Random thoughts. Seriously.

Random thoughts, as I put off reading for history class:

1. What Torah trope do I know? I fulfilled my Torah-reading obligation for the year this morning. (Yes, you read that correctly. We are required to read-and-translate one time this year.) I did it on the first week of official Reform Liturgy Workshop student-led services. I’m done now. But the required and incredibly structured RLW services are only once a week, and I’ve been going to optional morning services the rest of the school week, so I’ll probably get lots more Torah reading in this year. In any case, I chanted Torah, and then translated my verses (with only the Hebrew in front of me) in front of my class today. Afterwards, I had lots of people coming up to tell me I did a nice job, which is always nice to hear, but I also got some questions. Mainly about where I learned my trope. Apparently the trope I use, which as far as I know is the one I learned from the Beth Ami tutor before my Bat Mitzvah, is not the traditional Reform trope. One of my friends thought it might be some sort of Israeli trope, and a couple of other people thought it might be the Conservative trope. I didn’t know every group had their own, but now I’m throwing this question out there. (Dad: I expect an answer from you. All others are welcome to throw out their guesses.) Why/how is it that I grew up at a Reform synagogue, have only chanted Torah in a Reform synagogue (and once in the living room at an Orthodox women’s minyan, but that’s beside the point), and I apparently do not use Reform trope? Please enlighten me.
2. I don’t know where Israeli radio finds its headlines. I read an Israeli newspaper online an hour before class, and right around the time the teacher is taping the morning headlines. They differ a huge amount from what’s on the radio.
3. Rosh Hashanah is really, really soon. How is it that when I’m living in Jerusalem, where every instant of Jewish time is marked, when I went to a ceremony to mark the beginning of the month before Rosh Hashanah, when we have heard the shofar blown not every day, but a lot of days in the last few weeks, reminding us all that the High Holidays are approaching, do they still manage to sneak up on me?! As always, I want more time to think and reflect, and I want more time before the holidays.
4. I don’t want more time before the holidays. I get a visitor two days after Yom Kippur! That’s coming up soon and I can’t wait:)
5. This week is the second full week of school. The first week was full, the second week was short because of our tiyul. This is our last full week for another month. I’m pretty sure that this is the last year for a very long time that I will consider the next few weeks to be vacation or time off. I’m looking forward to it. We are off on Sunday next week for Rosh Hashanah, since that’s a weekday for us. We are off Sunday and Monday the week after for Yom Kippur. We have vacation the whole week of Sukkot!
6. Israel is a funny place. Rather than a fixed daylight savings time on the third Sunday of October, or something like that, it is fixed to the Hebrew calendar. It falls on the Saturday night (I think Saturday night) between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. I’m pretty sure that’s just so that the fast is over earlier in the day, since it will be dark out earlier, but I’m not sure about that. It also means my pre-fast meal will have to be done by 4 or 4:30 in the afternoon. Wheeeeeee. I’ll call home, all done fasting, and you’ll still be in “morning” second session services! Actually, now that I think about it, your services might not have started yet. Heehee.
7. I take notes in some of my classes in Hebrew. This is incredibly logical when the professor is talking in Hebrew and going over a Hebrew concept, but it makes studying take longer, since my notes are much harder to understand when I return to them days later. A dilemma I’ll have to work on.
8. My walls are bare. I didn’t bring nearly enough pictures with me. If you have one or two or three pictures of us or various friends or family or something you think I’d like, feel free to get it to my parents or Michael by the end of September, and I can promise it a place of honor on my wall and a smile on my face. An odd request, I know. But I don’t have a printer, so I can’t print anything out, and I want more pictures on my walls!
9. Saroj is coming to visit in January! I love Birthright.
10. I have worn flip-flops with my skirts to almost every Shabbat service I have attended since being here. It’s a fairly casual country. I think I have to wear nicer shoes than that on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and that makes me a little sad. I like flip-flops. (Michael: They ALL get a lot of use. It’s a good thing I have so many pairs.)
11. I find it a little sad that my last blog was so incredibly long, but there are no comments on it. Boooo.
12. My Sundays have gotten better in the last two weeks. It’s football season! I think a group of us will be getting together at 8:00 Sunday evenings to watch, regardless of which game is on TV here. It’s better than no football! (That’s the 1:00 game at home. The others are a little late for me on a school night.) They replay night games the next day. I got a piece of last night’s disaster while I was at the gym today. I got the good part! As soon as I turned it on, I saw the 100 yard kickoff return. My friend Mara and I were on side-by-side arc trainers and both started cheering out loud. We got funny looks from the Israeli men. We cheered again after the replay. Mara is a Giants fan. I don’t hold that against her. Especially because she likes the Redskins better than the Cowboys. I’m happy that it’s football season.

I suppose that’s enough random thoughts for now. And also, I still haven’t started my history class reading for tomorrow. Talk to you soon!