"And you shall keep the Sabbath and call it a delight." (Isaiah 58:13) Today, we did just that. Our first Shabbat in Israel began with a choice of two synagogues. We could either choose an Ashkenazi/Sephardi synagogue, a unique combination of two distinct Jewish cultures, or a Carlebach service, which was described to us as the closest thing Judaism offers to that scene in the Blues Brothers where James Brown is preaching and the worshippers dance in the aisles. This Carlebach service attracted the majority of Dillers and did not disappoint (at least for those of us in the Men's section, where the majority of celebration-of-the-Divine-through-Earthly-song/dance/etc. actually occurred). The service lasted for around 3 hours, and our own Morgan Plant was invited to dress the Torah after the reading. After the service, we returned to the hotel for some spiritually-encouraged R&R. We departed for the Knesset at 1600, where we received a layman's survey of the Israeli parliamentary system. After a pleasant hiatus in the rose garden, we returned to the hotel to prepare for Havdallah. We ceremonially concluded the Sabbath on floor 01 of the hotel at 2030, and enthusiastically headed out for Ben Yehudah street. The other Diller cohorts also converged on Ben Yehudah street tonight, and there was much hugging and so much excitement about the upcoming North American Kennes and the Diller Youth Congress. We boarded the bus home at 0000h Sunday 7/22. The amount of Samba dancing on the return voyage was abnormally high and we found out that Sagiv (our guard) can really shake it! Tomorrow we reunite with our friends from Ashqelon, which is awesome.
-Ben Miller
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