5:28pm: Shabbat is over, too early as always. I make Havdalah with Evelyn and her friend Susan from New York, reconnect with the wider world of email and cell phones, and head home to shower and scrounge up dinner.
6:00pm: Call from Miriam - time to plan something for the evening. They'll provide me with dinner (soy tofu!!) if I can bring a vegetable. Can't be too hard, right? This should be a good time to plan the family's week in Israel at the end of December, catch up on some knitting, and generally relax.
7:03pm: After speedily showering and cleaning up, I head up the road toward Miriam and Naomi's, by way of Super Deal, which I think is my favorite grocery store here. And of course, it's closed. Time for plan B.
7:15pm: Run into liquor store to see if they have vegetables - no. Stop by ATM, reach for wallet, open it up to find... no bank card. This is not good. Maybe I left it where I had coffee on Friday morning? I remember taking it with me though... (panic panic panic)... maybe I'll call the person I had coffee with and see if he remembers. Nope, don't have his number. Wait a second... I put it in my pocket when I went shopping on Friday afternoon because I didn't want to carry a purse... and I'm wearing the same pants! Reach into pocket, find card, Halleluyah!
7:30pm: Arrive at makolet - small grocery/convenience store. The search for a vegetable that isn't sprouting things commences. After twisting around corners, arrive at veggie section which is blocked by all of the coolers that would normally be outside during the day. Green beans - success! Ask store owner to climb over cooler to get the beans, which look edible.
7:32pm: Woman approaches me in makolet, asking for 10 shekels (about $2.50). Instinct is to say that I don't have money, but the words don't come out, and I realize my instinct is wrong. I reach for my change purse, pull out the coins, and hand them to her, with a tired smile. She smiles back, almost deviously, and puts her finger to her lips in a "shhh! don't tell!" motion.
7:36pm: As I approach the counter to pay (for green beans, muffin mix, muffin papers, and a bar of chocolate, of course), the same store owner says, "Want some advice? Don't give her money. She's a pest." I see the woman on the street now, still looking devious.
7:45pm: Arrive at Miriam and Naomi's. Drink wine. Knit and plan interesting things to do in Jerusalem for the next few weeks. Bake blueberry muffins for the egal minyanaires to surprise them for arriving on time to minyan in the morning.
10:30pm: Start to head home. Get call from Evelyn saying that my laundry's done (since I don't have a washer of my own and have to rely on the generosity of others) and I should come fold it.
11:15pm: Leave Evelyn's, very sleepy. So much for 10:00pm bedtime - oh well. Start to get ready for bed, chat with roommate about her Shabbat at a Hasidic teacher's house.
12:00pm: Sleep.
5:00am: Wake. Contactsbrushteethrunningclothesputuphairfindwarmjacketfindkeys and out the door.
5:34am: Run with Dan, while listening to Blur and Nada Surf and trying to keep up. Slow run, but I feel amazing.
6:15am: On the way back to my apartment, I look up at the sky - apart from the sunset, I think the sky is the most beautiful at this time of day. It's a gorgeous cornflower blue (that's what Crayola would have called it), and I see a huge wispy cloud that looks like a butterfly with a broken wing. What does it mean?
6:17am: As I stretch after the run (my favorite part of the day), a huge dog on a leash comes up behind me, wanting to be scratched. I give him a good scratch behind the ears, and the three of us (me, dog, and owner) are much happier.
7:25am: Minyan. I write the following line from Masechet Brachot of the Talmud (19B) up on the board: Come and learn: Human dignity is so important that it supercedes even a Biblical prohibition. Think about it.
I lead Pesukei D'zimra, singing a couple of the psalms and switching up the Hebrew with English a bit, to keep people on their toes.
8:10am: Minyanaires get their muffins, we congratulate Marcie on her first time leading Shacharit, and I rush around making breakfast and getting my books so I can be on time for class.
8:30am: Gemara. What are we discussing again? Oh right - whether there can be shlichut (appointing someone else to do a religious task for you) in the case of an averah (a general category of sins and misdeeds). Through a complex series of logic, rabbinic proofs and formulations, we indeed establish that shlichut is NOT possible in the case of an averah - so don't go around trying to tell people to burn down barns for you, because they're just going to get in trouble.
12:00pm: Biblical Hebrew Grammar. Compensatory lengthening, dagesh kal, and something about the letter nun that makes the dagesh kal appear in the final letter of the word.
1:00pm: Announcements and Mincha - Carra leads Mincha for the first time.
1:30pm: Burekas Ima for lunch - zatar pita, tomato pita, and cheesy burekas. Not the most healthy of lunches, but it's hard to beat the price - 8 shekels!! ($2!) Plus a chocolate/butterscotch muffin from our wonderful chef.
2:00pm: Trip to the Israel Free Loan Association with Social Justice Track. As Eliezer Jaffe, the founding director, put it:
- This is Jewish microlending, not tzedakah (charity). We don't charge interest, period.
- We can't save the whole world - only half. Our work is target at those who make more than 3,000 NIS (New Israeli Shekel) a month but less than 13,000, because then they'd be able to get a loan from the banks.
- Only 0.2% of the recipients of loans end up defaulting on them.
- We're not crazy - it's Jewish!
4:30pm: Still discussing with my group, but starting to get sleepy, and very distracted by the gorgeous sunset out the window of the Beit Midrash. I'll take pictures next time.
5:00pm: Maariv - I lead, and pull in some slow melodies to help people wind down after a long day.
5:17pm: Done... or at least I could be. But I choose to stick around and attend a shiur (lesson) given by a friend on "Can G-d Change His Mind (Or did we change ours?)" and end up being part of a great discussion on reward and punishment in the Tanakh and rabbinic literature.
And that, my friends, is 24 hours in the life of me.
Thank you, Lauren. Warms me up all over to read your blog :-)
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