Busy, busy, busy

We’ve noticed recently that HUC has been piling on the meetings, getting to the point where we’re feeling over programmed and completely lacking in free time. The problem is that it’s hard to seriously complain about it, because the added events recently have been so interesting! A potentially long post to follow…

I gave my D’var Torah on Monday, as I mentioned and included a few days ago. I think I’ve now received the fallout from it, and it’s really been fairly positive! The main criticism I got from some of the faculty was that the (two-sentence) reference to Shrek was not really necessary and distracted from the overall message. I still think it lightened the tension and seriousness, and I like it there, but I guess it goes to show that there’s no way to please everyone. A day later, an older, very respected professor/rabbi came up to me to tell me how much he had enjoyed my talk. He did not just stop there though, but gave me lots of details back from the speech, and told me exactly what he thought was really good. That made me feel really good!

Before I got up onto the bima to give my speech, there was another amazing part of the service. We read Torah every Monday, and everyone is required to do so at least one Monday during the year. (I did mine in September.) So all three readers did their thing Monday morning, but before they could go sit back down, the cantorial student who was leading the service started talking. She revealed that the third Torah reader, a cantorial student in his 40s, had actually never been called to the Torah before. (He had never been involved Jewishly when he was younger, and therefore never had a Bar Mitzvah, and had never had occasion to do so since.) This meant, she explained, that despite his being a *few* years older than the traditional 13-year-old Bar Mitzvah boy, it was his Bar Mitzvah. She presented him with a Kiddush cup from the rest of the cantorial students, the traditional temple gift to a Bar Mitzvah, blessed him, and we all broke into a chorus of “Siman Tov u’Mazal Tov,” a song traditionally sung at happy moments. A good portion of the class started crying. It was one of those incredibly unexpected, but completely moving moments that just sneak up on you. I loved it.

On Tuesday I had my first history class with the second professor (each one is teaching 6 classes this semester), on the history and religion of Islam. He had complete laryngitis, so we walked in and found a PowerPoint slide on the screen explaining that he had no voice and we would be watching clips of a movie about Muhammad. One interesting thing about the movie was that traditionally, Muhammad and his family cannot be depicted on screen visually or audibly, which understandably presents a rather large obstacle to making a movie about his life. This movie got around that problem by showing his followers and he was generally an off-screen presence. When people were speaking to him, they spoke directly into the camera, and we never heard his replies, just how his followers responded to his replies. It was a little awkward, and made him out to be a more passive leader than I’m sure he was, but it was certainly some creative thinking! It is an interesting story that I’m looking forward to learning more about, and we talked afterwards about questions that we had not thought about much before, like how difficult it must be to present oneself as a prophet, and the difficulties faced by a brand new religion. It reminded me on the class I took in college on “emerging religions” (or, commonly, cults), because every new religion starts out that way. I have lots to learn in this class and I’m excited about it!

Tuesday night, Monica arrived! I also had a ridiculous Israeli moment. The cell phone rental company said they would drop off her phone between 7 and 10 at night at my apartment, and they would call when they arrived, since our buzzer doesn’t work. We weren’t excited about having to stay in, but we made a good dinner and sat and caught up. At 10:10, when the phone had not arrived, I called the company. The woman on the other end said apparently they had tried to deliver but could not get in touch with me. My phone had been in my pocket. I guess it’s hard to get in touch without calling! She then checked again and said, “apparently the driver put it in your mailbox.” I went to check while we were still on the phone. [Background info: these phones usually come in boxes slightly smaller than a shoebox. Things go into my mailbox through a small slot, and we unlock the back of it to get things out. The locked door opens up, exactly the way that a USPS mailbox is not allowed to do, meaning that if it’s full, everything falls out when you open it.] I unlocked the mailbox, and immediately realized it was packed full. I put my hands underneath to catch what was falling out, and found everything that should have been in the phone box. Apparently the driver did not or could not call me, so instead left the box for me. Except that the box didn’t fit in the mailbox, so he took each individual part: the phone, the charger, the case, the instruction sheet, the rate sheet, the contract, and slid them one at a time through my mail slot. Only in Israel.

Wednesday night we had our first presentation on the FSU trip to start giving us some background on things we should expect, bring, not bring, and more. Highlights: It will be cold. There may be bread on the seder table. Don’t refuse the vodka, but you don’t have to drink it. Dress nicely. Bring your own toilet paper and purell.

Yesterday afternoon was one of our extra programs. We’re usually done at lunchtime on Thursdays for the weekend, so you can imagine our excitement when all of a sudden a 4:15 program showed up on the calendar. Rabbi Yoffie, the head honcho of the Reform Movement, was in Israel and would be speaking to us. But, then his speech was really good! He had some interesting things to say, and he is a fairly engaging speaker, which is always a nice surprise. Content: the future of Reform Judaism. Not surprisingly, we have gotten a lot of that this semester, but this one was enough different that I enjoyed it. After the talk we had a short Tu B’Shevat seder and dinner. Tu B’shevat is taught in the United States as “the birthday of the trees,” and it’s basically an agricultural holiday that marks the approximate beginning of the planting season and is how traditionally age of fruit bearing trees is tracked. So for trees that are required to grow a certain number of years before eating their fruit, they all count as a year old on Tu B’shevat. The seder involves drinking wine that starts as white and gradually gets more red added to it (Four cups: white, light pink, dark pink, red), and eating different kinds of seasonal fruits. Things that (amazingly) went into my mouth last night, and were enjoyed in varying amounts: pomegranate seeds, raisins, dates, dried apricot, walnuts. Be impressed!

This morning, Monica and I got up early to go to the shuk as per my usual Fridays. Every so often I have to remind myself to look around as if I haven’t been doing this stuff for six months, and it’s an easier reminder when I have a visitor. The shuk is huge and overwhelming. We bought a fruit today that just looked interesting, and I have no clue what it is. She took lots of pictures of the impressive displays and aisles of food. We were in the Old City yesterday. I was reminded of the impressiveness of the sights and the sheer age of the city, and the craziness of the Arab market there. Visitors are a great way to make sure I remember all that. Monica’s here until Tuesday, and then mom and dad arrive Thursday! That only gives me a few more days to think of more things they could bring for me...

Shabbat shalom!