24th of September (continued)

After we came down from the mountain, we continued "jeeping". Let me just say that although taking a 4x4 trip is fun, it is a bit like becoming a Mexican jumping bean in a can. Tilted up and down, tossed side to side, forward and back, without any regard to where you actually want your body to be located.

After going up the next hill, we stopped for another view and a little bit of lunch. (See above to the right - us with the map planning out the next destination.) Avishai cooked coffee - you might not think that this is a notary event, but trust me, it is. Delicious arabic coffee. We also picked up baclaua from an Arab village. Yum.

We continued on, past acres of cotton fields. (See the picture to the left that I took while we drove in the car.) We drove down to the Kinneret, making a half circle around the little sea. We also visited the place where the Jordan meets the Galiliee. It was a lovely place, as you can see in the picture I took to the right, but a little weird. There is an abundance of fish and baptism seekers in the river. As the story goes, the aptly named John the Baptist baptized Jesus somewhere where the Jordan River meets the Kinneret. As a result, a small baptism industry emerged near the mouth of the river, at the entrance to the sea. It seems to cater to wealthy Americans, desirous of a savior-style cleansing. So, amongst an abundance of fish poop (and there are a lot a fish and even more of gross fish poop), people wade, hands akimbo, into the water, while others on the shore shout "hallelujah, praise the Lord" and blow a shofar (traditional Jewish trumpet made of a ram's horn). This experience was clearly powerful for the participants, but as someone of the "Hebrew persuation", it just felt like a confused combination of several Jewish practices. (Namely, mikvah rituals made public, conversion, a little bit of tashlich, and some of the redemption parts of Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur.) I left feeling a bit unsettled. Since you cannot see my face while I am typing this, I must write this down; certainly, none of this is a judgement on Christianity. It is just clearly, as I am headed to be a rabbi, I did not find Christian ritual to spiritually "do it" for me. There are plenty of things that I do as a Jew that I am sure Christians find unusual as well, such as tefillin or tallit wearing.

From there, we left to a kibbutz which sits on the beaches of the Kinneret and ate dinner. One of the kibbutz dogs joined us. I enjoyed having a dog for the late afternoon. From our vantage point, we could see out over the whole sea, and even over to Tiberias. (See the picture below, to the right.) It was a lovely, quiet way to end our adventures. As an added bonus, the day's sunset was beautiful.

That's it for this adventure.
Hope all is well at home,
much love.

22nd to the 24th of September

On Thursday night, I took the bus up to Raanana to see Alon. I went swimming and rock-climbing, but the real event of the weekend was our Jeep trip on Saturday.

We made plans weeks ago with our friends Avishai and Raut, who have a Jeep-trip ready type of SUV (y'know, has a metal plated undercarriage, gyroscopes, that type of thing).

We drove up north, near the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), to a National Park called Karne Hittin. The now-dead, twin-peaked volcano was the site of two important battles. The first is mentioned in the Bible, in Joshua (if I remember correctly). The second was during the Crusaders - and it turned the tide of Christian occupation during the Middle Ages. During the summer, the once green land turns golden brown with an abundance of dry grass. Apparently, while a great number of Christain crusaders occupied the mountain, thus controlling the surrounding land, the Muslim leader hatched a plan; he set fire to the grasses, razing the whole mountain. Since medieval European warriors wore giant suits of metal armor (p.s. not a very good idea in Israeli August heat, just as a general whole), they were roasted alive. For the Muslims, victory in this battle parlayed into victory in the war, and thus the reconquering of the land of Israel during the Crusades.

Outside of these gruesome historical sidenotes, it was a beautiful day (as you can see). On the top left is Alon, Avishai, and Raut looking out over the top of the Karne Hittin. On the right is a view of the Kinneret in the distance on the hike up, and on the bottom to the left is a view of some of Israel's agricultural land from a look-out point on a different near-by hill/mountain.

After we climbed down from Karne Hittin, we drove on to other different and interesting sites. But at the moment, the story must stop, as I have to get ready for class.

Tuesday Night/Wednesday Morning (21st of September)

Slichot consists of penitential prayers, recited before the morning worship service throughout the Hebrew month of Elul. (Although, the Ashkenazi tradition begins reciting Slichot only a week before Rosh Hashanah.) It is a collection of liturgical poetry, sung by different members of the congregation.

As a part of our Israel seminar, our teachers decided that we should experience a Sephardic slichot. As most of us rarely, if ever, participate in this admittedly beautiful and interesting worship ritual, many of us were excited for the unusual experience. Unfortunately, slichot starts at 4 am and my classmates and I were required to be at school at 3:30 am for a brief lesson about slichot and Sephardi practices. (p.s. lessons at 3:30 am = terrible idea)

In order to actually be awake in order to attend, some of my girl friends and I gathered at Rachel's apartment for a half-sleepover. I say this because there was no actual sleeping involved and we all had to get up at 2:30 to get dressed for services. Nonetheless, everyone came in their pajamas, girly movies in hand. Rachel provided more candy than I have seen in a long time, and we ordered pizza. We watched Coyote Ugly and My Big Fat Greek Wedding, making comments the entire time. All of us enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

Slichot services themselves were difficult to get through for multiple reasons; 1) sleep deprivation and 2) the mechitza. The mechitza is a barrier which separates men and women in Orthodox synagogues. In more progressive congregations, it is a simple low wall dividing the main room into two parts. In increasingly conservative places, women sit far above their male counterparts in a balcony that is blocked off by a latice-work. Apparently, this synagogue has become more conservative recently. And while the mechitza was pretty to look at, it made it impossible to see the rest of the synagogue, the leaders of the service, or to hear the service clearly. Since slichot was new to most of us, all of this made for a powerful impediment against participation. I spent much of the time journaling in my notebook and drinking the tea that a male member of the synagogue distributed. (The only women at the service were me and my classmates.) Most of my journaling consists of frustrations with the inability to fully participate, some mentions of the beauty of the service and the call of the shofar, and a healthy addition of angry feminist remarks.

After we finished up at 8:30 am, I dragged myself home to bed. All in all, it was a positive, though exhausting, experience.

Much love,
l

After my friend Rachel's final birthday celebration on Friday (for a play-by-play of Rachel's big day, click here), Alon, our friend Ner, and I went to a party at my friends Mel and Ester's place. It was "Toby the Dog's birthday". (Toby is Mel's dog.) After a couple of drinks, we really started to have a good time. Mel and Ester sang a song to Toby for his birthday. (Ester is holding the guitar, Mel the paper, and my friend David is holding Toby.) Many of our friends, including Alon and I, danced all around Mel and Ester's living room. (See some of the pictures below.) Our friend Vincent is the photographer for this blog.

Climbing Adventures

As the incredible heat begins to wane, Alon and I have started climbing on the weekends again. This past weekend, on Saturday the 17th, we went with my friends Lev and Elana to a cliff just outside of Jerusalem, called Nachal Halilim in Mevaseret Zion. All of us, except for Alon, acquired war-wounds. Elana and Lev scraped themselves and I caught my arm in the belay device twice (don't ask how I did it - I don't know). My injuries can be seen in this post to the right. (Note the sad face.)

I will post more pictures - of actual climbing, etc - when Lev sends me some copies.

First Wednesday Trip

This past Wednesday, the 14th of September, my Israel Seminar class - which consists of many fourth year rabbinical students and some of the first year students who lived in Israel for a while - went to the Palmach Museum. (The sign at the entrance is to the right.)

The Palmach was a military group originally formed by the British to help protect Israel during World War II, when Israel was called Palestine and was a British colony. It evolved into a freedom fighting group after the end of the Second World War and was eventually absorbed into the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) during the War of Independence.

The museum itself is unlike any museum I have ever seen - and for a kid who half grew up in the Smithsonian, that is saying something. The museum leads you through a truly multi-media, interactive dramatic history telling of the evolution and work of the Palmach. While the museum is clearly biased (and well, isn't everything), it lead to an interesting discussion on images of who is a Jew and what it means to be Jewish. I personally usually imagine Woody Allen, a half-blind, white-bearded, black-hatted Polish rebbe, or some domineering, food-pushing mother when someone asks me for a stereotype of a Jewish individual (which does not actually reflect my life experiences in any way, shape, or form... so I guess that says something else about the power of media imagery). The strong, physically active, warrior Jew is not an image often seen outside of Israel, yet here he and she are, hard-working farmer/fighters crafted by the Zionist ideal. And the funny thing is, much of my personal experience here reflects at least a part of that stereotype.

It is certinally something to ponder.

Birthdays

Since Alon's birthday is on the 6th of September, and mine is on the 12th, we decided to have a party on the weekend between my birthday and his. Since many of our friends in Ra'anana have cars and all of our friends in Jerusalem do not, we chose to host the fete at my apartment.

As a daughter of a caterer, I must mention the food first. We grilled Thai-style spicy chicken wings, rum-marinated cornish hen breast, and homemade salsa-infused burgers. Some friends were kind enough to bring veggie side dishes, drinks, and a little bit of dessert. I have enjoyed the leftovers for the last week.

Most importantly though, I was thrilled to see so many of our friends. I love having a house crammed full of happy people gabbing away with each other. And while I am not that big on birthdays and I missed everyone who was in the States or Africa or India or South America or Thailand at the moment, I was over-joyed to have friends join us in celebration.

On my actual birthday, Alon and his parents drove into Jerusalem, the hour plus from Ra'anana, and took me out to dinner. It was wonderful to see them, and super-lovely of them to come all the way into the city for me.

Thanks to everyone for great birthday celebrations.

love

lauren

Back to School, oooooohhhh, back to school (for the Fall Semester)

While Israelis begin school achery hachagim (after the holidays), HUC started Fall Semester classes on the 4th of September. While I mentioned this on previous blogs, I have yet to actually discuss what the beginning of the semester signifies in my everyday life.

Since I have been through two weeks of school thus far, my schedule is finally finalized, so I can say my week follows as such:
Sunday: Hebrew for three hours. Then Bible then lunch then Liturgy.
Monday: Prayer service workshop, Hebrew, Bible, and Cantorial enrichment. This is usually followed by our Rabbinic Forum
Tuesday: Rabbinic Literature (this includes Mishna and Talmud, for the moment), Hebrew, an off period which I use as gym class, and advanced History.
Wednesday is consumed with our Israel Seminar, which consists of a combination of lectures and trips.
Thursday: Hebrew then Biblical Grammar, followed by another free period which I use as gym class, and then Cantilation.

All in all, I am in class from at least 8:30 am to 4:15 pm. (Mondays and Wednesdays tend to go much later.) We are required to be a worship services on some Fridays, but fortunately, not all. And let's not forget that we have required community service (mine will be on Thursdays, until somewhere around 7 pm). Additionally, I am volunteering as the chairperson for the ARZA (Association of Reform Zionists of America) and am also involved in the Former Soviet Union Pesach Project (I am also on the T'fillah or Prayer committee and the Kesher committee for Reform students studying abroad and an inter-faith study group/tour thing... but those usually meet with less regularity). And I start work at the library on Tuesday. Not forgetting exercising and that every class comes with homework - usually involving readings and translations - I am pretty busy.

Love to everyone back home,
lauren

Some other pictures from Azuz.

Lamps, all of us hanging around one of the hammocks, desert, Alon, etc...

So I know that I haven't written for a little while... Between the beginning of school, etc (which I will write about in a later entry) I never got to finish talking about the rest of the after-ulpan break.

So... the end of August 29th to the 30th or so...

After going to Nachal David, we drove to the Egyptian-Israeli border, near where the old Ottoman trains ran from Cairo to Demascus, to a miniscule settlement in the desert called Azuz. There we stayed in a beautiful encampment/retreat.

We arrived in the evening, and because the land is relatively unsetteled, the sky was devoid of ambient light. On a dark, moonless night, the five of us lay under the star-speckeled sky, discovering new constilations and drinking sweet Bedouin tea. (The camp is light entirely by fire-light; either campfires or karosine lamps. All this also helps to reduce the amount of light which interfers with star-gazing.)

After waking up the next morning, we ate an extensive Israeli breakfast and lounged in the camp's many hammocks. It was wonderfully relaxing morning.

Later on in the day, we traveled the long, tiring return trip to Ra'anana.
I will include more pictures at a later date - right now the website is acting up quite a bit.

Much love to everyone at home,
lauren

On the Road (Day 2)... August 29

We woke up the next morning as the sun rose over the Jordanian mountains. After the sun's early wake-up call, we found a little mineral spring to wash off and play in. (You can see us playing in the pool to the picture to the left.)

After packing up the tents and packs, we left for Ein Gedi. We saw the water factory there and drove to different national parks around the little kibbutz. We first visited the Old Synagogue and the archeological remains of the once-thriving, ancient community there. To the left is a picture of the entrance to the dig. In the background is the Dead Sea and a date tree farm.

After wandering around the archeological site, we all went to Nachal David. Nachal David is a easy hike which included a series of running waterfalls and pools near Ein Gedi. (A picture of most of the waterfalls is to the left.) There were more people there than when I normally hike with Alon and our friends, but onto each path many people must walk, I suppose. At any rate, we hiked for some time and sat in the pools and sometimes, as seen below to the left, sat in the waterfalls themselves. I really enjoyed the easy walking and the refreshing water in the middle of the desert.

More on the rest of the adventure in the next post. The bottom two pictures are of Alon, Chebo, Lisa, and I sitting on a tall, tall rock near the largest waterfall in the stream. The other picture is of some flowering fruit tree that I just liked. (Hey, when you adjust to walking around desert most of the time, a tree that grows fruit in the middle of the summer heat will be amazing to you too.) Today was the second day of school (about 10 hours of classes), and I am more than a little tired at this point. And need to study. Oh, yeah, homework.

On the Road... August 28th

Between the end of our intensive Hebrew courses and the beginning of our true studies, HUC gave its students a week to relax and travel. While some of my classmates traveled outside of Israel, I chose to stay inside the Aretz in order to keep both stress and expenses to a minimum.


While I did a few other things, such as visit Jon in the West Bank (see Herodion entry) and Office Depot shopping for much needed school supplies, Alon, I, our friend Chebo, his cousin Mirav, and her friend Lisa decided to travel together for a little while as well.

On the first day, Sunday August 28th, Chebo, Alon, and I drove south to Jerusalem, where we picked up Mirav and Lisa. From there, we continued to Ein Ghedi and the Dead Sea (A picture of which can be seen above and to the right). We spent the late afternoon and early evening floating in the boyant waters of the ancient lake. We watched the sunset from the depths of the sea, as the light reflected off of first the cliffs on the Israeli side and then the Jordanian mountains. (To the right, the second picture down, is a photo of me in the Dead Sea, with the Jordanian mountians in the distance. It is just before true sunset.) The water turned from blue-green to gold to pink to purple before the stars started to peak out of the sky.

As dark closed around us, we left the Ein Gedi beach for another, less rocky shore on the Dead Sea. There we set up our tents and watched the stars. (As there was not much ambient light in our location, this was quite an event.)

More on the next day later. Classes started yesterday, Sept. 4th, and I have to get going to them. I will tell you about classes after I my schedule is more complete. Instead I will leave you with pictures. The two to the left are some of many pictures of sunrise on the Dead Sea.

Much love to those at home.

So, my beloved friend Rachel finally plugged her camera into her computer and sent me a fantastic picture of us shopping for tallitot together. In this picture, we are at Gabrieli's shop, and each of us is wearing the tallit that we bought. Both of us are thrilled with our purchases. See the entry about this in the August archives if you would like a refresher on our tallitot purchasing adventures.

Being a Reform rabbi in Israel

The following is an excerpt from an article recently published by HaAretz, the Israeli national newspaper. I found it very interesting, and a nice answer to a question that many people keep asking me: "Do you want to stay and be a rabbi in Israel?"

Rabbis?
By Shahar Ilan
Miri Gold, the rabbi of Kibbutz Gezer in central Israel, will become one of the most famous and controversial figures in the Reform movement in Israel over the next few years. Not that Gold is seeking publicity or enjoys being in the spotlight. On the contrary. But she was found by the Reform movement to be the most suitable candidate to petition the High Court of Justice and put to the test two weighty questions: Is a liberal - that is, a Reform or Conservative - rabbi entitled to receive a salary from the state as the rabbi of a community, and does this entitlement apply to a female rabbi?Early next week, the Movement for Progressive Judaism's Israel Religious Action Center will petition the High Court to compel the state to allot a salaried position to a liberal rabbi on Kibbutz Gezer. The petition is sure to instigate a new struggle between religion and state: Who's a rabbi?It was only a question of time, of when the Reform movement would put the issue to the legal test. One ultra-Orthodox leader wondered out loud this week why they hadn't done it earlier. The "Who's a Jew" struggle over conversion issue showed that the religious political parties would try, with the help of a coalition majority, to pass legislation that would forbid the appointment of Reform and Conservative rabbis. The experience gained in that struggle also proves that American Jewry would relate to any such attempt as a strong affront and as a declaration by Israel that their rabbis are second-class rabbis.
At present, not a single liberal rabbi is recognized by the state as the rabbi of a neighborhood, community or city.

If you want to see the whole article, click here.