I know that Jake wrote a post about being Bar mitzfah'd (his first prose post, yay for Jake!!), but I wanted to write about my first IndianJewish (orthodox, Israeli Jewish) Channukah/Shabbat services. Now I generally consider myself culturally Jewish, (A JewBu if you will, "Jewish by birth, Buddhist by lifestyle), and we have our family Passover, Yom Kippur, Channukah/Jews for Christmas celebrations. I also attended Hebrew School for precisely one day, and my mother may not technically be Jewish, but she is the best Jewish mother that I know. So anyways, after Jake's special Bar Mitzfah, we were invited back to the house for Shabbat services, Channukah celebration, and dinner. I was excited because I love lighting the candles, and the Channukah prayer is the only one I know! So we showed up before sundown, and were met by the giant menorah which they lit with lighter fluid and torches. We then ventured in and met some of the IndianJewIsraeli regulars. There were a few folks from Osho, and we finally managed to learn a bit more about that mysterious place. Seems like lots of dancing meditation, sitting meditation, grunting, and pristine spaces. There was also "Flame", the CRAZY woman who is from 21st street in good old NYC, then lived in Costa Rica for 23 years, then went toIndia to work as a therapist for Osho, subsequently got banned from Osho and told the Swamaji to go "f*ck himself" (her words, notours), had an aneurysm, has been hit by about 3 cars and 2 motobikes, and she's STILL alive and kickin! (kickin rather crazily...) She has a voice box,so every time we looked at her, she would either roll her eyes, and press her finger over her throat to say someting vulgar, funny, or nonsensical. In short, we LOVE Flame!!
It was a really funny vibe, with the family (them other/father/little kids), lots of regulars, and a few stragglers like us. There were lots of prayers which Ididn't understand, then the women and men were separated by a curtain, and the woman sat and smiled while the men danced (I wanted tojoin the men's side really badly!), and then we ate lots of delicious food (mmm Hummos and potato latkes) and drank LOTS of vodka. Whoknew Smirnoff was so big here? About halfway through the meal, this one man started singing in Hebrew, and pouring everyone vodka. A couple of the men kept singing as the night went on, and the continued to make the rounds with the vodka. I didn't realize I was the only woman drinking, and the last round the made, the man skipped me. When I called him back, he started yelling about howwomen just want everything, and he poured me the rest of the bottle. Oy. Needless to say, it was a crazy night. My first orthodox Channukah, what a delight!
No we're on the opposite side of the spectrum, doing a yoga retreat at Kaivladhama, a pretty renowned yoga institute, college, and yoga hospital. Up at 6am, lots of cleansing, breathing, lots of asana, napping, and massages. Not too bad.
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