Jet lagged

Erev tov, chaverim, and welcome to tonight's edition of Lauren in Jerusalem. Today was an especially long day, literally, because I woke up at 3am and never made it back to sleep. By 6:30, I knew that the effort was useless, so I got up and davened shacharit as the sounds of morning in Jerusalem floated through my window. This had begun much earlier - around 3:30am, I started hearing music, or what could be loosely construed as music - it sounded like someone was rehearsing their shofar playing for the high holidays but adding in their own tonal interpretations. I couldn't quite figure it out - I don't think there's a 3am call to prayer in Islam - but it was interesting, nonetheless. At 5, I started hearing squawking birds, like the infamous grackles that lurk on the Rice campus, and then at 6 the mothers began screaming at their children to eat breakfast - no, not THAT cereal! - and get dressed. Tonight, I think I'll shut my window.

My roommate Madison and I found our way to Pardes without too much trouble - it's about a 15 minute walk, winding back and forth along streets to Pierre Koenig and Rivka. Here's the building:
After filling out the usual forms and formalities, we began with the "opening circle" where everyone introduced themselves. It's a pretty small group for June - only about 20-25 people - so we'll probably get to know each other well. I hear that July will be about three times as large.

Another sign that I'm not in America anymore - Israel is in the midst of conducting its largest civil defense drill in its history, so today at 11am was a nationwide sounding of the air raid siren. While most schools and businesses practiced their emergency procedures at this time (I looked out the window and could see a line of people walking toward the stairs), we were just told how to get to the bomb shelter in case of the very unlikely event of an attack.

I'm going to have a pretty packed course schedule for the next three weeks - I wanted to fill my time here with learning, and I'd rather be in the classroom than have free time - I'm not one to casually roam through the city alone. The schedule is set up with Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday courses and Monday/Wednesday courses, so on STR I'll be taking a Talmud course about personal property and returning lost belongings to their owners (much more interesting than it sounds, and really a way to learn the nuts and bolts of Talmud study) and "Us and Them," a course on Jewish textual views of traditionally marginalized groups (women, children, the handicapped, non-Jews, etc). MW I'll have a chumash course on Avraham and Sarah in the morning, Biblical Hebrew during lunchtime, and guest lectures in the afternoon. Also, everyday after the long morning class I'll be taking a course on the halakha of kashrut - why certain animals are kosher and others aren't, kosher slaughter - shchita, and keeping a kosher kitchen. While the meat parts aren't as relevant now for my own life, since I'm vegetarian, it's important info to know in case I ever do go back to eating meat or keeping a kitchen with two sets of dishes (as in the apartment that I'm living in now).

Each week there is one day set aside for community lunch, where the amazing chef prepares food for all of us and we eat as a group. The rest of the time, we either bring lunch or go across the street for falafel or borekas (there's other options too, but who would want those??). The community lunch was today, conveniently, so we had delicious lasagna, pita, chumus, and Israeli salad. I finally got my Israel cell phone, so if you need to call me and you're in Israel, the number is 052-604-1563. If you're in America, call 1-864-641-0502 - it'll connect you to me as well.

After lunch, we had our first offical class - the Us and Them course. There's only four of us, so it was pretty intimate, and we spent most of the time in chevruta (partner) learning, reading the text back and forth and helping each other translate. We were discussing a passage from the Mishna (Gittin 5:8-9) about things that are done mipnei darkhei shalom - literally, "because of the ways of peace" or for the sake of peace. This ranged from the order that certain individuals read from the Torah (cohen, levi, yisrael) so as to keep the status quo all the way to taking care of non-Jews who are sick, for the sake of peace in a community where there are Jews and non-Jews living side by side. We do things mipnei darkhei shalom in so many aspects of our society, both in our private lives and our public lives, so as to keep the delicate balance of our community together, even when it conflicts with our own codes and convictions. The question becomes - how far do we go to accomodate others for the sake of peace, and when have we crossed the line? I don't know if we'll find any concrete answers over the next few weeks, but the pursuit will certainly be fascinating.

After class I was pretty exhausted, but Madison and I went to the grocery store and got some food to stock up. It wasn't the pristine experience of shopping in Central Market or Publix - people were cleaning the floor with those giant scrubbers, bumping into each other's carts, and yelling at their partners to find various items. We cobbled a few things together - I got dates and figs just because I knew that they were from nearby - and lugged everything home. And now, for your viewing pleasure, some pictures of my apartment:

The street - Bruria: