We had some free time before shabbat, so I got changed and then headed to the beach, where Gill and I tossed stones into the Sea of Galilee. Some of the other guys got into a serious stone-skipping competition. Yuval and our Israeli guard and medic were able to produce some impressive throws. A result of their military training, no doubt. I would have joined them but I didn't want to embarrass myself. It is a shameful secret that I have a very girly arm and can't throw things to save my life.
Anyhoo, eventually it came time for shabbat. This was another instance where I was supposed to feel some sort of awe, shabbat in Israel and all, but at least it didn't make me angry this time. It was all very pleasant.
This was the first time we got into what Yuval called the "circle of love", which is a lovely tradition. You just stand around in a circle with your arms around each other. It often involves a lot of dancing, humming and swaying. Okay, the swaying annoyed me a little because of my very strong sense of rhythm and geometry. We weren't all swaying in the same direction at the same time, so certain parts of the circle were out of phase with others. It's totally nuts, but that's the kind of thing that bothers me.
After lighting the shabbat candles and doing all the stuff with the wine and chalah, we gave each other "shabbat shalom" hugs, another lovely tradition. At this point I was feeling positively upbeat about Judaism. Boy was that to change.
Marie, Esther, Lisa, I, and two other people (is it sexist that I only remember the girls?) hung around on the beach for a while longer before dinner having a conversation about dating. I don't remember exactly what was said, except for the part where I blew up at Esther and told her to rotate her chair so I didn't have to stare at her back. As for the actual content of the conversation, though, all I remember is the topic. In fact, the only interesting part of this anecdote is that we were able to hang around outside at night without freezing to death, due to the fact that we were some two hundred metres below sea level there, in a particularly warm region of Israel.
Shabbat dinner was pretty nice. I remember I sat across from Leah [lee-ah], not to be confused with Leah [lay-ah], and I will have more to write about her pretty soon. Stay tuned.
After the meal came the interminable singing. I like Jewish music as much as the next man (exactly how much does the next man like Jewish music, I wonder), but it just kept going. At least it wasn't prayers. Just songs. Still, we could have sung about half as much as we did and produced about the same effect. Incidentally, I have reason to believe that the interminable singing was part of a calculated plan to produce a sort of euphoric hypnosis in the birthrighters.
When the singing finally came to a close, we headed into the basement to play some "stupid games", as Yuval called them. Icebreaking games. Those were pretty pleasant, and I learned a few names, which I always have trouble with. Then we all headed our own ways.
A group of us went to the disco upstairs, but I couldn't take the noise and smoke so I left early. Why must I put up with an atmophere of 40% nitrogen, 10% oxygen, and 50% cigarette smoke, not to mention the bombardment with extremely loud Israeli music? This was not the last time I would walk disgusted out of a club in Israel.
The night concluded with a drunken after-hours party. I'm sure lots of interesting things happened at it, but I only attended briefly before going to bed, so I couldn't say. Drinking and partying just don't appeal to me, in Canada or in Israel.