Back in Action

I realize it's been quite a while since I put much of anything up here. As you may know, I spent all week last week on the seat of a bike riding all over the center of Israel. That also meant that I missed an entire week of school. Between mid-terms and making up all of the work I missed I've been a bit overloaded, not that I'm complaining.

Compounding that problem, the cord to charge my laptop broke. I think it had something to do with the fact that I take the cord everywhere so I can keep my computer running. Although I was able to borrow cords at school to give myself some more juice, I had to be judicious about how much time I spent on my computer aside from using it for class.

A special thanks to one of my classmates that was back in the USA, I have a new cable and everything is good again. I have a few days off for Purim and I'm almost completely caught up on my course work. Look for a few posts in the coming days to update on what's been going on for the last few weeks.

Also look for a new post about the Ride4Reform on TCJewfolk.com in the next few days.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbinic Texts, I Miss You

My instructor for Rabbinic Texts gave us quite the break last semester. We weren't required to hand in our take-home final until this week. This means that I haven't thought to much about it since the end of the class.

The exam was pretty easy to work through, but I forgot how hard it is to work with tosefta and mishnah. It's organized in a way that is just strange to me. But as I was struggling to get through the topics, I realized something. I really missed that class. I miss translating the sections with one of my friends. I miss being completely wrong about my translation, but still getting a lot of information from the text.

I cannot wait to work on that more in the future.

My Back is Killing Me

The following is a complaint session. If you don't want to read my complaints about back pain at 25, I understand.

I don't know what the problem is now. I've just got this unbearable backache at all times. I crack my back in class probably 10 times in each 90 minute class and it cannot be good for me. I can't stand to sit up straight and I think I'm starting to develop a hunch. Okay, maybe it's not that bad, but it feels like it.

The amount of time I need to spend reading for class is nothing new, and I've never had this as an issue before in my life. It seriously hasn't bee this bad since a few summers ago when before I finally bought a new bed. I'm sure the one I'm sleeping on now is not very helpful but I just don't know what to do.

I don't want to develop something that will be a life long issue. I'm trying to get in some yoga and stretching in whenever possible. But there just isn't enough time to do that every day. I feel better when I have the chance to do a little work in the gym. Here's the time problem again.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Finals

So that happened.

Two tests every day from Sunday through Thursday. My brain is absolutely drained and I don't think I can fit anymore information into it. Then there is the fact that I still need to finish up the Israel Seminar essay that's due at the end of our break.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the work load we have here. I expected this to be tough. But I've never had 8 exams and a paper in the course of a four days. Uufdah.

I learned a few things during finals week;

I write too much in my notes. When there is too much information it's hard to study it.
I need to take notes on my readings. The chicken scratch I jot down doesn't do a whole lot of good.
Start preparing study guides earlier. You never know how long they might take.
Freeing brain space for a few hours each day us a great idea. Sometimes you just need to do nothing. (Finally watching the West Wing is a great way to do that).

The good part about being so slammed with work is that the last two weeks have flown by faster than anything I can imagine. At the same time that I spent at a minimum of 12 hours a day on campus working on study guides and exams, that was 12 hours out of each day that I wasn't thinking about how soon it is that Kaitlin will be on the ground in Israel.

It's today.

Finals are over and now I need to wait for grades to come in. And that's the end of that chapter!

(Stay tuned to read about my travels with Kaitlin. She's bringing me a replacement camera so pictures will start coming along with these posts again)

Not For A While

I just wanted to post quickly that I probably won't be writing much until finals are over. Today is a reading day and tomorrow we begin exams.

Look for something Thursday afternoon (IST) as a recap of everything.

Until then,
Happy New Year!

Quarter Tones

Today our Israel Seminar class took us to a really interesting synagogue in the Nachlaot neighborhood. We got to sit and listen to a Piyyutan (someone who sings piyyutim. Piyyutim are songs/prayers that are part of a service, part of a celebration or other various times). He spoke to us about the revitalization of the piyyut singing, which was an Arabic-Jewish tradition.

The music uses a lot of Arabic melodies and often they are actually popular Arabic Songs from countries of origin. He sang us a few melodies from Spain, Iraq and the city the tradition is from. Unfortunately I don't remember the name of this city. Honestly, it was beautiful to listen to.

Imagine floating melodies in interesting modes and scales that are used. They sound like minor-keys but they also use half-tones and quarter-tones. The pitches are not something that is normal for us to hear in western music and it was beautiful to hear him sing.

One of the other things he spoke to us about was how he learned to sing like that. It was something that he started to learn as a small child. When he was a teen, like most teens, he backed out for a while until he was in the army when he realized that he missed it. The way he learned everything is by going to services and listening to someone else perform the songs. The issue is that there are about 100 different modes/scales. One for each week as well as others for specific services. Yes, there are people that can tell the difference between the scales and the melodies.

This is an incredible kind of music and I would be really excited to go and check one of the services out, especially the winter piyyut singing. However, this takes place only on Shabbat mornings at 0300. That's not a typo, it's only at 3:00AM and lasts until 0700. It would be incredible, but I don't think this is something I will be able to get up for on a Shabbat morning.

Since I highly doubt I will have that chance, I really appreciated hearing him sing today.

That Time of the Year

Every year in college, right around finals, I would start to get a bit of a cold. I would chalk it up to the fact that I tend to run myself ragged. The weather changes for the colder and I usually catch a nice little cold. Once finals are finished I usually crash into a bed with a nice little cold and take a few days away from the world.

Nothing is different this year, except one thing. I'm not to the end of finals week yet. I'm still two weeks away from starting them. And being that this whole grad-school thing is a little tougher than working on my undergraduate degree, I have been trying to get a jump start of studying for exams. Here is where everything get's a little bit more complicated.

I've got a cold now. Yeah, yeah. A common cold is nothing that should knock me down, and I'm not looking for pity from anyone. But I've had an excruciating headache and have been incredibly sensitive to light. The last few days, I've been unable to get out of bed before 10:00 AM. It's been nice getting a fuller night's sleep each night, but I'm not a fan of being sick like this.

I'm hoping the soup I had for dinner, mixed with glasses upon glasses of tea will help get this crud out of my system and I can take on finals at full force as soon as possible. Ugh.

I wish there was better stuff going on right now to write about. But it is what it is.

Midterms-Schmidterms

It is well past the middle of the term, but Thursday just about marked the end of the mid-terms period. I have to say that I really liked having these as take-homes.

Some of the assignments we worked on to prove our knowledge include; Creating three new Mishnayot (verses of Mishnah) in the same style of Pirkei Avot (Wisdom of the Fathers), answering questions and working through translations in Liturgy, another short quiz in both Hebrew and Biblical History, the Duma project for the history of Zionism, another take-home test for Grammar and finally, Thursday large take home exam for 2nd Temple History and Literature.

The difficulty is that most of these didn't take up much/any class time. As a result, the professors keep plugging away at all of the normal classwork. In the end that was a little stressful, but I managed. Until Wednesday when we received our email about our finals schedule. Two-a-days for the week. B-R-U-T-A-L.

I've got a feelin' that this is not going to be the same experience as in my undergrad career when I enjoyed finals. I like them because there was not class, and you have four or maybe five tests and the occasional paper at the same time. 9 finals in 5 days. That'll be fun!

I'm not complaining, just not sure about what to expect. I know, I know. This is grad school. Midterms weren't so bad, so maybe finals will be okay too.

One Long Day

One thing I have found fascinating about Jerusalem is the fact that there are tons or arts activities, often. There is an Arts/Jazz event off Emek Rafayim that happened a few times each week this summer, there was the two week Art Fair and concert series near the Sultan's Pool and tons of others that I've missed.

Last night there was an arts fair on Emek Rafayim. They closed down a few blocks of the street and people set up booths all over the place. Personally, I didn't do any shopping at the booths selling earrings or scarves (surprise surprise). However, I was very much engaged by the various street performances. We stopped to watch some really cool fire dancers and some performance troupes putting on a few shows. We stopped to listen to a band performing, which was completed with a sweet fiddle solo, and paused to watch a "monkey" climbing around a tree.

I wish I had some pictures, but my camera is broken... bummer.

Tuesday was a really long day, and it was good to unwind after that.

In the morning, my Hebrew class took a little trip to one of the old neighborhoods in Jerusalem. It was one of the earliest ones to be built outside the walls of the old city. Today it is just off the edge of Ben Yehudah Street. There were some really cool buildings including the Ticho House, two Synagogues right across the street from each other, the old hospital that became Hadassa before Hadassa was moved across the city, Rav Kook's apartment building and many more awesome places. It was one of the first times I was able to spend time looking at the history of the area instead of running around trying to find a restaurant to meet people.

After the normal Biblical Grammar class we had a large group project. In my History of the Zionist Movement class we have been looking at Russian Zionism around the turn of the 20th Century. We were all assigned different parties to be apart of and prepare a song, posters, a speech and questions to challenge the other parties. Dressed up in costume we conducted a mock Duma. I was very skeptical at the start of the process, but it was really fun by the end.

Almost everyone embraced the project and it was pretty hilarious to hear some of the period-appropriate slurs being shouted at each other during the speeches and the question section. Someone in my group even had the great idea to bribe the party leaders and the other attendees of the Duma. The challenge was getting this all together in less than a week.

Yesterday was a pretty good day!

So THIS is Rabbinic School

Last was almost our first normal week in a long time, maybe all year. We still had Sunday off which was great to get some time to have a life outside of school and Holy Days. This was also one of the first times in a while that I have absolutely loved all of the classes and homework assignments.

We are still working through a variety of different sections of Rabbinic Literature. I can't even express how much fun it was for me to be picking apart texts and looking for meaning in the translations I come up with. I have found a great study partner for that class too. We usually get together to just work on translating and trying to come up with a translation and meaning of the text. that way when we get to the larger class (by larger I mean 12 -16 people), we work with other people and the whole class to piece it together with help from our instructor. Great!

Biblical Grammar is actually starting to make sense to me. It's not that I can actually remember how to use correct pronunciation of words while I am reading or speaking, but the concept makes a lot of sense. There are actual reasons for why words are said the way that they are. It is really cool to see how the language opens up when you take it apart from a logical point of attack.

All of the history classes are awesome. We are putting things together. I am starting to see a clear picture. Kind of. One thing that I am starting to understand is that we need to look even more at the various traditions in the area and how it was put together to present a semblance of a whole story. All of the information is wonderful to learn and it is really cool to see some of the stories presented in archeological evidence. Three classes come together for this topic. It is awesome!

The last class that I have been really enjoying is Bible. I should actually call the class Biblical Criticism, but we haven't gotten into the actual nit-picking yet. We are doing a lot of translation and a lot of questioning of other peoples' translations. It has become clear that when you make a translation, you are making an ideological or even theological statement about what the text says. It may be boring to some people, but I find it fascinating.

Tiyyul to The Golan and Kineret

For the last three days I was on a little trip up to the north of Israel on a study trip. We focused a lot on what it mean to be a pioneer in the early part of the 1900's and even today when things like the Moshavim and Kibbutzim are struggling. We also learned about the reasons that these parts of the north are so crucial to Israel as a state for their safety. I'm going to write another blog later focusing on some of the politics associated with the trip, Rabin's Yartzeit (the anniversary of his death on the Jewish Calendar) and on the peace process. The focus of this post is more on what we did.

On the first day we actually got to leave Israel and go into Jordan. We were looking at the hydro-electric power plant that was build on the border between the two countries. The plant worked for a while, but in the end it fell apart. Very interesting though to see the different attempts at building the country.

We also checked out a moshav, like a kibbutz but everyone can have their own property, to learn about their history. In Kriat Shmoneh and Tel Hai we looked at some of the hard work that other pioneers had to do to set up their roots in different places on the outskirts of Israel. Interestingly, only about 8% of jobs are located in this periphery of the country.

One of the coolest places we visited was Tel Dan. The beautiful park reminded me of home so much. I really want to go for a hike somewhere with forests here. The was a rushing river and lots of trees. Man I miss Minnesota sometimes. In Tel Dan there is an excavation site where archeologists have found an ancient Israelite Temple. By Israelite I mean the Kingdom of Israel that existed after Solomon's successor caused a massive civil war and split the kingdom into Israel in the north and Judah in the south.

In the tel there is evidence of a temple that is a smaller version of the one that is in Jerusalem. It has space for an altar for sacrifices and is set up as a place for the people of Israel (the ones I was talking about earlier) to visit during the year. But the big find there is the arch that was been dated to the time that we think the patriarchs (Abraham and so on) were alive. This would have been the city of Laish and it was really cool to see the restoration of the mud-brick arch.

One of the nights we got to go on a night safari in the Hula Valley. Unfortunately we didn't see to many animals there. There was some kind of a cat that we couldn't identify, crabs, frogs, cranes and something that looked like a muskrat. Wednesday night finished with a bonfire and song session. I hadn't planned on playing anything, but Yoshi had brought the drum along so I volunteered to play with the song leaders. I really need to buy my own here sometime soon.

At one point in the trip we had the option to either go to the Naot shop on a kibbutz up north, or to go to the Golan Heights and look into Syria. I chose the Golan, which was a good idea for me. It was awesome to look towards Syria and Lebanon at the same time from up there. On the way up there were some really statues that were made of shrapnel and scrap metal. There are remnants of when the Bental post was used in military operations, and we got to learn some about the history of the place.

Towards the end of the trip we also got to hear about a really interesting group called Ayilim. They are a group of students at Tel Hai University that live in the community of K'riat Sh'moneh. They try to work to rebuild the community that was really run down and since they are near borders, they have been hit by bombs, especially during the 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon. They are a very interesting group that seems to being doing a lot for the community they are living in, and there are other communities throughout the country.

That's all for now. I will be writing a blog about this trip for TCJewfolk with a different focus. Be sure to check it out there when I get that up and running.

Where Did My Freetime Go?

I used to be really good about putting up a blog almost daily. But then reality has set in. I’m just not going to have that much time this year. The amount of reading and studying this year is going to require, it is unrealistic that I will be able to spend the requisite amount of time to put up little journals. So what have I been up to the last week or so?

A lot of school. I’m not kidding, it’s been a lot of school work and studying. Yeah, I’ve been getting out a little bit, but not that much. I don’t have many interesting stories to share right now. The biggest news is that I decided to join the YMCA.

In Hebrew, you don’t say each letter in the abbreviation, so I didn’t join a Y.M.C.A., I actually joined the Yimkah. It reminds me a lot of the JCC in Saint Louis Park. Small, some good machines, but not a lot of them. There is a 25-meter pool and a basketball court as well. The best part is that it is on my way home from school. Instead of not exercising at all, I am going to make a concerted effort to get in there and move some weights around. I think it will help blow off some of the stress I’m feeling with all of the coursework.

I’ve also started buying a Newsweek every Friday. I’ve been going to a grocery store near my house every Friday morning. On the way home I pass a newsstand that has a bunch of English papers and magazines. I’ve been feeling really disconnected from world news, so I think this will help me keep tabs on what is going on in the world.

Unfortunately I think some of my favorite podcasts are going to be going on the back burner, maybe permanently. I just don’t have the time to listen to them and there are many more important things I can listen to so I can stay up on the world news. Sorry KFAN. Anybody form Minneapolis know of some good news sources (not the Strib online) that I can read so I can still follow the sports that I love?

It’s still friggin hot!

I was talking to the security guard at school and he said that this weather is abnormal. This week the weather has been back in the low to middle 30’s. My conversion numbers are off, but I think 38 is equivalent to 100? Someone better at math and science care to help me out with this?

I guess normally the weather has started to cool off at this point in the fall, and we have had a few days with some rain. But I didn’t expect to still be sweating through my Under Armor t-shirts in the middle of October.

Sorry about the length of this post, there will also be a few more coming quickly in the next few days. We’ve had a long ride up to the Keneret (Sea of Galilee), so I’ve had the chance to put a lot of words onto “paper”.

Field Trips!

One of the really cool parts about studying in Israel this year is the closeness to history. One of my classes this semester is about Biblical History and the hidden component to this class are the field trips. Since the last time I blogged (I know it's been a while) we have had two siyyurim (field trips). The first one with this class was to visit the Israel Museum in Jerusalem to look at their archeology section of the museum.

The brand new museum was incredible and I can't wait to go back, because apparently it has some really cool modern art. Instead of just checking out what was on display, we were also directed to look at what message they were trying to show us. It is very clear that the Israel Museum wanted us to focus on the development of the Canaanite culture that existed in this land and then the "revelation" that came with the Israelites.

The museum also tries to outline the development of culture to show that the Israelites were the next rational step in the development of society. Although I don't know enough to make a fully informed decision about this yet, this is an interesting message they are delivering.

The message is very different from that one that is delivered at the museum we visited just outside Tel Aviv. The Haaretz Yisrael Museum on Tel Qasile tries to show us what life could have been like in the area during a time contemporaneous with the Philistines. There are ruins of a "temple" and a large gallery of pottery and other finds from the site. This museum wants to show the interaction between cultures in the area. When we walked away from this museum, the thought is not that all of civilization leads to the Israelites, but the Israelite group coexisted with other people in the area. Very interesting field trips.

Then there is the class that is very siyyur based. In Israel Seminar we have gone to Tel Aviv to tour the "New Jewish CIty". It was an interesting perspective to walk around the city with a tour guide to see the layout and the way the city was built. I didn't know it at the time, but we had coffee at an historic coffee shop, Tamar. Apparently this was an icon of Tel Aviv and not to mention served some incredible espresso. I was all ready to taint it with sugar and milk until I sipped it. Perfect!

Our second siyyur was around the neighborhood Rehavia. A very upscale, flourishing neighborhood during the British Mandate Period. I don't live very far from Rehavia and it was awesome to hear some of the history that happened literally 10 minutes from my front door.

I can't stay up too late to write much more, we leave tomorrow for Tiyyul. We're going up north and I don't know exactly where were headed, but I know we will be staying next to the Kinnerit. I'm really excited. We actually get a full weekend (Saturday and Sunday) this week. So I will get some pictures and blogs up about what's been going on here. Now that we're in the meat 'n p'taters of the school year, I'm realizing there is no way that I can keep up with the almost daily updates.

For now,
Shalom,

Kita Gimel Here I Come

I know I promised something about our little Tiyyulim, but I thought this would be good to write about quickly as I haven't put anything up in a few days.

I've been having a tough time in my Hebrew Class, Kita Dalet (4th class). I've been spending an inordinate amount of time working on Hebrew itself and not on other assignments, or staying up way too late to work on Hebrew. Over the week last week I though I should see about moving down a lever to Kita Gimmel. After checking it out for the last few days, I'm going to stay in that class. I really liked the harder class, but in order to keep my sanity and maybe get a little sleep every night, I thought it would be best. I'm bummed to not have the same classmates and teacher, but I also like my new teacher and there isn't a person at HUC Jerusalem that I don't like.

All in all, I think this was a good move. I don't walk out of class feeling stressed out anymore and I'm still learning things. It's the tricks to understanding some of the nuances that I hope will be picked up here.

Unfortunately I joined a class that has a test two days after I joined it. Back to homework.

Lila Tov,

Place In Judaism

We have these smaller reflection groups that meet once a month on Mondays. My group met for the first time this past Monday and our first topic of conversation was about the role that place should play in Judaism. What changes for a lot of us is exactly this role.

This year, being in Israel, we are in a new place. This is something completely new to me. I have never been outside my communities in Minneapolis, especially for some of the important Holy Days. I think a large part of this has to do with the unfamiliarity here. What we talked about in our group was that sometimes community can create a place for you. One of my colleagues brought up the example of the Israelites building a the place for God to reside in the community while they were wandering in the wilderness.

I started to think about this a little more. Without looking back at the text, I remember that the people needed to make a holy home for God to reside among the people. Another part of this command was that the people needed to make themselves a holy community as well. In this case, then you don't need a specific location to be special for you, but you need the community to also create this holiness.

Arguing the other side of the argument, there are specific locations that I feel like I can connect to God. Although I am very frustrated with some of the things that have been happening at the Kotel lately, it is still a special place to me. The Kotel represents the closest place that we are allowed to pray to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Although the worship offered historically at the Temple was animal sacrifice, something I do not agree with in today's culture, there is something special about this place. When we wandered over there during Yom Kippur, I couldn't help but offer more prayers and another recitation of Vidui (Confession) at the one of the most important sites to Judaism.

There are other places that are special to me too. Thinking about them helps me focus my thoughts. I remember sitting at Camp TEKO in the little chapel that overlooks Lake Minnetonka. Listening to the wind blow through the trees and hearing the boats motoring around the lake is a place that I have found a connection.

At times, I have thought about what Judaism would look like without Israel - the country. Yet I keep coming back to the fact that Israel is incredibly important. Not only are there holy sites, but this is the only place in the world that Jewish traditions affect the entire country.

For example, during Yom Kippur, the country shuts down. I was able to walk down the middle of the wrong side of the road because there were almost now cars. The streets were so quiet! Kids were riding on their bikes and people were out in force. I didn't even wear a watch because time didn't really matter.

It isn't even near Pesach yet, but I have been told that you can go get food at almost any restaurant because they are almost all Kosher for Pesach. Israeli summer is effected by the Holy Day cycle and even the time change is effected -we moved our clocks back the Sunday after Rosh HaShanah to make Yom Kippur easier.

What role does place play in Judaism? I still don't know actually know a full answer. Part of it is memory, part of it creates community. A place can inspire thoughts and prayers, and a place can make you so incredibly frustrated that you just want to shout. Places can connect us to our history. Yet it is that history that also causes problems. I think this is going to be a lifelong process of figuring out how Israel, the country, should play into my life as a Jew. But I'm glad this course is making me start to think about it.

L'Shalom

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!

So Right

This past week we had the first two days of classes. Wednesday was our Israel seminar day. Every week we are going to look into a different aspect of Israeli culture and Israeli history. From what it sounds like, we are not going to be examining Israel in only historic perspective, but also sociological and economic perspectives. It really is going to be like a crash course in Israeli Social Studies.

I really like the class grouping I'm in. It's going to be an interesting year.

Thursday morning, we started with student led morning services. This was the first one that two of our classmates lead and chanted from Torah. It was really cool to hear some of my peers and was a reminder of exactly why I'm here. Then there were the classes.

First was Hebrew which was a shorter version of what we were doing all summer. But now we're in a classroom! Before we had a classroom adjacent to the Library, but now we have a room up by all of the other classes. Yea!

My second class of the day was Bible. We learned about the class and how it will for for a little bit of the class. Then we started to get into it. We were instructed to look into at Genesis 1:1 - 2:4a; the days of creation. Although a little more guidance would have been helpful, it was so much fun just diving into the text. My Chevruta Partner (this refers to a style of learning Torah that is two people looking and discussing the text together) had actually written his BA Thesis on a few of the verses from this section. It was really cool talking with him about it.

The class opened into a discussion that we talked about what we found interesting, difficult or anything else. Some of my thoughts were echoed by other students and it was really fun talking about this text for the hour. This seems so basic, but this is really why I'm here. Learning these things are a lot of fun. After two days, I know this is the right place.

A Long, Long Week It's Been

This week has been long, very long. I haven't really updated too much.

Ulpan is almost finished. This week is our last week of the Hebrew only section of our school year. To finish up, I get to work with a partner to create a game to play with our class to help study for the Ulpan final. The final is next Wednesday and I'm pretty nervous about how well I will be able to do on it. At this point, I can just study and hope for the best.

Another part of the finishing of Ulpan is that on Wednesday we will have a chance to perform again for the rest of the HUC Year in Israel class. As a class, we are rewriting the words to David Broza's, Mitachat HaShamayim including jokes that have come up in the last six weeks.

We weren't sure if we would have the same teacher for the Hebrew we will continue to study throughout the year. As a class we were lobbying for her to stay because she is fantastic! Luckily, we get to keep Zohara for the rest of the year and our class is very excited. We learned this for sure during our Academic Orientation last Thursday.

We got to look at our schedule, which this year we have no choice in what the classes are. I knew this was graduate school, but this course load is intense. I am really excited to get started on studying though. We get to have classes on Bible, Biblical History, Liturgy, Modern Hebrew, Biblical Grammar, Modern Israeli History, Rabbinic Texts and one more that I can't really figure out from looking at the grid. Yep, that's eight classes and an optional course with Rabbi Zweibeck that I want to take over lunch on Tuesdays. This is a lot more than the four or five from High School and University of Minnesota. I guess that's why this is grad school and not a vacation, right?

What else has been going on? Rabbi David Ellenson, the President of the College-Institute, was in town and gave a lecture during the week. It was great getting a chance to meet him again. The lecture was good and it was a good introduction to the college. Some of what he mention caused some controversy with some of my friends here. It prompted some good discussion that distracted from studying for the exam we had Wednesday. But maybe that was the point, to get us to start thinking on a different level.

I went for a bike ride on Friday morning. Let me put it this way. Jerusalem is not the best place for a biker. It was a little bit crazy. I really enjoyed the ride with the other people who will be going on the Ride for Reform. One little anecdote though.

I was riding and didn't realize that one of the medians was raised. I noticed that it was up as I was coming up to it and immediately reverted to the last few years of riding a road bike. I braced myself for going over the top of my bike. Here's some great news though, mountain bikes have front-fork suspension for a reason. I barely felt the little bump as I rode over it. No biggie, it's a mountain bike.

Now it's time to get to some homework and studying.

Shabbat Shalom,

Immersion Is Rough

Unlike the summer school that students need to take to make up classes in high school, summer school this year is awesome if anything. The immersion into Hebrew is intense and difficult. I continually run into the issue of not understanding what our teacher is talking about. But she is speaking about 95% in Hebrew the entire time. We get the benefit of a few words thrown in here and there when it seems as though we don't really know what's going on.

The issue I keep having is that about 75% of the time, I don't know what she's talking about. I'm really glad that Renana taught us to just go with the flow though. I talked with Marina about it and it really seems beneficial to just try to understand most of that she is saying while teaching grammar or reading a story in class. It is great knowing that the majority of what is going on I'm able to keep up with. It means that this has all been worthwhile getting up to speed.

I also really like the makeup of our class. It seems like a really good mix of students and most of us seem to be in the same boat. Hopefully we will get our books tomorrow and we can start to learn out of them. We've been doing stuff that is all out of photocopies right now. I'm still trying to get used to the idea of spending from 8:30 - 1:00 each day on the same subject. We do get about 45 minutes of breaks but it's a long time to then head home and do some homework.

I haven't been only learning Hebrew though for the last two days. Yesterday, after Hebrew class, the Cantillation classes were started. I was so excited to learn that I took both classes! Well, that's not exactly why I sat in for both.

I've read Torah a long time ago, but the past few years, teaching sixth grade, I've had the chance to be in the room while the B'nei Mitzvah students start learning trope. Yes, osmosis works for this. Just by being in the room and looking over their shoulders I have been able to pick up quite a bit of trope. So after sitting in three-hours of Torah Chanting class, I think I found where I fit. I just need to get my voice back into the shape it was during the session that I took my singing class at the University of Minnesota. I guess that one was such a slouch of a class after all.

After the first day of class we had the chance to learn by "Walking the Psalms through Jerusalem." Rabbi Wilfond lead a cool tour of the city interspersed with various text studies that we read or sang as we learned about the area we were in. This city is really starting to grow on me for all of it's problems.

Before I run off to Tisha B'Av services, I wanted to quickly note one of Israel's most famous problems; bureaucracy. Most things around here take talking to four of five people and even then you need to shout and make yourself heard. I was told this would be especially hard at the Misrad HaPanim, the Ministry that is in charge of handing out visas. I was told to go through their motions and expect nothing to get done until I show up and wait outside the office. Sometimes people actually do what they are supposed to, so you can believe my surprise when I got an email from school telling me that the Ministry called to set up my appointment. YEA!

As I'm signing off for now, I want to leave you with a picture that is here only because Kaitlin asked me for it. As you look at the picture below just imagine Adam Sandler singing,
"I've got my lunch packed up,
My boots tied tight,
I hope I don't get in a fight,
Back to school,
Back to school,
Back to school."

Orientation or Disorientation Week

After listening to four days worth of discussions, information and questions I think we have all become thoroughly disoriented. On Monday we started this process of getting to know each other with mixers and started to look at some basic texts. On Tuesday the discussion was framed about why am I here? We heard some speakers and learned a little about the college and our program. In breakout groups we talked a lot about our own personal journeys that led us to Hebrew Union College and why did we want to be here.

Wednesday was more interesting than orienting. After a series of discussions, the school wanted us to start tackling the questions of, "Why did you bring us here?"
For myself, this has never been a hard question. It would only make sense that we should spend time in Israel to learn the history of the country and immerse ourselves in Israeli culture. I guess this has been harder for other people and a much more difficult question for them.

Why has it been so easy for me to come to Israel? One of the skills that I believe we all need is a command of the Hebrew language. Understanding the history of Reform Judaism and knowing that historically Hebrew has not been an integral part of the movement. However, the times are changing and there is a sense that the early reformers missed something in throwing out that aspect. Logically, it would seem that we need to learn Hebrew in this new phase of the reform movement and it is only possible to truly get a handle on a language by being in the land that it is spoken.

As a historian, I also believe that in order for us as the future leaders of the Reform Movement to understand the past of Israel as a land and as a country. Many people in the United States have questions and frustrations with the country of Israel and already I have been asked by people to defend the country's actions. Again, there is no better place than in the land that it happens to study it.

We had a little Tiyul (hike/trip) to look at Jerusalem from a different view. We looked at it from the side that you can completely see the different parts of the city, new old and then there is the wall or border or fence that cuts through the country.

Yesterday was focused on community and understanding peoplehood. We had some more fantastic speakers talk to us and then we went on a Tiyul again. We looked into Jerusalem from Mount Scopus and from the Mount of Olives. It was incredible. Despite the dirt and grime, this country is so beautiful. I couldn't imagine better places to start to learn. I haven't put pictures on my computer yet, so when they are up, you can look at them on Facebook.

It is starting to hit me that school is really just about to start. We've already started to learn Torah and Talmud and it's fantastic, although we don't really delve into that until September. We do get to start to work on Hebrew on Sunday morning. Class starts at 8:30AM! On that note, we also learned our placement for Ulpan. I was surprised to learn that I am going to be in the 4th level out of 5. I don't know how I feel about that. I'm glad that I was placed high, but I don't know that my Hebrew is that good.

We will have to wait and see on Sunday.

It's almost Shabbat and I have a lot to do. So with that,

Shabbat Shalom