A Barmitzvah

Phew, the weekend is finally over and I can relax at work. Mostly it was Edan's Barmitzvah - He did an excellent job leading the services and reading his torah portion. We were all very proud. Still it was quite a busy weekend.

It started Thursday morning with a trip to the Wall in Jerusalem. We left home at 6am and arrived at the Wall at exactly 8:30 - just in time to wait for the Bar Mitzvah area to be freed up. We got lost about three times on the way in, and I had to park up the side of a mountain in the blazing heat. The ceremony at the wall was nice - the Conservative movement uses the part of the wall exposed in the archaeological park on the right hand side of the wall for their ceremonies so as not to contaminate the "real" Jews at the wall. It is nicely presented and besides the other people having their Bar Mitvahs it was quiet. Still it took a while and eventually after the required photos we trudged up the hill and took the car to Corene's place on Derech Beit Lechem (after getting lost twice). There we ate bagels and swallowed headache pills before setting out back home (getting lost on the way out of Jerusalem once again). All my passengers had a good sleep in the car, as I managed to get us home with no problems. I did not go to work. I took my headache to bed.

Friday started very early with chopping fruit salad (I have a new theory as to how a good fruit salad is like a rock band that I will explain one day) and cutting vegetables for salad and antipasti. We then cleaned the house (with Azziza), installed the new dishwasher (It works wonderfully), set up tables, made antipasti and set up BBQs etc for the evening do. 7pm we went off to shul. Interesting service at the South-American-Conservative-Congregation-Next-to-the-Post-Office-on-Opsterland. The Rabbi (I think he is a Rabbi) gave a surprisingly coherent sermon (so he probably isn't a Rabbi), especially entertaining as he switched seamlessly from Hebrew to Spanish with nary a blink. It was all about pluralism in religion and the history of the second temple conflict between the Pharisees and the Sadducees along with a call to get involved in protecting our rights to practice religion as we see fit. After the service we rushed back home to make sure all was running smoothly for the guests. The food was good (I think), the deserts excellent. Barry only drinks Laphroaig. Bwo and I collapsed around 10:30pm and left the family and Gili to clean up, which they did. Nicely.

Saturday morning 9am saw us back in Shul. Edan did his bit with an endearing confidence and style. I was shocked at getting a second aliyah (the first being at the wall) and after stumbling through the brachot got to look at the hand written words in the Torah scroll once again. We enjoyed more bagels at the brocha after the service and got a ride home as the kids (atheists that they are) could not wait to get home and nap after an exhausting day in Shul (all that standing and sitting gets tiring, you know). We were all so drained (emotionally) that we took it easy and napped off and on the rest of the day.

So that folks was my weekend. Quite hectic. Oh and I had a birthday Friday - the new dish washer is the bomb, but as bno said, it does not load or unload itself.