How long does it take to eat 150 shekels' worth of junk food? And other Shabbat questions

Anyone who keeps Shabbat can tell you that halfway between lunch and havdallah a hunger sets in that you wouldn't panic about - unless you're with teenagers. The Talmud has a solution for this hunger in the form of the Shabbat custom of sitting down in the afternoon for Seudah Shlishit (third eating). So I found myself in Zfat, minutes before the city shut down for Shabbat, in a mini market, buying anything with sugar to make sure Seudah Shlishit on Kibbutz Farod would be satisfying for our teenagers.

Friday started with a teary l'hitraot to the penpals at the gas station on our way up Har Meron. We hiked around the top of Meron for a while, intermittently looking at different flowers and leaves and even a wild garlic, before hopping back through the valley and up to Zfat. Our time in Tzfat tstarted with a presentation on Kabbalist art from a guy called David Friedman http://www.kosmic-kabbalah.com/

He, in short, blew everyone away by relating the letters aleph, mem, and shin to their single-digit 1 (aleph), 4 (mem=4+0), and 3 (shin=3+0+0), and saying how that relates to our universe in the form of aretz (earth) shamayim (sky), and mayim (water). Then he said that when you add them all up you get 8, which when you turn it sideways means infinity, and that is also the letter chet, which looks an aweful lot like the Greek letter pi, which starts with.... And so on. I'm not sure if anybody purchased the math inspired artwork, but if so you can expect some alephs, shins, and mems in your houses soon.

In the past several years, our visit to Zfat has timed up exactly with the visit of several hundred March of the Living participants. Not this year, though, so the streets were basically empty. Our kids could peruse the galleries and shops easily, and the dosim also had a lot of access to our guys to ask them over and over to put tfillin for the day. After an introduction to Isaac Luria (THE Ari) and Yoseph Caro, it was back on the bus and off to Kibbutz Farod. Kabbalat Shabbat services led by Calgary were lovely and Oneg Shabbat games were hillarious. This is where the "other Shabbat questions" came into the story.

Teachers (and Stav) were asked questions after students were polled on what they thought their answers would be. All the students, for instance, thought Zvia's favourite car was a VW Beetle, whereas she said Mercedes. Mr. Warner had to choose between chopping off his arms or his legs and giving up chocolate or steak forever. I had to prove my abilities in certain tasks (touching my toes, juggling) and was able to hold my breath for 60 seconds without fainting. It was a blast and good bonding. Oh, and Stav rated basketball and rain "so not" and felafel "so hot" on a scale of so hot, hot, so so, not, and so not.

Then came a late sleep-in and lazy walk around the kibbutz including a trip to the petting zoo where a newborn donkey (3 hours old) stumbled around and they tried to entice turtles out of a mini pond. Edmonton kids worked on our secret project while Calgarians played mini-golf, then everyone got some ice cream. We sat down for another hour and a half of Shabbat questions about Jewish identity in which I was moved by the effort and sophistication. I wasn't sure how seriously everyone would take it but they proved that they are totally on board for the educational components (most of the time!).

Finally, the moment of truth came, Seudah shlishit. And how fast do you think they devoured that table full of bisli, bamba, rugalach, kariot, and Coke? TWENTY-THREE MINUTES!

There was another bit of a break, though it was mostly spent frantically packing for the Bedouin tents and Masada and Dead Sea, and then Havdallah and dinner in Rosh Pina. Lots of the Israeli kids met us in Rosh Pina for one last hug good bye. It was both a fun and a thoughtful Shabbat in the North and now we will drive many hours to see what the South has in store for us. I hope Shabbat was wonderful at home as well.

Shavua tov!