7. Sunday, the Second Week

Dear Emilee,
The last two days were very busy. I hardly slept…



I told you that the Shabbat is coming and it is the day of rest. Well, once we woke up on Saturday morning, we were too busy to rest. We dressed and went to a meeting in a town called Kiryat Yam. There are no buses or other public transportation on Shabbat and if you want to travel but don't have a car, you need to rent a car, hitch a ride or call a taxi special. So we went in a taxi.

There were lots of people in the Khila, Hebrew for congregation. They danced and played music and smiled and greeted one another and prayed lots and someone spoke for a while about the Bible. Mr. C. told me the talk was called a sermon or a message.

Since all the speaking and teaching is done in Hebrew, headphones are used during the services. In a sound booth sit two translators and the people who need listen through those headphones to English or Russian translations. When visitors come from other countries, they have their own translators, like when Korean tour groups arrive for the Saturday services, they bring their own translators.

But the great surprise was something that does not happened every Shabbat. This week they had a Bat-Mitzvah. A 12 years old girl was celebrating her right of passage to womanhood. The Jewish people take their children through a ceremony which marks their time of starting to observe their responsibilities as adults. The girls celebrate it on their 12th birthday and the boys on their 13th birthday. Natalie was 12 this week and the pictures show her celebration.



Moshe, the rabbi who taught Natalie to read her portion from the Bible stood beside her with the large Torah (the first 5 books of the bible) Scroll and Natalie held the little scroll. She then walked with it around the congregation so everyone can bless her. She returned to the platform where she read the Torah and explained the portion that she read.

After the celebration was over, we went to the other hall and ate lots of great foods. From there, we went to visit a friend and didn’t get back to Nahariya until after 20:00.

Today, Sunday, Mrs. C. and I wash clothes and clean house, while Mr. C. went to Hebrew school. Around 15:00 all three of us took the bus, then the train, this time to Haifa. There are 3 large cities in Israel: Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv and Haifa. Today we went to Haifa to visit the triple-jump Israeli Champion.


Her name is Maria and her parents are good friends of Mr. and Mrs. C. So they all took their picture with me…

On the way back on the train, four female soldiers wanted their pictures taken also, so we had some fun and told some jokes and here we are, four ladies and myself.



Again, we came in late, and I am trying to catch up on my reporting to you before midnight.

Layla Tov, that’s good night in Hebrew.
Your faithful reporter, Flat Stanley.