Bnai Brak Wedding/Apologies/Shabbat Shalom

To everyone who has grown to count on a regular update of this blog, I apologize for the absence of a post in the last few days. I really have been anxious to write about my experience at the wedding (which was wonderful), but have not found enough time to write about it. I am going to start now, and, if I don't finish, you will have to forgive me if I write in installments.

So....the wedding. I guess I can start by repeating the basics: an old friend from middle school, Tzvi Hasten, got engaged to a girl named "Rochele" (though I have still have no idea what her last name is...), who is from the ultra-ultra religious city called "Bnai Brak". When I told some of the more Modern, Liberal religious Jews I have met in Israel where I was going, they made faces and made comments like "I was dressed in a black suit, had a beard...and still felt like a Chilonee (deragatory Hebrew term for a secular Jew)", or "Make sure you eat dinner before you go to the wedding because the food will be awful" or other statements like that.

I can safely say that, although the wedding was unlike much of what I have ever experienced, it wasn't what I expected at all.

First of all, I really was worried that people would be pissed at me for not being dressed in a black suit and black hat (the uniform of ultra-religious Jewish men), or even that I was wearing a shirt that had color in it (again, when I find a computer that can handle it, I will post some pictures from the night, and other times)......alright. I will stop with all these preambles, and get down to what, actually happened.

To get to the wedding, I had arranged ahead of time to meet another friend who I had gone to Middle School with who was going. This kid, Shawn "Adi" Roland, also became religious in Middle School, except he went "all the way" with it, and has been holed up in a Yeshiva in Jerusalem since he graduated from Jewish High School. It's hard to explain exactly what this Yeshiva was like. It is called Chochvei Torah (not to be confused with Yeshivat Chocavei Torah (YCT) in New York, that is known for being a bastion of liberal/Modern Orthodoxy), and walking into the Beis Midrash (the "House of Study", which is basically the really big room full of benches, books, and "bochers" (people studying Torah)) was like walking into 17th Century Poland, except for a cell phone here and there. Nothing else had changed: everyone was dressed THE EXACT same way: white shirts, black pants, buzzed hair cut, and most had glasses. And there were about 120 men sitting in this room, chanting in the melodic sing-song of Talmud study. The room itself was also imposing: it was about three stories high, with very tall windows, an Aron (the place where the Torahs are kept) that was just as tall, and concrete walls that had been white-washed. There was also a smell, but it is the smell of everywhere in Israel that is packed too tightly with people (mostly buses), since, for some reason Israelis don't believe in deoderant.

Damn. I haven't even gotten to the wedding yet, and I need to go shower (and put on deoderant....) before Shabbat starts. I promise to finish this exciting story as soon as I human can.

Until then, I would just like to thank everyone who has written comments or sent me emails---as much fun as I am having here, it is so nice to hear from all of you, and remember that as nice as it is here, I have a place to call home back there.

Shabbat Shalom, and have a wonderful weekend.

Michael