Freedom!

Another whirlwind week, but now I’m on vacation…for two weeks! There are most definitely perks to a Jewish school!

A fun fact I learned this week, in my ongoing amusement with the Hebrew language: the word for “tie.” (As in, Israel and England played their soccer game to an exciting 0-0 tie.) The word for that outcome is “teekav.” I know that doesn’t seem that amusing. But you might remember that I have previously laughed at this country for pronouncing their abbreviations. It turns out that teekav is an abbreviation, for the phrase “Tishbi y’taref koshiot v’she’eilot.” Meaning, “Elijah (the Tishbite, as you might recognize from the Havdalah song) will decide difficulties and questions.” That’s right. It doesn’t get much less religious than international soccer, unless you consider it a religion unto itself, but nonetheless the word for an equal outcome has incredibly religious overtones. I’d be curious to know how many Israelis know that the word is an abbreviation, and what it really means.

This past Tuesday turned out to be our last week visiting our Ethiopian family. We realized that our Tuesdays for the rest of the year are quite limited, with two off for Passover, and another off for Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israeli Independence Day, another HUC program the next Tuesday, and then exams! We decided that the rest of our Tuesdays would be so interrupted that it would be better to finish before Passover. I do not think any of us realized how hard it would be to say goodbye! It was really sad to say goodbye to this family who we have gotten to know and spent so much time with this year. It was also hard, because we aren’t sure that all of them understood that we are not coming back. Karen took a bunch of pictures the last night, and once they are posted, I’ll pass them along.

I felt my Hebrew improving somewhat, but this week was still stressful. I had three papers to get turned in before Passover break. All three of them had to be written in Hebrew. None of them were long papers; I think they ranged from 250 to 500 words. Nonetheless, they took me a long time! Among other things, I learned that my spelling is fairly atrocious. Happily, I got a Hebrew word processing program, so that I no longer have to handwrite, edit by hand, and rewrite. Even better is that the program is for English speakers, so all of the menus are in English, and there is a Hebrew-English dictionary built in. Needless to say, my Hebrew typing is rather slow. That’s pretty frustrating, but after typing so much in the last week, I’m getting a little better. I got confused when I was typing in Hebrew, and then someone would IM me, and I would be typing in English, and then going back to the Hebrew, where the letters are in completely different places. I prefer the speed of typing in English.

Wednesday we had our weekly Israel Seminar. We started with a somewhat depressing speaker who discussed the value of the contact theory. She basically told us that the idea that Arab and Israeli or Jewish groups spending time together will eventually bring peace has not proven even a little bit true, and that for even a little bit of progress, the groups need to spend huge, ongoing amounts of time together, for at least a year. After the speaker, we had a group of Arab women who came to the school to meet with us, of course. About a month and a half ago, we visited the Arab village of Baka al Garbyiah and met with students there. This week, they returned the favor and came to our campus. Apparently HUC goes to visit them every year, but this year was the first time that a return visit was arranged. A couple of groups met with the same people as last time, but most of us were in different groups with different people. Last time, we were explicitly told to ask hard questions and really ask about one another’s political opinions and takes on issues. This week, we were given no such instructions, so most groups did not really get there. We had a great time! My group was four HUC students and two Baka students, Fatima and Iman. Both of them were religious, wearing head scarves and full length dresses, so many of our questions were about religious differences. We took a walk through a pretty neighborhood, sat in a park, and when we got cold, went to a coffee shop. Among other things, they told us that they only dress in this fashion when they are out in public. At home, “we dress like you, without the scarves, and in jeans.” That was so interesting to hear! They also passed around pictures on their cell phones of themselves without the headscarves, when the one guy in our group went to the bathroom. It’s apparently not a problem for any woman to see them that way, only men, so they wanted to share the pictures with us. They also said that any discrimination against women does not come from religion, but rather from tradition. The women have their place in their culture, and it is not mandated by religion, but it is very deeply entrenched in their culture. They are Israeli, with Israeli citizenship and passports. I asked one of them while we were walking about identity. Did she consider herself Israeli, Arab, Palestinian, or a combination? She sees herself as an Arab who lives in Israel. She loves this country. It is her home. We also talked about relationships, kissing boys (only in private, and only after engagement), family (one of them is one of eleven siblings!), and lots of other things. It really felt like an afternoon of getting to know new friends, and was definitely a highlight of the Israel Seminar program! We all exchanged email addresses and hugs before they got back on their bus.

Everyone in Jerusalem is now deep into Pesach cleaning. A lot of kosher restaurants will close for Shabbat tonight, and reopen on Passover, with newly cleaned kosher for Passover kitchens and menus. Even the bakery where I bought my challah this morning is cleaning out for Passover. Apparently they do kosher for Passover baked goods! The challah and other bread products were all being sold from a table outside the door to the bakery. Inside there was a lot of cleaning going on.

I’m on vacation! We had daylight savings last night, and finally sprung our hour forward, so I'm back to being 7 hours ahead of the east coast. The weird part about daylight savings here is that you lose an hour of sleep, but really do gain an hour of day, and with the clocks changing on a Thursday night, I already feel it. The day is an hour longer, which means that Shabbat starts an hour later. Because all the synagogues here really start Shabbat services around sundown, service times change every week. I start an hour later today, so all of a sudden my short Friday afternoons have stretched out, and I'll be back to having a long afternoon, snack before services, and dinner at 8:30 or 9. I'm excited! I promise lots of stories and pictures when I return from my Passover adventure!