A BIG Update!

I know, I know... I've been a little absent from the blogosphere for the last week and a half... my apologies! It's hard to believe that a person who only goes to school four days a week until 1pm and then has a tiyul (trip) on Thursdays could be SO busy that she can't write in her blog... but apparently it's possible! For whatever reason, I seem to be busy at every moment of every day- not that it's a bad thing. But still, I'm in need of a little rest... good thing August break will be here in just two weeks from today!

So now I suppose I'll update you (or at least those of you who don't read my friend's blogs for information on my life) on what I've been doing for these last two weeks!

Following the Shabbat during which I wrote the incredibly exciting entry on the WUPJ and the IMPJ (remember what those stand for??), we had a fun third week of ulpan. On that Tuesday, I gave my first ever presentation in Hebrew! Everyone in ulpan at HUC has to give a presentation to their class on anything they want, so I decided to present on one of the things I'm most famous for here (and no, not OSU)... the tv show FRIENDS! Needless to say, the presentation was fun for me, and seemed to be fun for my classmates. Tuesday night was our incredibly successful Beit Cafe (which I wrote about in the previous entry). The next day, our ulpan teacher, Orna, took us on a tiyul around the Jerusalem neighborhoods. We hang out alot in the area around Ben Yehuda street, but I never knew that so much history surrounded that area! We learned about some of the first neighborhoods outside the Old City, visited Beit Ticho (the Ticho House, former home to the famous Dr. Ticho and his even more famous artist wife Anna Ticho), saw a beautiful art exhibit (and met the artist!) of paintings of EVERY psalm, had a snack in a great hummus restaurant, and went to the shuk. We also chose student committees at schoo last week- I along with a bunch of my friends am on the Kef (fun) committee... what a surprise! Last Thursday was spent on a Bible History tiyul to Gat and Ashkelon, two cities that have a lot of Philistine history attributed to them... Gat is thought to be the site of the battle of David and Goliath! The best part of the tiyul, however, had to have been the hour we got to spend relaxing on the beach in Ashkelon- my first trip to the beach since I arrived!

On Friday, after an excellent french toast brunch cooked by master chefs Meredith and Lisa, as well as some pre-Shabbat cleaning, homework-ing, and relaxing, I headed off with 20 of my classmates to a community called Tzur Hadassah. Tzur Hadassah is a neighborhood southwest of Jerusalem that is home to a few thousand families. Within the community is a relatively new progressive congregation, headed by a young rabbi who graduated from HUC's Israeli Rabbinic Program. After a tour of the community and fun, musical services with the congregation, we all headed to various families' homes for Shabbat dinner. Ari, Sarah, and I went to the home of a family with three young kids, aged 7, 11, and 13. The family (not to mention the dinner) was absolutely WONDERFUL. As it was the Shabbat preceding Tisha B'Av (more on that in a minute), the father put together a short study packet on the history and observation of Tisha B'Av- he included both us and his young kids in reading stories, answering questions, and talking about the significance of the day. We enjoyed a delicious dinner with them, during which Joel and I answered the kids' great questions about ourselves, what we're doing in Israel, and what it's like to live in the States. Meanwhile, their 7-year-old daughter "taught" Sarah how to count in Hebrew- CUTE. After dinner, the mother (who is a music teacher) took out her guitar and invited Sarah and me to play and sing some songs with the family. We left with an invitation to come back for another Shabbat, which I'm SURE we'll do soon.

Saturday evening, following Shabbat services at Har-El, started in 1958 as the first progressive synagogue in Israel and an adventure involving tuna melts, mac and cheese, Israeli ovens/stoves, and gas balloons, we headed back to HUC for a Tisha B'Av observance. Tisha B'Av, the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av, is a fast day in Judaism, often called the saddest day in the Jewish year. According to the Mishnah (Oral Torah), five major events befell the Jewish people on the 9th of Av: G-d's decree that the generation of Moses would not enter the land of Israel, the destruction of the First Temple, the destruction of the Second Temple, the failure of Bar Kochba's Revolt, and the razing of Jerusalem. Additionally, it is said that many other sad events have occured on this date, including: the Jews' explusion from England in 1290, the explusion of Jews from Spanin in 1492, the start of World War I, and the beginning of deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka. We observed Tisha B'Av with a service that included a tradtional reading of Megillah Eicha (The Book of Lamentations, which is always read on Tisha B'Av), as well as several discussions on the meaning of the day, and creative expressions of parts of Eicha. We finished our evening observation of Tisha B'Av at the Kotel (Western Wall- one of the retaining walls of the Temple Mount where the Temple stood before its destruction), which is a very interesting experience due to the sheer number of people praying and reading Eicha in this location. On Sunday, the actual day of Tisha B'Av (remember that Jewish holidays start at sundown the evening before the day of the holiday), we had different classes, presentations, and a service to commemorate the day.

The school week was relatively normal, though we did get to watch a really cool Israeli movie on Wednesday called "Meduzot" (Jellyfish). What was exciting about this week was the fact that Marla (a friend from OSU) came to visit and was my first visitor at the new apartment! She stayed from Monday until Thursday hanging out with me, visiting HUC, meeting my friends, shopping at the mall and Ben Yehuda, going out to dinners and a jazz festival/jewelry fair, and even sitting through a boring meeting at school. It was GREAT to have a friend from home here to visit- especially one who brings Buckeyes!

Today was a special Thursday at school, because instead of going on our regular Thursday tiyul, we instead had "Masoret (tradition) Day." The day included a series of workshops that taught practicial skills including Aliyah to the Torah (going up to say the blessings before the reading of the Torah), Hagbah and Gelilah (lifting and dressing the Torah), wearing Tefillin (boxes with leather straps that are wound around the arm and worn on the head to remind the wearer of the commandments) and Tallit (prayer shawl), and prayer choreography (when to sit, stand, bow, sway, kiss, bend, etc). The whole day was interesting for me, as I really like to practical side of synagogue and prayer life. It was also great because it was the first day that I truly felt like I was in Rabbinic school, and not just here to learn Hebrew and go to services. After our classes, we had our introduction to the Reform Liturgy Workshop, which basically serves to teach us about, and then have us lead, services for the HUC community. The final part of the day was our Academic Preview session... let's just say this will be a busy year of classes for me! We'll be taking classes such as: Biblical Grammar, Modern Hebrew, Bible, Rabbinic Literature, Liturgy, Cantillation, etc etc etc!! Regular classes start on Sunday, September 7th, following our August break...
...speaking of which, Sean will be here in FOUR!!!!! days for his birthright trip, which will be followed by 12 days vacationing and hanging out in Jerusalem with me! Yay! Also in the way of visitors, Uncle Eddie arrived in Israel on Tuesday, and will be here tomorrow to spend Shabbat with me in Jerusalem... and rumor has it, he has a suitcase of wonderful stuff AND a guitar to give me!!

Sorry again for the late post, but hopefully this brings you up to speed. Stay tuned for apartment pictures this week... I PROMISE!!! Happy Thursday!