….Yeshua/Jesus was a Jewish man.  As a young child He began to study the Scriptures (the Tanakh - - the Old Testament).  He was a prodigy, in fact, because we read in the Apostolic Writings (the Gospels) that at age 12 he was already so learned that He astounded the teachers in the Temple.  He lived His life as a Jewish man, who kept PERFECTLY the commandments that are written in the Torah.  Because He lived in Israel, He kept all of them that applied to Him.  (There are some that applied only to the practicing priestly class.  It would have been a breach of the law for Him to keep those.)  So, what I am about to tell you about would be how Yeshua, my Messiah, “kept Shabbat”.

You may know that Shabbat begins on Friday evening at sundown.  Here, in the town of Lavi, the people start their Shabbat preparations on Thursday night even.  That means that they begin their shopping, their cooking, etc.  But, the main day for preparations is Friday.  Many families choose to come stay in the Kibbutz Lavi Hotel, where we are staying, for Shabbat.  This is a phenomenon that is seen in the larger cities of Israel.  Sometimes, families want an entirely trouble-free Shabbat, and so they check into a hotel on Friday afternoon and check out on either Saturday night or Sunday morning, after Shabbat is over.  When we came back from our travels on Thursday “erev” (late afternoon), families were arriving to check in, in droves.

Shabbat officially began Friday at sundown with the lighting of the Shabbat candles by the matriarchs of the families.  This is usually done in the home to open the Shabbat family meal.  But, here in the hotel, it was done en masse, in the lobby.  The lighting of the Shabbat candles is a tradition, not a mitzvah (commandment).  In fact, there are customs and cultural influences intermixed in with “keeping Shabbat”; but, much of what I am telling you I participated in is not modern, but rather ancient practice.

Let me tell you how these orthodox Jewish women dressed.  They had on beautiful dresses that fell below the knee, with sleeves that extended at least to the elbows.  No cleavage was visible.  They also wore various types of headwear.  Some wore full-on hats.  Some wore elaborately-wound scarves.  Some wore kerchiefs.  The only females who did not have something on their heads were the unmarried women….and me.  I did not realize that I needed to bring a head covering to attend a synagogue service.  Therefore, I did not bring one!  I was so mortified that I nearly did not go to the service.  To “add insult to injury”, I forgot to take my reading glasses.  So, in addition to feeling horribly self-conscious, I could not read the service book (the siddur so thoughtfully provided by the hotel).

Still, the service was very meaningful.  Men and women entered through separate entrances.  Like I described about the synagogue yesterday, the women’s section was lifted up, above the men’s section.  The service was entirely in Hebrew, spoken very fast.  Even if I had had my glasses, it would have been very challenging for me to keep up with my siddur.  As it was I was using a borrowed siddur, which was entirely in Hebrew.  And, even though I have been studying the language for over two years, it was still “beyond me” since I still read at “a snail’s pace.”  In this orthodox synagogue service I don’t I know if there was an actual “sermon” given by one of the rabbis or not.  It was impossible for me to tell.  The ladies around us were very welcoming and one in particular did her best to help us to keep up as the service progresses.  Young children would frequently run into the service to see their fathers, who would give them a hug and in the cases of young boys above 5 or 6 would often keep their sons with them.

After the service was over, we went to the dining hall for a light dinner, all of which had been prepared in the late afternoon.  One of the Shabbat practices (a rabbinical interpretation of the “do no work on Shabbat” commandment) is to prepare food before sundown and to let the appliance keep it warm.  There are also recipes for Saturday morning, foods that can be “started” before sundown on Friday and which cook or are kept warm until and through Saturday morning.

The next morning, the actual Day 6 of our trip, was coffee for breakfast and for me nothing else.  I knew we’d be eating around 10:30, and was not too worried about it.  THIS TIME I took my glasses and borrowed a head wrap, hallelujah!  Still, the siddur (prayer and service book) I borrowed was exclusively in Hebrew, which was way above my capabilities, because the speakers spoke to fast.  The Saturday service was similar to the one on Friday night, best I could tell.  One part that really spoke to me was when the men, wearing their prayer shawls, took the edges of those large, beautiful wraps and draped them over the shoulders of their sons, placing their hands on their heads, and recited the Birkat Kohanim, also known as The Aaronic Blessing.  This visual reminded me of the words Yeshua spoke as he sat upon the donkey on the Mount of Olives on Palm Sunday.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!

What man has “wings”, right?  That verse did not make full sense to me until I saw those men take their tallits (prayer shawls) and wrap them around their sons.

One of my favorite parts of the day took place immediately after the synagogue service.  We were invited to the homes of some of the kibbutz families for refreshments.  Wow, the lady and gentlemen who hosted us really put out a lovely table of food.  Their names are Mordechai and Irit.  So welcoming and sweet!  They have five children, and only one of them started a family and lives on the kibbutz.  The other four live in Israel, which, by the way, is about the size of New Jersey.   So, they are pretty close.  We had some poignant conversations as we enjoyed the delicious food, conversations about relatives who survived the Holocaust.  A couple from our group that was with me and my roommate is a pharmacist who had lots of contact with Holocaust survivors in a home for the elderly, years ago.  He shared that “shower day” was the worst, because standing under a shower caused PTSD-types of flashbacks.  If you remember your history, Jews in the concentration camps, such as Auschwitz, were told to disrobe en masse, because they would all be “taking a shower”.  Fake shower heads were installed in the gas chambers, and then, instead of water, deadly gas was pumped into the rooms with the fake showers.  Here I was, a non-Jew, being fed by a family whose ancestors/relatives survived such horror, while I sat there reflecting on the fact that my country did little to stop it.  It was a very poignant moment.

Ironically, lunch was right after this, and I was not hungry, lol.  About half the group took a hike to the Horns of Hittim.  This is believed by many to be the site of the Feeding of the 5000.  I hated to miss the teaching given there, on that topic, but I just did not think I was up to a six-mile hike in 90 degree heat.  Later, I was glad I went.  Instead, I sat and talked with my friends, Jaye and Andrew, about Bereshit (Genesis) and about the weekly scripture passage for the week that ended today - - which included the betrayal by Miriam and Aaron of Moses.

Just before dinner, we went on a walking tour of the kibbutz.  That was very interesting, because I knew next-to-nothing about what a kibbutz is, prior to this visit to Israel.

There are about 250 kibbutzim in Israel.  Most were established around the time Israel became its own country.  About 80% of them are secular Jewish, no religious connection.  About 10% are orthodox Jewish, like the one we stayed at, Kibbutz Lavi.  Another 10% are either conservative or reform.  Beyond this, there are two “types” of kibbutz:  communal and privatized.  There are more of the latter than the former.  Most started out communal, but as this mode of living has become viewed by some as outdated more and more are becoming privatized.

Communal kibbutzim operated as self-contained little communities.  Lavi is about 2000 acres.  They have a synagogue and theological study center (yeshiva),  agriculture (cattle, chickens, goats), a world-famous furniture factory, a commissary, a dining hall, a hotel, assisted living, childcare centers, etc.  All education through “high school” takes place on the kibbutz, although some children go off to college later. Until pretty recently, all meals most meals were provided free in the dining hall.  Laundry is still done for free in the laundry facilities.  Everyone on the kibbutz works, male and female, until age 70, when they retire or fall back to volunteer status.  All the children go to age-specific daycare centers.  Young boys to young men attend the yeshiva.  All money that is brought to the kibbutz when someone joins goes into the kibbutz bank.  Residents are given a modest allowance for the purpose of buying clothes, gifts, household items, etc.  But, all “salaries” go into the coffers of the kibbutz.  You can only become a resident of the kibbutz if you make it through an extensive approval process, which takes years.  You come to live there and if eventually approved, you can stay permanently, a “permanent resident”.

We also toured the furniture factory, which makes synagogue furniture for synagogues all over the world.  Dinner was after we returned, and then the short ceremony called havdalah, which bookends the Shabbat.  The Shabbat dinner candle-lighting is the other bookend.  If you remember, this took place on Friday night at sunset.  Then, it was a hilarious time of in-room fellowship and mad packing, because in the morning, we leave for the Dead Sea area, with about 3 stops along the way.

Shalom and Shavua Tov (a good week to you!)