Shabbat and Yom Yerushalayim

We had a very nice final Shabbat in Jerusalem. We spent Friday night in the Old City with family, spent Saturday morning with our friends at Kehilat Kedem, and spent Saturday afternoon wandering around the western part of Jerusalem, near the Knesset. We trekked out in that direction to attend the 2nd birthday party of one of our teacher's daughters, which was held at the Jerusalem Bird Observatory; while we were in the area, we also got to spend some time wandering through the rose garden by the Knesset building, with its 400 species of roses and a large "garden of the nations" - gardens donated by representatives of countries from all over the world, displaying their nations' flora.

After Shabbat, Israel began its celebration of Yom Yerushalayim, the day commemorating the liberation of the Old City of Jerusalem in 1967. I spent the evening studying, but was treated to a nice fireworks display visible through our apartment window; Katy went to Yakar, one of the congregations in our neighborhood, for a rather cramped but otherwise festive singing of Hallel (the psalms of praise). This morning, I went with my Hebrew class to the Bible Lands Museum (for a Hebrew-language tour of the collections); Katy had a more Jerusalem-focused day, spending much of it with a friend on the Mount of Olives, which offers a terrific view of the Old City:





In the afternoon, we met up downtown, and passed by a huge Yom Yerushalayim parade: