Hi Everyone! This past week has been good. We went on a tiyul (field trip) on Wednesday to take a look at some of the water tunnels that the Jews used in the time of the Second Temple and took a "stroll" through one of the maintenance tunnels. It was very interesting to me especially since I thought I had already gone through all of these types of tunnels. Again, it was a new appreciation for Israel for me not to assume I've seen everything, but there is plenty more for me to discover. Thursday we had a test in class and I was very happy with how I did.
I am going to try something new today (and every Friday in the future). I'd like to add in a small d'var Torah every week. Let me know what y'all think!
Parshat Balak
This week's Parsha is called Balak and it focus on to main characters, Balak and Balaam. Balak was a King of Moab who saw the Jewish people growing in numbers and becoming stronger. Balaam was a wizard who was known for either giving out blessings (Mevrachim) or curses (Ra'aot) and hsi words were able to predict who would succeed or fail. Balak seeks out Balaam to send a curse to Bnai Yisrael so that he was able to Gerush (separate) them from this land (we will be returning to this word later). Balak sends many of his top dignitaries to recruit Balaam to come work for their King and Balaam is not swayed. Every night God comes to Balaam and tells him to stay until finally after three nights and Balak himself coming to see Balaam, Balaam concedes and joins the King (after God had told him to). God's final words to Balaam before he left were "You will speak whatever words I put in your mouth". This is also the condition that Balaam explains to Balak. Balak repeatedly tells him to what to say, and Balaam responds with simply "I will say the words that God puts in my mouth).
The most famous part of this parsha is of course Balaam's talking donkey. On the way to join Balak, God sends down an angel to communicate with Balaam. The angel stands in the middle of the road and at first only Balaam's donkey can see it, so the donkey stops. Balaam gets very angry with the donkey so he strikes it three times. Lo and behold, the donkey turns around and asks very simply "What have I done to you that you would hit me three times?". My favorite part is the fact that Balaam responds very matter of factly and doesn't think twice about the fact that his donkey is talking to him. After the conversation with the donkey, the angel reveals itself to Balaam and conveys God's thoughts to the wizard.
Once Balaam arrives to Balak he requests to an altar to be erected and for an ox and a bull to be sacrificed. He goes up on the hill where he can see all of B'nai Yisrael and gets ready to concoct the nastiest curse he can think of opens his mouth and lets out words of....praise? Wait a minute, that's not how it's supposed to work. Balak gets very angry with Balaam, asking him why he was paid to curse Bnai Yisrael and he says a blessing. Balaam simply responds with the phrase "I say the world that God puts in my mouth". Balak decides to try again but from a different spot and they go through the same routine of putting up an altar and Balaam gets ready to curse Bnai Yisrael and again a blessing comes out. They try it one more time for a different spot with the same result. Finally Balak gives up and returns to Moab, and Balaam returns to his home.
The end of the parsha is very interesting because until now there has been no mention of anything Bnai Yisrael has done. Finally at the end it says that God was angry with the people because they were mixing with Midianite women. God ordered that anyone who transgressed to be hung in the sunlight. In the end says that 24,000 people were killed because of their acts.
There are many aspects to focus on from this Parsha but for the sake of time and my computer battery I am going to focus on only one, the power of our words and how we decide to use them. In Masechet Brachot, Rabbi Meir explains how we have a certain amount of words that are alloted to use in our lives. The more we waste our words the less good we are able to do and the more of our lives our wasted. I love this explanation and it is my favorite way to look at lashon hara (literally evil tongue, but more specficially gossip or propaganda). We are all given the opportunity to do much good in our lives. We do not have the same privilege that Balaam was granted by being able to say "I say the words that God puts in my mouth". Balaam's intention was to give curses to Bnai Yisrael but that was changed by God. The responsibility is on all of us to share the words that we to say, and not words that we think are expected of us. It is always easier to trash someone for their shortcomings or mistakes, but it is much more respectable to see where that person is coming from and think about if you were in their position. My challenge for all of you is to take into thought how you are viewed by those around you. Are you seen as someone who will throw your friend under the bus so that evreyone else can think more highly of you, or do you take into regard what your words are doing to that person and how you can use your words to help them.
Shabbat Shalom and I hope to hear from everyone soon
Friday, July 11, 2008
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Keeping up
Hi Everyone, nothing new to report from my end. Ulpan is coming along well, and I received my first summer assignment for Pardes. I'm very excited to get to work on the readings, and to start studying. I'm going to catch a ride home now, so I'll write more later on.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
The Day After
Today was uneventful. I went to school early, took a test in class, had lunch with David Riemenschnieder (he is going to be in the Educators Program with me), went to Pardes, and came home with Aunt Gail.
This post really is not about me.
It's about the three people who were killed by someone described as a "hot head". For those that are curious Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak described this person as a 'murderer' and not a 'terrorist'. Unfortunately, Israelis do not care either way. They see a man who was an Israeli Arab (notice I didnt' say Arab Israeli), how went on a rampage through a very crowded part of Jerusalem in bulldozer with the intention of killing as many people as possible. Most people I spoke with yesterday said "Thank God he only killed 3 people". Sadly for myself I wasn't shocked to hear a response like this. This was a horrible crime. Worst of all, I didn't even do research to see who was killed. I just saw a number, and knew that my family and friends here were okay. This afternoon while waiting for the bus with Aunt Gail she mentioned to me that one of the women killed was a friend of a friend. Alll of a sudden it became real. I found the article on JPost.com about the 3 people who were killed. All of a sudden it became very real. Once you hear the stories and realize what kind of travesty this was does it really hit you. I ask all of you to read this article and think about how thankful you are to have your loved ones around you. I know I am.
This post really is not about me.
It's about the three people who were killed by someone described as a "hot head". For those that are curious Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak described this person as a 'murderer' and not a 'terrorist'. Unfortunately, Israelis do not care either way. They see a man who was an Israeli Arab (notice I didnt' say Arab Israeli), how went on a rampage through a very crowded part of Jerusalem in bulldozer with the intention of killing as many people as possible. Most people I spoke with yesterday said "Thank God he only killed 3 people". Sadly for myself I wasn't shocked to hear a response like this. This was a horrible crime. Worst of all, I didn't even do research to see who was killed. I just saw a number, and knew that my family and friends here were okay. This afternoon while waiting for the bus with Aunt Gail she mentioned to me that one of the women killed was a friend of a friend. Alll of a sudden it became real. I found the article on JPost.com about the 3 people who were killed. All of a sudden it became very real. Once you hear the stories and realize what kind of travesty this was does it really hit you. I ask all of you to read this article and think about how thankful you are to have your loved ones around you. I know I am.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Have you Missed Me?
Many apologies for slacking on keeping this up to date. I've been very busy for the past week so I have plenty to catch y'all up on. I started school last Tuesday and it has been very nice to actually start the 'school' process and say I am a student again. I've got a lot to review from the past week so I'm going to try and cover everything.
Tuesday June 24
I had my first day of Ulpan and realized that I might know more than I thought, but still have a lot to learn. My teacher is a lot of fun, and makes the class very interactive. I mention this because I can imagine it being very boring teaching Hebrew to Americans 5 days a week, so it's very admirable to make it interesting everyday. My class is much more diverse than I thought it was going to be. I was expecting all 20-21 year old Americans who are here to get drunk and have Ulpan as there 'activity'. I couldn't have been more wrong, half of my class is not from America. There are people from France, Germany, Spain, Brazil, Italy, Argentina, and Japan. The rest of the people are from from America, but there is a great variety and liveliness in the classroom. One of the most interesting aspects is that the only language some of us have in common is Hebrew. Just reaffirming that bond that Jews can have all over the world.
After class I hung out around Hebrew U for a few hours because I was going to meet Shosh's group in town and they weren't in Jerusalem yet. I met up with them at Har Herzl and walked through it with them. From there we went to the Shalom Hotel to put our stuff down. We got to relax for about 20 minutes, and then were off to Kvar HaStudentim (The Student Village) at Hebrew U for a night out at one of the bars there. Shosh's group was a lot of fun, and they took me in as part of the group. It was really nice to celebrate a great trip with them. We got back to the hotel around 12:45 and went straight to bed.
Wednesday June 25
I woke up early that morning, and had breakfast with Shosh's group at the Shalom Hotel and caught a cab to Hebrew U. Class was normal, and afterwards I met Shosh at Pardes. She was coming back from Ben Gurion airport (saying goodbye to her group), so we put her suitcase in Aunt Gail's car. I had set up an appointment to look at an apartment that afternoon so we went straight there. The apartment was very nice, fully furnished, and in a great neighborhood. The problem was that neighborhood wasn't near anything we wanted. We told the broker thank you and were on our way. We went back to Kfar Adumim that night, at some dinner and Shosh was out cold by 8:30 that evening. I stayed up for a while to write in my journal, and do some homework.
Thursday June 26
Thursday both of us woke up refreshed and caught a ride to Hebrew U with Aunt Gail. Shosh waited for me at Rothberg while I was in class. It was great to be able to see her durng thd ay consistently. I'm excited for the chance to have that everyday. After class we went down to Emek Refaim to do more work on apartment hunting. We found a second one that was interesting to us, and got in touch with the broker. He was very nice and came to pick us up from the cafe we were sitting at, and took us to the apartment. This one was in the perfect neighborhood that we are looking for, but it wasn't the nicest place. That wasn't a big deal to either of us, but we were both nervous about the appliances and we got some shady answers about who would be responsible for them if anything broke. Neither of us felt great about that one, so the search continued. We decided that we weren't going to get nervous about the apartments until after Shabbat.
After the apartment look we walked downtown and passed the Israel Gay Pride parade on the way down. It was very interesting to see, but what was more interesting was the attention I was getting. Shosh and I were standing on the sides so we could watch it go by, and I was wearing a kippah. On two different occasions a policeman came up to me and was interrogating
about what I was doing at the parade. We both figured that it was because I was wearing a kippah that that happened. They were assuming I was there to cause trouble. This just made me realize what sort of associations people can make here just by appearance. After the parade Shosh and I headed to Egon to hang out for a while. You're probably wondering "Why didn't you just head home?", well that's because we were meeting Judi and Oren for dinner that night. We met them at a sushi restaurant called Japanika and it was delicious. Both Shosh and I had a great time hanging out with Judi and Oren and it's comforting to know that we'll have them around while we are here. After dinner Aunt Gail came to pick us up and we headed home for the night.
Friday June 27th
We slept in on Friday morning and got our stuff ready for Shabbat. Both of us wanted to stay in Jerusalem for Shabbat but it was difficult to find a hostel that was in the area we wanted. We ended up staying at the Jaffa Gate hostel which is located right next to the Jaffa Gate in the old city. This hostel was "quaint" , Shosh loved it for it's shadiness but it left some to be desired for me. We had a private room, so that's all I truly cared about. We went in to town to get some lunch, and while we were down there we ran into Jeff Seidel. He is known as someone to help people get meals on Shabbat all around Jerusalem. We ran him down and inquired about the evening. From there we headed to Machane Yehuda to pick up some snack for Shabbat. We got some rogolach, a bottle of wine for dinner, and two challot for lunch. We then headed back to our hostel to get ready for Shabbat.
I should confess something, I've never enjoyed davening at the Kotel. I found it to be monotonous and not very meaningful. So as we headed there for Kabbalat Shabbat, I had very low expectations. As I arrived, I found a minyan like every other one I've had there. A leader that you couldn't understand and lots of mumbling. All of a sudden to my right I heard Yedid Nefesh coming out. I truly love this song, and was ecstatic to hear it being sung. I went straight to that minyan and sang with them. Even better was for the beginning of the service they sang it in a Carlebach tune. This service ended up being fantastic, it was lead by 16 year old Israeli and his friends. It was full of ruach and was exactly what I needed. Probably a bit too much, because I was supposed to meet the person that was hosting us for lunch at 8:20, and Shosh didn't yell out my name until 8:50 (woops). Luckily for me, our host was late getting to daven, so we weren't left behind. We left the Kotel and headed down to their house. Again I had somewhat low expectations since most of the time I get set up for a meal like this, it is with a family that has 9 kids but can really afford to feed 3 of them. Once again I was more than pleasantly surprised. Their apartment was beautiful and the food was even better. The first course could have filled me up on its own. Conversation was fantastic and we didn't leave the apartment until close to 12:30. We got back to the hostel and passed out right away.
Saturday June 28
We woke up Saturday morning around 10:00 and got ready for the trek to Mercaz HaMagshimim. We walked down there and hand lunch with Sari Roy, she was on Nativ with both Shosh and I. Shosh has seen her as recently as last January, but I hadn't seen her since Nativ. I'm very excited that she will be here also. From there we walked back home, got to the hostel and took a nap. We woke up around 6:30 and went back to the Kotel for Mincha and Ma'ariv. The temperature changes here are very funny. Once the sun is going down and not shining directly on us, it really becoms the most comfortable place around. We sat in the dusk of the Kotel for a while and took it in. Once Shabbat was over we headed back to the Kotel and went out that night for dinner and some drinks.
Sunday June 29
Sunday we woke up and I headed straight to school while Shosh hung out around town. Class was normal, nothing special. Afterwards I headed into town and met up with Shosh at Cafe Hillel where she was having lunch with her friend Elana. We hung out there for a while and then meandered around town for the afternoon. We spent some of it in the lobby of the David Citadel Hotel, some of it in a new shopping area near the Old City (where Shosh got some make up), and some of it just walking around Ben Yehuda. We waited until 8 PM and then met up with one of Shosh's friends, Carmi. I knew her when I was on Nativ so it was great to see her, and again it's nice to know that she is here for us to be friends with. Afterwards Aunt Gail came to pick us up, and we went home for the night. Again exhausted I fell asleep on the way home, and was outcold up arrival to the house.
Monday June 30
Woke up Monday feeling refreshed and we headed out with Aunt Gail. She dropped me off at Hebrew U and Shosh continued on with her to Pardes. After school I went straight to Pardes and hung out there for a couple hours. We went home with Aunt Gail, had a nice dinner outside, and tried to take it easy. I was exhausted after the previous days so it felt good, to just stay at home. We went to sleep at a good time, and got some needed rest.
Tuesday July 1
Yesterday Shosh and I got a ride to Hebrew U with Aunt Gail. I went to class and Shosh hung out at the cafeteria. Afterwards we went straight down to pardes to meet up with Aunt Gail and did a bit more research for apartments. At this point we were somewhat burnt out from the process and were getting worried that we were going to get a crappy apartment for way too much money. But LO AND BEHOLD Shosh found something!! It was listed as 3 rooms, 4000 NIS ($1200), and furnished. No way. There must be a catch. It must already be rented. I called the broker and it wasn't rented. We set up a time to see it that afternoon. Shosh, Aunt Gail, and I headed down and met up with Israel, the broker. He showed us the apartment and WOW. That's all I can say. WOW. It's perfect. All three of us were blown away, and we pretty much agreed to it on the spot. It was very exciting and extremely relieving to know where I'm going to be and where Shosh and my first home will be (with Andy of course). From there we headed home and the sad part starting dawning on us. Shosh was leaving that night. We had a light dinner, she finished up packing and we headed to the Hyatt to meet the taxi. We said our goodbyes (unfortunately we are very good at these). I headed home from there and wanted to go to sleep. I'm still waiting for her to land though.
Wednesday July 2
Class was good today, but I wanted to let you all know that there was a terrorist attack this morning. Someone took a tractor and rammed two public buses with it. I am fine, as is everyone I know. 4 people were killed and 44 were injured. Once again, I am fine. As my teacher said after we found out, this is Israel. Unfortunately you learn to live with these things.
That's all for now.
Tuesday June 24
I had my first day of Ulpan and realized that I might know more than I thought, but still have a lot to learn. My teacher is a lot of fun, and makes the class very interactive. I mention this because I can imagine it being very boring teaching Hebrew to Americans 5 days a week, so it's very admirable to make it interesting everyday. My class is much more diverse than I thought it was going to be. I was expecting all 20-21 year old Americans who are here to get drunk and have Ulpan as there 'activity'. I couldn't have been more wrong, half of my class is not from America. There are people from France, Germany, Spain, Brazil, Italy, Argentina, and Japan. The rest of the people are from from America, but there is a great variety and liveliness in the classroom. One of the most interesting aspects is that the only language some of us have in common is Hebrew. Just reaffirming that bond that Jews can have all over the world.
After class I hung out around Hebrew U for a few hours because I was going to meet Shosh's group in town and they weren't in Jerusalem yet. I met up with them at Har Herzl and walked through it with them. From there we went to the Shalom Hotel to put our stuff down. We got to relax for about 20 minutes, and then were off to Kvar HaStudentim (The Student Village) at Hebrew U for a night out at one of the bars there. Shosh's group was a lot of fun, and they took me in as part of the group. It was really nice to celebrate a great trip with them. We got back to the hotel around 12:45 and went straight to bed.
Wednesday June 25
I woke up early that morning, and had breakfast with Shosh's group at the Shalom Hotel and caught a cab to Hebrew U. Class was normal, and afterwards I met Shosh at Pardes. She was coming back from Ben Gurion airport (saying goodbye to her group), so we put her suitcase in Aunt Gail's car. I had set up an appointment to look at an apartment that afternoon so we went straight there. The apartment was very nice, fully furnished, and in a great neighborhood. The problem was that neighborhood wasn't near anything we wanted. We told the broker thank you and were on our way. We went back to Kfar Adumim that night, at some dinner and Shosh was out cold by 8:30 that evening. I stayed up for a while to write in my journal, and do some homework.
Thursday June 26
Thursday both of us woke up refreshed and caught a ride to Hebrew U with Aunt Gail. Shosh waited for me at Rothberg while I was in class. It was great to be able to see her durng thd ay consistently. I'm excited for the chance to have that everyday. After class we went down to Emek Refaim to do more work on apartment hunting. We found a second one that was interesting to us, and got in touch with the broker. He was very nice and came to pick us up from the cafe we were sitting at, and took us to the apartment. This one was in the perfect neighborhood that we are looking for, but it wasn't the nicest place. That wasn't a big deal to either of us, but we were both nervous about the appliances and we got some shady answers about who would be responsible for them if anything broke. Neither of us felt great about that one, so the search continued. We decided that we weren't going to get nervous about the apartments until after Shabbat.
After the apartment look we walked downtown and passed the Israel Gay Pride parade on the way down. It was very interesting to see, but what was more interesting was the attention I was getting. Shosh and I were standing on the sides so we could watch it go by, and I was wearing a kippah. On two different occasions a policeman came up to me and was interrogating
about what I was doing at the parade. We both figured that it was because I was wearing a kippah that that happened. They were assuming I was there to cause trouble. This just made me realize what sort of associations people can make here just by appearance. After the parade Shosh and I headed to Egon to hang out for a while. You're probably wondering "Why didn't you just head home?", well that's because we were meeting Judi and Oren for dinner that night. We met them at a sushi restaurant called Japanika and it was delicious. Both Shosh and I had a great time hanging out with Judi and Oren and it's comforting to know that we'll have them around while we are here. After dinner Aunt Gail came to pick us up and we headed home for the night.
Friday June 27th
We slept in on Friday morning and got our stuff ready for Shabbat. Both of us wanted to stay in Jerusalem for Shabbat but it was difficult to find a hostel that was in the area we wanted. We ended up staying at the Jaffa Gate hostel which is located right next to the Jaffa Gate in the old city. This hostel was "quaint" , Shosh loved it for it's shadiness but it left some to be desired for me. We had a private room, so that's all I truly cared about. We went in to town to get some lunch, and while we were down there we ran into Jeff Seidel. He is known as someone to help people get meals on Shabbat all around Jerusalem. We ran him down and inquired about the evening. From there we headed to Machane Yehuda to pick up some snack for Shabbat. We got some rogolach, a bottle of wine for dinner, and two challot for lunch. We then headed back to our hostel to get ready for Shabbat.
I should confess something, I've never enjoyed davening at the Kotel. I found it to be monotonous and not very meaningful. So as we headed there for Kabbalat Shabbat, I had very low expectations. As I arrived, I found a minyan like every other one I've had there. A leader that you couldn't understand and lots of mumbling. All of a sudden to my right I heard Yedid Nefesh coming out. I truly love this song, and was ecstatic to hear it being sung. I went straight to that minyan and sang with them. Even better was for the beginning of the service they sang it in a Carlebach tune. This service ended up being fantastic, it was lead by 16 year old Israeli and his friends. It was full of ruach and was exactly what I needed. Probably a bit too much, because I was supposed to meet the person that was hosting us for lunch at 8:20, and Shosh didn't yell out my name until 8:50 (woops). Luckily for me, our host was late getting to daven, so we weren't left behind. We left the Kotel and headed down to their house. Again I had somewhat low expectations since most of the time I get set up for a meal like this, it is with a family that has 9 kids but can really afford to feed 3 of them. Once again I was more than pleasantly surprised. Their apartment was beautiful and the food was even better. The first course could have filled me up on its own. Conversation was fantastic and we didn't leave the apartment until close to 12:30. We got back to the hostel and passed out right away.
Saturday June 28
We woke up Saturday morning around 10:00 and got ready for the trek to Mercaz HaMagshimim. We walked down there and hand lunch with Sari Roy, she was on Nativ with both Shosh and I. Shosh has seen her as recently as last January, but I hadn't seen her since Nativ. I'm very excited that she will be here also. From there we walked back home, got to the hostel and took a nap. We woke up around 6:30 and went back to the Kotel for Mincha and Ma'ariv. The temperature changes here are very funny. Once the sun is going down and not shining directly on us, it really becoms the most comfortable place around. We sat in the dusk of the Kotel for a while and took it in. Once Shabbat was over we headed back to the Kotel and went out that night for dinner and some drinks.
Sunday June 29
Sunday we woke up and I headed straight to school while Shosh hung out around town. Class was normal, nothing special. Afterwards I headed into town and met up with Shosh at Cafe Hillel where she was having lunch with her friend Elana. We hung out there for a while and then meandered around town for the afternoon. We spent some of it in the lobby of the David Citadel Hotel, some of it in a new shopping area near the Old City (where Shosh got some make up), and some of it just walking around Ben Yehuda. We waited until 8 PM and then met up with one of Shosh's friends, Carmi. I knew her when I was on Nativ so it was great to see her, and again it's nice to know that she is here for us to be friends with. Afterwards Aunt Gail came to pick us up, and we went home for the night. Again exhausted I fell asleep on the way home, and was outcold up arrival to the house.
Monday June 30
Woke up Monday feeling refreshed and we headed out with Aunt Gail. She dropped me off at Hebrew U and Shosh continued on with her to Pardes. After school I went straight to Pardes and hung out there for a couple hours. We went home with Aunt Gail, had a nice dinner outside, and tried to take it easy. I was exhausted after the previous days so it felt good, to just stay at home. We went to sleep at a good time, and got some needed rest.
Tuesday July 1
Yesterday Shosh and I got a ride to Hebrew U with Aunt Gail. I went to class and Shosh hung out at the cafeteria. Afterwards we went straight down to pardes to meet up with Aunt Gail and did a bit more research for apartments. At this point we were somewhat burnt out from the process and were getting worried that we were going to get a crappy apartment for way too much money. But LO AND BEHOLD Shosh found something!! It was listed as 3 rooms, 4000 NIS ($1200), and furnished. No way. There must be a catch. It must already be rented. I called the broker and it wasn't rented. We set up a time to see it that afternoon. Shosh, Aunt Gail, and I headed down and met up with Israel, the broker. He showed us the apartment and WOW. That's all I can say. WOW. It's perfect. All three of us were blown away, and we pretty much agreed to it on the spot. It was very exciting and extremely relieving to know where I'm going to be and where Shosh and my first home will be (with Andy of course). From there we headed home and the sad part starting dawning on us. Shosh was leaving that night. We had a light dinner, she finished up packing and we headed to the Hyatt to meet the taxi. We said our goodbyes (unfortunately we are very good at these). I headed home from there and wanted to go to sleep. I'm still waiting for her to land though.
Wednesday July 2
Class was good today, but I wanted to let you all know that there was a terrorist attack this morning. Someone took a tractor and rammed two public buses with it. I am fine, as is everyone I know. 4 people were killed and 44 were injured. Once again, I am fine. As my teacher said after we found out, this is Israel. Unfortunately you learn to live with these things.
That's all for now.
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