Viva El Sábado

One of the things that often gets lost in the frenzy of living in the Jewish state is actual religious practice. For better or for worse, Judaism is primarily an ethnic identity for most Israelis as opposed to their religion. I like to contrast this with American Judaism, where Americans who identify with Judaism tend to find the religious aspects to be much more central to their self identification. One of the symptoms of this dichotomy for me is that I have become increasingly "חילוני" since I arrived in Israel, a term that describes the Israelis who live a secular lifestyle while still maintaining ties to Judaism through the lens of living and working in a Jewish society. Occasionally, it is nice to get back to my roots and participate in some good old fashioned prayer. Friday night, Ayelet, Nimrod and I made kiddush at her apartment. It was refreshing. Every now and then it is good for the soul. It was brief of course, and we left for "Shabbat" dinner at our friend Eli's apartment immediately after.

Eli (on the right) and Nimrod.

Eli's family made aliyah from Mexico City a number of years ago. Why is this relevant? We had a real Mexican meal on Friday night, the first Mexican food, real or imagined that I have tasted since coming to Israel 4 months ago! It was good too. He knows what he is doing in the kitchen. We had beef and chicken with real tortillas, along with salad, guacamole and salsa. There was also plenty of pork available as well as shredded cheese, but I let the other people at dinner dig in to the obviously not kosher options.

A frank discussion of napkins.

Dinner was a sordid affair. There was lots of heavy food, lots of red wine, and plenty of risque conversation. I got into a conversation with one guy over American foreign policy and our the hegemonic nature of our culture. We each put away about a bottle of wine, so the argument was fueled by Cabernet. Eventually we settled into a game of "never have I ever." There were plenty of embarrassing revelations, and dares that ranged from hilarious to vile and disgusting. Eli's roommate Itamar attempted to drink a raw egg on a dare. It ended up in the sink.

Things got a little nutty as the night progressed.

We had initially planned to head to a club from dinner, but after 4 hours at home, everyone was thinking pub instead. We headed to a pub I've never before been to that is at the base of the Carmel, near the German Colony. The name escapes me. The pub had an art theme so we spent a good deal of the rest of the night talking about art. It's not my strength, but it was cool to do nonetheless. We got back to campus around 3 A.M., and after another 45 minutes of guitar and singing, I finally admitted I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore and headed to bed. I woke up at 1:30 the following afternoon. Good deal!

Wrapping up the evening.