The last post was getting a little long so I decided to split it into two. OK more Q&A A couple of people sent me questions that I would like to answer

Q. How do the people of Israel feel about the US, especially Bush and the war in Iraq?

A. I think as alluded to before, the US, Bush and his war in Iraq really don't make much of a daily impact here and you don't necessarily hear that much about it. I can't speak for all Israelis, but some love Bush and some think he is an idiot. I think many Israelis were doubtful of the roadmap, and they disliked being dictated to by someone who they think doesn't really understand the situation. I also think most Israelis, in general, like the US, but again they do not like to be pushed around by it. They like getting the money, but not to be told how to spend it.The war in Iraq doesn't really receive that much press. The whole mess with the prisoners and such really didn't make much of a mark here. Again, I don't have a TV so I don't know what the Israeli TVs are saying.

Q. Do you encounter any/many Muslims on a daily basis - I guess I don't understand how segregated the society is or is not?

A. By Muslims I think you are referring to the Arab people who call themselves Palestinians. I actually knew quite a few. About 80% of my ulpan class were Arabs. The society is fairly segregated in terms of where people live and who most of their friends are. But you see plenty of Arabs (and I am referring to them as Arabs since in my experience usually they are called that rather than Palestinians. When you hear Palestinian it usually refers to those guys in Gaza or in Ramallah. Some might disagree with me though.) in the streets on the buses. They can go to the same stores and restaurants as the Jews. I haven't seen any "no Arabs allowed" signs on buildings. That isn't to say they aren't more heavily scrutinized by the security when they go into a store. There is racial profiling here, but you have to realize that 100% of peguim are carried out by Palestinians so it makes some sense. Many Arabs here fill blue collar positions (construction, sanitation, etc.) and they do a lot of the road work. It is ironic when you see the IDF protecting an entirely Arab road crew from terrorist attacks. There are some places that are extremely integrated like Haifa and Akko. These are model communities which demonstrate that we can all live together in harmony.

Q. What's the weather like there?

A. Right now it is starting to get hot. It was 930 today and it doesn't look like it'll cool down again soon. The nights are still fairly cool so you can get by with a fan. In the summer it is HOT. Jerusalem is rather dry, so the heat is fairly bearable if you stay out of the sun. Tel Aviv is humid and dank. It is always much warmer (and danker) there in general. The winter in Jerusalem is cool to cold (30s and 40s). The nights are cold and I wore my pea jacket all through the winter. It is also (hopefully) very rainy and moist, and we had snow once this past winter. The buildings here are made out of stone with little insulation so the homes can get quite cold. We don't have ac or central heat, so the elements do affect us, but fortunately our apt. is cool in the summer and warm in the winter. The weather here in Jerusalem is actually very nice.

Q. What surprised you the most when you came back to the States?

A. Probably how big everything is. Everything here is tiny. Our largest stores (like Ikea) are smaller than the average supermarket in the States. Also the amount of advertising on the streets and television surprised me. I had forgotten how buffeted we were by advertisements when we lived there.

So the school year is winding down and we are saying goodbye to all the friends we made last year. But don't feel too sad for us. We will be making lots of new friends soon and at least five people will be returning to the Yeshiva next year. One consequence of all this coming and going is that we have been invited to lots of meals and parties. We had a great Shabbat with two families to whom we are close. The Selsbergs (the parents of "the Twins" official slogan"The cutest and smartest babies in the world") and Elisha and Annabel who have a four year old (Aaron) and a two year old (Shira). With all these kids around, I don't think Suzanne and I need to have one ourselves (just kidding guys. I just gave my mother and my in-laws heart palpitations). Then last night Suzanne and I went to an engagement party for Jamie Leiter and Jenny Freedman (I think I spelt her name correctly), who have decided to stand together under the Chuppa. Very nice. Suzanne is off to the Yeshiva today. She is going to be working in the office this summer 10 hours a week for $7.50 an hour. We were very pleased by this until we found out that it is below California's minimum wage. Oh well.

OK, here is some more information about our life here in Israel. Also really if you have anything to ask please do so. It doesn't matter how asinine, because I will start having less to talk about and then fall back into silence (besides nothing can be as asinine as the questions I have been making up). SO, please send me those questions. Also, one person commented that my writing has echos of Dave Barry, and I want to say "take that back! You're mean!" no, actually that is nice of you. By the way don't you think that Electric Blech would be a great name for a rock band?

Q. What exactly are you doing in Israel

A. OK so this is for those of you who joined late. Suzanne is at the Conservative Yeshiva. She studies Jewish text (Talmud, Tanakh, halachah (pronounce ha-la-chah .. no "chah" like Chanukah...no it is no like the cha-cha. Tyr it again...no chha....chha.. .forget it just say it like cha-cha. Jeez you are useless) and all things Jewish.) There were around 50 full time students at the Yeshiva this last year. You can find out more about the Yeshiva at http://uscj.org/israelcenter/yeshiva/home/index.shtml. I was studying Hebrew in ulpan. Ulpan is the way Israel teaches immigrants to speak Hebrew. It is language boot camp. 5 days a week, 5 hours a day and no English allowed. I came to Israel unable to say the most basic things (where is the bathroom, how much is it). I thought it would be alright until I ended up selling Suzanne to the Russians for a pack of cigartettes when I just wanted to buy a map. Fortunately, I was able to sneak her out, but if anyone named Ygvany calls just say you don't know us. Thanks. Now I can hold a conversation. I am sure taht I sound to Israelis just like an immigrant Chinese speaking Englich sounds to us (sorry but it was the best example I can think of), but at least now I can order a pizza pay by bills, go to the bank. I still don't understand them all the time because Israelis speak very quickly and use big words. Still, considering my previous level, you should all be suitably impressed.

Q. OK so I get what Suzanne is doing if not necessarily why. But why aren't you working to keep our "Darling Daughter/Grand Daughter" in the grand style to which she is used? And how are you paying to stay in Israel without a job?

A. How did we pay to stay out here. Hmm that is kind of personal. This is a dream I have had for a long time and I have been saving my money to do this. And actually there is good stuff happening (hopefully) on my front but I don't want to say much until everything is settled (puu-puu-puu...what's that? Go rent "Fiddler on the Roof " you'll get the idea"

Q. Back to where you live. What is your neighborhood like. Where in Jerusalem do you live?

We live in a nice neighborhood in the southern part of Jerusalem called Old Katamon( see map http://www.property.co.il/maps/map%20of%20old%20katamon.htm ). Katamon was a an Arab neighborhood where there was heavy fighting during the War of Independence. Israel tried to rename it Gonen but the name never caught on and so it is still Katamon today. Katamon is a mixture of religious and secular Jews. If you are looking on the map find Khizkiyahu Ha-Melekh and see where in connects with Koveshei Katamon. OK now go to you left a little and you see a small street called Rabbi Khiya. The intersection of Rabbi Khiya and Brurya. That is where our building is located. On the right side of the building is a school called Beit Elisheva and across the street is a orthodox girls Yehsiva/ youth hostel. Around the corner from us are a couple of mekolot (bodegas) and a laundry, barber and a guy who repairs shoes and luggage. It is a quiet residential neighborhood. Near us are about seven synagogues (it is weird they are all in a two block radius. In fact two of them are in the same building) and a huge Chasidic Yeshivah. Behind our building is a park which was just redone. Simcha likes to run around there. We are about a 40 minute walk (up a hill) to the center of town. Suzanne has a 20-25 minute walk to the yeshiva and we are about 45 minutes from the Cotel. Did I mention it is quiet and very safe.

Q. What is the name of the yeshiva which Suzanne attends .

A. "The Conservative Yeshiva" Yes, it is a bad name and everybody asks "Which yeshiva?" If you would like to change the name it will take just a small ($2M) donation, and you can name it what or after whomever you want. If I had the money I would name it the Arte Johnson mememorial Yeshiva...Hmm, yes, very interestink.

Q. What exactly is an electric blech

A. A blech is a piece of metal that you put over your stove burners to keep food warm over Shabbat. This is not the safest or most fuel/ cost efficient way of keeping food warm. So instead of just leaving our gas burners on all night, we use an electric blech (or a plata as the call them here). A large electric warming plate that keeps our food warm over Shabbat without the fear of explosion or death by gas inhalation.

Ok that is it for now. Keep those questions coming in. So far we have gotten a grand total of 0, so I 'll answer those as soon as I can.

Still old postings

know it has been a long time since I have written anything. What can I say. Suzanne was doing such a good job writing the mass emails that I really didn't have much to add. Actually the truth is I HATE writing and especially typing (no mom I haven't forgiven you for making me take typing my freshman year of HS thus ensuring I would never have been number one in my class), so I have avoided doing anything with regards to sending out emails. Also I have recently been informed that grammar is inherently sexist and should be avoided at all cost, so must use not words construction that or have might persons other natures personalities genders offend. As you can see that makes my job even harder. OK the truth is...I am a lazy bum and that's it, but I felt that I really wanted to send out a posting to tell everyone how we are.

We have just returned from a wonderful visit with our families in the States. It was great to see my mom and brothers and Suzanne's family. Suzanne and I also had a wonderful visit with my grandmother in her new home. It was nice to see her so happy. During our two and a half week stay in the US, we were in: Long Is. NY, Bound Brook, NJ, Wash. DC, Baltimore (well Bel Air, MD actually), Phila. PA, W. Newton MA, Providence, RI. And by the end we felt like the family fruit-cake that has been passed on to generation after generation. While it was great to see all of our friends and family, I have to say it was a real relief to be a back in Jerusalem. Why is it that the only kosher restaurants in much of the US are either deli or Chinese? There is a great untapped market out there: Kosher Italian! When we got back to Jerusalem, one of our friends asked if the US had changed. We said no but we have. The US was great. We did some shopping. We will have to look hard and long for a community if we return.

While we were in the states, we were asked by a great number of people (ok my in-laws but they count for a lot) to tell more about our daily lives here and how we are doing on an everyday basis. Wow we never thought you would care about our apartment, neighborhood and stuff like that. You forget that what is normal to you can seem exotic to people who have never been here. So I am going to start answering some questions that I think you might have. I am also going to ask you to send us any questions you might have for us. Suzanne and I will try to answer them for you. Because really when was the last time you spontaneously sent out an email about what time you get up and what you had for breakfast. Who would have thought that anyone would be interested.

Q. Are you afraid? (Number one question)

A. Yes, definitely. Every time I step out into the street. Yerushalmims (people that live in Jerusalem) are insane drivers. They also park on the sidewalk, which forces us to walk in the streets, so I am often afraid of getting run over by a bus or a moped or something. Oh you meant of a terrorist attack. I think many Americans have the idea that Israel is mostly rubble and tanks. That Suzanne and I have to duck behind concrete blocks on our way to school to avoid the sniper fire. It isn't like that at all. Jerusalem is a beautiful city and there is really very little violence. Yes there is always the chance of an attack, just like there is always a chance that I would get into a fatal accident on the 5 or be fatally mugged in Chicago. There is more fatalities in Chicago every year than Israel. But in a mugging or car accident "only one person is hurt," people say "not a whole bus." Well if that one person is me, I would be just as dead. We are more security conscious, and when we here sirens we think "oh lord what now?" But when I go out in the morning, I no more think "today is the day I will be in a p'gua," than you would think "today is the day I will get into a fatal accident," when you get into your car to commute to work.

Q. When will you be coming back.

A. Never, bwah hah hah! No seriously. You can never come back to the same place you left. Our plan right now is to return after another year. We are planning on coming back and living in L.A. so Suzanne can go to the Ziegler School at the U.J. But one never knows about the future.

Q. What is your apartment like?

A. We live in a great 4 room apartment. We have one large room which is our salon, dining area and kitchen, another room which contains our work area, closets and a futon, a bedroom and a small room which we use for storage. We have a yard attached to the apartment which the dog loves. There is a pomegranate tree in the yard that last year gave really sour pomegranates . We are hoping it gives nicer fruit this year.

Q. What time do you get up in the morning and what do you eat for breakfast?

A. Around 5:45 am. One of us walks the dog. We take showers. Usually we have yogurt and fruit for breakfast.

Almost to new posts

A few weeks ago, as many of you know, we celebrated the holiday of Purim. For those of you unfamiliar with this holiday, it follows the pattern of most Jewish holidays: they tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat. The story of the particular struggle associated with Purim is found in the book of Esther (or megillat Esther, if you prefer), so I won’t bore you with just repeating what many/most of you already know about the basic story of the holiday. Since we are living in Jerusalem, however, rather than celebrating Purim, we actually celebrated Shushan Purim (one day later) which is only celebrated in the few cities that were walled cities in the time of Joshua ben Nun (and of course, Shushan where the story actually took place). Some people we know celebrated two days of Purim by going someplace like Tel Aviv for Purim and coming back to Jerusalem for Shushan Purim. But, we decided to just stay here. On Purim day, one of our friends had a bar-b-que (since we had the day off), and we went to that. Then, we went home and put on our costumes. They sell a lot more children’s costumes than adult costumes even here, but still pretty much everyone we know dressed up in some way or another. There were actually some really great costumes. You can see some of them at: http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/suzanne_brody/my_photos
(As you can see, even Simcha got in on the fun! He also got a new toy out of the holiday – a red sqeeky nose, with which he loves to play!) In addition to the fun of seeing our friends decked out in cool costumes and going to two different parties, we heard two really wonderful megillah readings, one at Kedem (an egalitarian minyan), and one at the Yeshiva. After the megillah reading at the Yeshiva, we had a Purim shpiel (a play/series of skits where people do silly things and make fun of people or things going on in the community) which was lots of fun. My friend Richard made up a song called “The Baba Batra Blues” making fun of some of the stranger things we have studied in Talmud, and other people did some great skits mimicking some of the faculty members.

I’ve also had the chance to go on a number of great little tiyulim (field trips) recently. Marcus and I went to see “mini Jerusalem”, the model of Jerusalem during second Temple times, which is updated regularly as new archeological finds are made.

With the Yeshiva, I’ve gone on four trips recently. They try to organize little trips for us each month to celebrate the beginning of the month. For Rosh Hodesh Adar, we went to a place called Neot Kedumim, the Biblical Garden. It’s a really gorgeous place, and if any of you are ever in town, it’s definitely worth a visit, especially if you can arrange a tour. Neot Kedumim is filled with the various plants mentioned in the Tanach (Bible) and Talmud. My favorite part of the tour was that we got to make zatar, which is my favorite spice and goes great on pizza, hummus, or just about anything else. I didn’t have the didigtal camera with me there, so you’ll have to wait until you see us to see those pictures, though you can look at their website at http://www.n-k.org.il/home/index.html.

This month, we actually got to go on two trips, both within Jerusalem. On Tuesday morning, we got a tour of the Supreme Court. The building is gorgeous, and I learned a lot about how the Israeli justice system works.

Wednesday at lunch time, we got to go to a Shmura matzah factory. As I’m sure you’re all aware, the holiday of Passover is rapidly approaching. As might be expected, we have been learning a lot about the holiday in most, if not all, of our classes right now. But, I will save that for another email since this one will already be quite long enough. What’s important is that we have been learning about the requirements for making and eating matza for Passover. For making matza, the flour must be in contact with the water for less than 18 minutes, start to finish. Shmura matza refers to the fact that the flour used has been guarded from the time the wheat was harvested to make sure that no water came near it. So, we got to see how the matza is made, and we were able to buy some at the end.

The fourth Yeshiva trip that we had recently was a Shabbaton about a month ago now. We went down to Mitzpe Ramon, which is in the Negev. It is absolutely gorgeous there. We stayed at the field school, which is right on the edge of the crater. This crater was not made by an asteroid impact or anything like that, but rather by how the land itself moved to form a bubble. You can see pictures from the hike and of the crater at http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/suzanne_brody/my_photos

I also got to take a trip with a group called JESNA (Jewish Education Service of North America). I’ve been going to JESNA sessions approximately once a month. We’ve had different speakers and presenters talk and show us about different methodologies in education. Last Friday, we learned about the use of an environment as an educational tool by visiting Pinat Shorashim, which is attached to Kibbutz Gezer, about a 30 minute chartered bus ride from Jerusalem. We met up with a group of Israelis who work in summer camps in the US who were also there to learn the same things. All of the things you see in the pictures ( http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/suzanne_brody/my_photos ) were built by groups of students who came to learn there. We talked about how one could teach a text, then have a group build an environment based on what they learn about the text. We also talked about how one could use a pre-existing space or sculpture to bring a text/piece of learning alive. It was a neat experience.

Lastly, but definitely not least at all, I want to thank all of you for your phone calls, ecards, paper cards, and emails for my birthday. I had a really nice day, and I celebrated with a group of my friends here with a cake at the Yeshiva at lunch and then by going out for a really yummy dinner at a Morocan restaurant.

I hope you are all doing well! I do think of you even though I haven’t had a chance to respond to all of your emails!

From Tu B'shvat

In spite of the recent bus bombing and earthquake, life here continues much as usual for us, though events like these do affect us in a very real way. Some of you asked me about our reactions to the bombing of the number 19 bus. We had what seems to be a very typical reaction: first we checked that everyone we knew was safe and unharmed. Then, since I was home, I turned on the radio and kept checking on-line news. But, where the bus was blown up is a place that I walk past almost every day, and now when I walk by there, I see the flowers and candles that people have set up in memorial. And while I was nowhere nearby, two of my friends from the Yeshiva were just 50 feet behind the bus, walking to the Yeshiva, and my Talmud teacher helped pull people off of the bus. Someone else I know has been volunteering with MADA (Magen David Adom, the Israeli Red Cross) and was in the second ambulance to arrive at the scene. So, we were all shaken up. Everyone is affected by events like this.

But, my thoughts were very quickly diverted in a much more joyous direction when my friend Karen gave birth to twins less than 48 hours later. So, my thoughts have been much more with Karen, her husband Dan, and their two adorable baby boys these two weeks as I’ve been eagerly following the growth and drama inherent in the premature birth of a friend’s first children. For those of you who know Karen and Dan, everyone is doing well, and Katanchic may even be home from the hospital by the time that I am writing this.

Plus, we’ve had another Yeshiva baby boy born this week as well. One of the Talmud teachers and his wife just had a baby boy on Monday. The Yeshiva’s Kabbalah teacher and his wife are also expecting a baby any minute now.

So, we’ve had a number of happy events to celebrate in the last two weeks, and the celebrations will continue with a bris on Monday (the Talmud teacher’s son’s), and another one at sometime in the near future (for the twins when they are big and strong enough).

In terms of other events here, a number of you asked about the holiday of Tu B’Shevat. For those of you unfamiliar with this holiday, it celebrates the “birthday/new year of the trees”. At the Yeshiva, we had a very fun Tu B’Shevat seder, where we sang silly (and serious) songs about trees and read Biblical and Talmudic passages about trees. We also, as is traditional, ate lots of fruits and nuts. In fact, Marcus bought so many dried fruits and nuts at the shuk that we still have bagfuls of walnuts and dried apricots and the like in our pantry.

We have also been blessed to have many wonderful visitors lately. Right now, there are a lot of rabbis in town since the Conservative movement is having their Rabbinical Assembly here. As a result, we got to spend last Friday night having a wonderful dinner with our rabbi from San Diego and his wife. It was great to see them again and to catch up on some of the news from home. (I also got to see them for a few minutes later in the week, when they stopped by the Yeshiva for a brief visit.) To help show off the Yeshiva, we also hosted some rabbis from the convention for lunch on Saturday. It was very interesting to hear about their careers and home institutions. Then, they (and others) came to study with us at the Yeshiva for the day this past Sunday. One of the people who came to study at the Yeshiva for the day was my friend Rabbi Daniel Greyber. We then had the chance to catch up more over dinner, which was a mini Lishma reunion. I realize that this email is already getting long and there is still more I want to tell you about, otherwise I would go into much more detail about our dinner with Geyber because it was just a lot of fun. Let’s just say that he was really really happy to be at a kosher all-you-can-eat meat restaurant. And now, Jeff Scharf (from San Diego) is staying with us for a little while.

So, as some of you already know, I applied to go to rabbinical school. Interviews were held this past week in conjunction with the Rabbinical Assembly, and I have been accepted into the Zeigler School of Rabbinic Studies at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles.

Marcus and I are still trying to figure out what we will be doing next year. We would like to stay here in Jerusalem for another year before moving to LA, but for right now we are keeping both options open, and we love having visitors.

Another old one from Chanukah




Recently, in Talmud class, we read a very interesting section about education. Now, as I’m sure you remember, I told you that we’re studying the second chapter of Baba Batra, which is mainly about ways to avoid damaging your neighbor’s property, specifically how far various things must be distanced from other people’s property. At this point, I expect you are wondering where education comes into this. So were we. Yet, it actually makes perfect sense in the combination of logic and stream-of-consciousness that organize the Talmud. The mishna (fairly bare bones Jewish oral law redacted around 200 CE) states that unlike the noise caused by a store in your courtyard, you can’t protest the noise of a hammer or mill if your neighbor is selling his or her wares in the market, nor can you protest the noise of children. The rabbis thought that mentioning children here was sort of odd, and one possible explanation that they give to explain this apparent anomaly is that the mishna is talking about a school. Why a school? Because a school can be seen as analogous to a store in terms of the fact that there are a lot of people coming and going. Having mentioned a school, the rabbis then go on to discuss education for a little while. The educational practices described in the Talmud are attributed to Yehoshua ben Gamla, a man who served as high priest during the second Temple period (i.e. during the first century CE). What really surprised me were the similarities to modern day educational systems. Yehoshua ben Gamla said that there should be a school in every town, such that children should not be placed in any danger on their way to school (e.g. they should not have to cross a river unless there was a sturdy bridge). Furthermore, he recommended that children start school at the age of 6 or 7, and that elementary school classes should consist of no more than 25 students per teacher. Further, if there were 40 children, there should be not just a teacher but also a teacher’s aide. [Don’t these numbers sound familiar?] The rabbis then go on to discuss a bit about teaching methods, too, all of it sounding equally familiar.

It amazes me the gems that are found all over the Talmud (and other traditional texts as well). The last couple of days before Channukah, we got to learn part of the Talmud which talks about Channukah. It was actually (almost) all things that I had grown up knowing to one degree or another (such as how to light the candles for Channukah), but I found it fascinating to actually get to read the texts from which we draw these traditions.

This week, in honor of Channukah, we have been on break. As much as I love my studies, it has been really nice to have some time off. Marcus and I have taken advantage of this to get to see a bit more of the country. We took a two day trip up the coast, and getting away from the city for a little bit allowed me to relax a little bit and not worry about the stack of things needing to be done here at home. Our first stop was Caesarea (which Israelis also manage to spell Quesariyya). Caesarea is right in the Mediterranean, and is the ruins of a Roman era town, complete with a stadium, hippodrome, and a number of old Roman stores and offices. The remains of one mansion even include what was an indoor pool fed with water from the sea!

From Caesarea, we headed up to Haifa. When we got to Haifa, we went straight to the Bahai Gardens, which are quite extensive. The gardens are gorgeous, but I got rather frustrated with them. The paths are, I think, meant to be peaceful, but I felt like it was impossible to “get from here to there”. Unfortunately, since we were there in the afternoon, we weren’t able to see the shrine. I also think that particular paths and gates were closed in the afternoon that are open in the morning, but I have nothing but my own feeling with which to back that up. The gardens span a major road, with a bridge to connect the two sides, but somehow we couldn’t manage to actually find the bridge, let alone figure out how to get to the other side of the road. So, since we wanted to see the view from the top of the garden, we decided to cheat a little bit and drive up there. There is a nice view of Haifa and the port from the top of the hill. Actually, it was even nicer from our hotel room which overlooked the whole city. And, as an added bonus, our hotel had a great kosher Chinese restaurant where we got a multi-course dinner for only $10 each!

The next day, we visited Elijah’s cave, and then headed up to Akko. In Akko, we toured Crusader ruins, more of which are uncovered every year. Unfortunately, our time in Akko did not end on the most pleasant note. When we went back to our car, we found that it wasn’t there. A tour bus was, however, and the driver told us that the window of the car had been smashed, so it was taken to the police station. (And I actually understood all of that in Hebrew!) With much stopping for directions, we managed to walk to the police station, where we learned that the car was on its way to Haifa, to the nearest rental agency. Fortunately, a really nice police man who was heading home gave us a ride to the train station. We spent some anxious time waiting for the train, but the ride itself was actually very smooth. Once we got back into Haifa (to the wrong station, apparently our train didn’t stop where we really wanted to go), some people from the rental agency met us. They had gone through the original rental car, and moved all of our things that they found into a new car for us. They were actually quite nice about it. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the majority of our things were there, and that some ceramics we had bought in Ceasarea were intact. Unfortunately, all of my tapes were stolen.

This somewhat unsettling experience didn’t stop us from doing some more touring while we had the chance, however. Following our original plan, we returned to Jerusalem and turned in the rental car. After a lazy day at home, we set out the next day to explore some of Tel Aviv. We had gorgeous weather in Tel Aviv, so we spent the day outside. We explored Old Jaffa, walked along the coast, then walked through the pedestrian mall (shuk) and through Diezengoff Square. We arrived back in Jerusalem with just enough time to walk through part of Mea Shearim (a very religious neighborhood) looking at all the candles in the windows before joining some of our friends for latkes (potato pancakes).

Boy it has been a long time since I have updated this blog. Well from now on I am going to keep up with my duties as a blogger. Yeah right. Anyway first I am going to post some old emails that went out to our group email list. So enjoy.

As Marcus mentioned in his last email, the (Jewish) holidays here are like nowhere else that I’ve ever been. There’s sort of a surreal quality about suddenly finding yourself in the majority when you’ve spent your whole life being a minority. Not everyone here is observant by any stretch of the imagination, but even those who are secular or not even Jewish live their lives around the Jewish calendar, with an awareness of Jewish holidays that I would imagine isn’t found anywhere else. As Marcus mentioned in his email, it was just incredible on Yom Kippur to be walking to shul (synagogue), and to see so many other people doing the same thing and yet going in so many different directions. I also really loved the almost complete absence of cars on the street. It made the day feel just that much more special, all sort of calm and quiet, giving people space to start fresh. Immediately after Yom Kippur, the cars returned to the streets in droves, and people began building their sukkot (booths for the holiday of Sukkot, which Marcus wants to talk about in more detail). Here, not only private families, but also restaurants build sukkot so that everyone can fulfill the mitzvah of sitting (which really refers to eating and generally living) in the sukkah. In places with fewer kosher restaurants, such as the town of Rosh Pina, for the most part finding the places with sukkot outside serves as a really easy way of distinguishing the kosher restaurants.

Almost everyone gets the week of Sukkot as a vacation. Marcus and I (and a lot of other people we know) took this as an opportunity to see some more of the country. We rented a car and drove up north with a friend of mine from the Yeshiva, Marion (a first year cantorial student), for a few days. After driving around Tiberius for about 45 minutes of getting lost and then found again, we finally located our hostel. We discovered that there really wasn’t that much we wanted to see or do in Tiberius itself, but I did enjoy our visit to the tombs of some famous Rabbis (Rambam, Yochanan Ben Zakai, Asa, and some other Talmudic sages). We had been told that the best kosher Chinese food was to be found in Tiberius, so we made reservations and looked forward to an amazing dinner. Unfortunately, we were rather disappointed in the food. On the bright side, though, Marcus and I think we live about a 10 minute walk from an excellent Chinese/Asian restaurant, so we won’t lack good Chinese while we are here.

The next day, we had a much more enjoyable day. We spent the morning at the hot springs just south of Tiberius. They have built some very modern pools so that visitors can enjoy the water. They even had areas marked off as “jaccuzi chairs” and “jaccuzi beds” with jets of hot water aimed at various spots on your back. I loved it!  Inside the hot springs area, there were also the ruins of a Roman bath, and a small zoo/animal enclosure. We thought it rather odd that they advertised an alligator exhibit, so we decided to check it out. Not only did they have lots of different species of alligators, but they also had a cage with raccoons! (We were a bit mystified as to why anyone would want to see raccoons as part of a zoo, but figure that to Israelis they must somehow seem exotic or something!). After our fill of staring at alligators, we headed out to Tsfat for the afternoon. We had heard that Rosh Pina was in between the two places and was a very scenic lookout with good food. Well, despite being mentioned in all the guide books and our having been told by a tour guide to arrive in Tsfat by way of Rosh Pina, this little town was next to impossible to find. But, we persevered and eventually found our way there, only to discover that this supposedly amazing food is not kosher. Being in Israel, we refused to eat in a non-kosher restaurant, and therefore ended up at the only kosher establishment we could find – a pizza place. Once we got to Tsfat (only 9 km away), we wished we had waited, as there are a ton of great kosher places in Tsfat. Oh well. We did have a really nice time in Tsfat. We had hired a private tour guide (who spoke English) to show us around. We got to hear great stories about the three most famous synagogues in Tsfat, all of which have deep roots to Judaism’s mystical tradition. Since this message is already getting quite long, I’ll just share one little snippet with you. (O.k., maybe 2 for those of you more familiar with Judaism, we got to stand in the spot where the Ari initiated Kabbalat Shabbat; it’s now a paved plaza rather than a field, but still pretty cool  )

The Abulafia synagogue is said to have arrived at its current location in the middle of the night. The community had been forced to flee their homes, rescuing only one Torah scroll from the original synagogue, which had been very carefully designed with many mystical symbols as decoration and measurements which also had particular meanings. When the community arrived in Tsfat, they were too poor to build a new synagogue, but they tried to recall what they could of the meanings and symbols built into the synagogue they had been forced to leave behind. One night, Rav Abuhav appeared to his community in a dream. He told them to fast and pray, not leaving their houses for three days. During those three days, fierce storms waged outside their houses. As the third day of the fast ended, so did the storms. The people left their houses, and were amazed to discover a large structure they didn’t recall seeing before. Some claimed, there had been only empty space their. Others claimed that an empty warehouse had always stood in that spot. To prove that the building was nothing more than a warehouse, despite the ornate carving visible on the outside, they opened the doors. There they found their synagogue, the very one they had been forced to leave behind, down to the tiniest detail, in the middle of Tsfat. Upon opening a closet where the second Torah scroll had been hidden, they found it not only intact, but not even the dust around the scroll had been disturbed.

After our tour of Tsfat, we wanted to check out the amazing Judaica and other art that is created there. Unfortunately, many of the stores and galleries were already closed. So, we ended up coming back again the next afternoon to browse and shop. 

Our last morning up north, we joined up with three other Yeshiva students to take a jeep tour of the Golan Heights. The driver/guide we had originally booked with suddenly couldn’t get an English speaking guide for us. After much consternation and simultaneous phone calls (everyone has a cell phone here), a new guide was found. The jeep tour proved to be a lot of fun, and our guide was quite knowledgeable. We got a Talmud lesson, a history lesson, a biology lesson, and an agriculture lesson from him all during our 2 hour trip through the Golan! We got to see ruins from the time of the Talmud, and then we drove through a modern day moshav and got a lesson on the difference between a kibbutz and a moshav! At the end, just for fun, we drove through the middle of a stream before we were dropped off back at our cars.

So, all in all, our vacation was a lot of fun. Once we can figure out how to get the digital camera and the computer to talk to one another, we’ll even be able to share some pictures with you.

Unfortunately, our return home was not so pleasant. When we dropped Marion off at her apartment, we discovered that it had been broken into and ransacked while she (and her two roommates) were away. There were clothes, linens, and personal stuff strewn all over the place. We stayed with her and waited for the police, helping out with phone calls and whatever else we could. Fortunately, not too much was actually taken. But, dealing with the aftermath was certainly not easy. The whole Yeshiva community really rallied around Marion and her roommates to help in whatever way possible, which shows what a great community we have here.