Caesaria, Tzippori, Tiberias, Tsfat, Haifa

I’m back from Haifa, and now having had a day to recover, I’m still tired. But school starts again tomorrow, so I’m trying to get this written before I get bogged down in the craziness of the week.

We actually started this tiyul on Monday night with an introductory session with my rabbinics professor. He is so incredibly educated about the rabbinic period, and I actually love listening to him talk. He gave us some background information about the places we would be visiting and showed some slides of archaeological discoveries, some of which we saw on the trip in person.

Wednesday morning we met at the college early in the morning to get on buses and head north. (Dad argued that 7:30 isn’t really that early. To be ready to be social with more than 50 future colleagues, or more than 70 of anyone, that’s early!) A couple of hours later, we arrived at Caesaria in northern Israel. This city is a major testament to the Hellenistic influence over Israel. We divided into our three study groups to tour the ruins, starting in the theater. Our educator told us that the acoustics aren’t as good as they used to be, because where there is now a beautiful view of the sea behind the stage, there used to be a backdrop to reflect noise back to the seats. Another group’s educator apparently disagreed, because in the middle of our text study, we saw five of the HUCers with the most amazing voices run up to the stage, and then we heard them, from way up in our seats, singing beautifully. (What did they sing? In multi-part harmony, first we heard “Gin-gy. Hi Gingy. O-phir. Mo-she.” Those were our three educators. Then we heard, also in beautiful harmony, the Oscar Meyer Weiner song. It’s never sounded so beautiful! They had some non-HUC tour groups doubled over in laughter as well.) From the theater, we moved on, walking through the hippodrome and then to a crusader village. We also saw a beheaded statue of one of the emperors, but of course three days later, I no longer remember which one. Oops.

From Caesaria, we got back on the buses and drove to Tzippori, where the Sanhedrin met for a while under Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, the editor of the Mishnah. We did some text study there, and heard stories about the lives of the ancient rabbis while we were standing on ruins of what was probably a Jewish village, so the stories could have taken place in that exact spot! Clearly, I enjoyed it. I guess I’m heading in the right direction! We saw the remains of a huge house from that time period, which given the mosaic glorifying drinking, was probably not a Jewish house. We looked at some related texts, including one on how bathroom location was an indication of wealth. Seriously. We then went into the remains of an ancient synagogue where a huge mosaic was found on the floor. The mosaic was surprising when it was first found, because some of the images, such as a giant zodiac, are not generally thought of as very Jewish. Lots of historians have rationalized the discovery, and subsequent discoveries of similar images in other synagogues of the time, as a portrayal of Jewish time and possibly of creation. Or else the way that Hellenization crept in everywhere, including the synagogues. After all of the groups had been through the ancient synagogue and finished studying texts for the day, the whole group gathered in the synagogue remains and prayed the mincha (afternoon) service together. It was actually an odd feeling, because we were facing the back of the synagogue. This one was oriented towards Rome, not Jerusalem, so when we prayed facing Jerusalem, we were turned backwards from the way it had been built. Apparently the Greeks and Romans were more influential than anyone likes to believe.

From Tzippori, we drove to Tiberias, where we had some down time in our hotel before dinner. The hotel itself was an interesting place. It was a hotel-museum to Dona Gracia, who was one of the people to establish the Jewish community in Tiberias in the 16^th century. Among other things, there was a rack of costumes in the lobby. I still haven’t figured that out, but a few of my classmates did play dress-up at some point. The whole class went together to dinner (on HUC) at Decks, apparently the best restaurant in the area. It was fabulous! It was presented to us as an all-you-can-eat meal; as soon as one dish was empty or close to empty, it was refilled AND the next food came out. To make it even better, it was a (kosher) meat restaurant, so we got good meat as some of the never-ending courses, including some sort of beef skewers that were a highlight and goose, which was delicious, although some of my table-mates yelled at me a little for cutting off the massive amount of fat. Apparently it’s part of the experience and deliciousness, but I had plenty of experience and deliciousness without it. So there. We were also served crepes for dessert. It was delicious. We had walked to dinner, so we essentially rolled back afterwards, where I hung out with my tiyul-roommates Hayley and Cassi, and then went to bed.

Thursday morning we were up really early again. (How early is really early this time? We had to be downstairs for morning services at 7:15. And they didn’t feed us until afterwards.) I realize I tend to rave about good food, but such is life. Breakfast was delicious. An excellent balance of the Israeli – salads and cheeses – and the American – pancakes with chocolate sauce, among other things. We went to Tsfat, where mysticism took off. We did more text study and visited three old synagogues which were all beautiful and so completely unlike anything you would find today. As we walked into the first one, I remembered being there on my NFTY trip nine years ago! Although I have probably been to many of the sites we have visited this year, I remember almost nothing from that trip, for no reason I can figure out. So when I see something familiar, I get excited. But I digress. In one of the synagogues, there was a geniza with glass doors. A geniza is a place where any paper that might have God’s name on it is deposited, and when it is full, it is buried, so that the name of God is never thrown away. This one had doors that you could see through, and it has clearly been used for a very, very long time. It was really interesting to peek inside. Among other things, there was a very old Torah scroll, off its rollers, in the geniza. After the synagogues, we went to visit a kabbalistic artist, someone who studies the mystical parts of Judaism and uses them in his art. He had a lot to say. I find the mystical stuff interesting, but I think I am far too rational of a person to get very excited about it. The art was beautiful, but the explanations of some of it made it a little too out there for my taste. After that, we had free time to eat and explore the city on our own. Tsfat has zillions of little shops and artists, and I was excited to go into some of them. I am looking forward to going back, possibly in February with my parents when they come. (YAY for booking tickets!)

After Tsfat, we went to Haifa, arriving in the late afternoon. We were given free time for the rest of the day. Some friends and I asked the hotel manager where we could find a good restaurant for dinner. He gave us directions and told us it would be about a 10 minute walk. We headed in that direction, and after about 20 minutes got to the beginning of the street he was talking about, but nobody got excited about any of the restaurants for a while. After 45 minutes of walking, we were all pretty hungry. We settled into a Thai restaurant and had a fabulous meal. One of these days, someone is going to have to explain to me why Jerusalem doesn’t have any good ethnic food, but the rest of Israel seems to. Somehow, a bunch of my classmates stumbled on the same restaurant. I was there with a group of nine, and while we were eating, there were somewhere around 25 HUC people in the restaurant, and another big group showed up as we were leaving. I think we were the only ones who walked. We decided to walk home as well, in part because we were really full, and in part because we had passed some bars that looked good. We stopped in one of them, about halfway back, to get a drink. Since apparently Haifa is like Jerusalem in that you can’t go anywhere without seeing HUC people, we ran into our professors, who had just finished dinner where we were going to have a drink. Apparently this place also had great sushi. When we got back to the hotel, I had more roommate time and then slept happily, although never for long enough.

Friday morning we went to the Leo Baeck Education Center, a middle school/high school affiliated with Progressive Judaism, although most of the students there would identify themselves as secular Jews rather than reform or progressive Jews. We had services at the school, led by their rabbi/educator. With his playing guitar through the reader’s Kaddish and Aleinu, I have altered my opinion of guitar use during services: there is such a thing as too much. It was a little odd. I don’t think he stopped playing it at all, except during the silent part of the Amidah, until the Mourners’ Kaddish at the end of the service. After services, we had a brief tour of the school. It looks like no high school I have ever seen! It is on the shore of the Mediterranean, and the whole inside is gorgeous, modern, and decorated with tons of art. I am pretty sure the building is nicer than most universities. After our tour, we divided into smaller groups and met with students at the school. I am constantly impressed with Israelis’ command of English. These students, from 7^th to 10^th grade, had much better English than my Hebrew. I know they study it in school starting when they are really young, but it still surprises me and amazes me every time. It was really interesting to hear their opinions on all kinds of topics. The school does an exchange program with the Rashi School in Boston. The kids who had been through the program already said that they felt more Jewish in Israel than Boston, even when they weren’t doing Jewish things, and even though the Boston kids might have been more traditionally observant. They couldn’t imagine living anywhere but Israel. One HUC student asked them what they wanted to do in the future, and they all told us what part of the army they wanted to go into. It was a really interesting look into Israeli minds. It echoed a lot of what we talk about in our Israel Seminar, but to hear the same opinions directly from kids was still fascinating.

After an unexciting lunch, we got back on the bus and slept most of the way to Jerusalem. We arrived at about 3:30. Shabbat started at 3:56. (In two weeks it starts moving later again!) I slept well last night. I worked hard today. I drafted a paper. Michael arrives in less than two weeks. I have a ton of work to do between now and then. It’s bedtime. Pictures soon, I really promise. I have lots of procrastination to do these days, so it will happen. Mazel tov, Abi and family! Safe travels, Debbie! Happy studying, Michael! Becky and Lev, your turn to book a trip? Goodnight.

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.

Thanksgiving in Jerusalem, Pesach in Russia

That title sounds pretty weird to me, too, but that’s my reality these days! Starting with the present, Thanksgiving in Jerusalem. A friend of mine decided that she wanted to host a bunch of people for thanksgiving, but realized several problems in that plan early on. It’s hard to find big, whole turkeys in Israel. (The eating kind; the political kind is as easy to find here as they are in the US.) She only has a toaster oven, not a full sized oven, as would be necessary to cook a hard-to-come-by turkey, even in the event that she found one. A lot of people have this problem. We have a real oven, but it’s smaller than a normal one at home. Some of her favorite side dishes were dairy, and a lot of the class keeps kosher, not mixing meat and dairy. She actually prefers the side dishes, and realized that most people held the same opinion as her; the turkey itself is not the draw of Thanksgiving for most people. Her roommate is Canadian. He has never celebrated Thanksgiving. Thus, sides-only, dairy Thanksgiving was born. Thanksgiving night, between 35 and 40 people crammed into an apartment where most of the living room furniture had been moved to the bedrooms, to better squeeze people in. We sat on the floor, the plastic porch chairs, the couch, or we stood. It was potluck. The food was delicious! And I bet you’ve never seen so many different kinds of potatoes on one table before. Just like any other Thanksgiving, we were all stuffed, and there were tons of leftovers. It was a lot of fun.

I had a little trouble with Thanksgiving this year. I have never been away from home and my family for Thanksgiving, and this was both of those with a vengeance. I got lots of voicemails, emails, and IMs though from family and friends, making it feel like I am a little less far away. Thank you!!

There is one other holiday for which I have never been away from my family. I have done seders with family every single year, which will make this Passover difficult as well. However, I may be so busy that I won’t even notice! Every year, a group of HUC students travels to the Former Soviet Union, specifically communities in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, to help run Passover seders for underserved communities. These are communities in these places which have Jewish populations, generally toward the less religious end of the spectrum, which for one reason or another do not have a rabbi or other real Jewish leadership. So we descend in groups of two or three, equipped with a Russian-Hebrew haggadah and a translator, and we apparently run 4-6-more seders and other Passover activities over about 5 days. Then we get transported back to the closest major city to wherever we are, and we get another couple of days to tour and enjoy the completely new surroundings. The whole trip is student-planned and student-run. I am chairing the committee in charge of, basically, the seder. We make sure we know the Russian-Hebrew haggadah that we all use backwards and forwards, we teach our classmates how to run a seder (which means we all have to know), and we come up with lots of ideas for adapting a seder to all different sizes and types of groups. I’m really excited about the project, and thrilled that I’m working with a great committee on something I really enjoy. The project’s website is now up and running, at http://www.pesachproject.com/. Check it out! It's beautifully designed by my friend Kate, who is here this year with her fiancé. In her real life, she's a graphics designer. Don't bother looking for me in the various pictures. They're from last year's trip. You also might be receiving a slightly-less-personal letter from me and HUC about the project soon. I can promise a note on the bottom. Look forward to it!

It’s now about a half hour before Shabbat starts this week, and I haven’t talked to anyone from the US yet today. I think you’re all still in food comas and sleeping. I find it a little sad (and far away) that I’m preparing for sunset, and you’re still asleep. It’s also a little funny that I can go to the shuk and have a conversation with a grocer all in Hebrew, go to the supermarket and help some confused Americans decipher the Hebrew on their purchase (“magic tea box”), do four loads of laundry (it’s a small washer), go out for hot chocolate and homework with a friend, meet up with a friend from home for a little while, start outlining a midterm, and get ready for Shabbat…all before you wake up. It does make my day feel slightly more productive.

There should be more pictures of my Ethiopian family and of Thanksgiving night soon, but so as to not drive everyone crazy with millions of cameras, I didn't bring mine. I'll get pictures from friends once they post them.

Shabbat shalom, and I hope I get to talk to all of you soon!

Working Shabbat

First on my mind right now (although not in my usual chronological order) is the idea of doing homework and other work on Shabbat. In the materials they sent us before coming to Israel, I laughed at the juxtaposition of ideas in the HUC Year-In-Israel book. In one paragraph, it tells us how much time we will be spending in class (a lot), on homework (a good chunk) and on other required activities (a significant amount). Soon after, they mention that especially in Israel, we should try keeping Shabbat to some degree, at least by not doing homework. I tried that for much of the summer. Over the summer, I was in ulpan, and while I had Hebrew for five hours a day, I only had Hebrew. There just wasn’t all that much homework. I did have to think about it and plan ahead, because Shabbat ended late over the summer. And I really enjoyed my Shabbats! I had all day to read things for fun, catch up on sleep, hang out with friends, and talk to people from home. I really did enjoy the day of rest. But then the school year hit for real. During the year, I’m in class all day, getting out sometimes around 4 and sometimes later. Add in other required programs and activities and my self-imposed requirements (i.e., going to the gym and enough time to talk to people from home), and there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Friday hits, the first day of the weekend, and post-daylight savings time, Shabbat starts really early. It’s my “free day” to run errands, since stores aren’t open on Saturdays, and usually cook something for Shabbat dinner. Even on my most productive of days recently, I can get some homework done, but not enough. Shabbat has become a heavy work day, and I hate it, but I don’t know how to get around it. It is the only day of the week without any obligations, which means I should be able to get a lot done. But it’s hard to reconcile doing homework all day when so much of the city is enjoying the holiday. I would love to go back to the days from the summer of enjoying the holiday, and maybe I just need to find a way to compromise, like enjoying part of the day and working hard for part of the day, but it’s a hard balance to find. I guess that’s what the rest of the year (and the next four, and probably beyond) is for.

Our Israel seminar this week was on secular Judaism in Israel, which led to a lot of really interesting discussion and information. As Americans, when we think of secular Jews, we think about people who are Jewish in name, but really do almost nothing Jewish. Secular Jews in Israel are generally contrasted with the Orthodox. As in, Jews who do not follow the commandments and live an almost entirely Jewish lifestyle are considered secular. However, the majority of these secular Jews attend a seder on Passover, hang a mezuzah at home, keep some level of kashrut, light Chanukah candles, and so on. And of course, they all speak Hebrew, so they could (in theory) study Torah and follow a prayer service at will. These secular Jews aren’t really sure what to do with the Reform Jews in Israel. Some of them lump us with them, as not-Orthodox and therefore secular. Some of them see us as a separate movement. Some of them just see us as some level of religious, and therefore while we agree about many, many things, and in Jewish lifestyle we are not far apart, they are not willing to classify themselves with us. It’s an interesting phenomenon. We also talked about different secular groups who are trying to get these secular Jews more active and more educated in Jewish life, through secular but Jewish schools, adult education, social action, and some other projects that sounded very similar to Reform Judaism at home. We also had a very brief discussion, cut short by time restraints, about a list of Israeli dilemmas presented to us. For example, a café next door to a yeshiva (religious school) wants to be open seven days a week, but the neighborhood feels that it will violate their feeling of Shabbat. Does it stay open? Pork is hard to find in Israel, so a kibbutz begins raising pigs and making a great profit. Some people see this as a horrible development, and propose banning the production of pork in Israel. Should the ban go through? And on and on and on. We discussed the difference between separation of church and state in Israel and in the US. A major difference is in the language. Their translation of the phrase translates back to English as a separation of religion and state. The US doesn’t separate religion and state! Religion is definitely tied to the state; the separation is in religious administration and requirement. Israel could never separate religion from the state, but separating the religious administration from the government could do wonders. It’s fascinating and sometimes frustrating to live in a religious democracy.

Thursday afternoon I went with some classmates to Museum on the Seam, a museum on the border of East Jerusalem and West Jerusalem, and also more or less on a border between religious and secular neighborhoods, and just barely out of the Old City into the New City. Their famous exhibition is now a traveling exhibit on tolerance and coexistence. (Ever seen the t-shirts that say “Coexistence,” where the C is a crescent, the X is a Jewish star, and the T is a cross? They’re from this museum.) The current exhibit, however, is about fair labor and exploited laborers. They do a great job of making it a multi-media presentation, with photos, paintings, videos, sound, and more. It talked about day laborers, prostitution, modern day slave labor, and more. It was really well done and really interesting, but we were all somewhat struck by how much it wasn’t Israel-centric. A good portion of the exhibit (although not all of it) was about Israeli labor, but the museum could have been appropriate anywhere in the world.

Thursday evening was HUC Casino Night, with all proceeds going to the Former Soviet Union seder project. (Summary: about half of the class is heading to the FSU during Passover to lead seders in all sorts of different communities. We do all the planning, organizing, and fundraising. More information coming soon, I promise.) Our whole moadon (lounge/café) was decorated and looked great. There was an auction for items donated by places in the city we all use, from a cup of coffee to large gift certificates to great restaurants. There were poker tables and blackjack tables. There were beverages and desserts. Our admission fee gave us a bunch of play money to participate in the games. I didn’t do any gambling, but had a great time hanging out with my friends and giggling at a professor and the director of the Year-In-Israel program bartending, and laughing over the money that had different HUC personalities printed on them. (Drinks, for example, cost a Mendelsson.) Pictures of Casino night (and some friends hanging out afterwards) are being posted shortly.

Clearly, I am really not looking forward to finishing my homework. Again.

About the Pictures

I think some explanations are in order if you’ve been looking at my pictures.

A couple of days ago I posted the Duma pictures, and I’m going to add some from my friend Mara’s collection tonight as well. The Duma Simulation was a history project. We were reconstructing elections in 1906 Russia, when they attempted, for the second time, to at least pretend there was a semblance of democracy there. Clearly, it worked well. We were supposed to be simulating the elections in a Jewish town, with all of the major Jewish political parties represented, plus the communists, plus a group trying to convince the Jews to move to America, plus the ultra-Orthodox, the Haredi Jews, who in reality wanted nothing to do with the Duma. Hence the pictures of them protesting outside. I was asked to help run the Duma, meaning that I was not part of one of the parties, but instead, with a friend, organizing the speakers and the rest of the evening and then basically running the program and the elections. People were less-than-excited about having a four-hour program on an evening in the middle of midterms, but it turned out that most groups got into it and really had a good time. There were flyers hung all week long advertising the different groups, which confused a lot of visitors, but amused all of us. The evening of the Duma Simulation is what the pictures show. People came in costume traditional for their group, or just in matching outfits. The communists wore red. The America group wore assorted American flag shirts, red, white, and blue, and baseball hats. There were lots of women with scarves over their heads. The haredi group came in traditional Jewish dress, including all four women from that group arriving looking very pregnant. A few of the groups brought “traditional beverages.” My co-chair and I decided that we could not dress like any of the groups, but that we had to come in some sort of costume. So we thought about the spirit of democracy and decided on the most democratic type of clothing we could come up with: togas! So we showed up to the Russian Duma elections in togas. If you’re curious, the America group won the election, closely followed by the Zionists and the Bund, a Russian-Jewish workers’ group. (In reality, the Zionists at this time period did not get nearly this much support.) I hope that clears up the crazy pictures!

The other new set of pictures is of my Ethiopian family. A group of us from HUC goes to the absorption center every Tuesday evening, and with a partner, each of us is assigned a family. My roommate Karen and I are partners, and I brought a camera tonight. The kids had a great time posing for pictures and then immediately looking at them on my digital camera afterwards. We’re going to try to print out a few of them to bring back next week. Some of the kids have stickers on their faces. They just like to put stickers everywhere, and that’s the best explanation I can give. The fact that Karen and I weren’t covered with stickers this week was a nice change. There are five kids in the family, ranging from about 11 down to 2. The oldest and youngest are girls, and the middle three are boys. They are adorable. I communicate most with the oldest girl, who is the most talkative and has the best Hebrew of all of them (including the parents) by far. The rest of the kids are talking to us a little more each week. The parents hardly speak any Hebrew. They are incredibly welcoming. Every week, the mother makes coffee for me and Karen, and they put out a bowl of apples. I don’t usually drink coffee, but apparently on Tuesday nights, I am now a coffee drinker. The apples we have there are amazing. I keep buying apples at the shuk, but I haven’t gotten any really good ones. But the ones we have there are amazing every single week! Tonight we played with a puzzle, play-doh, some cards, and Karen and I found some dot stickers and played “pin the nose on the smiley face.” It was a good activity for a few minutes, and then they started pinning the dot stickers on themselves. And the TV. And each other. It’s so much fun! [Michael: you might get to meet them! I think we are planning to go the first Tuesday night you’re here, even though it’s our exam week. Will you come?] Sadly, I can’t post names with the pictures. With the language barrier, and the fact that their names are Ethiopian and not Hebrew, we haven’t managed to pick up on them yet. Which is only okay, because I don’t think they know my name or Karen’s name either. Enjoy the pictures!

That’s all I’ve got for now. I really should be studying. And also posting pictures. More soon!

Procrastination

Given that my discussion of Hebrew roots generated several comments, I feel obligated to clarify what I meant. In English class, we are never explicitly taught roots. We never learn how to change a word from a verb to a noun to an adjective in a standard way. We aren’t taught that when we come across an unfamiliar word, we should be able to figure out what it means by looking at the middle three letters, at least not until we are preparing for the SATs. And even then, it’s not knowledge of English roots that becomes helpful, because I really still don’t think they exist the same way, but knowledge of Latin roots, as was conveniently pointed out by the mystery commenter! In English, “butterfly” has nothing to do with “butter” or “butt.” In Hebrew, the verb with the same root letters as “butterfly” means “someone who flits.” Like a butterfly. Because of the way the language developed, from an ancient language that had to be transformed into a modern one, everything that sounds the same or has the central letters in common, is related somehow. Pop told me he had a boss just after Israel became a state who had worked in Israel helping to establish their Navy. And he got the experience of making up new Navy-related words, because they didn’t exist in the Torah or Rabbinic writings, which were the majority of Hebrew language material until one hundred years ago. But rather than making words up from nothing, the language-producers find words in the bible that somehow connect, and then fit them in to the already-established consonant and vowel patterns. It’s different. And it’s fun to read through a prayer I’ve read a million times and then realize that I know what it means, because I know modern Hebrew words with the same roots! And now I’m done with roots and on to more interesting topics.

My class here is two-thirds female. So every month or so, the guys decide that they need some time, so they have “Man Shabbat.” It started as more of a stereotypical guys’ meal, with pizza ordered before Shabbat and left in the refrigerator, so they had cold pizza for Shabbat dinner, but it has apparently evolved into some decent food. In any case, this leaves the girls to make our own delicious meals. Last Friday night was one such night, and eight of us got together for our own Women’s Shabbat. We went to Shira Chadasha for services, where some of the guys went as well, but because there is a mechitza, it really was irrelevant that both groups were there. We said hello again to the guys after services, and then went in our separate directions for dinner. There was, of course, great food, but it was also fun to hang out with a group of girls on a holiday! Many of us hang out on a regular basis anyway, but somehow because it was Shabbat, it felt different. And then when the boys were done with their meal, some of them came over, and it completely changed the atmosphere and the topics of conversation! It was an amusing contrast.

In my rabbinics class, we are slowly going through Avot d’Rabbi Natan, a slightly less-known piece of rabbinic literature. Our professor had a pulpit in the US for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, so we had two weeks off from class. This past week, he wanted to make up for at least some of the lost time. We got together Sunday evening in the apartment of one of my classmates to continue our translation and discussion of the material. We were almost through Chapter 1. A few minutes after our pizza break, we finished the chapter. It was actually exciting, because we have been working on it since September, and our professor had prepared for the occasion. He passed out copies of the prayers you say when concluding a piece of rabbinic study or literature. We had not finished the book, just the first chapter, but I like that he realized that was a big milestone for us and had us celebrate and pray appropriately.

Israeli pizza is not American pizza. They haven’t learned the value of flavorful crust or good tomato sauce. And it uses kosher cheese. All in all, a disappointing experience every time. Who would have thought I would miss Papa John’s?!

On Monday afternoons we have our Professional Forum, where we are taught various rabbi-career-related things. This week’s forum was optional, a discussion with a woman whose husband is a rabbi and professor at HUC in Cincinnati, and she became a second-career rabbi as well. Only about 15 of us went, but I am glad that I did. We talked about life as a rabbi, and boundaries, and standards, and other related things. The discussion was a little bit depressing, but very informative. We talked about things like making lifestyle decisions knowing that your congregation sometimes judges or notices everything, like what happens if a congregant sees you eating an unkosher meal at a restaurant, or dating as a rabbi, or having children as a rabbi. It was a little scary, and some of it looking way to far in the future for my taste, but I know it will eventually all be relevant, so I might as well start thinking about it (a little bit) now. I’ll try not to let it scare me away!

On Tuesday we had a lunch with assorted higher-ups at the URJ camps and NFTY in Israel programs. They wanted to convince us to work for them this summer. I agree that it would probably be really fun to be at camp for another summer, and I know I would learn a lot and get a lot from it. But after being away for 11 months, I also know that there is no way that I am going to come home, do laundry, and turn around and leave again. I am sure returning to camp in some capacity is in my future eventually, because I loved the camp experience and I would love to help recreate it for others, but I also know that it is not going to be in my future this summer.

It is weird to be out of the country for Election Day. Because in my program we are all (except the 2 Canadians) American, we were all fairly focused on the elections. Except that we go to sleep before the polls close in most of the country, so there’s no staying up late on election night waiting for returns. Instead, there’s getting up early the next morning to find out what happened! Many of us did so, and showed up to our Israel Seminar on Wednesday tired, excited, and distracted.

For the first hour of Israel Seminar on Wednesday, we had a speaker who is a well-known Israeli writer. He writes fictional short stories, and they are fascinating, but also pretty odd. He was definitely a good speaker and had interesting things to say, but I felt badly for him; he had a lot of competition for our attention. He started speaking around 8:45 in the morning, in a room with wireless internet. It was 1:45 in the morning on the east coast and 10:45 in the evening on the west coast. After Election Day. Several people had brought computers and were still looking at the returns and waiting for new results to be announced, which meant that everyone sitting in viewing distance of the computers was watching the screen as much as the speaker. An interesting day, but bad timing. After the speaker, we went to the Menachem Begin Heritage Center, a museum about the life of former Prime Minister Menachem Begin, the first Prime Minister who was not from the Labor party; he was elected about 25 years after the creation of the State. It was an interesting museum, another interactive museum where you are required to go through as a group. The museum moves room by room, and there is a recorded speaker talking in each room. So the group goes and sits in the first room and watches a movie clip (with headphones in English), and then sits in the second room to watch and listen to something else, and so on. It was less high-tech than the Palmach museum in Tel Aviv that we did some weeks ago, but on the same principle of mass-education and moving through as a group. I’m sure there’s something in there about the Israeli mentality, but I’ll spare you that and work out that opinion in my (required) Israel Seminar journal.

Thursday afternoon we started a new program. There is a student in HUC’s Israeli Rabbinic Program who is a commander in the Israeli army. (Because of major cultural differences and Hebrew fluency, the Israeli program is part-time, so the students in that program all have careers already.) This student thought it would be interesting to bring together Israeli army officers and American HUC students to get to know each other and each other’s cultures somewhat. So we now have an optional program, Yedidim, “friends,” to try to get to know one another, at least a little bit. We were fairly arbitrarily put into groups with a couple of Israelis and a few Americans. I am with two of my good friends, and we ended up with two female officers, Rina and Inbal. We had a great time! In a mix of English and Hebrew, we talked about army life, HUC classes, Judaism, their college plans, our families, and laughed at our misuse of each other’s languages. They are going to be in Jerusalem again next weekend, so we exchanged information and will hopefully be able to meet up for a little while soon!

The World Pride conference was held in Jerusalem over the summer, with lots of seminars and speakers. There was supposed to be a parade as well, but we were in the middle of a war, so it was postponed. Then it got put on this past Friday. The ultra-Orthodox have been threatening violence against parade participants for weeks. There have been lots of sort-of-funny jokes that the only thing the Jews, Muslims, and Christians in Israel can agree on is that they don’t like the gays, and that there shouldn’t be a Gay Pride Parade. Nonetheless, the organizers were ready to go ahead with the parade. Every time there was threatened violence (or riots, or burning of trashcans, tires, and other things) by the ultra-orthodox, they would announce that the parade would still happen, and there would be increased police presence. The parade route had been debated, and remained down some main streets in Jerusalem, starting in one park and ending in another, going right past HUC on the way. Except then there was the Gaza incident the other day, and now Israel, and Jerusalem, are under major security warnings. Soldiers and security people are in high demand in Gaza and elsewhere, and there suddenly weren’t 10,000 of them available to guard the Gay Pride Parade. So instead, the parade became a rally, and it was moved from downtown Jerusalem to the Hebrew University Stadium, on the campus that isn’t really near anything. And HUC students, and presumably many others who would otherwise have attended, were reminded of the security warnings to stay out of crowded places and off of public transportation. There were reportedly a couple of thousand people who attended, including a handful of HUC students, but nothing like the crowds originally anticipated for the parade. Sometimes I hate this city for its intolerance, but I also have to respect it for living on the edge and being willing to embrace its fragility and alter plans at the drop of a hat…or a bomb, I suppose. I skipped my weekly shuk trip this week in the wake of the warnings, and life goes on.

As you might be able to tell by the ridiculous length of this post, I’m rapidly approaching midterms! This means, of course, that my to-do list is almost as long as this post, and that I’m procrastinating. It’s going to be a couple of crazy weeks! In the same spirit, I posted a bunch of new pictures last night and this morning. There's a link on the right side of the blog. Some of them are from things that happened ages ago, and I just never posted pictures. If you don’t remember what I said about the various events, go back and read old posts. It’s all in there. And thanks to Michael for keeping me up on the phone long enough and late enough to get the picture-posting going. Enjoy!

Blinkers, wigs, and tea

Some random thoughts as you head toward the weekend (where I already am!)…

The other day, I saw two cars in the space of a few minutes using turning signals! You’re going to have to trust me that this was significant. The fact that I noticed the signals should be a sign of their rarity, and two in one day…wow.

I learned a great fun-fact in Hebrew recently as well. To understand this one, you have to know that Hebrew is based on root letters. If two words have the middle three or so letters in common, they’re probably related. (This is why we bow on the word “baruch” in many prayers. It has the same root letters as the word “berech,” knee.) So often learning one root can give you understanding of a whole family of words, which is nice, as long as you can remember the roots. So we were learning the news, and talking about how four people had died shortly after receiving flu shots. The word for “flu” in Hebrew is of the same root as “influence.” We all thought this was weird. Our Hebrew teacher told us, in complete seriousness, that it was because “influence” and “influenza” are from the same root in English. She dismissed our insistence that this makes no sense, because English is not based on roots, and the words are unrelated. But I think we all remember the word for flu now.

I got a flu shot a week and a half ago, and I’m still alive! See above for why this is exciting.

I saw a uniquely Jerusalem sight the other day. I was walking up to a friend’s house, and on the way, I passed an orthodox family, parents and a child. The woman was wearing a scarf on her head (since orthodox married women cover their heads at all times; many wear wigs instead of scarves or hats). What was she carrying? A Styrofoam head with a wig on it. It doesn’t sound quite as funny typed out, but you’re going to have to trust me.

I woke up earlier in the week with an awful sore throat. Aside from that, I felt completely fine, but I sounded pretty funny for a couple of days. (I am now fine, with a little bit of a cough left, but I promise I’m okay!) On Monday, when the sore throat was at its worst, all I wanted to swallow was warm liquids. I made myself a cup of tea with honey before I left for school. After services, I had another cup, but there wasn’t any honey available. After Hebrew, my cup was empty but my throat still hurt, so I refilled my mug with hot water, and found honey, and reused the same teabag. It wasn’t as good, but it was warm! At lunchtime, I made myself another cup (also decaf) from a teabag I had brought from home. The school café person was happy to give me honey after hearing me talk. After that, I decided I needed to be done with tea for the day. Except that night, I went to my friend Nicole’s to work on our Rabbinics homework. Her fiancé is British. Before I had my coat off, and before he heard me talk, he offered me a cup of tea. How could I turn that down?! I might have offended his Britishness by putting honey in it, but it felt good! After we finished the homework, I went to another friend’s house to hang out for an hour before coming home to finish up and go to bed. It was cold out (and nobody’s heat is turned on yet), so she decided we were all having tea. Again, how could I say no? It was good. So if you stopped keeping track, I had six cups of tea on Monday. I think they were all decaf, but four of them were for sure. I became a finely tuned peeing machine, but my throat felt better when I woke up on Tuesday!

I walked into the supermarket this morning with my shuk cart. I had already been to the shuk, and even though I didn’t need all that much from either place, it seemed like the best way to combine two shopping trips. As I walked in with the cart, a man asked me, in very slow, well-annunciated English, where I had gotten my cart. I started laughing when I answered him in clearly-native-speaker English. Looking back, it might have been more fun to answer in Hebrew.

I have one class that I didn’t expect to be one of the highlights of my week, but it is turning out to be just that: biblical grammar. My Hebrew class has an amazing professor for this class, the man who several of us had heard was the only one who could effectively teach it. We’re the only Hebrew class he teaches for biblical grammar. (I also have him next semester for Bible, which should be fascinating and hard, but I’ll learn a lot!) He teaches in a very organized and very straightforward and logical way. I love that I can follow along with it. I tend to pick up on grammar quickly, possibly because it is so logical, and possibly because it’s in the genes (thanks, Mom!). But some of my class struggles with it a lot, and I just get it. It’s really nice to have one class where I feel like I really know what I am doing, at least for now! It also has nice placement in the week: we have it right after Radio Day in Hebrew, when I’m usually feeling incompetent and not so brilliant. And then Yossi comes in and we learn grammar, and I feel much better about my Hebrew skills!

My Ethopian family is still a lot of fun. We played with sidewalk chalk this week, and based on the dirty kids = happy kids equation, they really loved it! There was chalk everywhere. The mother has decided she wants to feed us. (She is, of course, a Jewish mother!) She started making cups of coffee for me and Karen, which is interesting, because I’m really not a coffee drinker. Except, apparently, for on Tuesday evenings. She also puts out plain bread (which I have been skipping, because it’s not so exciting and the kids like it, and I’ve just had dinner when I get there) and some apples. The apples are by far the best I have had in Israel! I eat those happily, alternately cutting a piece for myself and one for the two-year-old who also seems to love apples. It’s as if the mother can’t really communicate with us, but wants us to feel welcome, so she gives us food. We also feel welcome when we knock on the door, and are greeted with shrieks of glee and knee-hugs from the little kids. I love this project!

Every year, the history professors run a “Duma simulation,” which is basically all of us simulating elections to the Russian parliament in the early 1900s, but all from a Jewish perspective. A friend of mine was asked to chair it and to find a co-chair, and he asked me to run the program with him. I’m good friends with his wife, who is not in the program, but the two of us had never really hung out a lot before. We got together to organize the program, and we had such a great time! We had to send out an email to the class explaining the program and the procedures, and we ended up taking over an hour to draft this email, because we were having so much fun with it. The whole program is next Sunday night, and if people get into it, it should be a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to it!

For our Israel seminar this week, they wanted us to talk to “real Israelis.” We were sent off campus for a few hours, armed with a survey about consumer habits, to talk to some people. I went with a group of friends to the Hebrew University campus. The way we went, it was a 40 minute walk, through East Jerusalem, but on a beautiful day. While a little concerned when I first realized where we were walking, I got over it and enjoyed the completely new scenery. We split up and talked to some people. One of the people my partner and I talked to was an older man (in the 50+ category on the survey, but several decades older than that). He liked having an audience! It turned out that he had lived in Germany until about 1940, then moved to Israel, to the United States, and finally back to Israel. He was a really interesting man, and then it turned out that he lived nowhere near the Hebrew University campus where we were, but more or less across the street from HUC! He gave us his name and told us to stop by and visit. Random encounters like that are always so great.

That’s about all the random thoughts I can muster right now. It’s 11am, but I’ve already been to the shuk, the grocery store, a friend’s to borrow the right size pan, made brownies, tasted batter, and tasted the finished product. They’re delicious and I’m exhausted! But everything has to happen early these days; I’m leaving for Shabbat services this “evening” at 4:00!

highlights

I always have such good intentions of updating more often, but then life seems to get in the way. So here goes…

In last week’s trip, I think I skipped over my Hebrew field trip. Last Sunday, we went to the Hebrew Language Academy, which is basically what it sounds like. They make up new Hebrew words. The process is actually interesting if you’re a language geek; they often take words from the Bible and adapt them to a modern use. The word for “electricity” is from a biblical word that appears once or twice and refers to some sort of bizarre fire. They also try to come up with new words to replace the foreign (read: English) words that keep creeping into the language, mainly in technology, but a little bit of everywhere. “Zeh lo beeg deel” is one of our favorite “Hebrew” phrases. (Zeh lo = It’s no. Read it out loud.) I think the most interesting part of the visit was that I understood most of what the speaker was talking about. Yay me!

We went to the Ethiopian immigrant absorption center again (every Tuesday), and had another fun evening with our family. This week, Karen and I brought a bunch of coloring pages that I had printed from the internet (and some blank paper), crayons, and markers. We did have some other backup activities, but we really didn’t need them. The kids were thrilled to color for an hour and a half! The oldest child (the 11-year-old) didn’t arrive home until toward the end of our visit, so we just had the younger four. In talking to them, it became clear that while the oldest’s Hebrew is decent, the rest of them have a long way to go. (Well, the 2-year-old has a really long way. She hardly talks at all.) But we communicated effectively, and since I could name all of the marker colors except two, I promised to learn pink and orange by this week. It was a lot of fun, and I’m thrilled that I’m really looking forward to the project every week!

This past Wednesday, I got to meet up with Rabbi Luxemburg for a few hours! It was great to see such a friendly face from home. We had hot chocolate with another rabbi-friend of his, and then went to meet the rest of their group for dinner and a speaker. The food was delicious, and the night was definitely really interesting. The room was me and 20 rabbis. The speaker was talking about strengthening connections between Israeli Jews and American Jews, except that the path his organization had chosen to take to do this strengthening was through facilitating American Jews getting married in Israel. It’s a great idea, except that…only Orthodox Jews can get married in Israel. So it’s outreach, but to a very specific subgroup. It definitely sparked some interesting discussion among the rabbis from Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist Judaism. I sat quietly and took it all in and actually really enjoyed talking to the people who were sitting around me.

On Friday afternoon, I had an incredibly interesting experience. One of my classmates has a Palestinian family friend, and he stayed in the friend’s guest house for the first six weeks he was here. This friend, Ibrahim, is a Moslem who wants nothing more than peace, and he has basically devoted his retired life to making peace just through relationships. He invited the HUC class to his house for lunch on Friday. About 35 of us went. We first arrived on the Mount of Olives at an overlook. The Mount of Olives is definitely part of East Jerusalem which is the part of the city where the Arabs live; Jerusalem is incredibly segregated. It also is above the Old City, with an amazing view of what was the Temple Mount, and is now home to two sacred Islamic mosques, Al Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock. The view is breathtaking, and as soon as my friends post pictures, I will take them and post them as well. (I forgot my camera…) From the overlook we went a short distance to Ibrahim’s house. His family has lived on the Mount of Olives for 1400 years, and he operates a guest house next to his home, where he welcomes people of all religions to stay, and that’s where we had lunch. He talked to us about some of the amazing experiences he has had, the people he has met, and his dream of peace. He told us how he is not a citizen of any country, because Israel does not grant citizenship to those living in East Jerusalem (which was not part of Israel until 1967), but he has a travel permit of some kind and travels extensively. It’s an interesting issue that I don’t think any of us had ever really considered. He is generally not allowed into certain Arab countries, because he is traveling from Israel, even though he is Arab. Because of his type of travel permit and lack of passport and citizenship, if he stays outside of Israel for over a year, he is not allowed to return. He is not so happy about the situation; two of his (eight) children studied abroad and are no longer allowed to come home. I don’t know the answer; it’s pretty clear nobody has figured out a good one yet. In addition to all his talk of peace, though, we were allowed to ask him questions. We did notice that he did not directly answer them all. When questioned about how his neighbors felt about his multicultural visitors, he said his family supported his efforts fully, but he did not tell us how his neighbors felt. It got a little bit frustrating, but it was definitely worth the trip. Most of us realized only on the way home that while we have all learned about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we have not had much (or any) contact with any Palestinians. Now we have, and it was a little old man who wants nothing more than love and friendship and peace.

Shabbat evening, we were required to attend services at HUC, because a couple of students were leading services. Some people were not super-excited to have to break out of the usual Shabbat routine, but it was really nice. It was actually really nice to see the whole class together outside of school, dressed up nice and everything! And a lot of the professors, rabbis, and staff came as well, many of them with their families. I really enjoyed getting glimpses into their real, outside-of-HUC lives, and seeing that some of them have really adorable children! I was asked to lead Kiddush at the student potluck dinner afterwards. I had to finally learn the first paragraph that I always meant to learn but hadn’t gotten around to learning so well yet. I was sort of glad to have the excuse to finally learn it, but it is always intimidating to sing in front of a big group of people, especially the cantorial students and rabbinical students who sing really well! I got through it, and I am glad I finally had to put in the effort to learn it.

Saturday morning I got up early and went to services at Kol Haneshamah with a friend. I don’t always make it to services on Saturday mornings, because it’s often the only morning when I can sleep in. But I want to make an effort to get to services more often, and the potluck ended really early the night before, so I actually got ten hours of sleep even with getting up early to go to services! That was exciting for me. Obviously, I lead an exciting, although sleep deprived life.

Last night I went out with some friends to celebrate. One of my classmates, Cassi, got engaged over Sukkot, but her now-fiancé is not here for the year, he was just visiting. So a whole group of us who are involved in the long-distance thing took her out to dinner to celebrate! As part of the bargain, I got to try a new restaurant that turns out to be delicious and spend an evening with a fun group of girls!

Ira and Allison, congratulations!! I so much wish I could have been there to celebrate with you, and I can’t wait to hear about it and see pictures!
Becky, see how long you delayed me? This would have been posted before football started today otherwise. It was good to talk to you finally:)
Debbie, I’m still encouraging it. We’ll do fun things and eat good food and play!
Mom and Dad, thanks for sending the forms. All is here and turned in.
Alex, now that I know you’re reading, you get your own note! Which wouldn’t be complete without a woooooooooooosh!
Michael, let me know if there were any surprises. If there were, I’ll do better next time!

It's now cold and on-and-off rainy in Jerusalem. I miss the sun and flip-flops.

Also, it’s way past my bedtime. Goodnight!

This and That

It’s been a whole week since I last posted, so rather than summarize everything I’ve done, I’ll leave you with another batch of thoughts, in really no order at all…

Visitors are great! My friend Melissa Renny from college was coming to Jerusalem for work, and she spent Shabbat with me. We haven’t been in touch much (at all) in the last couple years, but we had a great time together, going to services, eating, shopping, and hanging out. Old (ish) friends are great fun, especially when in a foreign country.

I understood (some of) the radio today! We talked in class for a while about what stories were in the news today, and went over some of the vocabulary, but I was nonetheless incredibly excited to recognize and understand several of the headlines that wooshed past us on the news. We’ve also moved on to television; after going over radio headlines for a while, we watched a tape of a little piece of the early morning news. Our teacher thinks it’s much harder than radio, but I think there are more pauses, which make processing the words easier, I can see the speakers, which makes it easier, I can see pictures, so I know what story is being discussed, which also of course makes it easier. The stories are more in-depth, so I don’t get every single word, but I have a decent idea of what’s going on after watching TV-news, so I find that encouraging.

The Redskins are doing a great job this year…of making me sad. There isn’t any more to say on that topic. There’s always next season.

I do miss home. Jerusalem is a nice place to be, for a year, but I do sometimes feel very far away. I miss the day to day conversations with friends and being around for important events and fun events. I also miss having separate groups of friends. I kind of liked at home having my college friends, high school friends, work/youth group friends, and extra miscellaneous friends. Here, I have sort of different groups of friends, but they’re still all HUC people. They’re wonderful, and I’m definitely marveling at how I have become so close with some people after only a few months, but I don’t have the same escape as I did at home.

Fall produce is not as good as summer produce. The shuk is a somewhat depressing place to be these days. There are apples, but they’re not that good. There are some late plums and grapes, but they don’t look that great either, and they’re really expensive. The tomatoes aren’t looking so good anymore. Pomegranates were a novelty, but I’m not going to put one in my backpack as a mid-morning snack like I did with peaches. I miss watermelon. I’m ready for the winter fruits, especially various types of citrus, to make their way to the shuk.

Bet you never thought you’d read about me longing for fruits and veggies, did you?!

My Shabbat dinner this past Friday night was part of an HUC program to have us get to know people in the community. They did a home hospitality program with a local Reform congregation, Kol HaNeshamah. Along with several other HUC students and some other people, I went to a local couple’s house for dinner. The discussion and people there were fascinating, the home was beautiful, and the food was amazing. I miss having a real, live Jewish mother to feed me! There was a constantly-refilled platter of brisket (really yummy, but mom’s is better!), salmon, sweet potatoes, and several other types of deliciousness. I was a happy camper! It’s funny that we all cook for ourselves, and we often have big group dinners, but I seldom have a really, really good meal with endless amounts of food. I should do that more often.

This afternoon the rabbinic students met in our “reflection groups.” These are groups of 5-6 students and 2 staff members or professors that meet every month or six weeks, just to talk about whatever is on our minds or issues we are having and things like that. The actual content of the discussions is confidential. Today we talked about levels of practice, inspirational rabbis we’ve met, differences between movements, and comfort with different parts of Judaism. I really enjoy these meetings. I have a great group of people who have widely varying opinions, but really respect one another and get along well. Both times the group has met, we have had great discussions, and the designated time really flies. I think it’s a great forum for discussion and reflection, and I only wish we met more often!

Tomorrow I go back to my Ethiopian family again, and I realize I never wrote about my experience there last week. To summarize: we all have to be involved in a community service project this year. My project is working with Ethiopian immigrants every week. A group of about a dozen of us goes to an absorption center about 20 minutes away after classes on Tuesdays. We work in pairs. My roommate Karen and I are working together. We were assigned a family to work with. Our family is parents and five children, ranging in age from 2 to 11. They immigrated to Israel about 8 months ago, in February. The kids have been going to school since they have been there, so their Hebrew is really good. The parents hardly speak any, so I can’t really talk to them. The oldest daughter is the one I talked to the most last week. We brought a bag of games and activities to break the ice. The biggest hit: balloons. We ended up with somewhere over a dozen kids in our house all wanting balloons and stickers. It didn’t take too long before all the balloons were broken, of course, but it was fun while it lasted! I played endless games of cards with the 11-year-old. Karen played basketball with a beach ball with a group outside. With her hands in front of her in a circle, Karen was the basket. I had a really good time, but I hope we can do more than just play in the future, and talk to them some more. It will be an interesting challenge; I don’t even know the names of the family members. We got a list of names and ages, but everything is in Hebrew and without vowels, and the names are Ethiopian, so I don’t recognize them at all. It will be an uphill battle!

And now it’s the nightly battle between my to-do list and my pillow. My pillow usually wins eventually. Goodnight!

Rain Dance

The end of vacation came way too fast, as I guess it always does. But with it came one of the most fun holidays of the year, Simchat Torah, when we celebrate the Torah, finish the yearly cycle of reading it, and start again at the beginning. It fell on Shabbat this year. Friday night, I went to Shira Chadasha, the traditional, musical community I have been going to frequently. We went through the usual Shabbat service, but after the Amidah, they gave instructions (in Hebrew, and I understood!) to stack all the chairs (several hundred of them) so that we could begin celebrating. Celebrating involves seven separate rounds of singing and dancing with the Torah scrolls. In this congregation, the dancing had a curtain down the middle to separate the men and the women. It’s okay though…the women’s side tends to have the better dancing! In this congregation, they do let women touch the Torah (which they don’t everywhere), so the men’s side had a couple Torah scrolls (the bigger ones), and we had a few as well. Basically, it’s dancing in circles, passing the Torahs around, people dancing while holding Torahs. Think the hora at a Bar Mitzvah, but instead of dancing around the Bar Mitzvah boy and lifting him (and his siblings and parents) in the chair, the Torah is in the middle being danced with and lifted. I think the seven rounds of dancing (separated by a brief couple of lines of prayers, all sung) went on for almost 45 minutes. It was really crowded, so sometimes it was difficult to stay involved in the dancing and too easy to end up on the side talking to friends (and avoiding getting toes stepped on), but when I got into it, I had a great time. After services, I came back home for dinner. It was my roommate Karen’s birthday, and both her parents and my other roommate Amy’s parents were visiting, so they had a big birthday dinner here. Karen’s mom cooked, and did a great job!

Saturday morning, I had usher duty at HUC. Each student has usher duty once or twice during the year, so that the services, open to the community, run more smoothly. Mine was Saturday. So I got there a half-hour before the service, at 8:30, as requested. I think the first people came at 8:55. Yes, I’m regularly among the first to arrive almost anywhere. HUC was also fun for Simchat Torah, although of course differently fun. One of the cantors organized a student HUC band, with keyboard, guitar, drum, and I don’t remember what else. So in the middle of the service, when we took the Torah scrolls out of the ark, the procession continued out the door of the sanctuary and out into a courtyard! I’m sure the musical instruments projecting onto King David Street made a lot of people not-so-happy. But we had a great time! We did the seven rounds of dancing in the morning as well, mixed men and women of course. Because we were in a huge courtyard (with less people than the night before), it was much easier to get involved in dancing, because there was more space. I had a great time, and I even got to dance carrying the Torah for a round! (Really, everyone who wanted to had ample opportunity. There were four Torah scrolls, seven rounds, and often at least one handoff per Torah per round.) After all the dancing, we went back inside, and did the whole reading, of the last chapter of the Torah and then the first chapter. Usually synagogues will have one scroll ready for the end part and another one rolled all the way to the beginning. Somehow, there was a miscommunication somewhere though, and the beginning scroll had not been rolled. So we got to watch the scroll rolled back to the beginning, which, by the looks of the rabbi and cantors who did it, is not such an easy task. It was a fun reading though, and I love that I could understand a lot of what was being read! With all the dancing, a long Torah reading, a Yizkor memorial service, and all the other holiday additions, it was an almost four hour service, but I actually enjoyed it a lot.

The other interesting addition to the service was the prayer for rain. It’s difficult to realize from the US how strongly the Jewish calendar is tied to agriculture until you’re here in Israel experiencing it. Sukkot really is at the change of seasons, for example. Also, traditional liturgy includes a prayer for dew from Passover (spring) until the end of Sukkot (fall). The other half of the year, we pray for rain. Because Israel is a desert, there really is a rainy season and a dry season, which I’ve never experienced before. I got here at the end of June. For three and a half months, no rain!! But I get ahead of myself. On Simchat Torah morning, the end of Sukkot, is when we switch from praying for dew to praying for rain. Usually, that prayer is two words (dew) or four words (rain) in the middle of another prayer. But on this first day of the season, there is a really long prayer for rain in addition. The prayer we did (which I can only assume was the traditional prayer, but I don’t know for sure) basically outlined all the reasons that the Jews deserve rain. Because of the righteousness of Abraham, the merit of Isaac, and so on. Except that each ancestor got several lines, and there were about 6 of them listed. It took up about a page, with the Hebrew down the left and the English down the right. I thought it felt a lot like a rain dance of some sort, which I guess it was! But I’ve never seen a prayer so powerful…

After relaxing the rest of the day Saturday, Sunday was back to school. It had cooled off somewhat, so instead of having the air conditioning on, we had the windows open. I was looking out the window in the middle of our first class of the day (Hebrew), and pointing out to a friend the ugly clouds that had been appearing more and more often in the last couple of weeks, although they hadn’t done anything other than block my beloved sun. A couple of minutes later, we were all distracted from Hebrew (which isn’t really that hard to do) by a new noise: RAIN! It poured for a good ten minutes, and it was all that we wanted to talk about. The first rain of the season even has its own name here, because it’s so important. It was sort of amazing to see rain somewhere that I’ve only known as warm and sunny, and after not seeing any rain for so long. And so much rain! Once it stopped pouring, it was much cooler out too. We were talking about the power of prayer and how amazing it was that the rain appeared the day after we started praying for it. It was quite an experience! (Ok, so apparently the rain doesn’t always come the day after the prayers change. But it was pretty cool that it did this year!) And for the record, it was gray and cold for the rest of the day, and rained on and off a little bit, but mostly off. Reportedly, we get on-and-off rain from now until Passover, but it’s more off than on, except during December-January or so, when it’s mainly on, and also cold. I’m not so excited about that. But right now, cool and threatening to rain is a bit of a novelty, so I guess I can’t be sick of it yet!

Also, I’m ready for another vacation. All of a sudden, the workload has picked up, and the next break is not until December. After having a month of classes constantly interrupted by holidays and trips, this is going to be a long couple of months. And on that note…it’s past my bedtime. Happy Fall!

New pictures!

Happy Friday!

A short post, since I haven’t done much in the last few days. Wednesday I went on a long hike with some HUC people. We were out for a good 8 hours, hiking probably for 5-6. It was really fun to be out there! Israeli hikes seem to be different from American hikes, because as you’re walking, you come across all sorts of things. We saw ancient (Byzantine era) monasteries and associated buildings (well, their remains), mosaic floors that were just covered by sand, a really old olive press, and probably some other things that I’m forgetting right now. We also hiked through a lot of thorns, but it was worth it! I had a great time, although it makes we want to hike in the Shenandoah. It must be gorgeous right now!

Yesterday I tried to get some things done around the house and start attacking my pile of homework. I did some of it, but I still have a history paper to write for the end of October. I know I’m way ahead, but it’s not done yet. (It’s barely started.) And I’ll be getting more work again Sunday when vacation’s over. Last night I was with my frequent Thursday night crew, playing cards and hanging out. We tend to divide by card game and gender somewhat, with the boys playing poker in one room and the girls playing euchre or just hanging out in the other room. So we had lots of good girl talk last night. It was so much fun!

Today I slept in, went grocery shopping, talked to Karen’s visiting parents for a while. And I had a delicious grilled cheese sandwich. Cheese is delicious in Israel, but good, sharp cheddar cheese is difficult to near impossible to find. So right now I’m giddily enjoying the cheese that Michael brought over from my parents. Life is good!

I have new pictures posted! Flickr has a very low upload limit though, and it’s been driving me nuts, so I’m posting somewhere new now. I apologize that you may have to register again (although I don’t know if it makes you), but it will be worth it. This is (I think) where my pictures will be posted for the rest of the year: http://community.webshots.com/user/jkarpay. What’s there now is pictures from Michael’s visit. They’re mainly scenery, around Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and lots of self pics of the two of us. I’ll keep adding more when I have time. Also, some of you have been curious to read some of my classmates' blogs. I added a link to my friend Mara's on the right side, and I'll try to add a couple more. (I feel like I have to get permission to link though, so it may take a couple days. Mara linked to mine this morning, so it's ok!) She updates a lot as well. Enjoy!

Shabbat Shalom!

Vacation!

I love vacation:) But I get ahead of myself…

After Yom Kippur, we were back to school for a couple of days. Wednesday we had our Israel Seminar, where we learn about current Israeli life and society. Last week we went to Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Museum, and Har Herzl, the military and political cemetery. Yad Vashem was incredibly well done and moving and emotional. The museum was redone a couple of years ago, and it has some incredible features. The museum is designed as a triangle, and the exhibit rooms zigzag back and forth from the tip to the wide base. Down the middle, you can see from one end to the other, so you can always see the movie at the beginning, depicting Jewish life in Europe before the Holocaust, and you can always see the huge window at the end, looking out over Israeli beautifulness. But you can also see that you still have a long way to go through the museum. It’s as if they’re trying to constantly give you the feeling of the never-ending situation, or something like that. It was an interesting design of the museum that we all had comments on. I thought the museum also did a fantastic job of emphasizing life. It is a multi-media experience, and in every room there are pictures, words, objects, and audio/video interviews. The words, objects, and pictures on the walls tell the majority story: sadness, humiliation, separation, death. But the videos, the soundtrack to the whole museum, are all of survivors. So while reading about mass deportations, you are hearing the story of someone who escaped, snuck away, succeeded, survived. There are seats in front of most of the television screens, so when you’re tired from walking through a very long museum, the place you sit and rest is in front of stories of survival. It’s fascinating. The museum does not end at the end of the war, however. It continues with stories of displaced persons camps, immigration to Israel, and the independence of the State. It has apparently been toned down from the old version of the museum, but it is an interesting extension of a Holocaust Museum to logically extend to the formation of the State of Israel, as if the story really continued an extra few years from what most history books say.

From Yad Vashem we continued up the hill to the top of Har Herzl, where Theodor Herzl, the “father of modern Zionism” is buried. His grave is at the very top of the hill, surrounded by a large plaza, with no other graves around him. Apparently this plaza is the location of the beginning of the Independence Day celebrations every year. It’s a very different focus from the States, to really start with a tribute to the people who died for independence and worked so hard for it. I wonder if that will change as Israel ages; it’s such a young country that many soldiers who fought for independence are still alive. We also visited graves of past Israeli Prime Ministers and Presidents. They are all uniform, as it is a military cemetery, except for the grave of Yitzhak Rabin. Because he was assassinated, his grave is much more ornate and different from the others. We also visited different parts of the regular military cemetery, including graves of soldiers who fell in the war in Lebanon this past summer. It’s sometimes hard to remember that this country is defended by kids so young. Most of the people buried in that cemetery are younger than I am now.

After the heavy, emotional day, I headed home for a little while to regroup and get happy. Then it was off to the airport to pick up Michael! It took a long time for him to come out, and then I think he got a much less happy reception than expected…because I was trying to figure out why he wasn’t carrying a suitcase! He was supposed to have a huge bag, mostly filled with my stuff that he was bringing for me. El-Al misplaced it somewhere between DC, Frankfurt, and Tel Aviv. Then I realized that while the bag hadn’t made it, he had, and I got much happier! I still had to go to class on Thursday morning, and afterwards we went with a group of my friends to the all-you-can-eat meat restaurant that I had been to once before. It was a fun and delicious start to vacation! After lunch, Michael and I did a little shopping to try and get some clothes for him, since El-Al still had not figured out exactly where the bag was, let alone when it would be delivered. Thursday night was cards night with my friends, as usual, and he got in on the guys’ poker game and did quite well:) Friday we did lots of walking around the city, looking at all the sukkahs going up outside every restaurant. Two phone calls within 3 minutes of each other while we were downtown walking around, and about to go get falafel: my tallit came in! And Michael’s bag was found and would be delivered in about a half an hour! We took a quick detour to pick up the tallit. It’s gorgeous! And then we walked home to wait for the delivery people, who came eventually. And then we went back out for the promised falafel, and returned home to look through the bag and get ready for Shabbat. (Missing items, all meant for me: m&m’s, Trader Joe’s Traveling Chocolate, Oxo can opener for incompetent lefty, receiver for wireless mouse. At least they left mom’s cookies!) For Shabbat, we went to services at Shira Chadasha with a group of my friends, which was slightly disappointing this week, with a very shortened Kabbalat Shabbat, but it was still fun and enough to impress Michael! I’ll drag him back there for a hopefully-better service next visit. For dinner we went to a friend’s place with a group of HUC people, the usual Shabbat dinner experience, and everyone sat and talked and hung out for a while after dinner. Saturday we went to lunch in the HUC sukkah with some of my classmates who were still in town, and we sat there for a couple of hours eating, talking, hanging out. Saturday afternoon involved reading, sudoku, Shabbat napping. We went out for a yummy dinner after Shabbat ended, and then headed to Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv was a great couple of days of relaxing, spending time on the beach, walking around the city, eating, sleeping, sitting by the pool. Exactly what a vacation should be! And we found a Mexican restaurant (none exist in Jerusalem; it made me SO happy) and had chocolate fondue for lunch one day. Clearly, a good vacation. Last night, sadly, I took him back to the airport. It was a fantastic visit, and I can’t wait for the next one! December…hurry up and get here!

I had another adventure on the way home from the airport by myself. Michael’s flight was at 1am, so we arrived at Ben Gurion around 10pm Monday night. There isn’t really anywhere I could go in that airport without a ticket, so I didn’t stay for very long before saying goodbye and going outside to get a shuttle back to Jerusalem. Airport shuttles to Jerusalem leave as soon as they are full (of 10 passengers) and drop off each person at home. The airport is about 45 minutes away, but depending on drop-off order (I’m somehow always near the end) it can take a little while. Last night was very, very long. I got onto the shuttle somewhere between 10:15 and 10:30. I was one of the first ones to get on. There were planes arriving, but few people who wanted a shuttle to Jerusalem. We didn’t fill up until just after 11. The other times I’ve taken the shuttle, it took a couple of minutes to fill and no longer. Once we were full, I fell asleep very quickly. There were several very religious men on the shuttle. (i.e., black suits, long black jackets, peos, black hats…one of them fur.) We went to the neighborhood where we were dropping off one or two of them, and got stuck. It’s the middle of Sukkot, and there was a lot of celebrating in this neighborhood. With all of the parked cars and people walking around (hundreds of them), the road was only wide enough for one. Which was a problem, because we were trying to go up, but a couple of buses were trying to go down. We lost. We pulled over. It took the first bus a good 10 minutes to get by, because the street was so narrow, and there were so many people who were not exactly cooperating about getting out of the way. Before the second bus could go by, someone else from my shuttle got out and stood in front of the bus. With the bus driver yelling and honking at him, he waved at our little shuttle-van. The driver jumped back in and took advantage of the opportunity to back out of our space and turn around and head back down the street ahead of the bus. The whole shuttle told the guy who stood in front of the bus “kol ha-kavod,” all the honor, basically, when he got back on. And we were back on our way. We circled around to try to get close to this man’s house from a different street. When we finally stopped for him (again), it became clear that he did not have enough cash to pay for the shuttle. So we waited for another 10 minutes while he went home, and a wife/sister/some associated woman came back and paid for him. It was a little ridiculous, and just frustrating because of how late at night it was already! While we were waiting, another shuttle passenger got out and demanded to switch to a cab. That was another few minutes. I was the second to last to be dropped off, of course. It was almost 1am by the time I got home.

Now I’m enjoying my vacation, but a bit homesick today. Feel free to cheer me up:) Pictures will be posted once Michael emails them to me and I get my act together and post them. Soon!

Yom Kippur

So I really should be sleeping right now, but like the Disney World commercial, “I’m too excited to sleep!” Michael just left for the airport to come visit, and I can’t wait! Of course, I still have a day of class to get through first, but that is way beside the point. I also realized I haven’t blogged since Rosh Hashanah, and that’s a problem. Here we go…

Yom Kippur

Unlike Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur is out of this world in Jerusalem. Israel’s government decided some years ago to tie fall daylight savings time to the holiday, so in Israel, daylight savings time is the Saturday night before Yom Kippur. I went to my pre-fast meal (“lunchdinner”) at 3:00 in the afternoon. Kol Nidre services were at 5:00. I enjoyed HUC’s Kol Nidre service, and because of the crazy times, the service was over before 8:00. (I enjoyed the service. It was still pretty long for Kol Nidre.) After services, one of our professors wanted to take interested students on a walk down a main street a little ways away to show us what Yom Kippur looks like in Jerusalem. I decided that since it wasn’t too far from home, and I wasn’t hungry yet, I would go along. It was pretty unbelievable. We walked down to a street that is lined by restaurants and shops. Everything was closed, but almost everything is closed on Shabbat as well. Traffic is light on Shabbat, but on Yom Kippur, the traffic lights were actually turned off. It turns out, it’s a law in Israel (or at least in Jerusalem, I’m not sure) that only emergency vehicles can drive on Yom Kippur. A couple of my classmates decided it would be fun to lay down in the middle of a main intersection, just because they could. People were just walking down the middle of normally very busy streets. And there were bikes everywhere. Apparently this is the holiday when all non-religious children learn to ride their bikes. There were zero cars on the road, so in addition to the zillions of pedestrians just walking around, there were huge numbers of children on bikes, scooters, and running around. It was like a block party! Except, without music, or food, or drink… I was home by 9:00ish, and in bed before 10. I slept for nine and a half hours!!

The next morning, I had made plans to go to the same synagogue I went to for the second day of Rosh Hashanah. There were a handful of HUC students there, and it was a good, all in Hebrew service. I liked the Rosh Hashanah one better there, but Rosh Hashanah services are also much happier and more upbeat, which I prefer to tired and hungry. Also, there were two Torah readings, which meant two different people spoke about the Torah portions. They both spoke in Hebrew. Several of the other HUC people left after the first sermon. When we got to the last section of the service, and a few pages in someone got up to give a third sermon in Hebrew…we gave up. We figured there was only another half hour or so left in the service, and we were already in the section that is cut out of Gates of Repentance, so we were essentially in bonus time, right? Yeah, we gave up and started the long, slow walk home.

I came back to my apartment and engaged in my favorite fasting activity: I took a two-hour nap. Then it was back to HUC for afternoon, memorial, and closing services. They cut out a lot at the beginning, but toward the end of the closing service, we all appreciated the service leader’s mark of being a truly good rabbi: he started cutting passages as it got closer to the 5:58 break fast time. We got out of services promptly at about 6:05. Before the end, there was a massive shofar blowing. Several students who had bought shofarot and been practicing basically had a competition on the bima to see who could hold the blast the longest. I was impressed that they had anything left in them to blow the shofar. By the end of not eating or drinking for 25 hours, I was proud of myself for standing there! I went to break fast at a friend’s apartment, and it was delicious, as break fasts always are.

Today was back to the grind, temporarily. Tomorrow we have our Israel seminar, and tomorrow is yet another field trip day. And then, I take a shuttle to the airport to meet Michael! (Yes, I have class on Thursday too. But only in the morning.) And then I’m on sukkot vacation!! I’m staying in Israel this vacation, with Michael for the first half and figuring out who else is around for the second half. I’m ready for the break! But now…I guess it’s bedtime.

Hopefully there will be lots of sukkah pictures coming soon!