Elli's Bar Mitzvah

Today was Elli's big day.  We gathered with the Dordick family's guide in the hotel lobby, stopped to get a local rabbi who will be officiating at the service, and made our way to the Robinson's Arch section of the Western Wall, where non-Orthodox services are permitted.  When we arrived, we saw a group of about a hundred celebrants carrying a bar mitzvah boy on their shoulders, under a chuppah, singing and chanting as they walked through the Old City towards the Wall.  We set ourselves up and began the morning service, hearing the sounds of multiple other services on both our sides.  Elli chanted an incredible Torah portion (and, due to a rare glitch that has the US and Israeli Torah portions on a one-week stagger, Elli read the same portion that Rebecca and Marc will read at her Bat Mitzvah III next week.)  Needless to say, I listened carefully (Marc).

After the ceremony, the Dordicks continued on their tour of the Temple excavations while we returned to the hotel to....yes....practice our Torah portions for Monday!

A cab driver recommended a good felafel place (Shalom Felafel in Rehavia) and we decided to make the walk.  It was HOT; the walk was LONG; and we found a tiny tiny hole in the wall place where you order, pay, and eat in the same spot.  The felafel was great but, what can I say, I also value a table, a chair, and air conditioning!

We continued walking to the central bus station to get to the airport to meet the Rodef Sholom group arriving this evening.  

We were told that busses leave every half hour, on the hour and half, from gate 18.  We got to gate 18 fifteen minutes early to discover that the busses actually leave every half hour, on the quarter and three-quarter hour.  The bus was just pulling in.  We stood up to get in line....to discover....no line.  Just teems of people pushing, pressing, crowding, and cramping the door.  It was chaos; and an ordered one if you were one of the Israelis.  (Americans, not so much :)  After some futile and worthless pushing and waiting, the driver closed the door and pulled away, leaving us, and dozens of others, to wait for the next bus.  Minutes later, a new one arrived and the RUSH was on again...only this bus had a different number, was going to a different place, so Marci and girls retreated back and Marc pressed forward, NOT for this bus, but to be positioned better for the one that follows.  (quick study!).  Ten minutes later, the new bus starts pulling up, Marc signals Marci and girls to move in; alas, too slow, the crowd forms and presses leaving Marci and Shayna in the middle.  Rebecca squeezes through.  Marc and Rebecca board the bus, confirm that it does, indeed, go to Ben Gurion airport, and we save the front two seats for Marci and a Shayna that is invisible from my site on the bus amidst the crowd.  They made their way up and we were off...

Yeah...

Except that 40 minutes later, we pull off the highway, stop at this random streetcorner, and the driver announces "Ben Gurion Airport."  Dazed and confused, I asked the driver if this was REALLY the stop for the airport.  A kind passenger said, "Yes, you get off here and then wait for the #5 bus transfer to the terminal."  Then he showed me that my ticket did indeed have a transfer on it.  The joys of learning.

Some two hours after we began our journey in Jerusalem, we arrived at the airport and greeted the group.  Needless to say, the trip back on the tour bus was far less eventful!

We returned to Olive and Fish restaurant for the second time in three nights and then came back to sleep....6:30 am wake up in the morning!

Lailah tov.