Tel Aviv Sunset (from the web but looks just like what we experienced)
I first heard about beit tefilati israeli about 20 years ago and have been wanting to go to one of their services ever since. They are famous for building what they claim is the biggest sukkah in the world at the tel aviv port (which I plan to check out over sukkot) and their summer kabbalat shabbat services at the port in tel aviv where they get approximately 1000 people, from all religious backgrounds including many secular israelis, welcome shabbat with a combination of tefilah (prayer) and israeli song and blessings. Our first shabbat in israel coincided with their last kabbalat shabbat at the port for the year, so off we want to tel aviv (and rented a hotel room for shabbat and picked up food for our meals, and even prepaid for beach lounge chairs for shabbat). The service was very interesting from lots of perspectives. It is a partnership between the port (which is a gentrified outdoor public space venue with restaurants and stores) and this Israeli reform shul – interesting in itself that the port reached out to this reform community and helps pay the cost of having the service. There are about 800 seats set up facing the sea (which is to the west), speakers, musicians and a beautiful kabbalat shabbat service as we watched it go from day to night and saw a beautiful sunset. Very interesting to see Israelis from a range of backgrounds singing and joining in and see how they weave modern Israeli songs and poetry with the traditional liturgy. This week, as school starts today in Israel for everyone, there was also a beautiful special blessings for students and teachers and parents sending their children to school. It was interesting seeing all the israelis trying to record and remember this service as they were clearly moved by it, and my impression is that for most of them, this might be their main or only religious service.
A quick note about tel aviv – it is happening with restaurants, boutiques and cafes and bars and bikes and electric scooters wizzing by you everywhere, and of course lots of dogs and dog owners ignoring their dogs, and babies in strollers. We didn’t see many people over age 40 on dizengoff street but did get the impression that dizengoff never sleeps. We were all wishing we had more time before shabbat to visit the boutiques for some shopping. :-)