Shabbat in

On Friday I got to go to Alison's brother, Harry Tawils bar mitzvah. It was beautiful! It was on the roof of Beit Shmuel which overlooks parts of the old city. The minyan was on the roof which was really stunning. 

The crane ruins it? I was thinking the same thing. But listen to what the rabbi had to say about it... He said that were so lucky to have the זכות (merit) to be able to witness Hashem rebuilding Jerusalem in order to get ready for the coming of Mashiach. Beautiful way to look at the situation. I kind of felt bad in the beginning that all of this construction was going on during their bar mitzvah but once the rabbi pointed this out, watching that crane move back and forth got me so excited. 

Anyways, it was a magnificent party, great speeches, amazing food, and even better people. 

It was so refreshing to be surrounded by people from the community. I really felt like I was at home. This really made going back to school hard for me. 

I was getting ready for Shabbat when I realized that ALL of my friends were with their parents at hotels this weekend. It was such a rotten feeling to know that I'm stuck In school for Shabbat while everyone else was together. FOMO to the MAXXXXX. Kabbalat Shabbat was so emotional for me. I couldn't deal with the Ashkenaz minyan. I miss Shaare Shalom like CRAZY. I got to hear a normal Syrian minyan for the first time in months on Friday morning and then I had to go hear the one that I'm not used to. I actually went into shock. I just wanted to be back with my fellow community members. Knowing that everyone was on Davod e st just killed me. I felt trapped in school and it's even worse because my Mom (hey mom) is coming tomorrow and I had to just sit and wait it out. (I had permission to leave to the hotels whenever I wanted but no one had a solid plan so I couldn't meet them)

Anyways, I probably didn't miss out on much. I got to learn a solid amount of Torah this Shabbat, so in the end it was worth it. 

It's really so important to make the best out of these situations. So I did. 

Have a great week people!