Shabbat starts with a deep and long sound.
For the people in Jerusalem this sound means: Put down your work and enjoy the weekend with your family. The whole city seems to freeze, but for me and the other five volunteers this sound means: Let’s get down to business!
Abraham Hostel staff – ready to go!
Put on your Staff Shirt and walk up to the kitchen to help our famous Chef Atef, to prepare Abraham Hostel‘s Shabbat Dinner. As soon as you arrive the madness begins!
We start setting the tables, peeling, cutting, chopping, cooking, baking, and frying a meal for about 70 people. But luckily we are not alone. A lot of guests want to join and be part of the preparation process, which helps us a lot and creates a nice family atmosphere.
This atmosphere only gets disturbed sometimes by Atef being worried that we might not finish on time and that the people who signed up for Shabbat dinner will starve to death. However, since I arrived, nobody has ever died, we have always finished on time, and there is always plenty of food.
At around 8 o’clock the attendees start to come and take their seats, while we arrange the food nicely and prepare ourselves to serve our guests. The Dinner then begins with a small ceremony. Prayers are prayed, blessings are said, and songs are sung. Afterwards the feast begins. When everybody has eaten and is about to explode, it is finally our turn to enjoy the food we spent three hours preparing.
Once we have cleaned the kitchen, my favorite part of the evening begins. Atef calms down and is back to normal and has baked a cake for us. We take the cake, together with some tea, to our amazing, lovely, peaceful and relaxing rooftop. There we sit together and talk about the Dinner and we enjoy each others’ company. Sometimes guests join us, which makes it even nicer.
