A few thoughts

Some thoughts, in no particular order:

On Friday night, I went to Kol Haneshama for Shabbat services, and then over to a friend's house for dinner. After dinner, we sat and watched the England vs. Algeria soccer game (this is a very hiloni [secular] Israeli thing to do on a Friday night....). I had never watched a soccer game before in my life, and found that I enjoyed it!

Earlier this week I went to the last night of the Festival of Light that was held in the Old City. This was an exhibit of light installations held mostly in the Jewish and Armenian quarters, and along the northern wall of the Old City - at the Damascus Gate and then inside Zedekiah's Cave (actually probably an ancient rock quarry). It was beautiful, especially the one at the Damascus Gate. Below is a photo I took last summer of the Damascus Gate, which gives the basic scene, but not an appreciation of all the people going in and out of it all the time. It's the main entrance to the Old City from Arab east Jerusalem.

From East Jerusalem

As I was watching the light show against the walls, along with a variety of Israeli and foreign tourists, there were others also participating in the scene - sometimes watching the light show, sometimes simply participating in their own lives. To my right there was an Arab family - a couple of women in long dresses and hijab, with a couple of children around them, chatting. To my left, an Arab family sat on the stairs, watching the light show - two kids, including one boy who was very restless. The boy ran down a couple of times into the center of the square before the gate, and bought two little plastic lights. At the stand before the gate, the teenagers who were selling them kept throwing them up into the air as the light show went on. Orthodox Jewish men periodically walked down the stairs and into the Damascus Gate, or came out of it and went up the stairs.