This morning we woke up to Jerusalem covered in beautiful white snow. Although that meant no busses, no light rail and most of the stores shut down, we still made the most of the day. After lunch we went on a walk to the shuk and got there by following the light rail track straight to the Mahane Yehuda stop. Although not all the shops were open and it wasn’t packed like a typical Friday afternoon before Shabbat, there were still people there shopping and even dancing in the street! By the time we returned to the hotel our shoes were soaking wet. Now I can say I walked one mile up hill in the snow to buy groceries.

That evening the three of us planned on attending Friday night services and although we made it to services, we ended up at two separate services. Mom headed down to the lobby to light the candles and once I finished shaving, Greg and I took the Sabatavator (elevator that observes Shabbat) down to the lobby to meet Mom. Since we were taking the elevator from the 11th floor and the elevator stopped at every floor, by the time we made it to the bottom Mom wasn’t there. We went to the room where the service was scheduled however nobody was there so we walked to the bottom floor where it appeared to be a Bar Mitzvah service going on. We then went to the hotel lobby to confirm where the service was and was told that it may be on another floor which it was. Since the service was orthodox there was no way of knowing where Mom was sitting so we waited until the end of the service to find her. But where was she? We walked to the lobby and saw here waiting there for us. Turns out Mom went to the Friday night service for the Bar Mitzvah but since her service also had men and women divided she also had no way of knowing when we arrived.

We then made our way to a lovely Shabbat dinner put on by the hotel.
While we were having dessert, a table full of women from Argentina were singing Hebrew songs at the top of their lungs. Before leaving the dining hall, we stopped by their table to wish them a Shabbat Shalom and at some point while we were chatting Mom mentioned that I was single! So then the organizer of the group pointed out who was single and they said a few things about themselves then asked me some questions. The whole ordeal was embarrassing yet entertaining at the same time.