Beit haMishpat haElyon

A midweek posting so I’m all caught up before I disappear for a few days…we’re going to Haifa!

On Sunday, my Hebrew class and another class went to visit the Israeli Supreme Court, beit hamishpat ha-elyon. It was a much better trip than I expected! It was definitely a huge plus that our tour guide was incredibly patient with us, so if we didn’t understand something the first time, he explained it again using different words. He hardly spoke any English, so we were dependent on Hebrew the whole time, which is actually really helpful for forced-Hebrew-listening skills! The building itself is beautiful. It’s really modern, as you might expect in a country that wasn’t independent until the 40s, and didn’t build this building until the 1980s. It also has tons and tons of symbolism, including the type of stone they used on some of the walls inside (Jerusalem stone, of course), the many skylights and windows, the shape of the doors and hallways, and so many other things. It also makes no secret that while it is a court of justice, it is really a Jewish court of justice. Almost all (if not entirely all) of the symbolism was explained using biblical passages. For example, the doors to the courtrooms are shaped like gates, because in the bible, the judges are described as sitting in the gates. There are lots of skylights, because justice is described in the bible as coming from above. There is a mezuzah on every door. We were there for about two hours, and we spent most of the time touring the building and learning about the justice process. There are no jury trials in Israel, which is the biggest difference from the US court system. (Michael wants to go visit when he’s here too. I’m sure after we go in a few weeks, I could write a whole essay on the differences. But I’ll do my best to spare you that!) We also got to sit in on a part of a trial, which was exciting but somewhat anti-climactic, since the lawyers were of course paying no attention to the American students sitting behind them. The whole trial was in very fast Hebrew, so we understood little of it. But it was a trial of a man who borrowed 250 shekels from a friend, and when the friend didn’t pay him back, he stabbed him. A stabbing for about $60? Probably not worth it. But we had to leave before the verdict was announced. I noticed two things about the trial itself that I thought were really interesting. One was the setup of the room. All of the lawyers sit at one table that is in a U-shape, with the judge(s) at a facing U-shaped table in the front. So the prosecution and the defense share a table! I’m not sure that would go over well at home. Also, the judge interacted a lot with the lawyers. When she didn’t understand something or had a question, she asked. It was more of a conversation than a presentation. I thought that was really interesting. This man’s fate rested in one pair of hands! (Israeli Supreme Court cases have anywhere from one to thirteen judges, in an odd number. This wasn’t such a big case, so it got one. Decisions about the border fence, for example, get between nine and thirteen.) Also, the Israeli Supreme Court currently has half women. They’re way ahead of us! Clearly, since I just wrote a ton, I enjoyed the trip. Which is good, since it appears that I’ll be returning there soon…

Monday was another slightly frustrating day in Hebrew. The news days are up and down for me. Monday was down. I felt like the teacher was teaching to the few students in the class who really understand the news the first time we watched it (it was TV this week), and not to the majority who need to go over vocabulary first, and then watch it, discuss it, watch it, discuss it again, and sometimes watch again before we really understand what’s going on. So I was a bit frustrated after class. After all of my Monday classes, I ran into my Hebrew teacher from the summer, who is just one of the nicest and friendliest people here. She saw that I was upset and asked how class was going, and I told her about the news day from that morning. She knows it’s not my favorite activity, so she was sympathetic, and told me to speak up and tell the teacher to slow down! Of course she’s right, but it’s always hard to admit that I’m having trouble keeping up. I mentioned that our next class after that one was biblical grammar. She grinned and basically said that she guessed I was really good at that class! That made me really happy, that she recognized that I actually have a strength in Hebrew class. It just isn’t listening to the news. That whole conversation was in Hebrew. Even though she’s no longer my teacher, she refuses to talk to me in English. I actually appreciate that on some level.

Tonight was another trip to the absorption center. We made masks this week, just for fun. We also found a puzzle that pairs Hebrew letters with animals that start with the same letter. It was really interesting to watch the different kids try to do it and realize that I could tell from the way they did it exactly where their Hebrew skills were. The parents, who are also struggling to learn Hebrew, enjoyed watching the kids do it and trying to help out a little. I posted a zillion (or so) pictures from the last two weeks. This week’s pictures all have masks involved. Last week, there were a bunch of neighbors over for a while, so the kids look like they’ve multiplied.

Tomorrow morning bright and early, my class is heading to Haifa for a few days! I’ll be back right around the beginning of Shabbat on Friday, and I will try to take lots of pictures while I’m there and fill you in on the trip soon! And it will probably happen, since the alternative is starting to work on my various final papers.