Gone Scuba Diving (October 14th to the 22nd)

The day after Yom Kippur marked the first day of Sukkot vacation from HUC. Alon and I headed up to Ra'anana for Erev Shabbat on the 14th of October. A few of our friends returned recently from India and Thailand, and we visited with one or two. On Saturday, we flew to Eilat with our friends Naomi and Amit. (Yes, amazingly, there are super cheap flights to Eilat.)

Sunday marked our first day of intensive scuba diving class. This class continued every day throughout the next seven days. We did at least two scuba dives a day, in addition to scuba diving theory class. The first (and main) set of scuba dives involved taking off masks, removing regulators (breathing thingy) and all other pieces of equiptment, and then putting everything back on underwater, plus learning to swim properly with all of this stuff. Theory classes involved minimal physics lessons, what to in emergencies, and the potential dangers of diving. All of this was difficult, and a little scary, but especially so for me as all of it was in Hebrew. Alon translated some for me, but nonetheless it reminded me of being in ulpan all over again.

(Above, from left to right, is a picture of Gal, our scuba instructor, me, Alon, Amit, and Naomi.)The scuba course took us to Eilat's aquarium and nature reserve. Since our instructor is learning to be a marine biologist, it was a very interesting and informative (although, again, all in Hebrew, and thus confusing at times).

Towards the end of the week, our dives-per-day increased from two to three at day, and we stopped removing our masks and regulators continually and began seeing more fish and underwater wildlife. I wish I could have taken pictures the whole time - I found the whole thing fascinating and very beautiful.

At the end of the week, both Alon and I graduated from our scuba course. Now, I am officially an Advanced Open Water Diver, and certified to do Nitrox dives! Pretty cool for someone who spends much of her week-day time comparing things like what types of prayers and Talmudic commentary Ashkenazi and Yeminite Jews emphasize in conservative liturgy.

Alon and I stayed at our friend, Ami's place. Ami owns two dogs and a cat. I have wanted a dog for ages, so it was a lot of fun for me to have two for a week or so. Ami and I spent a lot of time watching movies - especially old James Bond films and a new Israeli comedy - when I wasn't diving and he wasn't working. After weeks of 8 to 10 hour school days, it was fantastic to sit in unthinking enjoyment.

Our friends Tal and Roi also came down to Eilat for the later part of the week. They are also Advanced Divers and spent much of their time diving in old wrecks and some of the lovely reefs that the Red Sea possesses. (We also ended up driving back to the North with Tal and Roi.)

On Saturday night, Tal, Roi, Naomi, Amit, Alon, Ami, and I went out to dinner at the fancy meat restaurant in Eilat, Pedro's. It was delicious. I almost never go out to big dinners anymore, so leaving the house to have a steak cooked for me, was clearly satisfying.

The next day, Sunday, Alon, Roi, Tal, and I returned to Ra'anana.
The adventure continues... later. Much love, l

Days of Awe (continued)

I have been on vacation and away from any form of internet access for a little over a week at this point. Happily, much happened, but I will write about that in a later letter. First, as a rabbinical student, I feel obligated to at least mention one of the most important days of the Jewish calendar: Yom Kippur.

Yom Kippur, the Day of Repentance, falls ten days after Rosh Hashana and is the primary and most important fast day of the year. As Judaism does not believe in asceticism, fast days are rare and generally signify great importance. Yom Kippur acts as a final reminder to apologize for wrong choices and hurtful actions from the year before; it pleads with us to begin the New Year with a clean slate with one's family, friends, and God. While Judaism teaches that the opportunities for repentance are always open to us, Yom Kippur serves as a last kick-in-the-ass to actually talk to everyone and face difficult feelings that we usually avoid.

I spent a lot of time in personal reflection and study and a lot less time actually talking to people. Yes, Karen and I hosted dinner at our apartment the night that Yom Kippur came in, and I went to a big break-the-fast dinner at the end of the day with many friends... but I spent the morning mostly alone, reading my Ashkenazi Yom Kippur Machzor (translation: Eastern European Day of Repentance specialized prayer and study book), thinking about repentance, everything that happened this year - both really good and really bad and really inbetween - and my relationship with God. While I had places to be, on this important day of reflection, I needed the time-out. It takes me a long time to process my personal progress on my individual "big" issues, like life and death and suffering and God and love. While it will take me more than a lifetime to sort through all of this, as far as this year is concerned, I am not ready to repent for everything quite yet. I received so many blessings, but so much difficulty as well. While I know that this makes me grow, the pains that accompany growth are sometimes severe. As Israelis say, I am not whole with it yet.

Anyhoo, off of the heavy stuff... Yom Kippur is interesting in Israel. No one drives - it is actually impossible. As soon as the night arrives, people flood into the streets, walking in the middle of five-lane roads, meandering along usually car-filled intersections. Instead of automobiles and buses, there are bicycles and rollerblades. More people get bicycle-related injuries on Yom Kippur than any other day of the year in Israel. And, as everything is closed, secular Israelis stay home and throw movie-watching parties with friends. It is almost impossible to rent a movie the day before Yom Kippur, as the much of the country already picked the Blockbusters and movie rental machines dry. It was fascinating to see the difference in Israel and her people from the day before to the day of Yom Kippur.

In the evenings leading into and out of the holiday, I attended services at HUC, in the hall that overlooks Jerusalem's Old City. Eli - our genius though sometimes-old-fashioned cantorial professor - chose beautiful and interesting music to usher in and ease out Yom Kippur. Again, it was lovely to see the city walls glow and change in color as the afternoon moved into evening and night.

All in all, I feel I can say that it was an interesting Yom Kippur.

Lions and Monkeys and Bears, oh my!

Last Friday was my classmate Jean's birthday. To celebrate, we walked/taxied to the skirts of Jerusalem, near the West Bank, to the Zoo.

The Zoo's animals are based off of the different animals in the Bible. Below the scientific classifications of each of the animals, a list of attributes about their natural habitat, and food needs, sits a quick passage from the Bible noting that indeed Solomon and David saw birds and monkeys and bears. Of course, the elephants and giraffes and zebras didn't have quotes from the Bible under their scientific information. But, hey, what's a zoo without elephants and giraffes and zebras.

The Zoo also possesses a replication of Noah's ark, which contains a children's movie entirely in Hebrew. A little train travels throughout the major parts of the park. We took the train for a small part of the trip. As a whole, the zoo was very enjoyable. It was a great way to spend a morning.

Afterwards, I went to Raanana for Shabbat and to see the new house into which Alon and his family just moved. The move has been long and slow - it is nice to see the whole thing come together the way that they planned.

To the left is a picture of all of the first year students who went to the Zoo for Jean's birthday (and Ann's son, in case you are wondering who the 11 year old is). Jean is sitting in about the middle.

And some people blame Israel for the situation in Gaza...
Here is the latest on the PA government from Haaretz (click on the "Israeli News" link to the right or the link below for more)

Palestinian committee: PA has done nothing to impose order
By Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondent
The Palestinian cabinet has never once discussed the security chaos in the territories, nor has Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia ever asked it to do so, according to an investigative committee set up by the Palestinian Legislative Council. The panel was charged with examining the Palestinian Authority's ongoing failure to impose order on armed Palestinian gangs and militias.The committee's report, a copy of which was obtained by Haaretz, said that despite Qureia's repeated public comments about the need to impose order on the armed gangs, in practice, his government failed to make any attempt to deal with either the armed militias or the power struggles among the various Palestinian security services that impeded action against these militias.I t also found that there was a "clear failure in implementing the reform and development plan, as well as in the war against corruption." Implementation of this reform plan was one of the international community's conditions for progress toward a Palestinian state.
To read the whole article, click here...

Days of Awe

There is just something about these days that sneak up on you. It doesn't matter that I heard the shofar blown every morning of Elul (the Jewish month of love and repentance which leads up to Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year), or that the markets started to sell good baking apples and pomegranates just a few weeks ago, or that I feel a chill during the evenings only recently. The sun set two nights ago, and all of a sudden, we entered into a new year.

The Days of Awe constitute Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, the Day of Repentance, and the ten days which come between the two holidays. For some, they extend onto Sukkot, a harvest festival week-long celebration, and Simchat Torah, which literally translates to ''the happiness of the teachings''. For Jews around the world, the coming of autumn means a celebration of the world's creation and the fruits (physical and metaphysical) that it produces. It is a time of reflection, repentance, forgiveness, and renewal. And while preparations can be made for this season, it is my general experience no matter what I do, I still feel that these days arrive unexpectedly.

So much that is painful and beautiful happens within a year; it is nearly impossible to compile and organize all of it, even with a month's worth of preparation.

This year, I spent my Rosh Hashana in several different ways. Erev (eve of) Rosh Hashana, I helped out with a program at school; several American students studying across Israel migrated to HUC for the holiday. The whole thing was organized by a variety of people, including myself; my role was to create and run getting-to-know-you programs.
Alon joined me and my classmates at this point, and we headed to one of rooms in the HUC complex which enjoys large panoramic views of the walls of the Old City. We sat in services, watching the stones and sky change as the sun departed, listening as the choir sung.
Alon and I left services and traveled North, to join the Morrocan side of his family. They held a beautiful and delicious Morrocan Rosh Hashana seder (think meal and worship service combined). It was the first time I ever participated in this type of seder. And it is nice to be included in an Israeli family.
The next day, we ate ate another amazing Morrocan lunch at Alon's Aunt Sylvie's. (I never knew that I loved Morrocan food so much.) We were supposed to travel farther north for one of Alon's cousin's bar mitzvah in the late afternoon. Instead, as Alon's grandfather fell ill and had suprise surgery, we drove south to Beer Sheva. We hung out with Alon's grandfather after his operation, and some of the other family which had stayed in the south to be with him. All of it reminded me of my family, and I missed home.
The second day of Rosh Hashana deserves a brief explination. Alon's parents are moving to a house they just built in an adjoining neighborhood. As new house comes together (closets being built, etc.), they are in the slow, slow process of migrating things. These days, their things are migrating even faster. Thus, most of my second day was spent doing dishes and laundry and cooking in an attempt to make life easy for the rest of the family, who actually know what they want packed, how they want it moved, and where it is going to. I tried to write some of my sermon, which is coming up in a month, but failed miserably. It is interesting though, to be in a place where you can hear the blowing of the shofar from the comfort of one's living room or while cooking in one's kitchen. But, I guess that that is what being in Israel (and being a "secular" Israeli family) is all about.

Happy New Year and much love
l

Saturday, 1 October: Jerusalem Adventures

Instead of hiking around nature like we usually do on our weekends, this Saturday, Alon and I decided to adventure to parts of Jerusalem previously unseen (well, at least by me).

While Jewish Jerusalem closes down completely for Shabbat, the one-third of Jerusalem which practices Christianity and Islam remains open, as their rest days fall on different parts of the week.

Armed with a guidebook and a desire to see new things, Alon and I set out through the Arab Market in the Old City, towards the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. While the church today does not look like much from the outside (see above picture to the right), it is filled with beautiful art from the six original sects of Christianity. The Holy Sepulchre marks Golgotha, also known as Calvary, the site of Jesus' crucifixion. Within, the church contains the stone upon which Jesus was prepared for burial after his death. (See a gold mosaic depiction of this story to the left.) Additionally, it is the place of the 10th through 14th Stations of the Cross.

First built in 335 CE by Constantine, after his mother Eleni made pilgrimage to Jerusalem and uncovered the site, the structure of the church as been reconstructed several times throughout history, due to a variety of wars and natural disasters (Wars: Persians in 614, Turks in 1009, and then some Crusader rebuilding in the mid-1100s; Fires: 1808 and 1949; Earthquake: 1927). As you walk into the building, the first thing is Jesus' burial preparation stone. (Shown to the left.) People spend a lot of time rubbing their faces, hands, and things (especially souvenirs) all over it.

The whole church reminded me of a less-glorified St. Marks in Venice with a bit of classical Greek Orthodox iconography thrown into the artistic/architechtural mix. (I say this because, interesting art and gold mosaics fill the place, but it is not dripping in it, as found in St. Mark's.) You can see some fantastic iconography done in precious metals and paint to the right. Glowing candles and dead (or dying) Jesus are in abundance at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre - everywhere you turn, really. I found the whole experience fascinating.

In an attempt to see Jerusalem's three holiest sites of the three major world religions, Alon and I approached the Temple Mount, otherwise known as the Dome of the Rock. The Dome is the third holiest site to Muslims; it is where Mohammad made his magical midnight trip with the angel Gabriel (if I remember correctly) to the location of the Binding of Isaac. Its location is one and the same with Judaism's ancient Temple. Unfortunately, the Muslims close down the Temple Mount to visitors on Fridays and Saturdays. I knew that non-Muslims could never go into the Dome itself, and certainly not on the Muslim holy day of Friday, but I had expected to be able to at least stand outside, on the Temple Mount on Saturday. Instead, I was disappointed. The Temple Mount is only open from 7 am to 11 am, Sunday through Thursday. Looks like I will have to skip out on class to be able to see it.

Alon and I passed the wide variety of Arab markets to our last stop of the day. After wandering in and around Damascus Gate, and out through different shukim, we made it to The Wall. The Western Wall, otherwise known as the Kotel, served as the Western outer-most wall of the great Second Temple, beautified by Herod the Builder around the time when BCE turned to CE. During the time of the Ottomans, and when the Arabs controlled Jerusalem before the Six Day War, the space was used as a trash heap and general dump. Today, it serves as one of Judaism's holiest sites. (In the picture above and to the left, you can see that it sits just below the Dome of the Rock.) Although for many years everyone had free access to all parts of the Wall, regardless of gender, the Kotel is currently separated into men and women sections. I can go on for hours about how much I hate the regulations instituted at the Wall, why I think that they are not Jewish laws and just crap made up by masoginistic, over-zealous, pretend-pious rabbis, and how I think that they have stopped making it a holy space for all of the people of Israel.... but that is not really the point at the moment. (Maybe another time, another blog...) The point is, is that after multiple trips to the Kotel, I finally had a meaningful experience at the Wall. It was a quiet, Shabbat afternoon; very few men were present to shout out their prayers over the mechitza (barrier) and very few women sat eating and chatting in the lawnchairs in the women's section. (Both of which are typical and annoying.) I prayed mincha, the Jewish afternoon prayer service, and felt moved in a place which for so long, I felt was not my own. After years of feeling frustrated and angry and sad and annoyed, I, in whispered silence, was finally able to claim a place for myself in Judaism's holiest site.

Just another Saturday in Jerusalem, I suppose.
Much love to everyone at home.

CONGRATULATIONS to Ginelle!!!!

My good friend from W&M, Ginelle, just got engaged!!!!!! In a very romantic story, her boyfriend of several years, Scott, proposed last night (or today in the afternoon, if you are on the West Coast, like they are...) and she said yes!

Congrats honey! Or, as they say around here, MAZEL TOV!