At first I was concerned that something had gone wrong with my post that I sent in to TCJewfolk. Usually they go up on Thursday, and when I checked before I went to bed, it still wasn't up. Since I had other things on my mind, I just went to bed. When I woke up in the morning, I had an email from one of the editors telling me that I had been held over a day and they are going to post it on Friday as a featured post!
The title doesn't give it away, but last week the Israeli Rabbinic Program held their ordination. It was incredible. They was just something amazing about the ceremony, the setting, everything. Please check it out at this link, In Joshua's Shoes: A Refresher. Their website is great and has blogs written by a variety of people around the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Feel compelled to browse around TCJewfolk too.
I want to add a little nugget that I didn't mention in the post, there is this communal clapping thing that happens in Israel. It starts out as an "American" applause, sounding spontaneous. A few seconds into it, the clapping settles down into a rhythm and everyone claps on the same beat. It was strange to hear.
In Israel Seminar on Wednesday, someone asked one of our teachers about it. This Israeli phenomenon is a good thing. It is another way the the community shows that they are together. The communal response shows their appreciation. I'm not sure how I feel about it, it still felt strange.
Before I sign off I want to throw in one last shameless plug. One of my great friends from college (kind of an important person in my life) is writing for TCJewfolk too. Check out her author page here, or her blog, Tenaciously Yours.
Okay plugs are over, and so is this week! Shabbat Shalom!
Showing posts with label Hebrew Union College. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hebrew Union College. Show all posts
Friday, November 5, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
HUC Campus
Since very few of my family and friends will be able to actually visit HUC while I'm here, I thought I'd give you a virtual tour of campus. I didn't take a lot of pictures inside buildings since they're pretty standard rooms. Join me on a walk through HUC-JIR Jerusalem.
On my way to school, I come to King David, this is HUC from across the street.
Looking up the stairs is the Administration Building. To your left, after the first staircase, is an entrance that is only open when services are open to the public.
If you go in through the synagogue entrance, you walk into the back of the Mustein Synagogue.
Leaving the Administration building there are some stairs that take you down to the main courtyard. Across the courtyard on the right is the Abramov Library, straight ahead is the Archeology Building and in between the two the Skirball Museum. Follow the video into the courtyard.
This is the main courtyard, after you go down the stairs towards our library, this is our view.
From the museum you walk down a long hallway towards the academic courtyard where the majority of the classrooms and offices for our professors are.
On the left and right are the rooms. You can see a pretty nice fountain in the middle. When the weather was nicer they had water flowing through it.
From the left of the picture, there is a staircase that takes you down to what they call the student's courtyard. It's a nice spot that most of us sit in our shorter breaks.
On the right side in the student's courtyard is the Moadon, the cafe and all purpose room that we use all the time. The courtyard is really nice though.
To get to this spot, you have to walk a decent way up from the Student's Courtyard and head towards the main courtyard. Instead of going back up to the Administration building though, take a right and you find yourself in another little garden behind the Admin Building.
From that garden, you take these steps back up. You can see the Admin Building towards the back of the picture.
That about does it for campus. I hope that's enough so you can get a feel for what the place is like.
I hope you liked school!
On my way to school, I come to King David, this is HUC from across the street.
Looking up the stairs is the Administration Building. To your left, after the first staircase, is an entrance that is only open when services are open to the public.
If you go in through the synagogue entrance, you walk into the back of the Mustein Synagogue.
Leaving the Administration building there are some stairs that take you down to the main courtyard. Across the courtyard on the right is the Abramov Library, straight ahead is the Archeology Building and in between the two the Skirball Museum. Follow the video into the courtyard.
This is the main courtyard, after you go down the stairs towards our library, this is our view.
From the museum you walk down a long hallway towards the academic courtyard where the majority of the classrooms and offices for our professors are.
On the left and right are the rooms. You can see a pretty nice fountain in the middle. When the weather was nicer they had water flowing through it.
From the left of the picture, there is a staircase that takes you down to what they call the student's courtyard. It's a nice spot that most of us sit in our shorter breaks.
On the right side in the student's courtyard is the Moadon, the cafe and all purpose room that we use all the time. The courtyard is really nice though.
To get to this spot, you have to walk a decent way up from the Student's Courtyard and head towards the main courtyard. Instead of going back up to the Administration building though, take a right and you find yourself in another little garden behind the Admin Building.
From that garden, you take these steps back up. You can see the Admin Building towards the back of the picture.
That about does it for campus. I hope that's enough so you can get a feel for what the place is like.
I hope you liked school!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Class Lists
Not only is this first year of Rabbinic School about being in Israel and experiencing everything that there is to see here, but it is also part of an academic program. As such, we have a pretty full course load and I love it so far.
For anyone from HUC reading my blog, this is going to be all about school. Thanks for reading, but if you want to know my schedule, I'll see you tomorrow morning.
Sunday
0830 Modern Hebrew
1015 Liturgy Lecture
1130 Liturgy Discussion
1330 Biblical History
Monday
0830 Modern Hebrew
1015 Shachrit
1130 Rabbinic Texts
1400 2nd Temple History
1545 All Student Forum or HaEmek D'var
Tuesday
0830 Modern Hebrew
1015 Modern Hebrew
1200 Biblical Grammar
1330 Book of Legends Elective
1430 Mincha
1645 History of the Zionist Movement
Wednesday
Israel Seminar Day
Thursday
0830 Shachrit
1000 Modern Hebrew
1145 Bible
1330 History Tiyyul (as needed)
Modern Hebrew
This is just a class that we study Modern Hebrew. My class got to keep the fantastic teacher we had for summer ulpan and it's great.
Liturgy Lecture and Discussion
The lecture portion of this class we study the history of prayer and look into how liturgy was developed. Aside from the location of the class (we're having lectures in the synagogue on campus) this is really interesting to me. We also have an hour long discussion section immediately after the lecture which helps us work out some of the trick parts we're studying.
Biblical History
This will be a fascinating class for me. We are looking at the history of the Bible. The story, not the written Bible itself. From what I understand, we are going to examine Jewish history through time using the bible as the jumping off point. We haven't gotten too much beyond the intro and a brief discovery of Biblical Geography. I'm pumped to be learning more about this though.
Rabbinic Texts
Just as it sounds, this class is the analysis, translation and understanding of Rabbinic texts. Mishnah, Talmud and things of that sort.
2nd Temple History
Aptly named, we are going to study Jewish history in the 2nd Temple Period. Hey, I majored in history, for some reason I think I will like this class!
All Student Forum
We actually haven't had one of these yet, so I'm not really sure what this as all about.
HaEmek D'var
So far this class was a discussion about the class. From what I understand, we will work in smaller groups to talk about big issues relating to Israel. The group I'm in will be facilitated by the dean, so I'm excited about that. We also get off campus for this class and get to have our discussions in people's homes.
Biblical Grammar
Not only does this class make a lot of sense to me because it's logical, but our professor is amazing. She's hilarious, she's excited. She pronounces the guttural letters exactly as they are supposed to be. I didn't think it was possible to be this fired up to learn Biblical Grammar, but I look forward to this class every week.
Book of Legends Elective
This is an elective with the Director of our Program, Mah Tovu's Rabbi Josh Zweiback. We are looking at legendary stories from a book called, Sefer Aggadah. It's another opportunity to learn text and work on my Hebrew Skills.
History of the Zionist Movement
Another aptly titled class. This is the history of the modern Zionist Movement. Not much else to be said about it.
Israel Seminar
Wednesdays are dedicated to learning about Israel through a variety of lenses. Every week will be different, but this is the formal way we will be learning about Israel and Israeli culture. Sweet!
Bible
Last time we had this class, we spent the whole day studying the first chapter of Genesis. Through the rest of the course, we will be looking at the Bible and focusing on women and their role. I have the same teacher for this as I do for Biblical History. This is really exciting to learn.
So as you can see, I have a pretty full schedule. All of the classes are really interesting and I'm really excited to be learning about all of these topics this year.
I need to run though. Choir rehearsal...
G'mar Chatimah Tovah!
For anyone from HUC reading my blog, this is going to be all about school. Thanks for reading, but if you want to know my schedule, I'll see you tomorrow morning.
Sunday
0830 Modern Hebrew
1015 Liturgy Lecture
1130 Liturgy Discussion
1330 Biblical History
Monday
0830 Modern Hebrew
1015 Shachrit
1130 Rabbinic Texts
1400 2nd Temple History
1545 All Student Forum or HaEmek D'var
Tuesday
0830 Modern Hebrew
1015 Modern Hebrew
1200 Biblical Grammar
1330 Book of Legends Elective
1430 Mincha
1645 History of the Zionist Movement
Wednesday
Israel Seminar Day
Thursday
0830 Shachrit
1000 Modern Hebrew
1145 Bible
1330 History Tiyyul (as needed)
Modern Hebrew
This is just a class that we study Modern Hebrew. My class got to keep the fantastic teacher we had for summer ulpan and it's great.
Liturgy Lecture and Discussion
The lecture portion of this class we study the history of prayer and look into how liturgy was developed. Aside from the location of the class (we're having lectures in the synagogue on campus) this is really interesting to me. We also have an hour long discussion section immediately after the lecture which helps us work out some of the trick parts we're studying.
Biblical History
This will be a fascinating class for me. We are looking at the history of the Bible. The story, not the written Bible itself. From what I understand, we are going to examine Jewish history through time using the bible as the jumping off point. We haven't gotten too much beyond the intro and a brief discovery of Biblical Geography. I'm pumped to be learning more about this though.
Rabbinic Texts
Just as it sounds, this class is the analysis, translation and understanding of Rabbinic texts. Mishnah, Talmud and things of that sort.
2nd Temple History
Aptly named, we are going to study Jewish history in the 2nd Temple Period. Hey, I majored in history, for some reason I think I will like this class!
All Student Forum
We actually haven't had one of these yet, so I'm not really sure what this as all about.
HaEmek D'var
So far this class was a discussion about the class. From what I understand, we will work in smaller groups to talk about big issues relating to Israel. The group I'm in will be facilitated by the dean, so I'm excited about that. We also get off campus for this class and get to have our discussions in people's homes.
Biblical Grammar
Not only does this class make a lot of sense to me because it's logical, but our professor is amazing. She's hilarious, she's excited. She pronounces the guttural letters exactly as they are supposed to be. I didn't think it was possible to be this fired up to learn Biblical Grammar, but I look forward to this class every week.
Book of Legends Elective
This is an elective with the Director of our Program, Mah Tovu's Rabbi Josh Zweiback. We are looking at legendary stories from a book called, Sefer Aggadah. It's another opportunity to learn text and work on my Hebrew Skills.
History of the Zionist Movement
Another aptly titled class. This is the history of the modern Zionist Movement. Not much else to be said about it.
Israel Seminar
Wednesdays are dedicated to learning about Israel through a variety of lenses. Every week will be different, but this is the formal way we will be learning about Israel and Israeli culture. Sweet!
Bible
Last time we had this class, we spent the whole day studying the first chapter of Genesis. Through the rest of the course, we will be looking at the Bible and focusing on women and their role. I have the same teacher for this as I do for Biblical History. This is really exciting to learn.
So as you can see, I have a pretty full schedule. All of the classes are really interesting and I'm really excited to be learning about all of these topics this year.
I need to run though. Choir rehearsal...
G'mar Chatimah Tovah!
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