The First Week Back

This is the first weekend of the second semester in Rabbinical School. Wow!

It felt great to be back in class. If you've read any of the posts I made about the vacation I had with Kaitlin, it's not like I was bored or anything. The vacation was absolutely incredible, but it's good to be back.

I have a few new classes that I'm really excited about taking.

On Sundays, Biblical History has been replaced with a Rabbinic Elective. We had a few choices and I decided to study about the High Holy Days. I'm excited to be working on texts and I hope to get a little practical practice as well.

I'm bummed that there isn't a Rabbinic Texts class anymore, but it was replaced with more Bible. I like having that class two days back to back. It gives us the chance to really dig into some of the issues with the text and some of the problems with translations.

The History of the Zionist Movement ended with the term, and we have another course in Modern Israeli History. Another chance for us to select an elective. I decided that I wanted to learn about the Israeli-Arab Conflict. On the first day of class we were asked to get together into small groups and prepare a case to present to the UN. The question was, why should Israel exist. What a first day of class!

The last new course we have this term is a continuation of the history classes we had last time. After the end of the 2nd Temple History course, we now have a class on late antiquities. Unfortunately I missed the first course of the semester, so I don't know what exactly it will be like. I've heard it's going to be much more text based.

I'm really fired up to be working again! I just like to have things to do and things to keep my brain busy.

Shabbat Shalom!