OUR FIRST ERVE SHABBAT IN JERUSALEM

Another perfect day! 

 I woke up to a little lizard scurrying  across the floor , I have to admit it was cute but I didn't want it as a room mate. So happy Zoe was here to catch it and send him on his way out the door!

We started out from our little cottage and went to the Great Synagogue for the service of second day Rosh Shanna.    It made me a little sad that on this special day that  the Jewish people going to worship in their homeland, at their Synagogue, have to have an armed man at the door checking in our bags for ???? . After that every thing else seemed more normal. Women in lovely dresses, hats, and heels, children dressed in their best  and of course the men with the kippas and prayer shawls.
We made our way to the top floor where the woman and children are seated . This was  the best view of the men's choir which face the cabinet they call 'the ark' that holds all the Torah scrolls ( these are scrolls of the bible hand written ) .  What a delight to hear the men sing  all their prayers acappella .  Because it is all in Hebrew, we were able to follow along only a little and with a lot of  help. Wow these people know how to worship God. and to pray!  It brought me to tears to hear them  praying for us, the people in the nations,  to turn from our idolatry and come worship the mighty God who created the universe. They proclaimed a day will come when people from the nations  will worship this Almighty God and  be His subjects in  His everlasting kingdom along with the chosen ones of  Israel.  When they blew the shofar , I was happy I  had finally heard it in a service the way it was intended to be heard . This "congregation" will stay all day in prayer.  wow, its humbling  !

 

 

 

we ended the day with the erve Shabbat at Kathy De Gagne's house. Of course after a lot of walking to the Old City in 30 C we were  so blessed to get a ride to her place and back from people kind enough to recognise that we were too tired to walk the 60 mins even one way.

 

AND WE HAD REAL FOOD!

 

 

It is tradition to have apple with honey and honey cake  at Rosh Hashanah  yummy!

Plus we had lots of  different salads and stuffed  chicken double yummy!

Kathy gave us leftovers so we don't have to eat peanut butter and jam sandwiches any more! 

(unless we want to)

we had a lovey time , made some new friends ,  we sang and worshiped . I got to play an electric harpsichord for the first time and every one actually was able to sing amazing grace with me playing it . I am so getting one of these when I get back to Kenora. 

  So thus ends another AWESOME  day in the holy land.

 SHABBAT SHALOM

p.s. for those of you interested a link to the Jewish thought behind the commandment of the feast of trumpets.
http://www.holylandmoments.ca/devotionals/the-head-of-the-year
http://www.holylandmoments.ca/devotionals/gods-alarm-clock