Rosh HaShana is over and Yom Kippur is ahead. I hope that all of you had a great holiday so far.
As mentioned before, I participated in a holiday program in the Old City of Jerusalem. American - litvishe Jews were leading the service and most participants were, of course, Americans. Tourists and new immigrants. It was nice and I met some great people. Old and new friends.
However, on the first day of the Chag, I had problems seeing the Chag as Chag. Sometimes you prepare yourself too much and as soon as the situation has arrived, you are lost and don't feel anything. At the Erev Rosh HaShana prayer service I wasn't in any mood at all. On the second day, I was a kind of fed up and spoke to a friend about it. I said to her that it seems that this Rosh HaShana ist just a whole personal mess.
I was surprised when she responded that other people had already told her the same. I wasn't the only one. Her response gave me the feeling that I am not completely lost. Never give up hope.
Nevertheless, I got some spirituality on the second day. It just came out of the blue and Shabbat Teshuva was just great. On Erev Shabbat, I went with friends to the meal at Rabbi Mordechai Machlises's house in the neighbourhood of Maalot Dafna. It is not his fault but we had Christian fundamentalists sitting at our table which disturbed our Shabbat atmosphere. Three of the four Christians made among each other stupid remarks about Jews, and we ignored their smiles at us. One of the fundamentalists said to the other one: "Mission impossible tonight".
Thanks for letting us know the true reason why they came to the Shabbat dinner.
Later on we were regretting not going to the Tish of the Karliner Chassidim. At least we would have avoided those fundamentalists. However, when we came to Karlin in Mea Shearim, their Tish was over already. Never mind, as it was Shabbat Teshuva and many many Rebbes are in Jerusalem over the high holidays.
There was a huge variety of Tishes and we made our way to Toldot Avraham Yitzchak in the Mea Shearim market. Their building complex is still a construction site. For many weeks they have been renewing the women's side but still haven't finished. Together with the chassidic women we climbed upstairs. The new staircase hardly exists and water is dripping down from somewhere.
At least a hundred women were watching the Tish taking place downstairs. Rebbe Shmuel Yaakov Kahn was in a great mood and conducted his Chassidim. The atmosphere was incredible but, unfortunately, it was too crowded and we didn't succeed in pushing ourselves through to the Mechitza. After a short while we decided to go somewhere else first and ended up with the Slonim just a few meters far away.
Apparently the water was following us. Drops from the ceiling at Avraham Yitzchak and a flooded staircase at the Slonim. Usually the women's side at the Slonim is almost empty but when we arrived, everything was packed. We looked inside and escaped.
Our next stop were Toldot Aharon. The first thing we saw were Israelis walking out of the building. I asked if anything had happened and say that: "You will see".
This was exactly the point, as we saw nothing. Unfortunately, Toldot Aharon have changed their Mechitza into something one can hardly look through. We always loved their huge windows where you could see everything going on. But now they put those metal things in front of the windows destroying our whole Simchat Beit HaShoeva we are planning to spend with them.
When we left the building, we met some really nice Toldot Aharon women outside who explained us that this new Mechitza has just been installed temporarily. As all the lights are on at the women's side, men are able to look through the glass Mechitza and this is the reason for the ugly metal things. After Sukkot the metal is going to disappear again.
Mea Shearim is a small neighbourhood and everybody seems to know everyone and everything. Even if they are not from the same chassidic group. And many many times we heard from other Chassidim that officially Toldot Aharon and their split off Avraham Yitzchak are not the friends they pretend to be.
Last Friday night, I had a rather interesting conversation with some Toldot Aharon members and they told me just the opposite. There are even married couples belonging to two different groups. After the split, the husband joined Toldot Avraham Yitzchak and his wife stayed with Toldot Aharon or vice versa.
It is not my task to judge but, nevertheless, it is important hearing the two sides of the story.
After Toldot Aharon we went to the Shomrei Emunim. Although it is already September, last Friday night was warm and not too chilly. Hundreds of people were in the streets of Mea Shearim and all the Tishes were just packed.
Small alleyways in Mea Shearim
The women's entrance to the Shomrei Emunim synagogue is a little hard to find and we climbed over shaky stairs to the second floor. Unfortunately, the Tish was finished.
What was left ? Yes, of course, Kretchnif.
The Kretchnifer Rebbe was in his best mood. Although he had almost finished his Tish, he couldn't stop conducting his Chassidim. Great songs and a great Rebbe.
But back to Toldot Avraham Yitzchak, our favourites together with Toldot Aharon. Again the water was dripping on us but never mind. Now there was more space at the window Mechitza and we had a great view. The men's side was packed and the Chassidim had hardly any space to stand on. Rebbe Kahn was in his spiritual mood and shook his arms around.
It was a great night which we enjoyed very much.
Yesterday at Shabbat lunch in Rabbi Machlises's home, someone asked us why we are going to all these Tishes. The reason is not only that I am writing about Chassidim. The main reason is that I really enjoy going there and, believe it or not, it does influence me in a very positive way. Praying with the Chassidim or even going to a Tish can get you much closer to G - d.
If anyone is interested in joining Toldot Aharon on Yom Kippur:
The Yom Kippur service is not for the public and their members had to order tickets in advance.
On Sukkot, the synagogue will be again open to the public, but don't expect too much, as it will be packed.
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