Saturday, January 22nd (A Day of Rest)

Maybe it goes against the principles of Shabbat to have a to do list for one's day of rest.  There were a few suggestions but no requirements for today, so I had planned to download my more recent photos, get some postcards in the mail, catch up on sleep, go shopping with my roommate, visit the museum, attend an interfaith luncheon at Hebrew Union College, have dinner with a representative from The Schools & Educational Programs of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (which is their real official name), and so on.  The sleeping in went pretty well, and would have been highly restorative if I had not counter-balanced it by staying up until roughly 2:30 a.m. the night before to work on photos and chat with my Sweetie online.

Still, I managed a very pleasant day of wandering through the Old City and the Bazaar with a few of my fellow travelers at a much more relaxed pace than has generally been possible.  Lunch with the rabbinical students was absolutely great, and we had lots of wonderful conversations about becoming clergy, our anticipated future roles, and our coursework - not to mention all those little things we wouldn't normally have a way to ask, like "what's the difference between a kipeh and a yarmelke, and how come they have so many different shapes and colors?" (me) or "have you ever been to a synagogue before, and what did you think of the service last night?" (them).  They invited us back for a casual "end of sabbath" service later in the afternoon, which was held in the student lounge.  About 20 students, including two with guitars, sang lively music recognizing the end of the sabbath and praising Adonai for the blessings bestowed.  It had a kind of "summer camp" quality, and the students clearly loved having an opportunity to celebrate their faith and to share it with us.  I was very impressed with their enthusiasm and ambition.

The day's activities ended with a discussion over dinner of the educational programs with the lady from ELCJHL and a half-dozen of my fellow students.  She is an unpaid volunteer, partly because funding for OCWM ("Our Church's Wider Mission") offerings through the UCC have dropped to the point where the church can't afford to maintain on-site relationships in many of the places where they used to serve.  She also had a lot to say both about the impact of the Wall on the children served by her organization, and convincingly recommended this book (which I would like to read, but will probably have to wait until the 50 or so other books I need for the coming semester have been purchased and digested).

After some of the physical, mental and emotional work-outs we have experienced in the last week, it was really good to take it slow and to feel comfortable throwing my to do list out the window.  Still, gotta get those postcards in the mail (and sleep a full night, eventually).