Speaking words of wisdom

There are nearly 100 students for the first summer session here at the Conservative Yeshiva. It is an incredibly diverse population. As Yeshiva Director Rabbi Daniel Goldfarb put it, “The students range in age from less than 20 all the way to more than some of the higher numbers.” There are students from all over the world, including a large contingent of students from England, and a woman from Oslo who is studying to become the first non-Orthodox rabbi in Norway. There are Jewish community leaders and educators (both lay-leaders and professionals), Hillel professionals, men and women about to enter rabbinical school, college students spending a summer in Israel and people there simply to study Jewish texts and halacha (law) in Jerusalem.

Every morning begins with either Talmud study or ulpan. I chose to take ulpan, which is intensive Hebrew study. The Yeshiva’s uplan classes meet three and a half hours a day, Sunday through Thursday. Before leaving for the summer, all of the ulpan students took a placement exam. I placed into the fourth level. In our class of 12, I am in the bottom quarter. However, I think I would rather be the lowest in a higher class and struggle and work harder and push myself to learn more, than to be the highest in the lower class and not be able to learn as much over the time I am here. It is a full immersion class, and although I am not able to follow every single spoken word, I am able to understand and participate fully in all of our conversations and activities. So far I am slowly improving and becoming more comfortable speaking Hebrew each day.

My next class is “The Torah: Written and Oral, Human and Divine” with Dr. Shaiya Rothberg. This class explores what we mean by “Torah” by examining classic Jewish sources from rabbis, philosophers and Kabbalists. For the first two sessions we have been focusing on Maimonides (a Jewish philosopher during the Middle Ages in Spain, considered to be one of the greatest Torah scholars of all time) and next we will be moving on to the Zohar (the classic text on Jewish mysticism, or “Kabbalah” written around the same time, possibly as a response to Maimonides’ teaching). During today’s class (our second meeting), Dr. Rothberg remarked how he probably should have indicated that this was an advanced course. No kidding. This is some heavy stuff. But it is fun and it is completely different from what I have studied before.

Next I have “Engaging with Israel” facilitated by Sally Klein-Katz. This class attempts to define “Israel” and identify the challenge of Israel in the Diaspora, and how to create an engagement with Israel as a meaningful part of congregational life. This class is thus far the most personal. One of my goals of this trip was to help define for myself my own thoughts and relationship with Israel, but in many ways this may end up being the most difficult class during my time here.

I am also taking a class on Tefillah with Rabbi Daniel Goldfarb. He we are taking an in depth look at our prayer service and its history, examining each of the sections of the service and its prayers, and how they got there. No small task in just three weeks. Twice a week I am also going on walking tours of Jerusalem. These tours will take of through various neighborhoods or to look at different historical synagogues throughout Jerusalem.

Lastly during the first session I will be participating Thursdays in Gimilut Hesed, group volunteer projects in Jerusalem. This session I will be helping out at a community garden. This is especially great for me since I am not able to help out at all during the busiest season at the Beth Israel Garden back home. Throughout the summer there are also additional one meeting classes that take place such as looking at parashat ha’shavu'a (the weekly Torah portion), or doing a text study over lunch.

That’s all for now. Since tonight’s entry didn’t have any pictures, tomorrow will be exclusively pictures!

Here We Go . . .

Wow. So much has happened in the past couple of days since my arrival. I guess that’s what happens in the first few days of a long trip like this. I’ll have to post more frequently or I’ll never be able to keep up and share everything that I want with you. I’ll work on that.

I flew overnight from London to Tel Aviv, where I arrived Thursday morning at 5:00am local time. Even after going through immigration it was still far too early to go into a city (any city). I decided to stay at the airport so get work done using the free wifi. After a couple of hours I took a shirut (shared ride) into Jerusalem where I would check into a hotel for the night (I was unable to get into the apartment I am subletting until Friday).

After the other passengers left I chatted with the driver. I had made a reservation to stay at the Tower Hotel. On the way he pointed out and recommended a “good pub” which happened to be right near the hotel. I dropped off my luggage in the room and went out to spend some time wandering Ben Yehuda street. I found a falafel place (not hard in Jerusalem) to have dinner. Freshly made. Piping hot. So good.

Let’s talk about jet lag. I’ve never had a problem with jet lag. I have enough problems with insomnia most of the year, so changing time zones has never bothered me. Sleepless nights are the norm. It also helps that I have a tradition (others call it a bad habit) of always packing the night before a trip. Whether it is overnight or six weeks, I always pack the night before. Always. This means that sometime for long trips (including this one), wherever and whenever I arrive, I have missed a night of sleep. I stay up until a reasonable time that night and go to bed. When I wake up, I am on local time.

The Jerusalem Tower Hotel it is in a great location, in the City Center, right off of Ben Yehuda Street. It was also cheap, and while not the nicest place I had ever stayed, it was perfectly suitable for one night. Plus I hadn’t been able to get much more than an hour of sleep on either of my long flights. I had now been up without a solid night’s sleep for 3 days and 14 hours. I had intended to go out to the pub my driver had shown me, but instead I went to bed. and. crashed. hard.

This may have been the most appealing a bed has ever looked to me

I woke up for an Israeli breakfast at the hotel, and then met up with a friend of my soon-to-be-roommate in order to stash my luggage for the day. His place was actually on the same street as the hotel, just a short walk to the top of the hill. It was also right on my way to the Conservative Yeshiva.

I arrived at the Yeshiva at noon for a special lunch (falafel) and introduction for all of the participants of the Legacy Heritage Program. The is a program for Jewish professionals (like myself), community educators, lay leaders, and Hillel professionals who received a scholarship from the Legacy Heritage Fund to help pay for our time at the Conservative Yeshiva. In addition to the regular sessions at the Yeshiva, we have seven meetings for the Legacy Heritage participants. The additional sessions provide us with a chance for collaborative learning, networking and sharing of ideas and successes, and allow us to find ways in which we can take what we are learning and use it to enrich the work that we do when we return to our home communities.

During brief break when I went to my apartment for the summer and had a chance to meet one of my roommates. I returned to the Yeshiva for Kabbalat Shabbat services (with absolutely beautiful Shabbat melodies) and Shabbat dinner. Not a bad way to start my time at the Yeshiva.

THE SHIRLEY AND JACOB FUCHSBERG JERUSALEM CENTER

of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism

Not so fun fact of the day: There are mosquitoes in Israel. I found this out last night as I battled one. I got bit couple of times before finally smushing it. Since I ended up with three bites I think of it as a draw, but I’m pretty sure the mosquito would call it a defeat (that is, if it were still alive enough to call it anything).

Tomorrow I’ll report on my apartment and the first two days of classes. And not to worry, I’ll start taking and posting a bunch of pictures soon.

The journey begins

Welcome to my blog. Herein I will write abut my trip to Israel and document the six weeks I spend living there as a student at the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem during the 2009 summer sessions.

I have never kept a blog before, and to be honest I have never really kept a diary or journal of any kind. This will be a learning experience for me as I go along. What I hope to capture here and share with you are my thoughts, feelings, and anecdotes, from my experiences and what I am learning during my time away. I hope to post at least once or twice a week.

This is "Mustang Sally" - the plane that would take me from JFK to London.

Location: London England. Rather than flying directly from New York to Tel Aviv, it ended up being significantly cheaper to fly from New York to London, followed by a flight from London to Tel Aviv. This meant that I my way home I could spend a couple extra days on vacation in London with Jessica (who will be joining me in Israel later on during my trip). However, this also meant that I would be stuck with a 14-hour layover on my way to Israel.

Faced with the prospect of spending the entire time stuck in the airport after I landed at Heathrow, I decided to spend some time in London.

I took the underground (one of the local train systems) away from the airport and into the city. Approximately 24 minutes on the train seemed like the right amount of time, so I got off at the random stop of Acton Town. This was a cute downtown area. I had lunch at a local pub and found a park where I am writing this first entry.

What I have learned so far:

1) Wi-Fi hotspots with free internet access are rare in London. After nearly two hours of searching I found only one location that had free internet (a pub which didn’t open until noon). Of the people I asked most had no idea where to find a place, and others gave me directions to places that simply did not exist. There are however, several for pay internet cafes, and a couple of free outdoor internet kiosks where you can send email and perform web searches (they are slow and had to use, but they do exist and are free).

2) I love having four rotating wheels on the bottom of my luggage. It makes moving it around town so much easier.

3) My luggage is just slightly too tall to fit through a subway turnstile as I go through.

4) Exploring a new city or sitting in the shade of a tree at a park is so much nicer than being cooped up in an airport.

The next time I write, it will be from Israel!

Time elapsed since my departure from Detroit Metro Airport: 1 day, 3 hours.
Time elapsed since I slept in a bed: 2 days, 2 hours