Shabbat shalom!

so today we went into the jewish ghetto than to services at the great synagogue and than to a shabbat dinner.

my friend jared set it all up and he actually told us an interesting history or the shul as to why it was in such great shape. apparently the pope who was in power i guess, right before WWII made it a historical monument. and when the nazis went into italy during the war sat down and talked with the pope to see what they could and could not destroy. this was a new pope from the other one who made the shul a history building, and they didnt realize it. so when the nazis came in, they couldn't touch the shul so the surrounding jewish area put a lot of judaica in the basement so it survived, and it is now a museum which shows everything they hid from the nazis.

there was also this mini colliseum type buliding right there that a king decided to make into a fortress. so there is the old ancient colliseum and than a more modern buliding connecting on top of the structure, so it looks like the did a horrible job restoring it, when acutaly a king turned it into a fortress for him back in the days.

services at the shul were really short, and like all other shuls that are seperated the womens area is just full of women gossiping. some where praying but most were talking(although there were not many people there). but it was short and sweet than my friend ellen and i walked to a persons home for shabbas dinner, which was set up by the chabad.

it was a little awk at the dinner, firstly becuase they spoke to jared and were expecting three guys, but also cause only 2 of them spoke english. so ellen and i just sat there and ate our food politely while trying to understand some of the conversation. It was a young man, his mother and father, an older collegue adn than a collegue around his age. he had a one year old son and the wife didnt eat with us, she was sick i think they said. but the baby was cute, huuuge for a 1 year old, like big and a lil chubby, but still cute. it was sooo much food, i cant believe how much italians eat. but they were very nice and invited us over any time for shabbas dinner,even for pesach.

well that was my shabbas in rome, it was nice to connect with jews here, even though they werent my age.

well avire derche(not at all how you spell it, lol)