Mamma Mia!

Here I go again.

My Shabbat was atypical, at least as typical means of the last three weeks (this is my fourth Shabbat in Israel! Meshugah!).

I woke up bright an early Saturday morning, not to go to services, but to go on a hike with the HUC hiking group. There were five of us – Amy, Ari, Jim, and myself, and the hiking leader, an awesome man named Jay Shir (ironically, he is also the choir director… get it?) who it seems has forgotten more about hiking and backpacking throughout the Middle East, central and eastern Asia than I’ll ever know. He has these crazy stories about backpacking through Turjkmekistan or Croatia and meeting a goatherd and drinking Sheep-soiled water and getting altitude sickness and losing his tent and eating weird caper berries, etc. He is, as Ari says, HUC’s resident badass.

We went to an area south west of Hadassah Hospital (where the Chagall windows are) and hiked down in a wadi called Wadi Katlav, then along the base of the wadi, past abandoned mandate-era train stations, and then up another mountain to a Sheik’s Tomb, and then up another precipice called Har Torah (with a ט not a ת) which was the view-highlight of the hike. Then we hiked back down a little, and then back up to the road where we finished the hike at a rest stop with very cold drinks. It was another reminder how much Israel's climate resembles California's climate: we ran into wild fennel, blackberries, oak trees (which, DSA, you'll be happy to know I identified purely by smell and seeing leaves on the ground), manzanita trees, and wild sage.

The hike was about 12 km round trip and we did it in about 4 hours. It was semi-strenuous, but an incredibly hot day, and so after the first leg, we were all soaked in sweat. Jim said he drank 5 liters during the day. I drank about half that. But, you get the idea. So why do it? Well, it was great to get out of Jerusalem. It was “praying with our feet.” It felt great, after drying off. And, then there’s this:



The picture doesn't really do it justice, but come on: mamma mia!

Motzi Shabbat, there was another movie night. This time to see Mamma Mia! I really have no words; I put the exclamation point because it's part of the title although my preference would have been a sad emoticon. I was very excited, and after about 3 minutes I knew exactly what I was in for. I think most people felt about the same about the horrid dreckiness and schlock of the movie, with some redeeming quality from the music. But it was, on the whole, dreadful. At the same time, it was nice to keep up the cultural connection with America: how can I forget you?