Shabbat

Being in Israel especially Jerusalem you were able to witness and be apart of many very religious rituals. While walking the streets five times a day you would hear the Muslims call to prayer echoing throughout the city and villages. Both Jewish and Muslim women were covered just in different attire. And little boys and men daily wore the kippa, some wore robes that would have tassels on their sides to remind them to pray. For the most part you would notice and pass the religious observances but the Shabbat even if you didn’t practice it would somehow affect your day.

Shabbat is the Jewish observation of the Sabbath. Now in the U.S. other than in churches talking about needing to take a day of rest- nothing was really affected and we even can get into grocery stores on the most holy of days like Christmas and Easter if need be. Here in France everything closes down on Sundays. If you need anything be sure to pick it up on Saturday because you will be tough out of luck on a Sunday and this and grossly thrown me off track many weeks.

In Israel and in all Jewish societies Shabbat is observed starting on the evening of Friday (today) and then through Saturday, giving one full day of rest. Now if only all the stores would be closed it may be a bother but you get over it and move on with your day. However- in my case it seemed like the first night of Shabbat was never ending. Probably because I didn’t realize the observance had started- and was confused why everything was turning out to be so strange.

After a long day of work many of us returned to the hotel wanting to go for a refreshing swim. We hurried up to our rooms changed our into our bathing suites. We jumped into the pool only to be pulled out five minutes later. The pool was being closed in observation of the Shabbat. Except they didn’t say it was because of Shabbat they said it was closing- thus I still didn’t catch on what was happening. Our group then decides we should once again change and just head down to dinner.
At dinner there is no hot food. There are loads of delicious salads but to use a stove would be considered work and in strict violation of practicing Shabbat. Now in my mind- yes a stove is hard work, but many of these yummy salads required quite a bit of chopping and I am sure that if they are not allowed to swim that extreme chopping also should but on the no, no list.

After dinner the girls and I started to get a little goofy- as I said it had been a long day. At this hotel there were four elevators. We walked into the first one with an open door. Elizabeth goes to push the button for floor four but all of the buttons are blacked out. Confused she keeps trying to push the buttons and then the door begins beeping. The two other girls and I start freaking out saying, “Oh my goodness, what is going on here? Our elevator is going to break. We need to get off, or we are going to get stuck.” Right as the doors close a cute little Jewish boy comes running through the doors.

The elevator takes us not up, but down, one floor. Okaaaaay we think, then the beeping restarts, the doors are closing and I begin laughing hysterically so confused on what is actually going on. Once again we go down one level. Doors open, we all are cracking up laughing and the little Jewish boy I am sure is thinking we are all crazy. Doors beep, doors close and the elevator suddenly shoots us up to the 11th floor! Whoa! How did we go from the basement to the very top of the hotel? And the 11th floor is being renovated so it basically looks like a bomb went off upstairs and only freaks us out more.

We realize that it’s Shabbat and you cannot push buttons during Shabbat. Thus the elevator is going to all of the floors. We are on floor 11 needing to get to floor four.

Door beeps. Door closes. Door opens on floor 9. We realize that the elevator we are on is only going to the odd number floors. Too bad we realized this at floor number 3. So we jump out of our elevator in hopes to join the even floor Shabbat elevator. But we are on an odd number floor? How is this going to work? Standing there contemplating and laughing, we realize that two of the elevators are for Shabbat and then there are another two elevators for those who are not following Shabbat and will push buttons on Fridays and Saturdays.

It took us 10 minutes to figure out the elevator situation and get to the fourth floor. The best part was when we stepped out to the fourth floor the little Jewish boy who switched tracks and left us at floor seven was standing there with his family. I won’t tell that I know he skipped the elevator and used the stairs because I am pretty sure that is forbidden as well. Nevertheless, we survived the Shabbat elevator experience.

In the end there was a small posting on the elevator outside the doors letting the user know what elevators were used for Shabbat. If you are ever in a place that is respecting the Jewish Shabbat I highly recommend you look for these signs first.