Yom Yerushalayim!

Part 1: Shabbat in Chevron

My  crazy weekend started out with a nice quiet bike ride on Friday morning. Well it wasn't so quiet because Jerusalem was packed with people and it wasn't really that nice because I didn't realize that I was absolutely exhausted.  Anyway, when I got back I had to pack for Shabbat.  We left for Chevron at about 4:00.  This was going to be my second time in Chevron for Shabbat but this time it was going to have a very different atmosphere.  http://sarasisraelexperience.blogspot.com/2011/11/shabbat-in-chevron.html

We stayed again in Kiryat Arba in caravans that are part of a girl's high school.  There was six of us staying in our little caravan but there were two bunk beds and one single.  I opted to take a mattress and sleep on the floor of the other room, that way I wouldn't have to deal with any snoring people.  We started off Shabbat by going down to Me'arat Ha'machpela with six guards where there was a beautiful davening.  At about 10:00, we walked back and ate dinner and then went to sleep.  Before we went to sleep we sang Happy Birthday to Esther and Dominique. The next morning we went through the usual routine of davening and eating lunch.  I didn't take a nap this week, although maybe I should have, and instead I just hung out with people.  At 3:00 we went down to Chevron for a tour.  We visited the three Jewish neighborhoods which have about 90 families in them.  We also visited Hadassa Hospital and the Abraham shul.   We ended the night with a quick dinner, where there wasn't even enough food, we packed our stuff and left to get back to Jerusalem.

Part 2: Yom Yerushalayim

I hope you don't mind if I give a bit of a history lesson now.  The crazy stories that come after it are worth it.
In 1976, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan all attacked Israel.  In the span of six days, the Israeli Defense Forces destroyed the Egyptian air force, beat the Syrians and Jordanians, and they conquered a large amount of land.  They conquered the Sinai Peninsula, which was given back to the Egyptians in an attempt to make peace, the Gaza Strip which was also given back, the Golan Heights, and the West Bank which included the Old City of Jerusalem, Chevron, and Gush Etziyon.

After we came back from an amazing Shabbat in Chevron, we all met up at 11:00 dressed in blue and white with Israeli flags tied on to us like capes.  We were going to go around the old city walls.  Led by Rav Shames and Rav Yonatan, all of the Harova girls were walking and dancing, skipping and running, and singing through the streets of Jerusalem.  We made a few stops to talk about the history of Jerusalem beginning with our forefathers Abraham and Isaac who walked in exactly the same spot that we were standing in. We walked out of Zion gate, past Dung gate, and the Lion's gate.  The second half of our late night walk involved going up to Mount Olives.  We were escorted up by police as we hiked up the steep incline.  We stopped at one particular spot where you could see directly below all of the graves of great people and if you looked out you could see the Old City and right in the middle, Temple Mount.  It was an amazing sight to see as we sat there in the middle of the night singing our hearts out.  This was one of my favorite nights of the year.  We took a bus back at about 3:00 in the morning and a bunch of us decided to go to the kotel.  We sat in circle right outside of the kotel area and began to sing again.  (If you couldn't figure it out, Harova girls like singing... a lot!) I hung out till about 5:30 when we went to pray at the kotel.  At this point it was still pretty empty but we knew that it would be full later in the day.
I slept from 6:30 in the morning until 12:30 in the afternoon.  I woke up, ate lunch, and then chilled out until the next part of the day began.  At 3:30, all of us in blue and white with out flags wrapped around us went to once again walk the streets of Jerusalem, but this time we were meeting up thousands of other Jews who were doing the same thing.  As we walked through Mamilla mall, we began to sing and dance and the people around us stopped to watch and take pictures.  We walked to the place where everyone was meeting up on King George Street.  It was amazing to see how many thousands of people were there.  It was also amazing that they had two separate streets for boys and girls.  For about an hour we stayed on the same street where there was like a concert and everybody was singing and dancing and proudly waving their Israeli flags.  Then, we began to move towards the Old City.  There was one point where all the Harova girls just sat down in the middle of the street and began to sing.  When we went through Jaffa Gate, the roads were extremely congested with people, so much so that you couldn't move because there were people pressed onto all sides of you.  Eventually, I got out of the crowd and was able to make my way to my dorm.  It was already about 8:30 and I ate a quick dinner and then a few of us decided to go down to the kotel.  Chani, Sarah, Shira, Belle, and I all held hands as we went down to the kotel to make sure that we wouldn't lose each other in the crazy crowds.  Once we got down to the kotel and the music began playing, everybody was dancing like crazy.
At around 10:00, I was tired of dancing so I went back.  I was really excited because I saw Noga and a few of my other friends so we hung out for a while and then I decided that it was time to go home, write my blog, and go to sleep.  So here's the blog post and now I'm going to sleep.  It's been an amazing, yet exhausting day and I'm not sure how well I'll function tomorrow but I'm sure I'll get through it somehow.  Shalom V'lehitraot!