![\"Shabbat](\"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/shabbat-jerusalem-ian-norton.jpg\")
<\/a>Shabbat in Jerusalem – Photo by Ian Norton<\/p><\/div>\n
The wonderful thing about it is that in Israel, as a nation, we celebrate Shabbat every single week.\u00a0 Friday is a shortened school and work day.\u00a0 On Friday morning, there is a noticeable buzz in the air as people are out and about to gather supplies for the Sabbath.\u00a0 The outdoor market, Mahaneh Yehuda, in Jerusalem is packed to the gills as are the supermarkets.\u00a0 The shops are brimming with freshly baked Challah, a special braided bread reserved for Shabbat.\u00a0 It has a wonderful taste!\u00a0 Supplies invariably include Challah, wine for the blessing and fresh flowers, with fresh flower stands gracing the streets everywhere.\u00a0 It is traditional to have a special meal on Friday nights, and usually the tables are set formally with a white table cloth.\u00a0 People usually dress up a bit for the Sabbath meal as well. It is a looked-forward-to time of family togetherness.
\nBecause Shabbat is celebrated by the nation, it truly becomes a day set apart from the rest of the week. By late afternoon on Friday, the shops are closed; the busses and trains have stop running; and the Jerusalem Light Rail has returned to its terminal. As all this happens, a hush begins to fall over the city, and by the time Shabbat begins Jerusalem is bathed in quiet, (as are all the cities and villages throughout the land).\u00a0 You can see men and boys en route to the synagogues or to the Western Wall for Sabbath prayers.\u00a0 The women light the Sabbath candles before sunset, and you can see the candles burning brightly in windows all over the city.\u00a0 At the start of the meal, the men say the traditional prayers for the Sabbath and over the bread and the wine as family and friends have gathered at the table.\u00a0 There is singing followed by a leisurely meal.\u00a0 Even El Al, Israel\u2019s national airline, does not fly on Shabbat and the shops in the airport close Friday afternoon.\u00a0 Saturday morning is so quiet that you can tell in a second that it is Shabbat morning!\u00a0 Soldiers are allowed off their bases to celebrate the Sabbath with their families most weekends. Because it is such a radically different day than the rest of the week, a true day of restoration, you feel ready to begin a new week on Sunday morning!\u00a0 In a later blog I\u2019ll tell more including what happens on Saturday night\u2019s after the Sabbath.\u00a0 But for now, I just want to wish you\u2014Shabbat Shalom!<\/p>\n
As I shared in a previous \u2018Reflections\u2019, last week 47 year old Filipino Rose Fostanes won the inaugural \u201cX-Factor Israel\u201d singing competition.\u00a0 It was explained, however, that she would be unable to perform in Israel because her entry visa limited her to working as a caregiver. Israel is a nation with a heart, however, and somehow people in this nation almost always find a way to work things out.\u00a0 There are very legalistic countries out there\u2014some of you may live in them\u2014where a rule is a rule is a rule, no exceptions and no changing it.\u00a0 Israel is not like that at all.\u00a0 The Israeli public, huge fans of Rose and her wonderful voice, clamoured for permission to be given for her to pursue her singing career here.\u00a0 As the headliner said just a few days later, \u201cRose Can Sing!\u201d\u00a0 And we were informed that this was the decision taken by Interior Minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar, who announced yesterday that the X-Factor winner will indeed be allowed to pursue a singing career right here in Israel! The decision put a song in all of our hearts.<\/p>\n
Just a bit more on Canadian Prime Minister\u2019s historic and heartwarming visit to Israel this week.\u00a0 The former Israeli ambassador to Canada, Alan Baker, was interviewed on the IBA English TV news.\u00a0 He was asked, \u201cAnd to what can you attribute this love fest that\u2019s going on between Jerusalem and Ottawa and do you expect that it will continue?\u201d To which Baker replied, \u201cHe is an Evangelical Christian and he genuinely loves the Jewish people, he genuinely loves Israel, and he feels that Canada and Israel have a common cultural heritage and common bonds.\u00a0 He genuinely believes that Israel has rights to defend itself, has got rights not to be attacked, not to be discriminated against.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNow as Prime Minister Harper was addressing the Knesset, he said that his country admires and learns from Israel.\u00a0 Combining that with what you were saying about his being an Evangelical Christian, does he look at Israel as the \u2018light unto the nations\u2019?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cI think so, yes.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cIs this part of his religious upbringing? How much of it is his religious viewpoint versus his political viewpoint?\u201d \u201cWell, it\u2019s a mixture.\u00a0 It probably started as his religious viewpoint.<\/p>\n
He grew up and he was educated to love Israel and the Jewish people.\u00a0 But he\u2019s an astute politician and he\u2019s worked very closely with rabbis in Calgary and with the Jewish community in general and of course with Israel\u2019s ambassadors and Minister\u2019s and visitors including regular conversations with Prime Minister Netanyahu on the phone.\u00a0 So there is a genuine friendship here.\u00a0 It\u2019s not manufactured.\u00a0 It\u2019s not artificial.\u00a0 It really is genuine.\u201d
\n\u201cIs he a pragmatic leader or an uncompromising ideologue?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cHe is a mixture I think between the two.\u00a0 He\u2019ll bash his head against a brick wall in the UN and in the Francophone organization of French speaking countries if they want to condemn Israel.\u00a0 He\u2019ll battle it out and he won\u2019t allow it and so from that point of view, he\u2019s very strong.\u00a0 I presume he\u2019s also critical of Israel but he won\u2019t go out and advertise it.\u00a0 He\u2019ll talk to Netanyahu and tell him what he thinks.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Harper was giving a press conference, of course the issue of settlements came up.\u00a0 But this very dear, fair friend of our nation refused to comment at all.\u00a0 \u201cThere are enough others who quite openly express their opinions,\u201d was all that he would say.\u00a0 What a contrast he is to almost the whole rest of the political world! Perhaps by now you can understand why he was given a hero\u2019s welcome.\u00a0 By unequivocally standing with us, to us\u2014he truly is a hero!<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/div><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Esther Korson \u201cShabbat Shalom!\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s the refrain that you\u2019ll hear every Friday from every nook and cranny of this little land. The Lord God of Israel gave us a wonderful gift when He said, \u201cRemember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.\u00a0 Six days you shall labour, and do all your work, but the more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[49,9],"tags":[74,73,63,50,630,72],"class_list":{"0":"post-394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured-stories","8":"category-israeli-news","9":"tag-christian","10":"tag-evangelical","11":"tag-harper","12":"tag-israeli","13":"tag-shabbat","14":"tag-shalom","15":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":932,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394\/revisions\/932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}