Shana Tova! Wishing everybody a year full of happiness, health, adventures, and family and friends.

Rosh Hashanah this year was very different from what I am used to. Some differences were being in a different country, going to different shuls, and not being with people I usually spend the holiday with especially Rayzie and her family.

However, like usual, I did have great meals. Friday night after davening, we had dinner with people whose cousins we know from Seattle. At their table, we went through some interesting brachot on food that related to wishes for the new year. One thing I liked was instead of the normal tradition of eating fish heads, we ate gummy bear heads. So much more appealing! After a delicious and long meal, we headed home. It was so weird to be walking on the sidewalk, and barely seeing any cars. Even though there were not many cars, we still had to be careful of cars because Israeli drivers are CRAZY.

One thing different about this Rosh hashanah was shul. There are so many shul options that are all different from Beth Shalom, which is what I’m used to. For erev Rosh hashanah and first day, we went to a shul called Mayanot. Mayanot is an egalitarian ashkenazi shul. Mayanot is pretty similar to Beth Shalom except for a few major differences. One, Mayanot is doesn’t own a building so they meet in a community center. Two, since there are lots of options for davening, there are less people at services. And three, there is no Mara here to lead davening on Rosh hashanah and Yom Kippor. (If you don’t know who Mara is, she is the person who leads Davening on high holidays at Beth Shalom.)

The other shul we went to on Rosh hashanah was Zion. We went to Zion for second day and we have been for Shabbat before. Zion is an egalitarian sephardic shul, but the rabbi likes to include not just sephardic customs in davening. Again, this shul doesn’t own a building like many other Israeli shuls.

Both Shuls were good experiences, all though I prefer Beth Shalom.

Looking forward to Yom Kippor and can’t wait to share my experience with you!

-Alexandra