and it was good

We started Friday with a walk to the Lone Soldier Center on Yaffo. This organization provides a network, a set of companions and, as you will read, a lot of beer to the soldiers who have no family in Israel as they serve the country. Maddie had been asked to speak to girls currently learning in various seminaries who are considering serving in the army. I had been asked to sit down and shut up. I did it happily. And ate a bagel with some sort of cheese on it while I watched a bunch of twenty year-olds socialize while carrying guns bigger than Sparky. No offense Sparky. Just saying.

The LSC is, by nature of its focus on army people, run by 24 year-olds for the benefit of 20 year-olds. And I'm sitting here, mostly asleep, as a 48 year old. No one else is near my age but their parents are. Way to fit in. It is both heartening and harrowing to see such young people try to run such an organization (and, for that matter, the IDF, itself). With thoughts swirling around me to this effect I dozed while chewing said bagel. A soldier came in at 9:30 and grabbed a beer while 5 current (or recent) soldier women explained to 20 seminary girls how the process of testing, drafting, testing, complaining, testing, serving and ultimately, drinking beer will go. Maddie mingled and I was introduced to another set of parents because in my stupor, what more could I want to do than make awkward small talk with someone named "Stan." No offense Stan. Just saying.

Off to the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf for a quick cuppa on the way to the kotel. You can get coffee everywhere but there are so many fancy types. I just want a big cup of black coffee. That's the challenge. I had to settle for a medium sized cup of Turkish coffee which ended up being pretty good but now I feel beholden to Turkey and that's just not right in this current political climate.

We walked through the outdoor Mamilla mall. Fancy stores, places to eat and, eventually a chasid busking, singing and playing an acoustic version of As Tears Go By. I gave him a few shekalim because, well, I guess because it was so unexpected and, in a way, welcome to hear the Rolling Stones on a Friday morning in the Jerusalem sun.

We stopped by the Hadaya store but it was closed. Maddie spoke with someone raising money for the group Lechi without knowing much about Israel. They seemed rather radical so the ignorance was even more frightening. He didn't even know what Lechi stood for. Look it up. I'm not working today. I watched out for cats because they can get rather feisty and I didn't want a repeat of the last trip. We made it to the kotel and Maddie flashed her army ID so she went through the metal detector etc with little checking. All that time in the army finally paid off as she saved 13 seconds and I, as her guest, didn't have to put my wallet through an x-ray machine which just means that the emergency crackers I keep folded in there have not been irradiated. Huzzah.

I only stayed at the wall for a few minutes but in that time I really did feel spiritually recharged. I know -- it is just a wall. But something about it makes everything I believe very real. It helps me focus and feel, connect and understand. It is something I need to keep me going until the next time. If you want to relate, try reading Tintern Abbey. Same thing. I won't explain it. Remember, I'm not working. I said tehillim and asked the big guy to protect everyone I love and some people I just tolerate. As it was getting closer to Shabbat, we hopped a cab back to Ben Yehuda and King George and ducked into a Yemenite restaurant that Maddie likes so we could get take-out for Shabbat lunch. The food was all out in pans (apparently the army calls these "gastronomim" but I think that that's a bit like calling a bowl of dog food "victuals") and we filled up some small tins with chicken, beef, crunchy filled things and (as Maddie is watching me write this, I will remind her) A PIECE OF FISH WHICH IN THE FRIDGE. We walked back with our bags and saw the whole world waiting by the light rail outside Machane Yehuda. Small talk with former students, friends and people who wanted money for their too large families. We stopped at a small makolet and got Prigat (Lemonana and Banana-Strawberry if you must pry). Then we got back to the apartment to prepare for the long wail of the Shabbat horn.

We walked back to the LSC for dinner. Fifty or so soldiers (some with a plus one) mingled and eventually held a raucous dinner in which I learned that seven treatments of potatoes along with rice and challah is still delicious, soldiers are a rowdy bunch on weekends and the army travels on its well-trodden liver. Beer (Stella), various wines and liquor were served. (The shots were reserved for those people who, in the last two weeks, had reached a milestone in their service -- enlisting, going from training to full service, finishing, breathing air, or being the father of Maddie). By 8:30 we had had enough and we walked back (we, being Maddie and her friends Adi and Gabi). Lights out was 4+ hours earlier so we were asleep by 9PM.

Shabbat day was a stay-in affair. I was up at 2AM and read til 4, then slept until 9. I davened and read more -- Ready Player One, which I finished...and I have much to say on that topic, some other time, but in brief, HEY, Ernest Cline, stop mining my life for your book! Lunch with Maddie's roommate Leah at about 11:30 during which we spoke about the difficulties of keeping kosher when not everyone is exactly on board in an apartment (someone used a parve pot for chicken soup and then soaked it in the dairy sink...). We chatted until about 2 when we all fell back asleep until 4. Shabbat wound down and now we are preparing to go out and grab some dinner because, as Goldberg says, "Dinner? I haven't had that since yesterday."

Tomorrow, back to the old city and some simple shopping:

aluminum foil
a new shower rod/curtain
sunglasses
nice dresses (for Maddie)
back to the Hadayah store

Sundries, abut not various.