Jerusalem to Tel Aviv

Wednesday, July 2: This is wedding day - the reason (excuse) the was the impetus for our trip around the world. We started the day in Jerusalem visiting the Israel Museum. This museum is spread out over many buildings and outdoor sites. We didn't plan to see the entire museum as we had to "head down the hill," rather we had some specific things we had seen during our last trip five years ago and which we wanted to see. The first was the Shrine of the Book. This might be a bit of a misnomer since the books are really scrolls, and the main ones are the Dead Sea Scrolls. I risked the wrath of God by sneaking a picture of the inside of the Shrine of the Book. Due to the deleterious effects that sunlight, air conditioning, and other natural and manmade environmental factors can have on the scrolls, the display is made up of facsimilies, except that there is always a small section of the real thing on display - they just don't tell you which is which. The other thing that we had to see was Robert Indiana's Ahava sculpture - this is the Hebrew version of his Love sculpture, one of which is on the grounds of the Scottsdale Center for the Arts.

Once we saw what we came to see, we spent some time exploring a collection called Dress Code. This was made up of clothes worn by Jewish women in the 18th to 20th Century in various countries in the region. It was fascinating to see some of the Burkas, that were worn by Jewish women, and which we have always associated with Muslim countries, not realizing that the Burka may be a cultural garment and not neccesarily a religious one.

Then we headed for Tel Aviv, taking taxi and sheruts and just reversing the route that we took to get to Jerusalem. It was very easy and relatively quick to get back to the Art Plus Hotel in Tel Aviv. That night, the drive to the wedding was again in a bus, but the trip wasn't as long as the previous wedding event on Sunday night. 

The venue for the wedding was on a Kibbutz and the outdoor location for the ceremony was really quite amazing. We estimated that there were about 250 people partaking in Hors d'oeuvres, but we counted only 50 seats facing the Chuppah, the ceremonial covering where the ceremony would take place. After a couple of hours of eating and drinking they announced that the ceremony was to begin. We assumned that was what they announced since someone said something in Hebrew and then people moved into position. Some people immediately went quickly to secure one of the coveted seats, while the rest of us lined the cloth-covered aisle waiting for the wedding party, and they didn't disappoint. Sydney was radiant and Matan was dashing. As soon as they walked down the aisle and stood under the Chuppah, all of the standing guests, including us, moved to stand directly in front of the Chuppah. Those coveted seats soon became completely blocked and afforded no view whatsoever!

The ceremony was beautiful and interesting, however it was very different from Jewish weddings in the States. Only the bride received a ring, and the usual tradition where the bride walks around the groom eight times just didn't happen. The other huge difference was that the entire ceremony was in Hebrew - imagine that - a wedding ceremony in Hebrew in Israel! They did translate a small part of it, but even those of us that were Jewish didn't understand a whole lot. One tradition that did happen was that, as usual, the groom broke the glass and everyone said, "Mazel Tov." Of course, then instead of the bride and groom, now newly married, walking back up the aisle, everyone just rushed the Chuppah and kisses and hugs were shared by all!

The dinner was inside a huge glass-encloed pavillion, with great food, great music, and of course, great drink. The guests loved to party and dance and we helped them do so until the wee hours of the morning. As we rode back in the bus it occurred to us that since this was a Wednesday night wedding, most of the guests would be going to work in the morning. We slept in!