Siyur to Mea Shearim and the Belz Synagogue

For this week's siyur, my class and I went to go visit the extremely Orthodox part of Jerusalem called Mea Shearim. We didn't have an organized tour because we were just walking around in the town. We were also advised to walk in same gender groups only. The community of Mea Shearim is all Haredi and anyone that comes into their community must be dressed modestly. They have signs all over town telling citizens to dress modestly or else it offends them. This community is also very Anti-Zionist and they have signs about that all over the place too. I myself, was covered completely: loose, long sleeve shirt, loose skirt down to my ankles and tights and closed toed shoes. My friends and I just walked around taking in how different it is there (keep in mind that this place is a 5 minute walk from downtown Jerusalem). Also, I saw three different kinds of shops: bakeries, stores selling siddurim and toy stores with Purim costumes (Purim is this weekend!!!). My friends and I also all had our first Hamentashen of the year :) This experience was very interesting and I'm glad I went because to be honest, I have always been very curious to see what it's like there.

Next, we went to the largest synagogue in the world, the Belz synagogue. This s a Hassidic synagogue and is gigantic and breathtakingly gorgeous. It has a huge courtyard (which will be used for the Rabbi's eldest grandson's wedding soon) and there are thousands of Hasidim that belong to this shul. The Rabbi's house is connected and can also hold about seven thousand people. Just to give you perspective on how big this place is, when you walk in, you are already on the sixth floor. Meaning that there are five floors underground. We learned all about the Hasidim and how they got to Jerusalem. Then the interesting part was that we got to ask our tour guide questions about the Hasidic way. Some highlights are that : iPhones are not Kosher, they won't serve in the army (unless the army becomes Haredi) or do a year of service, and they are very against the LGBT community, and they have matchmakers that set couples up. You have two hours to decide if this you want to marry this person and after that date, the next time you see your future partner is at the wedding a year from then.
Safe to say that it was very interesting to get his viewpoint, but also kind of uncomfortable.
The synagogue itself is fourteen stories and the main room of prayer can seat 2000 men (and counting) on the first floor and the women's floor (above) accommodates about 1000 (women are not required to go to shul every Shabbat). It is GORGEOUS.