The Last Shabbat

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I have to add this foreword:
My posting of this blog is VERY delayed. I wrote it during my last few days in Buenos Aires but didn't get a chance to post it before I sent my computer home with a friend. So, here it is...and I even have a few more that I have yet to post...

About three months ago I was standing at the bus stop for the 110 and began talking to a man who was wearing tzitzit and a kippah. We talked on the colectivo until I got off and he gave me his email address. I never called him, but ran into him randomly on a different bus, the 10 on Thursday July 3rd. After talking a bit, he told me to let him know if I wanted to have dinner with his family. Once I thought about it, I realized that the next day, Friday, was going to be my last Buenos Aires shabbat. I sent him an email as soon as I got home and managed to quickly set up a Friday night plan. He told me to invite whoever I wanted, so my friends Arielle and Rona planned to meet me at Ayacucho 1416 on Friday at 7 PM.

I arrived a bit early and sat down at a corner café to wait for Arielle and Rona. As I waited wearing my kippah, several people said shabbat shalom to me, and one person stopped to make sure that I had somewhere to go for shabbat. A kippah is a powerful thing. At about 7:15 I headed inside even though Arielle and Rona hadn’t shown up yet. The services seemed to be even harder to follow than usual, but everyone there seemed to be on the same page. It was the first time I had been in a service where the divider for the women separated them into the back (rather than on either side). This meant that I never got a chance to see when Rona and Arielle got there (or if they did) until the end. We had a quick kiddush with pretty good little snacks, and Iony’s father blessed me with the children’s blessing. A Californian, Samantha, was also joining us. She had emailed the rebbe and asked to be placed with a family for dinner, and had randomly already met both Arielle and Rona at the Abasto Jabad service some other shabbat. A quick 20 blocks later, we were arriving at Iony’s house…just around the corner from my house.

I was excited not only to see a Buenos Aires jewish family’s house, but to meet them all and have a family shabbat experience. The first part of the house that we walked through was the kitchen where Iony’s sister and mother were waiting to greet us. Tons of different dishes were in bowls all over the kitchen waiting to be brought out to the table. We were told to make ourselves at home, and did just that. I couldn’t stop loooking around the room and seeing all the stuff they had! Oddly, it made me feel comfortable to see such disorganization. Cabinets were packed to the brim with beautiful dinnerware sets. Chanukiah, shabbas candleholders, and wine goblets cluttered the tops of said cabinets. On the far wall, an overloaded bookcase emanated the definition of ‘full’. As I stared at it, Iony noted that there was another row of books hidden behind the ones we could see in front. All in all, an impressive collection of stuff.

The father poured the wine in an awesome wine-disperser-thingy, that separated one pour into 8 little cups effortlessly. He then began to chant a surprisingly melodical and slow-paced kiddush while the wine spilled from his large cup over his fingers. The next step was to head to the kitchen to wash…I was finally able to get enough one on one attention to learn the prayer! As we sat silently awaiting the challah silence-breaker, Iony’s sister was bringing out tons of homemade challah and I just wanted to scream how good it looked. Instead, I pointed and smiled approvingly. When the motzi was said, the conversation began and did not end until 12:30 when we realized it was probably our time to head out.

The food started with a healthy round of salads. A noodle/tuna salad, vegetable/mayo salad, eggplant/vegetable salad, marinated bell peppers, grilled eggplant, chummus, baba ghanoush, and several others. As the salad plates were being cleared, we sang a couple songs out of the siddurs…none of which I had ever heard before, but were repetitive enough that I was able to follow along easily and almost got the words down by the end. The next round of food was mediocre…some rice, kuggel and meatball things. I was still amazed at how much food there was! We ate and sang some more while Iony’s mom and sister cleared the table…little did I know that yet one more course would be served.

The ice cream came out in little cups with three flavors in each cup. There was a kiwi flavor, a banana flavor and, of course a chocolate. Not only were these all homemade and some of the best ice cream I had ever had but they were made without milk products. At this point, Samantha took off. Then, out came the coffee and chocolates. I was still amazed at this incredible dinner and wondered constantly if this was something that they produced every Shabbat or if it was just special because we were there as guests. Either way, I was happy.

During the course of dinner we talked about pretty much everything imaginable. I spent a lot of effort trying to figure out exactly how religiously affiliated this family was. Iony went to Chabad for this Shabbat because his dad really wanted to go. His dad also, however, teaches physical/mental/spiritual classes at Hillel. He is a physical education teacher who likes to tie that in to meditation and uniting the body, mind and soul. He also bikes everywhere in the city which is pretty impressive - not the most bikesafe environment. He still won’t let his kids do the same.

Ariel was trying to figure out how I could arrange for a friend to bring him an iPhone, but as I was leaving the next week, I figured he had missedhis chance. That was one more thing I was not interested in dealing with. We left stuffed and satisfied. I walked Rona and Arielle to the bus stop and then walked the few blocks back to my house. Shabbat Shalom.

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[arielle :-D]

jew jew
are you jewish? i can't tell here...