Shabbat in Efrat

For us to be away for a Shabbat or Chag, Holiday twice in a month is unheard of. We rarely go away that much in a year. But maybe this is the beginning of a trend...

We spent the Passover Seder in Jerusalem, and less than two weeks later we were in Efrat for Shabbat. We have relatives there who were disappointed that they hadn't been informed that we had needed a place for the Seder. Also I had almost gone there for the Shabbat when my husband was in England for Limmud at the tail end of the blizzard. And since they were making a siyyum (festive end of learning a specific book/topic,) in memory, l'ilu'i nishmato,  "elevating the soul" of my late mother-in-law's cousin, father of the hostess, it was a fitting occasion for us to share with them.

Efrat is south of Jerusalem, and Shiloh is north of Jerusalem, so we had to travel quite a bit to get there. First stage of the trip was a bus from Shiloh. Our local regional council provides a free bus on Fridays to Jerusalem, which we took. We had been offered a ride to Efrat from Jerusalem by a friend who wanted us to meet her near Binyanei Ha'uma, which is near the central bus station.  Our free bus took us to Ramat Eshkol, and since the Jerusalem buses have drastically changed (there's no longer the #8 at that stop) we and another couple found it easiest to share a cab the the "cbs" especially since they were in a rush to catch a different bus.

There wasn't any traffic, and we got to Efrat quickly, so our friend took us on a quick tour of Efrat entering from the northern end.  Here are some photos I took.

security wall blocks gorgeous view

My return home was a bit more complicated, though quick enough. We took a ride to Jerusalem with our friend. Then we took a bus on which my husband continued to the bus station, but since I hate waiting and there was over an hour until our bus I went home differently. To sum it up, I took 1 ride, 4 buses, 3 tremps and then I walked at least a half a kilometer up the hill to our home.