Hey Everybody,
Last time I checked in was on Sunday, when I had just finished my first of two tests and was mentally preparing for the fact that I was going to be leaving Jerusalem on Thursday. Well, now it's Thursday.
Over the last few days, I've finished all of my tests, written all of my papers, and lastly, I packed up my whole room. It's kind of cool to be flying to Europe exactly four months after I got on a plane to take me to Israel to begin what will undoubtedly be one of the most meaningful adventures of my life. In the last four months, I've seen a lot of things, met a lot of people, learned a lot about myself, learned a lot about Judaism and the Jewish people, and completely fallen head over heels in love with Israel. Jerusalem has been an amazing backdrop for this adventure of personal and religious discovery, and it saddens me greatly to think of not living here anymore, but I am confident to say that with Jerusalem, I never really say goodbye--more of a "see you soon."
I'll outline you guys on my travel plans just so you have a vague idea of what I'll be up to. I have no idea what kind of internet access I'll have while in Europe, so I make no promises as far as how much (if at all) I'll be able to post, but I promise a really epic post when I get back.
In just a few hours, I will be stepping on a bus to take me to the Airport in Tel Aviv, and from there, I'll be flying to Madrid. I'm going to spend three nights in Madrid, including New Years (which happens to be falling on Shabbat). My friends and I will be giving the Chabad in Madrid a visit, and I'm pretty excited for that as I'm very interested to see what Judaism looks like in a very not Jewish country. We will then be spending two nights in Seville, two nights in Cordoba, and one night in Barcelona.
On the morning of the 7th, I'm getting on a plane at the crack of dawn in Barcelona and flying to Rome (!!!!!!!!!!) to meet a different group of people. I was in no way involved with creating the itinerary, and consequently, I know what we're going to be doing there. What I do know, however, is that we'll be going to Chabad over Shabbat there, so I'll get to compare that with the Chabad in Madrid.
I fly back home on the 11th, adn will be in Jerusalem for a week or so before going down to the south for a seminar with my program, and starting February 2, I will officially be a Kibutznik!
That's what I'm up to for the next month, and I will do my best to check in as often as I can (hopefully with a lot of picture). Until next time, have a good (and safe) New Years, and I can't wait to talk to you all in 2011.
Becca
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Sunday, December 26, 2010
West Bank Weekend, Finals Week and An Anti-Climactic Christmas
Hi Everybody,
Last time I checked in was more than a week and a half ago, making this the longest time I've gone without posting. It's been absolutely insane here because of finals and the fact that the internet at my building has died, so I'm writing this post from the library at Hebrew U. This post is going to be long, I don't have any pictures, so do with it what you will. I'm not going to shorten it because I have more to talk about, so skim around if you want to save yourself time.
I'll start with last Thursday (the 16th). After school, I hung out with some friends for a while, but Thursday night was very cool. I went to the Science Museum and the Israel Museum FOR FREE with one of my staff members and a friend. I had already been to the science museum, so I won't talk about it, but the Israel museum was insane. First off, it's massive. When I say massive, I truly mean massive. In roughly an hour and a half there, we saw about two thousand exhibits, ranging from art, to photography, to a super slow motion video of a bullet going through and exploding a hanging pomegranate. While large portions of the Museum were closed (since it was open late and they weren't charging anything), I still feel like I saw some incredible things. If you're ever in Jerusalem, go.
As I mentioned in my last post, I was going to spend the weekend with Yehuda Katz, a longtime student of the late Shlomo Carlebach (for those of you who don't know who he is, he is the guy who wrote the melodies for a HUGE amount of prayers Jews sing during services). I was very, very excited for it, and to say the least, it was not what I expected it to be.
On Friday, my friend and I got to the central bus station knowing which bus number we needed to catch, but when we asked where that stop was, we were misinformed. By the time we figured out where we needed to be, we were stuck waiting in a long line to get into the central bus station building, and we got the gate right as the bus was pulling away--without us. I called up Yehuda, and he told us which bus to take to get to the point where people going into his town get off the bus and hitchhike into town. His son was going to meet us there. We took the bus he said and got off at the stop we were specified to go to. While we both assumed that hitchhiking to that town was a realyl sketchy operation that would be virtually impossible for two Americans to pull off, we were shocked to find that as we were sitting on a bench on the sidewalk, car after car rolled down their windows and asked if we wanted a ride to Takoa. I asked Yehuda's son (who of course named 'Shalom') if that was a normal thing to do, and he responded that its how everybody gets from Jerusalem to Takoa. I assume now is as good of a time as any to mention that Takoa is a settlement in the West Bank. For those of you who haven't heard about the controversy of the settlements, I highly recommend you do a little bit of research after reading this post, since it's a very interesting controversy.
When we got to his home, we were instantly awed by his view. Through his window, we could see both the Herodian (one of Herod's fortresses from roughly 2000 years ago) and the view of the gorgeous barren desert. The house itself was stylistically Middle Eastern plus Santa Fe and was stunning.
Upon entering the house, we met his wife, who is your classic spiritual hippy who was among the most interesting women I've ever had the privilege to meet. We also learned that the two of them have 6 children and got to meet 4 of them. Since both of the parents are Americans who made Aliyah 17 years ago, at home they speak English while the children all speak Hebrew at school and amongst themselves. It was interesting to note the bilingual atmosphere of the household.
When Yehuda came down the stairs, he looked exhausted, and we remembered that the day we were there was a minor fast day. He was well mannered, but not quite as peppy and talkative as he had been when he did a program for Nativ. After services that night, we partook in a 5 course feast--and found out that they eat like that every Shabbat. It was fascinating for us to see that this guy who plays gigs all over the world with his band and is now promoting his solo music (which I've shamelessly plugged continually for the last two weeks) is just 'Dad' at hom, the guy who has to clean up the dog pee when it goes in the house. After dinner, we played games, read books, and my friend and I had a total blast making up a story out of their 10-year-old daughter's silly band collection. It was absolutely hysterical. The highlight of the night happened when Yehudah's wife was reading a newspaper, and she came across an ad for one of his upcoming performances. She showed him the ad, he smiled, and that was it. The kids didn't react, he wasn't surprised, and no one (except for my friend and I) was even remotely starstruck. It was interesting.
On Saturday morning, instead of waking up to go to services (which we intended to do), we woke up at about 11, just in time for Kiddush and then lunch. Again, we ate a massive feast that was completely delicious in every way shape and form. In the afternoon, we played some more games with the very peppy 10 year old while the rest of the family napped. One of the highlights of the afternoon was getting the chance to study a bit of Torah with Yehuda. He is so knowledgeable about different Jewish texts that hearing him connect various lines to various laws and stories was a fascinating thing to watch and listen to. His perspective is so grounded in Jewish tradition that hearing him talk about it is fascinating.
After Shabbat ended, we did Havdallah, and then we spent a good hour and a half just sitting and talking to Yehuda's wife. Her life story was so interesting as almost everything she did was based on her following her gut feeling and doing whatever felt right to her at the time in which she made her various decisions. Hearing her talk about how she came from New York and found her way to LA and then to Jerusalem was completely fascinating.
When it was time for Yehuda to go to his gig in Jerusalem, my friend and I piled into his car, and we had a really interesting conversation about life in the West Bank, which I'm going to try to tell you about now. The conversation began as we drove downhill a steep road with no street lights. When I asked him why there were no lights, he explained that the Palestinian Government didn't see the need to build street lights, and the Israeli government doesn't worry about it since Palestine has control over the area (even though the Israeli government still rules). While there are areas in the West Bank that are not particularly safe for Jews, within his settlement, there is not any aspect of danger to be seen. Every family leaves its door unlocked since it is a gated community and no one who doesn't live there will be able to come in. As I asked him questions about his interactions with Arabs in surrounding villages, he explains that contact is very minimal as it mostly takes place at supermarkets, and that there is an attitude of live and let live amongst the people who live in the West Bank. The settlements themselves, while controversial, are being built since large plots of land in the West Bank are dirt cheap and building projects cost far less than they do in the major (more expensive) cities. As our car sat in the line to go through the military checkpoint from the West Bank into Jerusalem proper, Yehuda spoke a bit about his experiences at these checkpoints. We watched a truck driver have to get out of his truck, open the back, and watch soldiers go in and search, yet our car was waved right through since we had an Israeli license plate (which is different from the Palestinian plate). The moral of this paragraph is to tell everyone who reads the news about what life is like in Israel, especially as it regards safety and security, that nothing is as the media explains it to be. ESPECIALLY in a place as controversial as Israel. Like with previous things, I'm happy to answer questions if you want to ask them.
He dropped us off at the bus stop and continued on his way to the gig he was playing that night. Before we got out of the car though, he extended a sincere invitation to join him for another Shabbat at some point, so we will MOST DEFINITELY be taking him up on that offer.
This post is just beginning...so keep going everyone.
The last school week was not all that exciting as lots of time was spent in class and in the library, and very little exciting things happened. Sunday (the 19th) was among the most exhausting days ever. I had class from 10:30-2:30, I spent nearly 5 hours in teh library doing research for one of my papers, and then I went to one of my teachers' house to have a makeup class session. I left his house at 10:15 and crashed upon getting home. Monday was a pretty normal day. I had class for a while, came home, wrote a REALLY epic song about Jerusalem (I'll record it as soon as I can and try to get it up on iTunes soon), then went back to class. Tuesday was the same routine of going to class, spending a lot of time in the library, and coming home exhausted.
For our Tuesday night program, we talked about the right of Jews in the Diaspora to influence Israeli life and politics. It was interesting to see how differently people in my group view diaspora-Israel relations. It was also interesting to notice how my own personal views have pretty much flip flopped since getting to Israel 4 months ago.
Wednesday and Thursday had literally only one exciting thing between teh two days: on Wednesday afternoon, I came back from school only to find a girl who was on my bus on an Israel summer program two years ago and went on Nativ last year sitting in the lobby at Beit Nativ. We had a lot of fun catching up and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing about her experience from Nativ last year as she has already done so many of the things that we are preparing to do now. It was also interesting to note that just as our experience is completely shaped by the people who are on the program with us, hers was totally different than ours just by virtue of the people.
Now I'm getting sick of writing, so I'll talk about this weekend in a more quick manner.
I spent this past weekend with my staff member's family in Ramot, a neighborhood in Northwest Jerusalem with 3 boys from the kibbutz track. It was a blast to see how he interacted with his family, and to see the general environment he came from. On Friday, we went to services at a very Carlebach style Shul, and I LOVED the service. I was sitting by myself since I was the only girl from our group going to services at the orthodox shul, so I got to have a completely different experience than I'm normally used to, which was a lot of fun. After services, we came back to his house and enjoyed dinner with his family, the four of us, two of his mothers closest friends, and his family friends from Chicago. There were two languages flying around the table at all times, and I was proud to understand a lot of it. After dinner, we played a really funny game of the Jewish Version of Apples to Apples, and had a really funny time trying to translate some of the cards into Hebrew. Shabbat day was vary low key. We went to shul in the morning, and were amazed at the brisk pace of the service. It is no doubt that services in the states (at conservative congregations at least) are too long, so going to a service that gets everything done in literally an hour and a half is quite refreshing. We got back to my staff member's house and helped prepare some of the appetizers for lunch. After eating yet another incredible meal, we enjoyed some very much needed afternoon naps. Upon doing havdallah that night, we left to head to the bus stop to go back home with a container of his mothers leftover cholent in hand. To say the least, we'll be eating well this next week.
I should probably mention that this past Shabbat was Christmas, and literally, all of us forgot. We remembered to say Merry Christmas at the table in the morning, but we all laughed as we realized how irrelevant Christmas is here. Some of my friends went to Midnight Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, but I was out for the weekend so I didn't.
Today, I woke up, took a final (which was embarrassingly easy for the amount I studied), and am now sitting in the library trying to motivate myself to finish my paper. I'm blogging instead.
This week marks the last week of my stay in Jerusalem as on Thursday, I get on a flight to Spain and then a week later I'm off to Rome. By the beginning of February, I'll be on a Kibbutz.
I'll check in before I go to Europe, and until then, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!
Becca
Last time I checked in was more than a week and a half ago, making this the longest time I've gone without posting. It's been absolutely insane here because of finals and the fact that the internet at my building has died, so I'm writing this post from the library at Hebrew U. This post is going to be long, I don't have any pictures, so do with it what you will. I'm not going to shorten it because I have more to talk about, so skim around if you want to save yourself time.
I'll start with last Thursday (the 16th). After school, I hung out with some friends for a while, but Thursday night was very cool. I went to the Science Museum and the Israel Museum FOR FREE with one of my staff members and a friend. I had already been to the science museum, so I won't talk about it, but the Israel museum was insane. First off, it's massive. When I say massive, I truly mean massive. In roughly an hour and a half there, we saw about two thousand exhibits, ranging from art, to photography, to a super slow motion video of a bullet going through and exploding a hanging pomegranate. While large portions of the Museum were closed (since it was open late and they weren't charging anything), I still feel like I saw some incredible things. If you're ever in Jerusalem, go.
As I mentioned in my last post, I was going to spend the weekend with Yehuda Katz, a longtime student of the late Shlomo Carlebach (for those of you who don't know who he is, he is the guy who wrote the melodies for a HUGE amount of prayers Jews sing during services). I was very, very excited for it, and to say the least, it was not what I expected it to be.
On Friday, my friend and I got to the central bus station knowing which bus number we needed to catch, but when we asked where that stop was, we were misinformed. By the time we figured out where we needed to be, we were stuck waiting in a long line to get into the central bus station building, and we got the gate right as the bus was pulling away--without us. I called up Yehuda, and he told us which bus to take to get to the point where people going into his town get off the bus and hitchhike into town. His son was going to meet us there. We took the bus he said and got off at the stop we were specified to go to. While we both assumed that hitchhiking to that town was a realyl sketchy operation that would be virtually impossible for two Americans to pull off, we were shocked to find that as we were sitting on a bench on the sidewalk, car after car rolled down their windows and asked if we wanted a ride to Takoa. I asked Yehuda's son (who of course named 'Shalom') if that was a normal thing to do, and he responded that its how everybody gets from Jerusalem to Takoa. I assume now is as good of a time as any to mention that Takoa is a settlement in the West Bank. For those of you who haven't heard about the controversy of the settlements, I highly recommend you do a little bit of research after reading this post, since it's a very interesting controversy.
When we got to his home, we were instantly awed by his view. Through his window, we could see both the Herodian (one of Herod's fortresses from roughly 2000 years ago) and the view of the gorgeous barren desert. The house itself was stylistically Middle Eastern plus Santa Fe and was stunning.
Upon entering the house, we met his wife, who is your classic spiritual hippy who was among the most interesting women I've ever had the privilege to meet. We also learned that the two of them have 6 children and got to meet 4 of them. Since both of the parents are Americans who made Aliyah 17 years ago, at home they speak English while the children all speak Hebrew at school and amongst themselves. It was interesting to note the bilingual atmosphere of the household.
When Yehuda came down the stairs, he looked exhausted, and we remembered that the day we were there was a minor fast day. He was well mannered, but not quite as peppy and talkative as he had been when he did a program for Nativ. After services that night, we partook in a 5 course feast--and found out that they eat like that every Shabbat. It was fascinating for us to see that this guy who plays gigs all over the world with his band and is now promoting his solo music (which I've shamelessly plugged continually for the last two weeks) is just 'Dad' at hom, the guy who has to clean up the dog pee when it goes in the house. After dinner, we played games, read books, and my friend and I had a total blast making up a story out of their 10-year-old daughter's silly band collection. It was absolutely hysterical. The highlight of the night happened when Yehudah's wife was reading a newspaper, and she came across an ad for one of his upcoming performances. She showed him the ad, he smiled, and that was it. The kids didn't react, he wasn't surprised, and no one (except for my friend and I) was even remotely starstruck. It was interesting.
On Saturday morning, instead of waking up to go to services (which we intended to do), we woke up at about 11, just in time for Kiddush and then lunch. Again, we ate a massive feast that was completely delicious in every way shape and form. In the afternoon, we played some more games with the very peppy 10 year old while the rest of the family napped. One of the highlights of the afternoon was getting the chance to study a bit of Torah with Yehuda. He is so knowledgeable about different Jewish texts that hearing him connect various lines to various laws and stories was a fascinating thing to watch and listen to. His perspective is so grounded in Jewish tradition that hearing him talk about it is fascinating.
After Shabbat ended, we did Havdallah, and then we spent a good hour and a half just sitting and talking to Yehuda's wife. Her life story was so interesting as almost everything she did was based on her following her gut feeling and doing whatever felt right to her at the time in which she made her various decisions. Hearing her talk about how she came from New York and found her way to LA and then to Jerusalem was completely fascinating.
When it was time for Yehuda to go to his gig in Jerusalem, my friend and I piled into his car, and we had a really interesting conversation about life in the West Bank, which I'm going to try to tell you about now. The conversation began as we drove downhill a steep road with no street lights. When I asked him why there were no lights, he explained that the Palestinian Government didn't see the need to build street lights, and the Israeli government doesn't worry about it since Palestine has control over the area (even though the Israeli government still rules). While there are areas in the West Bank that are not particularly safe for Jews, within his settlement, there is not any aspect of danger to be seen. Every family leaves its door unlocked since it is a gated community and no one who doesn't live there will be able to come in. As I asked him questions about his interactions with Arabs in surrounding villages, he explains that contact is very minimal as it mostly takes place at supermarkets, and that there is an attitude of live and let live amongst the people who live in the West Bank. The settlements themselves, while controversial, are being built since large plots of land in the West Bank are dirt cheap and building projects cost far less than they do in the major (more expensive) cities. As our car sat in the line to go through the military checkpoint from the West Bank into Jerusalem proper, Yehuda spoke a bit about his experiences at these checkpoints. We watched a truck driver have to get out of his truck, open the back, and watch soldiers go in and search, yet our car was waved right through since we had an Israeli license plate (which is different from the Palestinian plate). The moral of this paragraph is to tell everyone who reads the news about what life is like in Israel, especially as it regards safety and security, that nothing is as the media explains it to be. ESPECIALLY in a place as controversial as Israel. Like with previous things, I'm happy to answer questions if you want to ask them.
He dropped us off at the bus stop and continued on his way to the gig he was playing that night. Before we got out of the car though, he extended a sincere invitation to join him for another Shabbat at some point, so we will MOST DEFINITELY be taking him up on that offer.
This post is just beginning...so keep going everyone.
The last school week was not all that exciting as lots of time was spent in class and in the library, and very little exciting things happened. Sunday (the 19th) was among the most exhausting days ever. I had class from 10:30-2:30, I spent nearly 5 hours in teh library doing research for one of my papers, and then I went to one of my teachers' house to have a makeup class session. I left his house at 10:15 and crashed upon getting home. Monday was a pretty normal day. I had class for a while, came home, wrote a REALLY epic song about Jerusalem (I'll record it as soon as I can and try to get it up on iTunes soon), then went back to class. Tuesday was the same routine of going to class, spending a lot of time in the library, and coming home exhausted.
For our Tuesday night program, we talked about the right of Jews in the Diaspora to influence Israeli life and politics. It was interesting to see how differently people in my group view diaspora-Israel relations. It was also interesting to notice how my own personal views have pretty much flip flopped since getting to Israel 4 months ago.
Wednesday and Thursday had literally only one exciting thing between teh two days: on Wednesday afternoon, I came back from school only to find a girl who was on my bus on an Israel summer program two years ago and went on Nativ last year sitting in the lobby at Beit Nativ. We had a lot of fun catching up and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing about her experience from Nativ last year as she has already done so many of the things that we are preparing to do now. It was also interesting to note that just as our experience is completely shaped by the people who are on the program with us, hers was totally different than ours just by virtue of the people.
Now I'm getting sick of writing, so I'll talk about this weekend in a more quick manner.
I spent this past weekend with my staff member's family in Ramot, a neighborhood in Northwest Jerusalem with 3 boys from the kibbutz track. It was a blast to see how he interacted with his family, and to see the general environment he came from. On Friday, we went to services at a very Carlebach style Shul, and I LOVED the service. I was sitting by myself since I was the only girl from our group going to services at the orthodox shul, so I got to have a completely different experience than I'm normally used to, which was a lot of fun. After services, we came back to his house and enjoyed dinner with his family, the four of us, two of his mothers closest friends, and his family friends from Chicago. There were two languages flying around the table at all times, and I was proud to understand a lot of it. After dinner, we played a really funny game of the Jewish Version of Apples to Apples, and had a really funny time trying to translate some of the cards into Hebrew. Shabbat day was vary low key. We went to shul in the morning, and were amazed at the brisk pace of the service. It is no doubt that services in the states (at conservative congregations at least) are too long, so going to a service that gets everything done in literally an hour and a half is quite refreshing. We got back to my staff member's house and helped prepare some of the appetizers for lunch. After eating yet another incredible meal, we enjoyed some very much needed afternoon naps. Upon doing havdallah that night, we left to head to the bus stop to go back home with a container of his mothers leftover cholent in hand. To say the least, we'll be eating well this next week.
I should probably mention that this past Shabbat was Christmas, and literally, all of us forgot. We remembered to say Merry Christmas at the table in the morning, but we all laughed as we realized how irrelevant Christmas is here. Some of my friends went to Midnight Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, but I was out for the weekend so I didn't.
Today, I woke up, took a final (which was embarrassingly easy for the amount I studied), and am now sitting in the library trying to motivate myself to finish my paper. I'm blogging instead.
This week marks the last week of my stay in Jerusalem as on Thursday, I get on a flight to Spain and then a week later I'm off to Rome. By the beginning of February, I'll be on a Kibbutz.
I'll check in before I go to Europe, and until then, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!
Becca
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
A Frum New World?
Hi Everybody,
Last time I checked in, I was attempting to explain a really hectic week. I got tired half way through the post and I said that I would continue it within the next few days. I need to stop making commitments about this blog, because the fact of the matter is that I was way to busy/tired to work on finishing that post. Having said that, I will continue it now. Thanks everyone for being patient.
Before I go on and talk about Thursday, I want to reflect a little bit about (C)han(n)uka(h) in Israel. In the states, from Thanksgiving through New Years, all you hear about is Christmas. It's all over the radio, all over the streets, in every store window, and in everybody's greetings ('Merry Christmas' [or for us P.C. folks, 'Happy Holidays']). Every young Jew has at some point looked at his or her parents and asked why there aren't (C)han(n)uka(h) decorations everywhere only to hear some inadequate response that leaves the child wondering why she still doesn't know all the words to 'Jingle Bell Rock.' In Israel, I wonder if the Christian kids ask their parents the same thing about Christmas. While the radios don't play (C)han(n)uka(h) carols (as they don't really exist in the same way), the streets are covered in decorations, every storekeeper has a Chanukiah in her window, and cars with giant Chanukiot attached to the roofs drive around the streets with chipper (C)han(n)uka(h) music blasting. I'm going to attach a few pictures of some of these decorations in addition to some pictures of candle lighting and other festivities that happened during the holiday here. I'll mention that I realize that the pictures aren't showing up in the emails that some people are getting, and if that is the case again here, just click on this link so you can see the pictures: http://beccarosenthal.blogspot.com/
Last weekend was the final of three consecutive weekends in Jerusalem in which the museums and many other cites in the city decided to be open very late on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.Thus, on Thursday night, a bunch of friends and I decided to go to the science museum in Jerusalem. While I don't tend to like museums, I found this one very cool. The coolest exhibit was one on deep sea life. I took a bunch of pictures of their pictures of things that live at very deep depths. Here are a few of my favorite pictures of strange looking deep sea creatures.
thursday - school, science museum
I spent the weekend in a community called Nof Hayalon which is a small Ultra Orthodox neighborhood about 10 minutes out of Modi'in. My friend and I were hosted by a family with two Ba'al Tshuvah (not born religious) Belgian parents and two kids (12 and 6). It was like being dropped in an Orthodox Utopia. The family left its doors unlocked since the community is made up of roughly 300 families who all know each other. On Friday night, we went to services at one of the four shuls in the village and were interested to see that all four of the synagogues were directly adjacent to one another. After services, literally the entire community was outside socializing. It was quite the sight to see.
After a delicious dinner with the family, we went to a community meeting that was talking about the effect of the outside secular world on the community, especially the kids. This meeting was really interesting for a few reasons, and as normal, I'm just going to use my handy dandy list to explain it to you.
1) It was all in Hebrew, and though I had an American woman sitting next to me to help translate, I actually didn't need her much as I understood pretty much everything. For those of you who have ever tried to learn another language and understanding it when spoken by people speaking quickly and without enunciation, you will realize that this is a big deal. I was quite proud of myself.
2) The men and the women were sitting separately. This is due to modesty principles, and while I was a bit shocked at first, I found a lot of benefits to this system. The women were all having a ball whispering comments to their closest friends who were sitting conveniently right next to them, and since both men and women were on the panel and both men and women were asking questions, there was nothing even remotely sexist about the set up. It was just how it was.
3) As far as the content goes, it was fascinating. The village is strictly Ultra-Orthodox, so everyone dresses according to religious modesty laws, everybody keeps Shabbat, and everybody keeps strict Halacha (Jewish law). Having said that, people work in the non Religious world, and thus people are exposed to things that aren't in accordance with their religious principles all the time. The questions raised mostly had to do with kids, in terms of what movies they could watch, what games they should play, and where they should be able to spend free time. Though it seemed like paranoid banter, when I thought about the fact that in this culture boys and girls don't physically touch anyone of the opposite gender except for their immediate family members, the kids don't see people wearing low cut shirts or skirts, women don't wear pants (they only wear skirts), and violence/drugs/other things movies expose kids to are going to be totally shell shocking to these kids, it becomes more apparent why this type of exposure is feared. It was fascinating for me to try to view the world in which I live through a totally different lens.
4) Israelis love to yell at each other even when they aren't fighting. I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but Israelis are not known for their manners. Consequently, it's no surprise that when they are having a heated discussion, they aren't exactly mildly mannered. Having said that, after a long yelling battle between two fully grown men, there is no tension, no feelings hurt, and no change in their relationship. It is completely perplexing.
On Saturday morning, my friend and I expected to be woken up to go to Shul in the morning, but when we looked at the clock upon waking up and saw that it was 11:30, we had a feeling that Shul probably wouldn't happen. We got ourselves dressed right in time for lunch. After finishing eating, the family decided that they wanted to sing some shabbat songs, and one of the funniest song sessions I've ever participated in began. It started off with the 12 year old daughter deciding that she wanted to sing "Mi Yimallel", the Channukah song, in a round. Unfortunately, 2/3 of the family is totally tone deaf and can't keep a rhythem. She decided that the parents would start the round, followed by my friend and me, and then she and her friend would join in. She and her friend never started singing, though, since they were too busy laughing at her poor father who couldn't figure out the round to save his life. For those of you who don't spend large portions of your lives singing in rounds, I'm sorry, since you are really missing out. It's quite entertaining. We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out, shmoozing with the family, and watching in awe as this 12-year-old girl had friends running in and out of the house all afternoon. After Havdallah that night, we were driven back to Modi'in, and we hopped on a bus back to Jerusalem. The weekend got me thinking in a really interesting way.
While I can't honestly say that I could picture myself becoming Frum (Ultra Orthodox), I can say that there are a lot of aspects of Frum life that I could really see myself being a part of. Firstly, the amount of love and support that the whole community has for everyone else in the community is so apparent. Everyone knows everyone else; one person's simcha (joyous occasion) is everyone's simcha. Furthermore, the feeling of a real quiet shabbat is magical. Imagine an entire day without a sound of a car going by--once a week every single week. It sounds like heaven. The weekend definitely got me thinking about the kind of community I want to live in when I'm older.
Sunday and Monday were both non-eventful, and since this post is long, I'm only going to mention one crazy thing: THE WIND IN JERUSALEM WENT CRAZY! For nearly the entire day on Sunday, winds were ranging from 30-45 mph. Street signs were blowing everywhere, trees were horizontal, and people were getting blown off course left and right. I did a wall sit into the wind at one point. It was absolutely nuts.
Tuesday was an average day, but on Tuesday night, our program watched a very interesting movie called 'Trembling Before G-d'. It has to do with the issue of homosexuality in the Orthodox tradition. The documentary interviewed many gays and lesbians who are attempting to live according to a tradition that tells them that being gay is a sin punishable by death. It is a fascinating Documentary, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in the conflict between Religion and morality.
Today (Wednesday) was a very productive day as I went to class, worked for a few hours between classes, and then went to another class. After school, I had dinner with Rachel Heinstein in Talpiyot.
As this post is very long and I'm sure you are all as tired of reading as I am of writing, I'll just say that the next post is going to be an interesting one as well (I hope) as I am spending my weekend with the guy in this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F0dqkRC6g8&feature=youtube_gdata_player
I'm so excited!
Becca
Last time I checked in, I was attempting to explain a really hectic week. I got tired half way through the post and I said that I would continue it within the next few days. I need to stop making commitments about this blog, because the fact of the matter is that I was way to busy/tired to work on finishing that post. Having said that, I will continue it now. Thanks everyone for being patient.
Before I go on and talk about Thursday, I want to reflect a little bit about (C)han(n)uka(h) in Israel. In the states, from Thanksgiving through New Years, all you hear about is Christmas. It's all over the radio, all over the streets, in every store window, and in everybody's greetings ('Merry Christmas' [or for us P.C. folks, 'Happy Holidays']). Every young Jew has at some point looked at his or her parents and asked why there aren't (C)han(n)uka(h) decorations everywhere only to hear some inadequate response that leaves the child wondering why she still doesn't know all the words to 'Jingle Bell Rock.' In Israel, I wonder if the Christian kids ask their parents the same thing about Christmas. While the radios don't play (C)han(n)uka(h) carols (as they don't really exist in the same way), the streets are covered in decorations, every storekeeper has a Chanukiah in her window, and cars with giant Chanukiot attached to the roofs drive around the streets with chipper (C)han(n)uka(h) music blasting. I'm going to attach a few pictures of some of these decorations in addition to some pictures of candle lighting and other festivities that happened during the holiday here. I'll mention that I realize that the pictures aren't showing up in the emails that some people are getting, and if that is the case again here, just click on this link so you can see the pictures: http://beccarosenthal.blogspot.com/
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| This is the Channukiah I made and lit during the holiday |
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| Two of my friends lighting their candles. I don't know what made the camera do this, but I thought it was cool. |
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| This is on most every street pole in the streets surrounding where I live |
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| One of our staff members. I found this picture too funny to not show everyone |
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| This is the only picture I got of one of the cars with a Chanukiah on top of it. I'm sorry that you can't really see what's going on. |
Last weekend was the final of three consecutive weekends in Jerusalem in which the museums and many other cites in the city decided to be open very late on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.Thus, on Thursday night, a bunch of friends and I decided to go to the science museum in Jerusalem. While I don't tend to like museums, I found this one very cool. The coolest exhibit was one on deep sea life. I took a bunch of pictures of their pictures of things that live at very deep depths. Here are a few of my favorite pictures of strange looking deep sea creatures.
thursday - school, science museum
I spent the weekend in a community called Nof Hayalon which is a small Ultra Orthodox neighborhood about 10 minutes out of Modi'in. My friend and I were hosted by a family with two Ba'al Tshuvah (not born religious) Belgian parents and two kids (12 and 6). It was like being dropped in an Orthodox Utopia. The family left its doors unlocked since the community is made up of roughly 300 families who all know each other. On Friday night, we went to services at one of the four shuls in the village and were interested to see that all four of the synagogues were directly adjacent to one another. After services, literally the entire community was outside socializing. It was quite the sight to see.
After a delicious dinner with the family, we went to a community meeting that was talking about the effect of the outside secular world on the community, especially the kids. This meeting was really interesting for a few reasons, and as normal, I'm just going to use my handy dandy list to explain it to you.
1) It was all in Hebrew, and though I had an American woman sitting next to me to help translate, I actually didn't need her much as I understood pretty much everything. For those of you who have ever tried to learn another language and understanding it when spoken by people speaking quickly and without enunciation, you will realize that this is a big deal. I was quite proud of myself.
2) The men and the women were sitting separately. This is due to modesty principles, and while I was a bit shocked at first, I found a lot of benefits to this system. The women were all having a ball whispering comments to their closest friends who were sitting conveniently right next to them, and since both men and women were on the panel and both men and women were asking questions, there was nothing even remotely sexist about the set up. It was just how it was.
3) As far as the content goes, it was fascinating. The village is strictly Ultra-Orthodox, so everyone dresses according to religious modesty laws, everybody keeps Shabbat, and everybody keeps strict Halacha (Jewish law). Having said that, people work in the non Religious world, and thus people are exposed to things that aren't in accordance with their religious principles all the time. The questions raised mostly had to do with kids, in terms of what movies they could watch, what games they should play, and where they should be able to spend free time. Though it seemed like paranoid banter, when I thought about the fact that in this culture boys and girls don't physically touch anyone of the opposite gender except for their immediate family members, the kids don't see people wearing low cut shirts or skirts, women don't wear pants (they only wear skirts), and violence/drugs/other things movies expose kids to are going to be totally shell shocking to these kids, it becomes more apparent why this type of exposure is feared. It was fascinating for me to try to view the world in which I live through a totally different lens.
4) Israelis love to yell at each other even when they aren't fighting. I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but Israelis are not known for their manners. Consequently, it's no surprise that when they are having a heated discussion, they aren't exactly mildly mannered. Having said that, after a long yelling battle between two fully grown men, there is no tension, no feelings hurt, and no change in their relationship. It is completely perplexing.
On Saturday morning, my friend and I expected to be woken up to go to Shul in the morning, but when we looked at the clock upon waking up and saw that it was 11:30, we had a feeling that Shul probably wouldn't happen. We got ourselves dressed right in time for lunch. After finishing eating, the family decided that they wanted to sing some shabbat songs, and one of the funniest song sessions I've ever participated in began. It started off with the 12 year old daughter deciding that she wanted to sing "Mi Yimallel", the Channukah song, in a round. Unfortunately, 2/3 of the family is totally tone deaf and can't keep a rhythem. She decided that the parents would start the round, followed by my friend and me, and then she and her friend would join in. She and her friend never started singing, though, since they were too busy laughing at her poor father who couldn't figure out the round to save his life. For those of you who don't spend large portions of your lives singing in rounds, I'm sorry, since you are really missing out. It's quite entertaining. We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out, shmoozing with the family, and watching in awe as this 12-year-old girl had friends running in and out of the house all afternoon. After Havdallah that night, we were driven back to Modi'in, and we hopped on a bus back to Jerusalem. The weekend got me thinking in a really interesting way.
While I can't honestly say that I could picture myself becoming Frum (Ultra Orthodox), I can say that there are a lot of aspects of Frum life that I could really see myself being a part of. Firstly, the amount of love and support that the whole community has for everyone else in the community is so apparent. Everyone knows everyone else; one person's simcha (joyous occasion) is everyone's simcha. Furthermore, the feeling of a real quiet shabbat is magical. Imagine an entire day without a sound of a car going by--once a week every single week. It sounds like heaven. The weekend definitely got me thinking about the kind of community I want to live in when I'm older.
Sunday and Monday were both non-eventful, and since this post is long, I'm only going to mention one crazy thing: THE WIND IN JERUSALEM WENT CRAZY! For nearly the entire day on Sunday, winds were ranging from 30-45 mph. Street signs were blowing everywhere, trees were horizontal, and people were getting blown off course left and right. I did a wall sit into the wind at one point. It was absolutely nuts.
Tuesday was an average day, but on Tuesday night, our program watched a very interesting movie called 'Trembling Before G-d'. It has to do with the issue of homosexuality in the Orthodox tradition. The documentary interviewed many gays and lesbians who are attempting to live according to a tradition that tells them that being gay is a sin punishable by death. It is a fascinating Documentary, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in the conflict between Religion and morality.
Today (Wednesday) was a very productive day as I went to class, worked for a few hours between classes, and then went to another class. After school, I had dinner with Rachel Heinstein in Talpiyot.
As this post is very long and I'm sure you are all as tired of reading as I am of writing, I'll just say that the next post is going to be an interesting one as well (I hope) as I am spending my weekend with the guy in this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F0dqkRC6g8&feature=youtube_gdata_player
I'm so excited!
Becca
Sunday, December 12, 2010
A Hectic Week in the Holy Land
Hey Everyone,
At the end of last week's post, I mentioned that there was a log to look forward to this week, and to be quite honest, the week didn't disappoint. This post is going to be really long since so much happened, but you're all used to that by now. Plus, I'll have some visual aids, so you won't be too bored.
Monday was a really low key day since my late afternoon class and football game was canceled. I had all of this free time, it was really cold (it now actually feels like winter) and I didn't quite know what to do with myself. I wound up going out to dinner with a few friends to this really cute soup place which had really nice soups made with fresh fruits and veggies. It was a really nice low key evening.
Tuesday was set to be a really productive day. I was going to go to class, work on my paper that was due the next day, and then go to our mandatory program at night. As always, it didn't go as planned. After my mid-day class, instead of going to the library and working on a paper, I met up with Hannah and Deborah Sosebee, two family friends from home. We wandered aimlessly around the old city and wound up walking through a Jewish elementary school. It was cool to see parts of the city that had no tourists anywhere to be found. I forgot my camera, though, so I couldn't get any pictures.
Tuesday night, our program took us to David's Citadel to see a light show that showed the history of Jerusalem projected onto the ancient walls. As we walked through mamilla (a very high end tourist shopping center) to get there, we got to see a really cool display of lights. It looked just like the Christmas lights at home that all of us are craving. A picture is below. While the show itself was a little bit tacky, it was cool to see the fusion of modern technology with ancient locations. That seems to be a trend here in Jerusalem.
Wednesday, I woke up early to go and join the Women of the Wall for their monthly Rosh Chodesh prayer. Because of how extensively I discussed it last month, I'm going to stay away from the description of the group and the basic framework of the event and instead tell you about the things that were different. If you are interested in the background info, though, I highly recommend you check out my post on the Women of the Wall from about a month ago. Here is the link: http://beccarosenthal.blogspot.com/2010/11/women-of-wall.html. I'm also going to apologize, becuase this time, I was far more focused on teh actual service and far less focused on taking pictures. While this enhanced my experience, it doesn't exactly aid yours, so I'm sorry.
Here are some of the biggest differences I saw:
1) This month, there were significantly more men at the Kotel. I don't know if the boost in numbers represent a larger counter protest or if Channukah brought out more men to the Kotel, but regardless, it was quite distinct. Furthermore, there were more women at the wall as well. Here is a picture of the most interesting protesting man. This is interesting for many reasons. firstly, I was yelled at last month because I was visible to the men while standing on a chair. It is no problem that a man is standing on the chair visible to the women. Secondly, he wasn't really yelling. He was just swaying back and forth with his hands up. Thirdly, the wall is viewed to many people as being so sacred that one should never turn his or her back to it, yet his back is turned to the wall. Finally (and having nothing to do with the man), you can see the Channukiah in the background. During the Holiday in Israel, there are channukiot EVERYWHERE, and the Kotel is no different. Every night they did a candle lighting ceremony at the wall.
2) The women were asking different questions and yelling different things. Instead of being told that I was a slut, dog, pig, goy, etc, I was asked why I didn't have a beard or a mustache or why I wasn't wrapping tfillin (see the photo above for what that is). I enjoyed answering those women that I didn't want to look like a circus freak. I found it far more amusing than they did, but having said that, both of us were laughing at the other.
3) The service felt much more genuine. Last month, I noted that the service didn't seem like a real service, but this month, I really enjoyed the davening that took place. More of the women seemed to have an idea of what was going on in the service, and thus, much more respect was given to the prayer by those davening.
4) The group was smaller. This really demonstrated to me that lack of a large core. Many people who go to join the Women of the Wall go once or twice, and that's it. There aren't that many regulars, though there are obviously a few.
5) One women walked up to the security guard and asked if the Rabbi of the Kotel approved our presence at the wall. The security guard answered her with something that I thought to be the most powerful quote of the day: "he didn't. The law did."
That's about it for Women of the Wall. I'll repeat the same thing that I said last month, which is that if anyone wants to talk to me more in depth about it, feel free to contact me at beccarosenthal@gmail.com or (assuming you are calling from somewhere outside of Israel)
011 050 407 6783.
After my Philosophy class on Wednesday, I had my first exposure to a real college library when I went to do some research for one of my four final papers due in the next 3 weeks. The library at Hebrew U is MASSIVE and has so many books in so many languages that I was more overwhelmed than I had been in a very long time. Having said that, though, I was able to go on the library computers, search for what I needed, and find everything I wanted BY MYSELF! I was really proud.
Wednesday night was one of the coolest experiences I've had since coming to Israel as a group of roughly 10 nativers took a walk through Mea Sha'arim, the biggest Chareidi (black hat) neighborhood in Jerusalem to look at the Channukiot and talk about the culture there with the assistant director of our program. Becuase of the religious nature of the neighborhood, all of us got dressed in our most frummy outfits. It was really interesting to note how people on the street looked at us when we were wearing long skirts compared to jeans. It was definitely different. I can't say better or worse, I can just say different.
I'm going to preface my discussion of Mea Sha'arim by saying that entering this neighborhood is like stepping out of the modern world and stepping onto a different planet. This community is based on the notion that change from Jewish life as it was in the shtettles in 19th century Europe is not only unnecessary, but dangerous and bad. Most homes to do not have internet, communication takes place in teh form of large posters (generally in black and white) plastered all over the neighborhood. Many people don't work as they only study torah all day, and thus, the neighborhood is very poor. There is trash all over, and there is lots of vandalism (mostly by bored Chareidi teenagers who don't want to live that lifestyle but don't really have an alternative as they can't go the army, university, or anything else that reflects non-Chareidi Israeli society). Here are some pictures. I'll explain them in the captions. That seems to be the easiest way to transmit information about this different world.
I hope you enjoyed your photo tour of Mea Sha'arim.
I have just hit Thursday morning in my post. I'm tire of writing and I'm sure you're tired of reading, so I'm going to stop here and explain the rest of the week either tonight or tomorrow, so until then, talk to you soon,
Becca,
At the end of last week's post, I mentioned that there was a log to look forward to this week, and to be quite honest, the week didn't disappoint. This post is going to be really long since so much happened, but you're all used to that by now. Plus, I'll have some visual aids, so you won't be too bored.
Monday was a really low key day since my late afternoon class and football game was canceled. I had all of this free time, it was really cold (it now actually feels like winter) and I didn't quite know what to do with myself. I wound up going out to dinner with a few friends to this really cute soup place which had really nice soups made with fresh fruits and veggies. It was a really nice low key evening.
Tuesday was set to be a really productive day. I was going to go to class, work on my paper that was due the next day, and then go to our mandatory program at night. As always, it didn't go as planned. After my mid-day class, instead of going to the library and working on a paper, I met up with Hannah and Deborah Sosebee, two family friends from home. We wandered aimlessly around the old city and wound up walking through a Jewish elementary school. It was cool to see parts of the city that had no tourists anywhere to be found. I forgot my camera, though, so I couldn't get any pictures.
Tuesday night, our program took us to David's Citadel to see a light show that showed the history of Jerusalem projected onto the ancient walls. As we walked through mamilla (a very high end tourist shopping center) to get there, we got to see a really cool display of lights. It looked just like the Christmas lights at home that all of us are craving. A picture is below. While the show itself was a little bit tacky, it was cool to see the fusion of modern technology with ancient locations. That seems to be a trend here in Jerusalem.
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| This is the Channukiah that was located at the Jaffa Gate outside of the old city. |
Wednesday, I woke up early to go and join the Women of the Wall for their monthly Rosh Chodesh prayer. Because of how extensively I discussed it last month, I'm going to stay away from the description of the group and the basic framework of the event and instead tell you about the things that were different. If you are interested in the background info, though, I highly recommend you check out my post on the Women of the Wall from about a month ago. Here is the link: http://beccarosenthal.blogspot.com/2010/11/women-of-wall.html. I'm also going to apologize, becuase this time, I was far more focused on teh actual service and far less focused on taking pictures. While this enhanced my experience, it doesn't exactly aid yours, so I'm sorry.
Here are some of the biggest differences I saw:
1) This month, there were significantly more men at the Kotel. I don't know if the boost in numbers represent a larger counter protest or if Channukah brought out more men to the Kotel, but regardless, it was quite distinct. Furthermore, there were more women at the wall as well. Here is a picture of the most interesting protesting man. This is interesting for many reasons. firstly, I was yelled at last month because I was visible to the men while standing on a chair. It is no problem that a man is standing on the chair visible to the women. Secondly, he wasn't really yelling. He was just swaying back and forth with his hands up. Thirdly, the wall is viewed to many people as being so sacred that one should never turn his or her back to it, yet his back is turned to the wall. Finally (and having nothing to do with the man), you can see the Channukiah in the background. During the Holiday in Israel, there are channukiot EVERYWHERE, and the Kotel is no different. Every night they did a candle lighting ceremony at the wall.
2) The women were asking different questions and yelling different things. Instead of being told that I was a slut, dog, pig, goy, etc, I was asked why I didn't have a beard or a mustache or why I wasn't wrapping tfillin (see the photo above for what that is). I enjoyed answering those women that I didn't want to look like a circus freak. I found it far more amusing than they did, but having said that, both of us were laughing at the other.
3) The service felt much more genuine. Last month, I noted that the service didn't seem like a real service, but this month, I really enjoyed the davening that took place. More of the women seemed to have an idea of what was going on in the service, and thus, much more respect was given to the prayer by those davening.
4) The group was smaller. This really demonstrated to me that lack of a large core. Many people who go to join the Women of the Wall go once or twice, and that's it. There aren't that many regulars, though there are obviously a few.
5) One women walked up to the security guard and asked if the Rabbi of the Kotel approved our presence at the wall. The security guard answered her with something that I thought to be the most powerful quote of the day: "he didn't. The law did."
That's about it for Women of the Wall. I'll repeat the same thing that I said last month, which is that if anyone wants to talk to me more in depth about it, feel free to contact me at beccarosenthal@gmail.com or (assuming you are calling from somewhere outside of Israel)
011 050 407 6783.
After my Philosophy class on Wednesday, I had my first exposure to a real college library when I went to do some research for one of my four final papers due in the next 3 weeks. The library at Hebrew U is MASSIVE and has so many books in so many languages that I was more overwhelmed than I had been in a very long time. Having said that, though, I was able to go on the library computers, search for what I needed, and find everything I wanted BY MYSELF! I was really proud.
Wednesday night was one of the coolest experiences I've had since coming to Israel as a group of roughly 10 nativers took a walk through Mea Sha'arim, the biggest Chareidi (black hat) neighborhood in Jerusalem to look at the Channukiot and talk about the culture there with the assistant director of our program. Becuase of the religious nature of the neighborhood, all of us got dressed in our most frummy outfits. It was really interesting to note how people on the street looked at us when we were wearing long skirts compared to jeans. It was definitely different. I can't say better or worse, I can just say different.
I'm going to preface my discussion of Mea Sha'arim by saying that entering this neighborhood is like stepping out of the modern world and stepping onto a different planet. This community is based on the notion that change from Jewish life as it was in the shtettles in 19th century Europe is not only unnecessary, but dangerous and bad. Most homes to do not have internet, communication takes place in teh form of large posters (generally in black and white) plastered all over the neighborhood. Many people don't work as they only study torah all day, and thus, the neighborhood is very poor. There is trash all over, and there is lots of vandalism (mostly by bored Chareidi teenagers who don't want to live that lifestyle but don't really have an alternative as they can't go the army, university, or anything else that reflects non-Chareidi Israeli society). Here are some pictures. I'll explain them in the captions. That seems to be the easiest way to transmit information about this different world.
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| This is an example of some of the posters that exist in the neighborhood. The one on the right is talking about a type of olive oil that is Kosher for use for a Chanukkiah but not for eating. The neon poster next to it reflects a difference in advertising methods in this neighborhood vs any neighborhood you would have seen. In the modern world, advertisements should pop off a page and be as attention grabbing as possible with pictures, witty tag lines, or anything else that will make someone focus. In Mea Sha'arim, this neon advertisement serves as that. |
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| This sign translates to something along the lines of: it is forbidden to watch movies. It is written by a person who lives in the neighborhood who the group believes is a Rabbi, but assumes is not anyone in a particularly high position of power. The fact that this sign exists in the neighborhood shows that they find movie watching to be an issue. This reflects the fear of integration into the non-chareidi world. Even modern orthodox is a scary idea for these people. |
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| I want to preface this picture by apologizing for the picture quality. The photo was taken from across the street with terrible lighting and I had to awkwardly alter the picture to make the message readable. The message reflects an extreme ideology among the ultra religious, claiming that a Jewish state should not exist until the arrival of the messiah. Since the Messia hasn't come yet, many ultra orthodox jews believe that the state of Israel shouldn't exist either. While you may ask why these people choose to live in the Jewish state, the answer is simple: they lived here far before the Jewish state existed. They weren't going to move because of a change in soveirnty, but they do make a point to not participate in teh system. They don't serve in the army, they don't pay taxes (also because they are too poor to pay them), and they are in virtually every way seperate from society. |
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| While the Chareidim are known for being mean people who throw rocks at people who aren't a part of their society, the reality is not so simple. This bookshelf is made up of donated books by people in the community. The idea is that if someone buys a new set of Jewish books (which are not cheap), they donate their old ones to a Jewish book store. Then old set is purchased by someone who can't afford a new set of books for a very low price, and thus, they can study. Similar systems exist for clothing, wedding dresses, and more. |
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| This is a display of Channukiot. The rule is that people should put their Channukiot in the most visible place in their house, so many people choose to put boxes outside of their homes to make the Channukiot most visible from the street. It was the 8th night of Channukah, so they were were quite beautiful. |
I hope you enjoyed your photo tour of Mea Sha'arim.
I have just hit Thursday morning in my post. I'm tire of writing and I'm sure you're tired of reading, so I'm going to stop here and explain the rest of the week either tonight or tomorrow, so until then, talk to you soon,
Becca,
Sunday, December 5, 2010
A Firey Celebration of Lights
Hey Everybody,
Last time I checked in was Tuesday afternoon. Channukah was on its way and it looked as though a pretty low key week was in my future. To say the least, that didn't happen. This post is going to be quite long, but I'll have some visuals to make it more fun.
On Wednesday morning, a group of roughly 10 of us woke up my newly 18-year-old roommate to a rousing version of happy birthday. We had purchased some sparklers, and when we lit them, the sparks popped some of the balloons that we had scattered her bad as she slept (it is not as creepy as it sounds). It was really entertaining, though she looked as though she was going to kill us for waking her up before her alarm.
That day was a very long day though. I went to school and got mind-blown in my Philosophy class as our teacher explained how morality and mortality are related just as immorality and immortality (G-d) are related. It was the most mindblowing thing ever. If you want me to try to explain it to you, I'm sorry. Read Derida and see if that helps. After a long break, I had a double session of my Holocaust class since my teacher is missing a class tomorrow. While spending 3 hours of class time on issues surrounding life in the Holocaust is normally a less than exciting experience, we all got a really cool break between the two hour and a half sessions: we walked into the lobby area outside of the classroom only to see a group of roughly 15 people standing around a Chanukiah waiting for a bunch of people to show up so they could light the chanukah candles and sing songs for the holiday. After we lit the candles, we ate Sufganiot (fried jelly donuts) that they gave out for free. As a side note: if you have never eaten a sufganiah, GO TO ISRAEL DURING THIS TIME OF YEAR, GO TO ANY BAKERY ANYWHERE, AND BUY 500 OF THEM. THEY ARE TRULY THE MOST DELICIOUS (albeit fattening as hell) THINGS IN THE WORLD. After class ended, I came home, went out for sushi to celebrate my roommates birthday, and went to bed.
Thursday was a very mixed day as I had a great day, but a HUGE natural disaster began in Israel. After school, I got to see the Hillel theater's production of one of my all time favorite show: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Many Nativers were in the show, so getting to cheer them on during opening night was a lot of fun, especially since I know virtually all the words to the show. However, as soon as we turned on our phones at the end of the show, we saw a text from the director of our program telling us that a huge fire had begun in the North of Israel and 40 people had been killed while over 10,000 people were evacuated. The experience of celebrating a holiday commemorating candles burning while the north of Israel was simultaneously burning was pretty intense. For those of you who don't know about this fire, just look it up on google. Only today (77 hours after the fire began burning) did the firemen say that it was under control. International help from nearly 10 different countries were also required for the operation.
Shabbat was very uneventful. Friday during the day I didn't do anything really exciting as I just rested, learned the service that I would be leading that night, and (after dinner) took a walk around our area with a friend of mine. Saturday was equally uneventful. We spent literally all morning praying (since Hannukah services on Shabbat are REALLY long), and I spent the afternoon speaking with a representative of New Frontier USY, the region I would have been in had I not been a part of BBYO. While I expected the conversation to last all of 20 minutes, it wound up taking roughly two and a half hours. We talked about USY vs. BBYO, the conservative movement, life, and almost everything in between. It was a very cool moment.
Saturday night was absolutely amazing. After havdallah, the Kibbutz group had a latke making party. A group of four of us began prep, and it was really interesting to see how much our family traditons for cooking a very traditional Jewish food varied. Two of us believed that the potatoes and onions needed to be grated; one girl was sure that everything ahd to be blended together to remove all texture and fun from her latkes; one boy decided that the ingredients had to be chopped by hand. Thus, in our little bomb shelter kitchen, all three methods were used. Ultimately, the grater people won (pun intended).
As the whole group started showing up, everyone joined the party and helped prep food. We had people working the four different hot plate fry pans, making more batter, and providing moral support. Someone also brought down an iPod, so naturally, a dance party in the kitchen ensued. I can't possibly describe the feeling of having a dance party to awkward bar-mitzvah-party music while prepping and cooking latkes. It was among the most fun nights we've had in a very long time. Here are some pictures of the night.
After that, a few friends and I went out to an area with a few bars and had an experience that can truly happen only in Israel. A man who sells grilled corn to people walking around the busy street handed us a candle and a lighter and told us to find people to light candles with to do the mitzvah right outside his stand. We looked across the way and noticed a little glass box with some oil candles set up. Naturally, we lit the candles, said the blessings, and sang Chanukkah songs for a good while. The strangest part of this story, strangely enough, is that we got very few strange looks. During the Channukah season in Israel, almost everything involving a Chanukkiah is fair game.
This morning, I got to learn about the Channukah story in a very direct way: I learned about it from the book of Macabbees at the site of the battles. Led by our program's assistant director, a group of roughly 20 people hopped on a bus this morning to set out for an area outside the newest Israeli city of Modiin, the area where the Maccabeen revolt happened. He walked us to a viewpoint, took out a bible, and proceeded to read us accounts from the book of Joshua and the book of Macabees (which is not actually in the Hebrew bible). He supplimented his reading with phrases like "in this valley" and "by the hills over there" in a way that really gives meaning to 'Nes Gadol Haya Po" (a great miracle happened here) as opposed to "Nes Gadol Haya Sham." (a great miracle happened there). Goys, I'm sorry. We also went into remains of one of the ancient cities that a specific battle was fought in. There, I ate my first freshly picked carobs, and we continued talking about the history of the place that we were standing in. It was a pretty surreal experience, and all of us felt a stronger attachment to the story after seeing the land itself.
This afternoon, our group went to volenteer at an old age home to bring them some channukah cheer, but due to issues with public transportation and finding room on buses for 60 people, about 15 of us missed most of it. Afterward, I went out to dinner with a friend and his mother who treated a group of nearly 20 to some of the best food I've had since getting to Israel.
This week, there is quite a bit to look forward to (I'm going back to join the Women of the Wall on Wednesday), and I'm sure the end of Channukah will be quite cool here also. I'll keep you posted as things happen. Until then, Chag Sameach, and I'll check in soon!
Becca
Last time I checked in was Tuesday afternoon. Channukah was on its way and it looked as though a pretty low key week was in my future. To say the least, that didn't happen. This post is going to be quite long, but I'll have some visuals to make it more fun.
On Wednesday morning, a group of roughly 10 of us woke up my newly 18-year-old roommate to a rousing version of happy birthday. We had purchased some sparklers, and when we lit them, the sparks popped some of the balloons that we had scattered her bad as she slept (it is not as creepy as it sounds). It was really entertaining, though she looked as though she was going to kill us for waking her up before her alarm.
That day was a very long day though. I went to school and got mind-blown in my Philosophy class as our teacher explained how morality and mortality are related just as immorality and immortality (G-d) are related. It was the most mindblowing thing ever. If you want me to try to explain it to you, I'm sorry. Read Derida and see if that helps. After a long break, I had a double session of my Holocaust class since my teacher is missing a class tomorrow. While spending 3 hours of class time on issues surrounding life in the Holocaust is normally a less than exciting experience, we all got a really cool break between the two hour and a half sessions: we walked into the lobby area outside of the classroom only to see a group of roughly 15 people standing around a Chanukiah waiting for a bunch of people to show up so they could light the chanukah candles and sing songs for the holiday. After we lit the candles, we ate Sufganiot (fried jelly donuts) that they gave out for free. As a side note: if you have never eaten a sufganiah, GO TO ISRAEL DURING THIS TIME OF YEAR, GO TO ANY BAKERY ANYWHERE, AND BUY 500 OF THEM. THEY ARE TRULY THE MOST DELICIOUS (albeit fattening as hell) THINGS IN THE WORLD. After class ended, I came home, went out for sushi to celebrate my roommates birthday, and went to bed.
Thursday was a very mixed day as I had a great day, but a HUGE natural disaster began in Israel. After school, I got to see the Hillel theater's production of one of my all time favorite show: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Many Nativers were in the show, so getting to cheer them on during opening night was a lot of fun, especially since I know virtually all the words to the show. However, as soon as we turned on our phones at the end of the show, we saw a text from the director of our program telling us that a huge fire had begun in the North of Israel and 40 people had been killed while over 10,000 people were evacuated. The experience of celebrating a holiday commemorating candles burning while the north of Israel was simultaneously burning was pretty intense. For those of you who don't know about this fire, just look it up on google. Only today (77 hours after the fire began burning) did the firemen say that it was under control. International help from nearly 10 different countries were also required for the operation.
Shabbat was very uneventful. Friday during the day I didn't do anything really exciting as I just rested, learned the service that I would be leading that night, and (after dinner) took a walk around our area with a friend of mine. Saturday was equally uneventful. We spent literally all morning praying (since Hannukah services on Shabbat are REALLY long), and I spent the afternoon speaking with a representative of New Frontier USY, the region I would have been in had I not been a part of BBYO. While I expected the conversation to last all of 20 minutes, it wound up taking roughly two and a half hours. We talked about USY vs. BBYO, the conservative movement, life, and almost everything in between. It was a very cool moment.
Saturday night was absolutely amazing. After havdallah, the Kibbutz group had a latke making party. A group of four of us began prep, and it was really interesting to see how much our family traditons for cooking a very traditional Jewish food varied. Two of us believed that the potatoes and onions needed to be grated; one girl was sure that everything ahd to be blended together to remove all texture and fun from her latkes; one boy decided that the ingredients had to be chopped by hand. Thus, in our little bomb shelter kitchen, all three methods were used. Ultimately, the grater people won (pun intended).
As the whole group started showing up, everyone joined the party and helped prep food. We had people working the four different hot plate fry pans, making more batter, and providing moral support. Someone also brought down an iPod, so naturally, a dance party in the kitchen ensued. I can't possibly describe the feeling of having a dance party to awkward bar-mitzvah-party music while prepping and cooking latkes. It was among the most fun nights we've had in a very long time. Here are some pictures of the night.
 | |
| The Graters and the Choppers |
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| Part of the Kibbutz Dance Team |
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| Before |
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| After |
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| A member of team grater (shown on the left) expresses his opinion on the blended latkes. |
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| The one on the left is one of my roommates... |
This morning, I got to learn about the Channukah story in a very direct way: I learned about it from the book of Macabbees at the site of the battles. Led by our program's assistant director, a group of roughly 20 people hopped on a bus this morning to set out for an area outside the newest Israeli city of Modiin, the area where the Maccabeen revolt happened. He walked us to a viewpoint, took out a bible, and proceeded to read us accounts from the book of Joshua and the book of Macabees (which is not actually in the Hebrew bible). He supplimented his reading with phrases like "in this valley" and "by the hills over there" in a way that really gives meaning to 'Nes Gadol Haya Po" (a great miracle happened here) as opposed to "Nes Gadol Haya Sham." (a great miracle happened there). Goys, I'm sorry. We also went into remains of one of the ancient cities that a specific battle was fought in. There, I ate my first freshly picked carobs, and we continued talking about the history of the place that we were standing in. It was a pretty surreal experience, and all of us felt a stronger attachment to the story after seeing the land itself.
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| The city seen here is the city of Modi'in, where I spent Shabbat a few weeks ago. The valley is talked about in the book of Joshua. |
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| The Maccabee army did a lot of its fighting in the hills on the upper right hand side of this picture. |
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| This used to be a part of the aquiduct used in an ancient city whose name has escaped my mind at this moment. Up until roughly 20 years ago, Israel had water running through the area, but due to drought and the lack of water in the region, they stopped. |
This afternoon, our group went to volenteer at an old age home to bring them some channukah cheer, but due to issues with public transportation and finding room on buses for 60 people, about 15 of us missed most of it. Afterward, I went out to dinner with a friend and his mother who treated a group of nearly 20 to some of the best food I've had since getting to Israel.
This week, there is quite a bit to look forward to (I'm going back to join the Women of the Wall on Wednesday), and I'm sure the end of Channukah will be quite cool here also. I'll keep you posted as things happen. Until then, Chag Sameach, and I'll check in soon!
Becca
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
A Sick Thanksgiving and an Incredible Museum
Hey Everybody,
I checked in last Tuesday reporting a fairly low key week. This week wasn't that exciting, but this post still isn't going to be especially short as I have some cool things to talk about.
Before I start talking about those events, I'm just going to mention what this time of year is like in Israel. It's the last day of November and it's currently about 75 degrees outside. While I'm enjoying the sunshine, this constitutes a disaster for Israel, a country in the desert that is supposedly two months into its rainy/snowy season. Because of the weather, the chief rabbi in Israel declared yesterday a fast day in order to pray for rain. Though I didn't fast, I found the whole idea pretty entertaining. It is a classic "only in Israel" kind of situation. Furthermore, while in the United States, this time of year is the beginning to Christmas carols on the radio, Christmas lights everywhere, Merry Christmas themed everything and the ultimate feeling of not-belonging for anyone who doesn't celebrate Christmas. In Israel it's a little bit different. Street lights have Chanukiah shaped lights hanging off of them, and at night, the streets are lit up partially by them. On street corners and various roads all over, large chanukiot are sitting just waiting for tomorrow night to come to start the holiday. They don't blast Chanukah songs in the street, but to say the least, it feels like the Holiday season.
Now I'll talk about me.
Tuesday night, the girls of the Kibbutz group had an activity where we went to a gym to do Zumba with women from all over Jerusalem. I have seen few things in my life as entertaining as roughly 200 women ranging from ages 12 - 50 doing Latin dance moves in a gymnasium.
Wednesday was an anticlimactic day on almost every level in a way that I really enjoyed, but about half way through the day I realized that I was sick and would need to go to the doctor on Thanksgiving morning. Thursday morning, I woke up to go to the doctor expecting him to tell me to rest for a few hours and wave a magic wand to make it easy for me to breathe. Instead, he told me that I had incredibly contagious strep throat and gave me a prescription for antibiotics.
Nativ made a big deal out of Thanksgiving. On Thursday afternoon, a large group of people played football. I sat in my bed. On Thursday evening, roughly 150 alumni showed up to enjoy a night of videos, (semi-good) food, and fun. I sat in bed. After dinner, a large group of people spent nearly 4 hours watching every Friends Thanksgiving episode, and I slept. It was a BIG buzz kill.
I planned to go to Hoda Sh'aron with a friend this weekend to stay with her cousin, but because I was sick, I decided that it would be better to stay in Jerusalem. I expected to get better a lot faster than I did, so I wound up sick in bed on Friday night and much of Saturday morning. By Saturday afternoon, however, I decided I was feeling good enough to enjoy a shabbat afternoon of board games and funny conversations with the people who were in Jerusalem.
After school on Sunday, a friend and I went to the Old City and wandered around for a while, having a good time walking through areas of the city that are not the most tourist friendly. The most interesting thing we saw were bottles of hair dye with the models' faces scratched out. My friend and I assumed that it had something to do with either lack of modesty or anti-western sentiment.
On Monday, my Holocaust class took a field trip to Ya'd v'Shem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. The museum itself is fascinating, and if you haven't yet been, I recommend STRONGLY that you go the next time you are in Israel. It focuses on the victims and attempts to put a face on the traumatic story that tends to be boiled down just to numbers. We also had a chance to hear from a survivor who spent the war hiding in homes of non-Jews in Holland. She was among the most upbeat 87-year-old women I've ever seen, and as wrong as it sounds, we all thoroughly enjoyed hearing her story.
After winning our football game Monday night (with a whopping score of 7-6), I came back to base and joined about 25 people in the room next door to mine in order to throw a surprise 18th birthday party for one of the girls in that room. It was a lot of fun, but it meant that I spent all of today exhausted. My roommates birthday is tomorrow, so I don't imagine I'll be getting much more sleep tonight.
Until next time, Happy Hannukah,
Becca
I checked in last Tuesday reporting a fairly low key week. This week wasn't that exciting, but this post still isn't going to be especially short as I have some cool things to talk about.
Before I start talking about those events, I'm just going to mention what this time of year is like in Israel. It's the last day of November and it's currently about 75 degrees outside. While I'm enjoying the sunshine, this constitutes a disaster for Israel, a country in the desert that is supposedly two months into its rainy/snowy season. Because of the weather, the chief rabbi in Israel declared yesterday a fast day in order to pray for rain. Though I didn't fast, I found the whole idea pretty entertaining. It is a classic "only in Israel" kind of situation. Furthermore, while in the United States, this time of year is the beginning to Christmas carols on the radio, Christmas lights everywhere, Merry Christmas themed everything and the ultimate feeling of not-belonging for anyone who doesn't celebrate Christmas. In Israel it's a little bit different. Street lights have Chanukiah shaped lights hanging off of them, and at night, the streets are lit up partially by them. On street corners and various roads all over, large chanukiot are sitting just waiting for tomorrow night to come to start the holiday. They don't blast Chanukah songs in the street, but to say the least, it feels like the Holiday season.
Now I'll talk about me.
Tuesday night, the girls of the Kibbutz group had an activity where we went to a gym to do Zumba with women from all over Jerusalem. I have seen few things in my life as entertaining as roughly 200 women ranging from ages 12 - 50 doing Latin dance moves in a gymnasium.
Wednesday was an anticlimactic day on almost every level in a way that I really enjoyed, but about half way through the day I realized that I was sick and would need to go to the doctor on Thanksgiving morning. Thursday morning, I woke up to go to the doctor expecting him to tell me to rest for a few hours and wave a magic wand to make it easy for me to breathe. Instead, he told me that I had incredibly contagious strep throat and gave me a prescription for antibiotics.
Nativ made a big deal out of Thanksgiving. On Thursday afternoon, a large group of people played football. I sat in my bed. On Thursday evening, roughly 150 alumni showed up to enjoy a night of videos, (semi-good) food, and fun. I sat in bed. After dinner, a large group of people spent nearly 4 hours watching every Friends Thanksgiving episode, and I slept. It was a BIG buzz kill.
I planned to go to Hoda Sh'aron with a friend this weekend to stay with her cousin, but because I was sick, I decided that it would be better to stay in Jerusalem. I expected to get better a lot faster than I did, so I wound up sick in bed on Friday night and much of Saturday morning. By Saturday afternoon, however, I decided I was feeling good enough to enjoy a shabbat afternoon of board games and funny conversations with the people who were in Jerusalem.
After school on Sunday, a friend and I went to the Old City and wandered around for a while, having a good time walking through areas of the city that are not the most tourist friendly. The most interesting thing we saw were bottles of hair dye with the models' faces scratched out. My friend and I assumed that it had something to do with either lack of modesty or anti-western sentiment.
On Monday, my Holocaust class took a field trip to Ya'd v'Shem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. The museum itself is fascinating, and if you haven't yet been, I recommend STRONGLY that you go the next time you are in Israel. It focuses on the victims and attempts to put a face on the traumatic story that tends to be boiled down just to numbers. We also had a chance to hear from a survivor who spent the war hiding in homes of non-Jews in Holland. She was among the most upbeat 87-year-old women I've ever seen, and as wrong as it sounds, we all thoroughly enjoyed hearing her story.
After winning our football game Monday night (with a whopping score of 7-6), I came back to base and joined about 25 people in the room next door to mine in order to throw a surprise 18th birthday party for one of the girls in that room. It was a lot of fun, but it meant that I spent all of today exhausted. My roommates birthday is tomorrow, so I don't imagine I'll be getting much more sleep tonight.
Until next time, Happy Hannukah,
Becca
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
I SAW HARRY POTTER BEFORE YOU!
Hi Everybody,
Last time I posted, I had just returned from a failed attempt at buying Harry Potter tickets, assuming that in order to go to the first showing of the 7th movie, I would need to get my ticket in advanced.
I was wrong. My friends and I showed up about 20 minutes before the door to the theater opened. We were within the first 15 people there. All of us were completely shocked that there wasn't hysteria. When the doors opened, we all shuffled into the theater and bought our tickets.
Here are a few fun facts about the movie-goer experience in Israel
1) There are no random previews and video clips promoting upcoming movies before the actual previews and the movie begins.
2) Movie theaters have assigned seating. The sooner you show up, the better seats you get. If you want to sit with your friends, you have to buy the tickets together.
3) There is a intermission/smoking break in the middle of the movie.
4) HARRY POTTER DOESN'T SELL OUT IN ITS OPENING SHOW! There were over 40 unsold seats for this showing. I realize that it was 2:00 in the afternoon, but Harry Potter should make everyone leave work early and create a national vacation. I guess not here.
My weekend was very uneventful yet very nice. On Friday, I slept in til about noon or one, and planned to go to Shabbat services and get hosted out for dinner with a few friends. However, I took a 4 hour nap instead and nobody woke me up to go. After dinner on base, I played games of Jungle Speed and Settlers of Catan and went to bed.
The next morning, a few friends and I went to Shira Chadashah since we heard that a bat mitzvah was going on and we wanted to see how good the kiddush would be. Though the service was long and we were forced to feel the force of large amounts of prepubescent middle school kids, we found the experience to be worthwhile when we saw SUSHI at the kiddush. I also found the experience worthwhile since I ran into my tour guide from the Poland trip I went on 2 summers ago. He asked me why I hadn't yet joined him and his family for a Shabbat and I told him that I would figure out a time that works and get back to him. I'm SO excited for it.
On Sunday, my Modern Middle East class was canceled, so I got to remember what a lazy sunday feels like (with the exception of the fact that I had a paper to write). I woke up at around 9:30, did some work, helped other people with their papers, and did some more work. At about two, a friend and I went to the shuk (think of a bazaar) to get lunch. We had lunch consisting of samples from nearly 5 different bakeries and various nuts and dried fruits. The best part of the meal (and the only part that we chose to pay for) was the INCREDIBLE baklava that someone was selling. It was truly out of this world. By the way, I notice that I'm sitting here getting really excited about food, and I think it comes down to the fact that I miss the amazing variety of cuisines available to me in the Bay Area so I choose to focus on little things that are good but still pale in comparison.
Sunday night was spent playing music at Nativ's first official Jam Session (organized by the assistant director of the program who is a very good bass player, guitarist, and rapper (who would guess?). It was nice to play music with large groups of people and get the experience of vibing off of other people.
Yesterday was a long day, but a lot of fun. After a full day of school, we had a football game. We literally sprinted from base to the field about a mile and a half away. Having said that, it was quite worthwhile as we completely killed the "Little Giants" by a score of roughly 38-0. Some of us felt sort of bad since they couldn't have been more than 14 years old, but we needed the morale booster.
Today, I went to school and then to the Hadaya store in the old city to order myself and my sister Hanukah presents (Emma, if you're reading this, get excited). The most interesting moment occurred when my friend and I were attempting to buy a pastry from one of the stands around the Old City and I was asked if I was searching for a rich husband. It was a funny (though VERY creepy) culture shock moment.
That's about it for now, but I'll check in soon,
Becca
Last time I posted, I had just returned from a failed attempt at buying Harry Potter tickets, assuming that in order to go to the first showing of the 7th movie, I would need to get my ticket in advanced.
I was wrong. My friends and I showed up about 20 minutes before the door to the theater opened. We were within the first 15 people there. All of us were completely shocked that there wasn't hysteria. When the doors opened, we all shuffled into the theater and bought our tickets.
Here are a few fun facts about the movie-goer experience in Israel
1) There are no random previews and video clips promoting upcoming movies before the actual previews and the movie begins.
2) Movie theaters have assigned seating. The sooner you show up, the better seats you get. If you want to sit with your friends, you have to buy the tickets together.
3) There is a intermission/smoking break in the middle of the movie.
4) HARRY POTTER DOESN'T SELL OUT IN ITS OPENING SHOW! There were over 40 unsold seats for this showing. I realize that it was 2:00 in the afternoon, but Harry Potter should make everyone leave work early and create a national vacation. I guess not here.
My weekend was very uneventful yet very nice. On Friday, I slept in til about noon or one, and planned to go to Shabbat services and get hosted out for dinner with a few friends. However, I took a 4 hour nap instead and nobody woke me up to go. After dinner on base, I played games of Jungle Speed and Settlers of Catan and went to bed.
The next morning, a few friends and I went to Shira Chadashah since we heard that a bat mitzvah was going on and we wanted to see how good the kiddush would be. Though the service was long and we were forced to feel the force of large amounts of prepubescent middle school kids, we found the experience to be worthwhile when we saw SUSHI at the kiddush. I also found the experience worthwhile since I ran into my tour guide from the Poland trip I went on 2 summers ago. He asked me why I hadn't yet joined him and his family for a Shabbat and I told him that I would figure out a time that works and get back to him. I'm SO excited for it.
On Sunday, my Modern Middle East class was canceled, so I got to remember what a lazy sunday feels like (with the exception of the fact that I had a paper to write). I woke up at around 9:30, did some work, helped other people with their papers, and did some more work. At about two, a friend and I went to the shuk (think of a bazaar) to get lunch. We had lunch consisting of samples from nearly 5 different bakeries and various nuts and dried fruits. The best part of the meal (and the only part that we chose to pay for) was the INCREDIBLE baklava that someone was selling. It was truly out of this world. By the way, I notice that I'm sitting here getting really excited about food, and I think it comes down to the fact that I miss the amazing variety of cuisines available to me in the Bay Area so I choose to focus on little things that are good but still pale in comparison.
Sunday night was spent playing music at Nativ's first official Jam Session (organized by the assistant director of the program who is a very good bass player, guitarist, and rapper (who would guess?). It was nice to play music with large groups of people and get the experience of vibing off of other people.
Yesterday was a long day, but a lot of fun. After a full day of school, we had a football game. We literally sprinted from base to the field about a mile and a half away. Having said that, it was quite worthwhile as we completely killed the "Little Giants" by a score of roughly 38-0. Some of us felt sort of bad since they couldn't have been more than 14 years old, but we needed the morale booster.
Today, I went to school and then to the Hadaya store in the old city to order myself and my sister Hanukah presents (Emma, if you're reading this, get excited). The most interesting moment occurred when my friend and I were attempting to buy a pastry from one of the stands around the Old City and I was asked if I was searching for a rich husband. It was a funny (though VERY creepy) culture shock moment.
That's about it for now, but I'll check in soon,
Becca
Thursday, November 18, 2010
A Week In Review
Hey Everybody,
This week has been insane, and I've had virtually no time to post a blog. Consequently, I haven't told anyone what's been going on for about a week and a half. The last thing I told you all about was the Women of the Wall. Here's what's happened since then.
On Tuesday, the day was uneventful, but that night, Nativ brought in a speaker from AIPAC to talk to us about advocacy from Israel. He was among the most engaging speaker I'd ever heard, and he motivated all of us to contact our local representatives to talk to them about the importance that Israel holds to their constituents. All of us walked out of that room wanting to work for AIPAC, but no one really knows how much of that stuck.
After that, I went to the end of a music/art street fair on Emek Rafaim, a street in Rechavia covered in nice restaurants and art stores. We got there for the end of it, and most of the stands were already closing down. There was no music playing anymore, but a few food stands were trying to get rid of their leftovers. We didn't mind the lack of music. It was a really nice night, so it was nice to walk around for the evening.
Wednesday and Thursday were both very low key and nothing really exciting happened.
For the weekend, Nativ took each of the three groups to a different place. My group went and stayed with families in Modiin, a new city between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, where the director of our program and his family lives. We all spent Shabbat with different families at his shul. The family I stayed with had four kids: 3 boys (ages 16, 12 and 9) and a 3 year old girl. All of them spoke a bit of English except for the daughter who was scared to death of me and my friend for most of Friday afternoon. On Friday night, we went to shul with them, and saw all of the Nativ groups with their families. Every single family had small kids, and a competition ensued between the girls to see which family had the cutest kids since the shul was literally dripping with children (think of Ms Hannigan's complaint about little girls except for cute kids). The shul is based on the Shira Hadasha model. The shul is orthodox, but women are allowed to lead certain parts of the service. a Women led kabalat shabbat and a man led ma'ariv.
Friday night we had a really nice home cooked dinner. At teh end of the meal, the 9 year old decided it would be a good idea to set up a landing pad behind a couch and start jumping off of the couch as though it were a trampoline. The 3 year old joined in, and we sat in awe watching these kids nearly break their necks for about a half hour. The parents didn't' object to their behavior at all. It was weird. Afterward, we went to the park and played on the swings, slides and tea-cup like spinning contraptions. The little girl finally got used to us and was happy to play with us. The father was shocked at how much fun the 18 year old girls had at a little kid park, but we didn't care.
Saturday morning, we went to shul and were the first people there. We were less than thrilled. A man led The first part of the service, a women led the Torah service (women were allowed to hold the torah as well), and a man led musaf. During their Torah service, men and women are allowed to read and have aliyot. While this doesn't sound like that big of a deal to American Jews, our director explained to us that for Israel, this is in fact a very big deal. Our director was one of the founding members of this community, and it took them quite a while to figure out how this community of people who weren't content with the synagogues in Modiin were going to create their own community. Over a period of about 6 months, they debated and experimented with different models. About 5 years ago they started having weekly Friday night services in someone's back yard. The weekend we were there, they had Friday night services and all three services on Saturdays. To say the least, this community has become a success. Sorry for the tangent, but I thought the history of the shul was interesting.
After lunch with the family (and the grandparents who live up the street), we took a nice shabbat nap and then went to our director's home. We met his kids and wife, watched him read children's books to his two year old, and listened to him as he told us about life in Modiin and the community. After Mincha, Ma'ariv, and Havdallah with our families, we got on a bus and came back home. It was a really nice weekend, and most all of us could see ourselves living in a community like that of Modiin.
Upon getting back from this great weekend, all of us were struck with the realiziation that midterms are this week. Luckily for me, I only had two of my midterms this week with one of mine being due on Monday and another coming up in about 2 weeks. Having said that, this week has been a bit stressful. I'll just talk about a few of the interesting points.
On Tuesday night, the kibbutz group participated in a program where we walked around a few parts of Jerusalem and discussed love poems and the reason that Jerusalem has this romantic air about it. We walked to places that we go to on a near daily basis, but then turned down side streets that we walk past every time. It was cool to see a different side of our neighborhood.
Wednesday after school, I relieved the intense stress of the two prior days by watching Elee then getting a good night's sleep. After my Hebrew midterm today, I went to the movie theater to try to buy tickets for Harry Potter, which starts showing in Israel at 2 PM today, but it wasn't open. I'll go see it this afternoon.
Until next time, have a great weekend, and go see Harry Potter!
Becca
This week has been insane, and I've had virtually no time to post a blog. Consequently, I haven't told anyone what's been going on for about a week and a half. The last thing I told you all about was the Women of the Wall. Here's what's happened since then.
On Tuesday, the day was uneventful, but that night, Nativ brought in a speaker from AIPAC to talk to us about advocacy from Israel. He was among the most engaging speaker I'd ever heard, and he motivated all of us to contact our local representatives to talk to them about the importance that Israel holds to their constituents. All of us walked out of that room wanting to work for AIPAC, but no one really knows how much of that stuck.
After that, I went to the end of a music/art street fair on Emek Rafaim, a street in Rechavia covered in nice restaurants and art stores. We got there for the end of it, and most of the stands were already closing down. There was no music playing anymore, but a few food stands were trying to get rid of their leftovers. We didn't mind the lack of music. It was a really nice night, so it was nice to walk around for the evening.
Wednesday and Thursday were both very low key and nothing really exciting happened.
For the weekend, Nativ took each of the three groups to a different place. My group went and stayed with families in Modiin, a new city between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, where the director of our program and his family lives. We all spent Shabbat with different families at his shul. The family I stayed with had four kids: 3 boys (ages 16, 12 and 9) and a 3 year old girl. All of them spoke a bit of English except for the daughter who was scared to death of me and my friend for most of Friday afternoon. On Friday night, we went to shul with them, and saw all of the Nativ groups with their families. Every single family had small kids, and a competition ensued between the girls to see which family had the cutest kids since the shul was literally dripping with children (think of Ms Hannigan's complaint about little girls except for cute kids). The shul is based on the Shira Hadasha model. The shul is orthodox, but women are allowed to lead certain parts of the service. a Women led kabalat shabbat and a man led ma'ariv.
Friday night we had a really nice home cooked dinner. At teh end of the meal, the 9 year old decided it would be a good idea to set up a landing pad behind a couch and start jumping off of the couch as though it were a trampoline. The 3 year old joined in, and we sat in awe watching these kids nearly break their necks for about a half hour. The parents didn't' object to their behavior at all. It was weird. Afterward, we went to the park and played on the swings, slides and tea-cup like spinning contraptions. The little girl finally got used to us and was happy to play with us. The father was shocked at how much fun the 18 year old girls had at a little kid park, but we didn't care.
Saturday morning, we went to shul and were the first people there. We were less than thrilled. A man led The first part of the service, a women led the Torah service (women were allowed to hold the torah as well), and a man led musaf. During their Torah service, men and women are allowed to read and have aliyot. While this doesn't sound like that big of a deal to American Jews, our director explained to us that for Israel, this is in fact a very big deal. Our director was one of the founding members of this community, and it took them quite a while to figure out how this community of people who weren't content with the synagogues in Modiin were going to create their own community. Over a period of about 6 months, they debated and experimented with different models. About 5 years ago they started having weekly Friday night services in someone's back yard. The weekend we were there, they had Friday night services and all three services on Saturdays. To say the least, this community has become a success. Sorry for the tangent, but I thought the history of the shul was interesting.
After lunch with the family (and the grandparents who live up the street), we took a nice shabbat nap and then went to our director's home. We met his kids and wife, watched him read children's books to his two year old, and listened to him as he told us about life in Modiin and the community. After Mincha, Ma'ariv, and Havdallah with our families, we got on a bus and came back home. It was a really nice weekend, and most all of us could see ourselves living in a community like that of Modiin.
Upon getting back from this great weekend, all of us were struck with the realiziation that midterms are this week. Luckily for me, I only had two of my midterms this week with one of mine being due on Monday and another coming up in about 2 weeks. Having said that, this week has been a bit stressful. I'll just talk about a few of the interesting points.
On Tuesday night, the kibbutz group participated in a program where we walked around a few parts of Jerusalem and discussed love poems and the reason that Jerusalem has this romantic air about it. We walked to places that we go to on a near daily basis, but then turned down side streets that we walk past every time. It was cool to see a different side of our neighborhood.
Wednesday after school, I relieved the intense stress of the two prior days by watching Elee then getting a good night's sleep. After my Hebrew midterm today, I went to the movie theater to try to buy tickets for Harry Potter, which starts showing in Israel at 2 PM today, but it wasn't open. I'll go see it this afternoon.
Until next time, have a great weekend, and go see Harry Potter!
Becca
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Women of the Wall
Hey Everybody,
Last time I checked in was last Wednesday, and though a good amount of time has passed since then, very few exciting things have happened. The one exciting part of my weekend came Sunday night when I went to Rachel Heinstein's home for dinner.
The interesting stuff happened on Monday morning when I joined the Women of the Wall for services at the Kotel. Before I go on, I need to give a short disclaimer: IF YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD OF THE WOMEN OF THE WALL, PLEASE DO A BIT OF BACKGROUND READING BEFORE YOU CONTINUE ON READING THIS POST. You can choose not to, but the whole thing will make very little sense. Here are a few links to get you started.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_of_the_Wall
http://womenofthewall.org.il/
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/WOW.html
ANOTHER DISCLAIMER:
This post reflects my opinions on the situation that I witnessed as well as the facts as objectively as I know how to convey them from me to you. Don't take everything written here as the absolute truth as my opinion is only one opinion. Please email me (beccarosenthal@gmail.com) if you have any questions or comments.
I woke up on Monday morning and left home at 6:30 with a few friends in order to get to the Kotel at 7 for the start of the service. A total of seven Nativers went. We got there just as they were asking people to head into their respective sections of the Kotel plaza to begin davening. Though the group is about the women, quite a few men (husbands, supporters, Rabinical students, etc) came as well and stood next to us on the men's side of the wall. One of the big issues of controversy with the Women of the Wall (WOW) involves women wearing Talitot (prayer shawls). Because it has been determined illegal for women to wear them at the Kotel, women were wearing their talitot as though they were scarves. Here's a few pictures.
When we walked into the women's section, we put our things down in the very back, and I was shocked to see three armed police officers (including two men) in the women's section there to protect us. I asked someone why they were there, and it was explained to me that WOW asked for the police to come and protect them since so many flareups have occurred with the ultra orthodox people at the wall.
Services began, and it became very clear very fast that very few of the women in attendance actually knew the service. Everyone was holding a siddur and a few people were certainly davening, but most people were either standing silently or taking pictures of the group. It was right there, at the very beginning that I realized that the majority of women who were there were not in fact there to pray, but rather to make a statement against the ultra orthodox crowd and assert their view that women should be allowed to wear talitot and daven as they want at the Kotel.
Before we started and as we stood there davening, may people (both men and women) voiced their opinions of our service. We were called sluts, whores, pigs, dogs, non-Jews, Arabs and even Nazis. We were told that we were a provocation (as we were), and one woman even told us that G-d would not accept our prayers because of the way that we were davening. More about specific incidents later, but the general idea looked something like this: We were accused of disturbing the peace, but we were only praying; we were accused of desecrating the holy space, but one of our male security guards was not wearing a kippa and filming the entire event (to use as evidence against us,) one of our security guards legitimately had a phone conversation, and a large group of Chareidi (black hat) men literally walked up next to our men and started yelling (technically it was a prayer) at the top of their lungs in order to drown out the sound of our prayers. And yet, we were the distraction. Here are a few pictures.
One fun moment for me occurred when I heard some man yelling at us and I went to take a video. I stood up on a chair right next to the divide and filmed a very interesting scene. I spent a total of about 3 hours writing this post (over two different days and three different computers) and tried to upload that video. It didn't work. I'm really sorry, and if anyone knows a way to upload a video that won't take me forever, I'll do it. But just be aware: I tried.
I'm going to state again that their problem with us was that WE were disturbing the peace and desecrating the holy space.
At many points during our hour at the wall, various women would walk up to the security guards and tell them that they need to make us leave as we were being so disrespectful and disgusting. The guards did nothing of the sort. Instead, they looked at the women, nodded their heads, and told them to walk away. It was awesome.
Also, many men chose to (loudly) voice their opinions to us. I have another two videos of orthodox men yelling their lungs out at us. I'm sure that they wouldn't have been yelling half as loudly if it weren't for my camera (and other cameras as well), but I was still happy to capture them. I will have one of our staff members help me translate them, and as soon as I get that translation, I'll let you know what they said. I was planning on posting the videos, but the internet is so slow that it has taken me literally an hour and a half to load all of the pictures and that one video onto this post, so I'm not going to wait to load another two. Sorry.
After we finished with Hallel, we walked out of the women's section to go to Robinson's Arch, a section of the wall not considered to be a holy place, to have a Torah service. Much of the controversy of WOW includes the fact that women aren't supposed to be anywhere near a Torah according to Ultra-Orthodox Tradition. Furthermore, a few months ago, a women was arrested for carrying a Torah by the Kotel. Therefor, the Torah service takes place at Robinson's Arch, a section of the wall not considered to be a holy place. For those of you who don't know Robinson's Arch, I'll just explain that the Kotel is remnant of the outer wall of the 2nd Temple, and it is considered holy because it is the part closest to the former site of the Holy of Holy's. Yes, the Kotel is just a big old wall.
When the service moved, the whole vibe changed. Men and women were together, women put on their Talitot properly and many even chose to wrap tfillin, people were much more inclined to be chatty (obviously I wasn't included in the chatty bunch...), and many people left since the exciting part was over. At this point, 5 of us made the decision that we would be late to school (and when I say school, I mean Hebrew class) in order to be at the Torah service and two people left to be on time. The service itself wasn't that interesting, but I talked to a lot of interesting people.
I met a Rabbi from a Shul in Seattle who is thinking about applying for the Rabbi opening at Temple Sinai in Oakland (he asked me questions about the Jewish community in Oakland ane I was proud to be able to answer them). I met a women who is with a tour group from a synagogue that came to Israel for 12 days primarily to go to WOW. I met a Rabinical student hoping to work in Berkeley (if anyone from Netivot Shalom is reading this, just know that you may have some people applying for a currently non-existent assistant Rabbi job soon). I met a man who was with WOW in the late 1980s and actually ripped a Torah out of the hands of a Chareidi man trying to take it from the group at a Simchat Torah Service. I ran into a group of kids from Young Judea Year Course (another gap year program) that I had seen around. And many more.
I still don't know exactly how I feel about the women of the wall. I believe fully that women should have the right to daven the way that they want to at the Kotel, as the location is supposed to be a place for all Jews, not just all Ultra Orthodox Jews, to worship freely. However, I also think that in a lot of ways, the Women of the Wall are more about the statement than about the actual act of praying at the wall, and that contradicts their very purpose. Having said that, I'm glad I went, and I plan on going again in December.
Thank all of you who made it this far in the post for reading, and I want to say again that I am more than willing to speak to you in depth about my experiences at WOW. Give me a call (011 050 407-6783) or send me an email (beccarosenthal@gmail.com) and I'll be more than happy to talk to you.
Until next time have a great rest of the week,
Becca
Last time I checked in was last Wednesday, and though a good amount of time has passed since then, very few exciting things have happened. The one exciting part of my weekend came Sunday night when I went to Rachel Heinstein's home for dinner.
The interesting stuff happened on Monday morning when I joined the Women of the Wall for services at the Kotel. Before I go on, I need to give a short disclaimer: IF YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD OF THE WOMEN OF THE WALL, PLEASE DO A BIT OF BACKGROUND READING BEFORE YOU CONTINUE ON READING THIS POST. You can choose not to, but the whole thing will make very little sense. Here are a few links to get you started.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_of_the_Wall
http://womenofthewall.org.il/
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/WOW.html
ANOTHER DISCLAIMER:
This post reflects my opinions on the situation that I witnessed as well as the facts as objectively as I know how to convey them from me to you. Don't take everything written here as the absolute truth as my opinion is only one opinion. Please email me (beccarosenthal@gmail.com) if you have any questions or comments.
I woke up on Monday morning and left home at 6:30 with a few friends in order to get to the Kotel at 7 for the start of the service. A total of seven Nativers went. We got there just as they were asking people to head into their respective sections of the Kotel plaza to begin davening. Though the group is about the women, quite a few men (husbands, supporters, Rabinical students, etc) came as well and stood next to us on the men's side of the wall. One of the big issues of controversy with the Women of the Wall (WOW) involves women wearing Talitot (prayer shawls). Because it has been determined illegal for women to wear them at the Kotel, women were wearing their talitot as though they were scarves. Here's a few pictures.
When we walked into the women's section, we put our things down in the very back, and I was shocked to see three armed police officers (including two men) in the women's section there to protect us. I asked someone why they were there, and it was explained to me that WOW asked for the police to come and protect them since so many flareups have occurred with the ultra orthodox people at the wall.
Services began, and it became very clear very fast that very few of the women in attendance actually knew the service. Everyone was holding a siddur and a few people were certainly davening, but most people were either standing silently or taking pictures of the group. It was right there, at the very beginning that I realized that the majority of women who were there were not in fact there to pray, but rather to make a statement against the ultra orthodox crowd and assert their view that women should be allowed to wear talitot and daven as they want at the Kotel.
Before we started and as we stood there davening, may people (both men and women) voiced their opinions of our service. We were called sluts, whores, pigs, dogs, non-Jews, Arabs and even Nazis. We were told that we were a provocation (as we were), and one woman even told us that G-d would not accept our prayers because of the way that we were davening. More about specific incidents later, but the general idea looked something like this: We were accused of disturbing the peace, but we were only praying; we were accused of desecrating the holy space, but one of our male security guards was not wearing a kippa and filming the entire event (to use as evidence against us,) one of our security guards legitimately had a phone conversation, and a large group of Chareidi (black hat) men literally walked up next to our men and started yelling (technically it was a prayer) at the top of their lungs in order to drown out the sound of our prayers. And yet, we were the distraction. Here are a few pictures.
One fun moment for me occurred when I heard some man yelling at us and I went to take a video. I stood up on a chair right next to the divide and filmed a very interesting scene. I spent a total of about 3 hours writing this post (over two different days and three different computers) and tried to upload that video. It didn't work. I'm really sorry, and if anyone knows a way to upload a video that won't take me forever, I'll do it. But just be aware: I tried.
Here's what happened. An orthodox women who was praying along the wall (a picture of her is below this paragraph) told me that I couldn't stand on the chair since the men would be able to see me. In Hebrew, I told her that I was well within my rights to be standing there and that if the men had a problem with my being there, they could tell me. Furthermore, I told her that I was on the chair so I could take a video of the scene and I couldn't see otherwise. She told me that there were cracks in the wall that I could look through to get my view. When I told her that the cracks weren't sufficient, she threatened to kick the chair out from under me. At that point, the cops who had been standing around watching stepped in and told her to back off. The rule for the cops was simple: people can say whatever they want, but as soon as a threat of violence is seen, they step in. She asked me again to get down, and I told her that I would do so when I was ready (I totally admit that I was egging her on at this point). She responded by taking her siddur and putting it in front of my camera. In hebrew, the cop then says "Excuse me, excuse me miss. Please. If you want to pray, please do." The two of them then get into some verbal altercation which you can't really hear and I only partially understood, but it ended with her going away and me thanking him. The sound is blocked by the Ultra Orthodox Men being loud. I'd ask them to apologize to you for the inconvenience, but that's not going to happen. While this scene was going on, I kept looking at the WOW crowd, and they were watching me with cameras up and big grins on their faces. We all found this super entertaining.
 |
| My new best friend. |
I'm going to state again that their problem with us was that WE were disturbing the peace and desecrating the holy space.
 |
| Yay for hipocracy. |
Also, many men chose to (loudly) voice their opinions to us. I have another two videos of orthodox men yelling their lungs out at us. I'm sure that they wouldn't have been yelling half as loudly if it weren't for my camera (and other cameras as well), but I was still happy to capture them. I will have one of our staff members help me translate them, and as soon as I get that translation, I'll let you know what they said. I was planning on posting the videos, but the internet is so slow that it has taken me literally an hour and a half to load all of the pictures and that one video onto this post, so I'm not going to wait to load another two. Sorry.
After we finished with Hallel, we walked out of the women's section to go to Robinson's Arch, a section of the wall not considered to be a holy place, to have a Torah service. Much of the controversy of WOW includes the fact that women aren't supposed to be anywhere near a Torah according to Ultra-Orthodox Tradition. Furthermore, a few months ago, a women was arrested for carrying a Torah by the Kotel. Therefor, the Torah service takes place at Robinson's Arch, a section of the wall not considered to be a holy place. For those of you who don't know Robinson's Arch, I'll just explain that the Kotel is remnant of the outer wall of the 2nd Temple, and it is considered holy because it is the part closest to the former site of the Holy of Holy's. Yes, the Kotel is just a big old wall.
When the service moved, the whole vibe changed. Men and women were together, women put on their Talitot properly and many even chose to wrap tfillin, people were much more inclined to be chatty (obviously I wasn't included in the chatty bunch...), and many people left since the exciting part was over. At this point, 5 of us made the decision that we would be late to school (and when I say school, I mean Hebrew class) in order to be at the Torah service and two people left to be on time. The service itself wasn't that interesting, but I talked to a lot of interesting people.
I met a Rabbi from a Shul in Seattle who is thinking about applying for the Rabbi opening at Temple Sinai in Oakland (he asked me questions about the Jewish community in Oakland ane I was proud to be able to answer them). I met a women who is with a tour group from a synagogue that came to Israel for 12 days primarily to go to WOW. I met a Rabinical student hoping to work in Berkeley (if anyone from Netivot Shalom is reading this, just know that you may have some people applying for a currently non-existent assistant Rabbi job soon). I met a man who was with WOW in the late 1980s and actually ripped a Torah out of the hands of a Chareidi man trying to take it from the group at a Simchat Torah Service. I ran into a group of kids from Young Judea Year Course (another gap year program) that I had seen around. And many more.
I still don't know exactly how I feel about the women of the wall. I believe fully that women should have the right to daven the way that they want to at the Kotel, as the location is supposed to be a place for all Jews, not just all Ultra Orthodox Jews, to worship freely. However, I also think that in a lot of ways, the Women of the Wall are more about the statement than about the actual act of praying at the wall, and that contradicts their very purpose. Having said that, I'm glad I went, and I plan on going again in December.
Thank all of you who made it this far in the post for reading, and I want to say again that I am more than willing to speak to you in depth about my experiences at WOW. Give me a call (011 050 407-6783) or send me an email (beccarosenthal@gmail.com) and I'll be more than happy to talk to you.
Until next time have a great rest of the week,
Becca
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Hey Look! A Political Protest Outside My Window!
Hey Everybody,
Last time I checked in was nearly a week ago, and a lot has happened since then. This post is really long, but there are a lot of visual aids, so hopefully you'll be able to get through it.
Instead of going away last Shabbat, I stayed in Jerusalem. There were fewer than 20 Nativ kids on base, so it was very quiet and very relaxing. Friday night after dinner, I played a rousing game of Settlers of Catan with a few friends. It was among the most entertaining and nerdy things I had done in a while, and we all really enjoyed it. The next morning, a friend and I woke up and decided to go to shul in the rain. I wore my tie-dyed rain boots and had a field day walking along the streets of Jerusalem stomping in every puddle--until it completely cleared up, every puddle dried up, and I was wearing ridiculous looking rain boots in the beautiful sunshine. We went to Kedem, an egalitarian conservative minyan made up of mostly rabbinical students and various people who are in Israel for the year. It was quite nice. That afternoon, my friends and I played another game of Settlers, and then Shabbat was over (since it gets dark at roughly 5 in the evening if not sooner).
Saturday night I went to a Carlebach memorial concert, and it was among the most interesting people watching experiences I've ever had. For those of you who don't know who Carlebach is, he is a Rabbi from the US who wrote thousands of tunes that synagogues all over the world use today. He deeply inspired the spirituality of the Chareidi and Ultra Orthodox communities, so naturally, at this concert, there were TONS of really religious people. However, at least 75% of them were American or immigrants from America, so everything that was said on stage was said in both English and Hebrew. The concert consisted of a bunch of different bands each coming on to play a song or two written by Carlebach with some video clips and speeches scattered between them. The biggest band that played (and they played a few songs through out the night) was conducted by a really well known musician named Yehuda Katz. The name becomes relevant in a bit.
One interesting moment occurred when a band played a very upbeat song that people wanted to dance to. As we were in a large convention center (interestingly, the same one as I saw Idan Raichel in the weekend prior), there wasn't a dance floor or anywhere where people could dance in big crowds, but would that stop ultra orthodox men: NEVER! The men clogged up one of the side aisles and started dancing up a storm. I asked myself where the women were dancing, and I was disguised to realize that the women were dancing in a small room to the side of the main theater. I understand if they want to dance separately, but I was pretty shocked that they couldn't even stay in the room. Having said that, the night was overall a blast.
I spent my Sunday going to class and then writing the paper that I had been procrastinating doing for the entire week prior. It was a very interesting day because the topic of the paper was interesting, but to say the least, it was not my most exciting Halloween. After I was done with my paper, I didn't even go out and celebrate the holiday (which doesn't exist in Israel) since it wasn't Halloween anymore and the printer was broken.
Monday, during my hebrew class, my teacher mentioned that there would be a rally that night at Hebrew U becuase of a law passed by the Israeli government giving more money to the Chareidi (ultra ultra-orthodox Israelis) for their Yeshivas (religious schools). The students studying in the universities were arguing that the people who only study religious subjects, don't go to the army, and don't pay taxes shouldn't be paid to go to school while students that study in secular universities have to pay for school, serve in the army, etc. Then I heard that the rally was actually happening outside of the Prime Minister's house. AKA, the rally was happening on the street outside my window.
When I got home from school on Monday evening, I heard quite a bit of noise coming from across the street. I ran upstairs to look out my window, and this is what I saw.
As we stayed by the window, we watched the crowd grow faster and faster, so we decided we had to join the party. Some friends and I walked down the stairs and headed onto the street and yelled along with the Israelis a lovely message. The only one that I could yell with them (meaning that I could understated translates to the following: "Bibi, Bibi (referring to Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu), good morning. The students are in the street." It's a pretty dumb sounding chant, but in Hebrew, it rhymes and sounds really epic with thousands of people screaming it together.
After some time down at the protest, I came back up to my room and took a final picture before leaving for our first football game. It was one crazy scene.
Last time I checked in was nearly a week ago, and a lot has happened since then. This post is really long, but there are a lot of visual aids, so hopefully you'll be able to get through it.
Instead of going away last Shabbat, I stayed in Jerusalem. There were fewer than 20 Nativ kids on base, so it was very quiet and very relaxing. Friday night after dinner, I played a rousing game of Settlers of Catan with a few friends. It was among the most entertaining and nerdy things I had done in a while, and we all really enjoyed it. The next morning, a friend and I woke up and decided to go to shul in the rain. I wore my tie-dyed rain boots and had a field day walking along the streets of Jerusalem stomping in every puddle--until it completely cleared up, every puddle dried up, and I was wearing ridiculous looking rain boots in the beautiful sunshine. We went to Kedem, an egalitarian conservative minyan made up of mostly rabbinical students and various people who are in Israel for the year. It was quite nice. That afternoon, my friends and I played another game of Settlers, and then Shabbat was over (since it gets dark at roughly 5 in the evening if not sooner).
Saturday night I went to a Carlebach memorial concert, and it was among the most interesting people watching experiences I've ever had. For those of you who don't know who Carlebach is, he is a Rabbi from the US who wrote thousands of tunes that synagogues all over the world use today. He deeply inspired the spirituality of the Chareidi and Ultra Orthodox communities, so naturally, at this concert, there were TONS of really religious people. However, at least 75% of them were American or immigrants from America, so everything that was said on stage was said in both English and Hebrew. The concert consisted of a bunch of different bands each coming on to play a song or two written by Carlebach with some video clips and speeches scattered between them. The biggest band that played (and they played a few songs through out the night) was conducted by a really well known musician named Yehuda Katz. The name becomes relevant in a bit.
One interesting moment occurred when a band played a very upbeat song that people wanted to dance to. As we were in a large convention center (interestingly, the same one as I saw Idan Raichel in the weekend prior), there wasn't a dance floor or anywhere where people could dance in big crowds, but would that stop ultra orthodox men: NEVER! The men clogged up one of the side aisles and started dancing up a storm. I asked myself where the women were dancing, and I was disguised to realize that the women were dancing in a small room to the side of the main theater. I understand if they want to dance separately, but I was pretty shocked that they couldn't even stay in the room. Having said that, the night was overall a blast.
I spent my Sunday going to class and then writing the paper that I had been procrastinating doing for the entire week prior. It was a very interesting day because the topic of the paper was interesting, but to say the least, it was not my most exciting Halloween. After I was done with my paper, I didn't even go out and celebrate the holiday (which doesn't exist in Israel) since it wasn't Halloween anymore and the printer was broken.
Monday, during my hebrew class, my teacher mentioned that there would be a rally that night at Hebrew U becuase of a law passed by the Israeli government giving more money to the Chareidi (ultra ultra-orthodox Israelis) for their Yeshivas (religious schools). The students studying in the universities were arguing that the people who only study religious subjects, don't go to the army, and don't pay taxes shouldn't be paid to go to school while students that study in secular universities have to pay for school, serve in the army, etc. Then I heard that the rally was actually happening outside of the Prime Minister's house. AKA, the rally was happening on the street outside my window.
When I got home from school on Monday evening, I heard quite a bit of noise coming from across the street. I ran upstairs to look out my window, and this is what I saw.
As we stayed by the window, we watched the crowd grow faster and faster, so we decided we had to join the party. Some friends and I walked down the stairs and headed onto the street and yelled along with the Israelis a lovely message. The only one that I could yell with them (meaning that I could understated translates to the following: "Bibi, Bibi (referring to Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu), good morning. The students are in the street." It's a pretty dumb sounding chant, but in Hebrew, it rhymes and sounds really epic with thousands of people screaming it together.
After some time down at the protest, I came back up to my room and took a final picture before leaving for our first football game. It was one crazy scene.
Nothing exciting happened on Tuesday, but today, Wednesday, was an incredible day.
I always love my Wednesdays because I only have two classes (my two favorite ones), and I have a four hour break in between. Today had two extra special components that made it incredible though. Between my two classes, a friend who also has that break and I decided to go to the Old City to go to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre since neither of us had yet had a chance to attack it with a camera. We walked down to the old city and meandered our way through the Armenian Quarter to get to the church. We got pretty lost, but we wound up in non-tourist shopping areas seeing some pretty cool things incuding children's books in Arabic.
We got to the church and went in. We spent almost an hour there. I'm not going to go into any of the history of the place, but I will show you a few cool pictures (as I promised I would about a month and a half ago).
After the Church, I had an opportunity to go to a workshop taught by Yehuda Katz, a very famous musician in Israel who was the guy on stage during the Carlebach concert. He was your typical hippie spiritual orthodox Jew wielding a beautiful Taylor acoustic guitar as his weapon. After 45 minutes of us introducing ourselves and telling him why we were in Israel (and him asking us brutally hard questions to make us really think about our answers), he played us a song. It was beautiful, but it was nothing compared to what we did in the next activity.
He wrote a passage from the bible on the board, and told us that we would be writing lyrics to interpret this verse. I was like a kid in the candy store. While some kids chose to write in Hebrew and some chose to write in groups, I chose to write by myself. At the end, we all presented our songs, and I was very proud to present a song that I had written in 10 minutes that was legitimately heartfelt. It was the most unique songwriting experience I've ever had, but I very much enjoyed it.
He asked us for our lyrics sheets so he could look at them and thanked us for coming, but a few of us stayed afterward to ask him some questions. After giving us wise answers to all of them, he gave us his phone number and email address and told us to contact him for anything. He then told me that he'd be more than willing to host us for Shabbat dinners, study with us or play music with us. It was a truly magical experience.
Now I'm going to bed, but I'm sure i'll check in later. Thanks for reading this really long post!
Becca
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