Shabbat @ Chabad House in Bangkok

March 17, 2007
Bangkok, Thailand

Arieh here. We are back in Bangkok. Next stop Burma (Myanmar) on March 20th and then maybe on to India, if we can get a visa in good time.

Last night we celebrated Shabbat here at Chabad House. They have a VERY big presence here in Thailand and, I suspect, in other cities in this part of the world. Services began at 6:20 PM. Separate for male and female. Very big michitzah for the women behind the men. Lots of male daveners and mostly Israeli. In fact, the whole service was geared to Israelis. I found that kind of surprising, but when 90% of the audience is from Israel I guess that makes sense.

The service was Orthodox and the tunes were essentially non-existent in that there was really only one. It was more like an up and down way of reading with some emphasis on some words at particular times. Not a lot of variation, but easy to pick up. At times I would stop following the service and look around at the men. Mostly young. Most of them wearing the kippah provided by Chabad House, Thailand (black). 20% of the men weren't really that comfortable being there. Many of the others, in my opinion, were not what one would call "Orthodox". I say that because I am assuming that those wearing the black kippah provided did not have their own while travelling and therefore were not that Orthodox. However, many of those were very comfortable with the service. I found that striking. Either they used to be observant or they got a thorough education on davening. Val said there were about 15 women in the women's section for davening.

After services, dinner. For dinner, there were about 200 people. Most of them, I am sure, did not preregister (we arrived at 3 PM and did not preregister) yet there was plenty of food and places. Chabad House was very organized. Singing first, Kiddush, Motzi, and eating. More singing, a Drash, and then we left (before Birkat HaMazon--oy!). Glad we went; nice to be with the tribe.

March 19, 2007

Off to Burma tomorrow. Poor to bad internet connections.