Quote of the Day

The refusal to acknowledge how Judaism reappropriates symbolism to make it relevant in a contemporary context flattens Judaism and takes away the crucial reason why it has survived for 4000 years.
- Grace Wichmann

The Amazingness of Sukkot in Israel, continued

I've come to the conclusion that Sukkot in Israel is without a doubt my favorite holiday here. I'm saying this without having seen Hanukkah in Israel, or Purim, or Pesach, so this assertion could very well change with the seasons, but for now I'm pretty enamored with Sukkot.

Point one: Extra-long vacation. Having taken a serious account of your soul in the weeks leading up to the Yamin Noraim (Days of Awe - RH and YK), everyone needs a break, especially to enjoy the beautiful weather in Israel right before the rainy season begins and it starts to get yucky.

So to continue where I left off in my account of the Galil Adventure, last Wednesday the five of us drove to Rosh Pina, a little north of Moshav Almagor where we were staying, to find dinner. Let me first mention that we got a rental car for the three days, and without it, we really wouldn't have been able to get around from tiny town to tiny town. That being said - "Zaki," as we named him, wasn't the most dependable vehicle. His ability to accelerate up hills was pretty nonexistent, so there were many times where we got stuck behind huge trucks on the highway for miles because Zaki couldn't muster the strength to pass them. We cajoled him on and he continued to run, but he definitely could have used a more powerful engine (and some better shocks).

Dinner was at this amazing little restaurant called Indigo that we found in a Frommer's guidebook. If you're ever in Rosh Pina, go here - they have amazing dishes, served with an abundance of goat cheese.

We returned to the Moshav, satiated and smiling, and spend the evening drinking wine, eating mangoes and chocolate, and singing along to the tunes from Evelyn's guitar.

The next morning, after letting ourselves sleep in a bit and then davening facing the Kinneret (and back toward Jerusalem, of course), we consulted our buddy Dan, the son of the moshav hostel's proprietor, about where to go for a hike in the area involving water. He suggested Nachal Zaki (that's where the car's name originated) - a hike along a river, we assumed, with parts where we could refresh ourselves and get our feet wet. We drove to the spot, walked along the dry, sandy path for a while without seeing much water, and took lots of pictures of groves of pomegranate trees and other desert foliage.
After a little ways, we came upon a fork in the trail, and followed the green and white striped trail marker. Around the bend, it pointed us not along the road, but to duck under some brush and wade into the river. This was it! I led the pack, excited to finally wear my Chacos for their intended purpose as river-walking sandals. We were in water up to our knees, making our way over rocks and mud, enjoying the cool shade, until we noticed that the stream widen, and we could no longer see our feet. Evelyn scouted ahead and discovered that we could still walk through the river, but the water came up to our shoulders! We slowly trekked on, backpacks carefully balanced on top of our heads, feeling VERY adventurous as we meticulously stepped from rock to rock so as not to trip and soak everything in our bags.

This went on for a while, alternating between deep and not so deep water, and we took frequent breaks to rehydrate and refuel. At one point, we got passed by a bunch of very experienced-looking (or at least fearless) Israelis, who didn't seem to notice or care how slippery the rocks were. My shoes began to not be as ideal as I once thought as I started to slip more and more and bang up my uncovered feet on the rocks. Although we were still seeing trail markers, many of us were getting pretty tired and ready to call it a day (since by this point, we had been hiking for 3+ hours), so at the next available junction we disembarked from the river and began looking for a parallel dry trail to take us home. We ran into some almost-naked Israeli men, drinking beer and smoking cigarettes in their skivvies (a sight to behold, unfortunately), but no trail.

So - Dan to the rescue. Turns out we were only a few hundred meters from the end of the river, but the walk back to the car probably would have taken an hour, so we were grateful to smush into the back of his truck. He brought us fresh pomegranates to munch on as well as many thoughts about the state of his country for our brains to munch on. While he believes that Iran does present an existential threat to the state of Israel with its nuclear capabilities and ambitions, the real problem for the future of the state isn't the Arabs - it's the Israelis. This was said after passing a dumpster used by former campers and hikers that had been utterly trashed, with refuse flung over the entire area.

We were tired enough to go home and take a nap, but instead we wanted to soak up the last bit of our afternoon by visiting the Golan Height Winery in Katzrin, where they bottle Yarden, Gamla, and Golan wines. We arrived an hour before they were set to close so we couldn't get the full tour, but we DID get to watch the incredibly cheesy video dubbed in weird English and taste three of their wines!
Very, very tasty, especially the Sauvignon Blanc and the Muscat! I have a feeling I'll be returning here...

We ended the evening (after returning to the moshav to shower) by driving to Tiveria (Tiberias) to take in the splendor of tourism and grimy waterfront town. We had heard that St. Peter's fish was a local specialty, so most of us ordered the fried fish and chips, and this is what we got:
Definitely a fish. Once I figured out how to get around the bones it was rather tasty, but this is one of those times where being someone who calls herself a vegetarian but eats fish becomes challenging.

So in sum, 48 hours in the Galil was an incredible experience of good food, good friends, and embracing the beauty of nature. One of the most challenging things about studying at Pardes full time is not getting to breathe fresh air enough or being able to appreciate the magnificent setting we're in. That's point one of why I love Sukkot here - a break from our daily lives to remind ourselves why we do what we do and a chance to renew our energy for the weeks of intense study to come.

Point two: Almost all the restaurants here build sukkot for their patrons to dine in during the holidays, ranging from the ordinary to the elaborate:




These are gorgeous, but the best Sukkot that I've dwelled in over the past week are the ones of friends who have invited me in. It's a mitzvah to welcome Ushpizin - guests - into one's sukkah, and I've been the recipient of such wonderful hospitality, not having a sukkah of my own. Here's the sukkah rundown so far:

Friday night: Shabbat/chag dinner in Anna's sukkah, with beautiful acapella music and inspiring conversations
Saturday lunch: The Friedman's sukkah with interesting thoughts on aliyah and politics
Saturday night: Dessert in Katie and Matan's sukkah, with as many people packed in as possible, reading aloud Israeli and American children's books, and spontaneous niggunim (wordless melodies) (plus awesome chocolate pecan pie!)

Sunday morning: Davening in the Pardes sukkah, first time shaking my lulav and etrog, and Dalet and Hey classes bagel brunch with sukkot-themed 20 questions!

Miriam and I with our arba'ah minim (four species)!

This is Baruch, one of my teachers, trying to ask questions to figure out what it says on the green thing on his head (it says Kohelet (Ecclesiastes), which we read on the Shabbat of Sukkot).Sunday afternoon: Sukkah visiting in Mea Shearim (ultra orthodox neighborhood) and Ben Yehuda street area (pictures above), dinner in the Sukkah at Tmol Shilshom

Monday night: Dinner in Sheryl's sukkah, sleeping in the Pardes sukkah!
Melissa and Queen Esther

Queen Esther braves the sukkah!
Tuesday: Day trip to Tel Aviv with Shira and Naomi, dinner in Katie's sukkah

Only in Tel Aviv would you see this sign...

The Mediterranean
So that brings me to my final point:

Point three: Sukkot in Israel is amazing because of how it brings people out of their homes and into temporary dwellings together. So often we get stuck in our routines, grabbing a bite to eat at whatever place is quickest and then sitting in our apartment wasting away the evening, but Sukkot encourages us to host others and to be good guests, preparing food, offering company, and sharing a physical and spiritual space together.

Moadim l'simcha (festivals of happiness) and chag sameach (happy holiday) to everyone, and I hope that you all find a place in your lives where friends and family come together under one roof to celebrate what's most special.

Chagim in Yerushalayim - Yom Kippur and Sukkot

This past week has been one of the most adventure-filled of my time so far in Israel - this summer included!

Yom Kippur in Israel (and Jerusalem especially) is incomparable to any other YK observance anywhere in the world. The entire city comes to a halt for 25 hours - all businesses and restaurants are closed, and most strikingly, no one drives their cars. The streets are blocked off and the traffic lights are set to flashing. Teachers and long-time Jerusalemites told us what this would be like, but experiencing it first hand was awe-inspiring. Shira, Sarah, Evelyn and I went to Kol Nidre services at Shira Hadasha, and while Evelyn had a reserved seat, the rest of us fully expected to be standing the entire time in the unofficial "young mothers with crying babies section" in the back. I wouldn't have minded standing so much, but when a few seats opened up in the front, we gladly took them.

Alick Isaacs, who spoke at Rice back in April (he was a guest scholar at the Houston JCC for a few weeks and spoke about his new book on the theology of peace), led services, and it was exactly the spirit I was looking for. The worshippers at Shira Hadasha create such beautiful harmonies whenever they open their mouths, and the music really put people in the right mindset to spend the next day taking account of their souls and their actions. I had spent the last few weeks really taking stock of my life and the person I want to be in the coming year, and Kol Nidre really helped me focus more closely on the work that I need to do.

So back to the uniqueness of Jerusalem - when we stepped out of services and onto Emek Refaim, we were floored - the entire street was filled with people, when normally it would be flooded with cars. Men and women and children dressed in all while, laughing and talking and remembering together - it was absolutely surreal. My friends told me about a group of teenagers that they saw sitting in the middle of a huge intersection on Derech Hevron playing a game of cards - where else could that happen? And while for the secular Israelis (chilonim) this day is referred to as "Chag HaOfanayim"- the biking holiday for bikes, skates, and scooters in the street - everyone is taking this chance to somehow take a break from their routine and reflect.

Another fascinating thing about YK in the Jewish state is that the clocks changed back one hour the day before, solely for the purpose of making the fast easier! Apparently in the West Bank, the clocks had changed back even earlier, for Ramadan! It certainly helped when the fast started at 4:45 and ended at 6:05 - you don't get those crazy evening hunger pangs like you do during Neilah (the last service of YK) in the States - but now it's weird for the sky to be getting so dark so early, and I wish they could just change the clocks back to the way they were for a couple more weeks. One nice thing though - it's lighter in the mornings, so it's easier to run by myself, and my morning showers are a little bit warmer because they're solar-heated!

The day after YK we had a Yom Iyun (a topical learning day) about Sukkot at Pardes, and after a couple of really interesting shiurim (lessons) about the laws of the lulav and etrog and the commandment to be happy on Sukkot, Evelyn, Naomi, Miriam, Laura, and I planned our mini-vacation to the Galil (Galilee).


We stayed on an incredible moshav, which is like a farm cooperative, called Moshav Almagor. It's a few kilometers above the Kinneret, and we could walk out of our cabin and see the Kinneret lit with beautiful sunlight and moonlight.

Those sunset pics were taken right outside a really dumpy "Mini Market", but you'd never be able to tell.

The rest of this saga, plus the beginnings of Sukkot in Jerusalem, will have to wait for tomorrow b/c I'm pretty exhausted, so stay tuned!

Rosh Hashanah Review

Shana tova! Rosh Hashana weekend was a whirlwind, but I'll share the highlights with you while the spirit's still in the air.

I davened at Kedem for most of the services (Friday night and Saturday and Sunday morning), which was really beautiful. I really enjoyed being in the company of other students (mostly from Pardes and the Conservative Yeshiva), especially because we all put our souls into the davening and made sure that we sang with energy! There was one particular piyut (a liturgical poem) that we sang that wasn't in the machzor (the RH/Yom Kippur prayerbook), but everyone was given the text on a handout. It was a call and response between the prayer leader and the congregation about crowning G-d king (a common theme in the RH liturgy), and it was so upbeat that people were dancing in the aisles!

All of the learning surrounding the themes of the high holidays during the past three weeks had a significant impact on my prayer experience this weekend. I was able to connect to the overarching structure of the liturgy much more easily than I had in years past, and the Hebrew came much more naturally. Nevertheless, the height of my prayer experience was during tekiat shofar (the blowing of the shofar - the ram's horn). The drama was heightened because we don't blow shofar on Shabbat, so we didn't hear the shofar until halfway through Sunday's services. The anticipation had certainly been building with each mention of the great sound of the shofar in the liturgy, and I was a bit nervous that hearing the shofar wasn't going to live up to my lofty expectations. It's a mitzvah just to hear the shofar on RH, and as my halakha teacher said, just hearing it is enough, even if it doesn't stir your soul in any particular way. But this Rosh Hashanah, as the tekiah gedolah (the sustained note on the shofar) was sounded, I truly felt G-d calling me to tshuva, to return to my true self.

The other major part of the weekend besides the davening was the eating - but feasting is more like it. I had four enormous meals over the course of the weekend with friends, families, and teachers (and their families), and sharing the experience of renewal in these intimate settings really rounded out the RH experience. And luckily for my stomach, tomorrow's a minor fast day! It's Tzom Gedaliah, and according to chabad.org, this means the "fast on the third of Tishrei, commemorating the assassination of Gedaliah ben Achikam, governor of the First Jewish Commonwealth in the Holy Land; after this assassination, Jewish autonomy came to an end." I was talking w/ some friends today about these minor fasts that appear on the calendar but don't get much attention from Sunday school teachers covering the Jewish holidays - this one in particular seems very obscure and hard to connect with, and one friend was saying how she may not fast tomorrow because she doesn't like to take on new practices without first studying their history and meaning. This sounds like a pretty reasonable position - why do something so obscure just to do it? Isn't it more meaningful if your practice is rooted in an informed context? On the other hand, there's a Jewish principle called "naaseh v'nishma" which means "We will do and then we will understand." Often Jewish practices have to be performed in order to experience the full meaning, even if a person doesn't fully understand all of the whys underlying them. Understanding comes through the fulfillment of the mitzvah (and in subsequent study).

What's your opinion on this concept? How do you experience taking on a new practice or ritual in your life?

L'shana tova tikateivu - may you be written for a good year!

It's the morning of Erev Rosh Hashanah, and I'm trying to dash off a few brief (but not so awkward) lines (Mom, that's for you :) ) I've had so many experiences this week that have impacted me immensely, so I'd like to share them with you.

I'm really excited for Rosh Hashanah to begin tonight - probably more so than I've ever been. It's amazing to be preparing for the holidays here in Jerusalem, because the energy is just collective - everyone's been buzzing about shul and meals and making those phone calls to apologize and just starting anew, and everyone you meet on the street says shana tova! It's simply incredible. Even our cab driver last night said "Shana tova - a year of good studies and good boyfriends to you all!" On Tuesday night, there was this pre-RH street fair basically 2 blocks away from my apartment, with live bands, food vendors, artisan tables, and street performers, and the mood was SO joyful. Just the fact that that even existed was amazing - the wonders of a Jewish state :).

In my social justice class at Pardes, we had a speaker come on Sunday that was INCREDIBLY powerful and made us all think and reevaluate our priorities. His name was Rabbi Levi Lauer, and he spoke in very extreme terms about our imperative for pursuing justice in the world. He talked about how it was "theologically obscene" to think that G-d cares more about whether we flip lights on and off on Shabbat than if we work to make sure that human beings aren't sleeping on the street, and he also told us how when he gets up to daven (pray) in the mornings and gets to the Amidah (the pinnacle of the prayer service where you outline your requests for G-d), he won't pray unless he feels that he's done anything in the last 24 hours to merit asking G-d for ANYTHING. These kinds of social justice questions are the ones that keep me up at night, and I often wonder - is studying here really the best use of my time and resources? Couldn't I be out helping people and have a much greater impact on the world? I had been thinking about this stuff a lot before Rabbi Lauer came to speak, so his words really struck deep into my heart, and I was crying throughout his lecture.

My friends in the class and I have been doing a lot of processing since that talk, trying to understand his ideas and make them work for us, and I realized that while he was speaking in very black and white terms, he really was advocating for a balanced life - one where social justice priorities receive just as much weight as specifically Jewish priorities, and where we carefully craft our lives so that our Judaism is expressed in every action that we do. One thing that does keep me going though is the notion that G-d had to recede from creation in order to make room for human initiative, and it's our job to complete the work that G-d began. There's room to fail, but there's also great possibility that we'll succeed, and there's so many chances each day for us to begin that kind of creativity.

And to begin - I'm heading out in a few minutes to volunteer at a soup kitchen near the shuk (the open air market). It'll be packed today with families preparing for Rosh Hashanah, so they'll need all the help they can get.

L'shana tova tikateivu to all - may you be written in the book of life for a good year, a year of new adventures, new friends, new foods, and new beginnings.

Rak b'yisrael (only in Israel)

Sorry for my delay in posting now that I'm ba'aretz (in the land - aka Israel) - this is really the first afternoon of free time that I've had since arriving! I won't try to detail the whole last week, but basically I've been getting used to my classes, setting up my apartment, and adjusting to the 7 hour time change! Here's what I'll be taking for the semester:

Talmud - Masechet (volume/tractate) Rosh Hashanah until "achrei hachagim" (after the holidays) and Masechet Ketubot for the rest of the semester which is about marriage (ketubot are Jewish marriage contracts)

Chumash (Torah) - The book of Shemot (Exodus)

Biblical Hebrew Grammar

Parshat HaShavua - the weekly Torah portion

Halakha - Jewish law and practice

The Social Justice track - looking at Jewish texts about tikkun olam - the concept of repairing the world - and reflecting on the reality of our lives and how we can work to improve the world. This isn't just a class - we'll go on field trips, listen to guest speakers who work w/ social justice organizations in Israel, and head up Tuesday afternoon volunteering projects.

Hasidut - the "spiritual" side of Judaism, for lack of a better term - taking a multidisciplinary approach to learning about this sect of Judaism through story, song, and spiritual debriefing with a chevruta (study partner)

Women and Halakha - I'm taking this class at the Conservative Yeshiva both b/c I'm really interested in the material and b/c I wanted to have a connection over there, something a bit different from Pardes. This'll be continuing for the whole year, and we'll cover all of the different topics concerning women and Judaism - modesty, prayer, sexuality - the whole gamut. I'll probably be debriefing about that course on here a lot.

I've also been waking up at 5:30 every morning to go run, which has been tough b/c it's hard to get to bed early at night, but hopefully if I can keep this up I'll really start my day off right.

Finally (for now) - I'm living w/ two other Pardes girls, Shira and Joanne, who are really great, and we've been working on collecting furniture and dishes and things for our rather unfurnished apartment. Today I made an announcement at Pardes that my roommates and I were looking for a refrigerator, and a friend gave me the name and number of a guy who does a lot of used furniture dealing. We took a cab over to his place tonight, around 7pm, and we arrived on this dark, narrow street where we couldn't even find the number of the place that he told us. We were expecting a storefront, but the street was totally residential. I called Shai, the dealer, and asked him where to go, and he said, "Oh, I'm not home, but just go up the stairs in front of you and go down the hall - I left the door open so you could look at the stuff." Sure enough, we pushed his door open and found an apartment with tons of stuff packed in, and he said over the phone, "Everything's for sale - just tell me what you're interested in!" We picked out the fridge (which was pretty messy but he promised he'd clean it out before delivering it), a coffee table, a washing machine, and a mirror, all for pretty cheap. But only in Israel do independent appliance dealers sell stuff out of their homes without even being there to make the sale. Wild.

L'shavua haba'ah b'yerushalayim (next week in Jerusalem!)

I'm heading back to Jerusalem on Sunday to study at Pardes from Sept. 1 until May 27, and I'll be chronicling my adventures here. Armed with all my belongings in a bulging backpack and a slightly too large bright pink suitcase, I'll dive into the beit midrash (house of study) ready to challenge my intellect and exercise my soul.

I was a little worried that coming home for five weeks in between intense Israel experiences would make me incredibly bored and I'd be itching to go back every second, but actually, coming home allowed me to put a lot of things in perspective. While experiencing Judaism in Jerusalem is amazing, it's really impossible to replicate the intensity of that experience anywhere else, and coming home offered me a reality check. The challenges of Judaism in America are real, and they don't go away when I leave them behind. They're still there, waiting to be tackled, and I feel like the challenges make my Judaism stronger. However, by going to Israel for the year I'm giving myself the opportunity to try on various Jewish practices and beliefs without strings attached and without the augmented challenges of the diaspora.

A lot of people say that they feel like they've come home once they arrive in Israel, and I did too when I arrived in June, but while I do feel comfortable in many ways in Israel, it doesn't evoke the same feelings for me that "home" does. I really have a strong connection to many things about the Carolinas - the foothills, the cuisine, and the music, to name a few - and I still see myself returning to this area to make my home, some day. There are so many challenges for Judaism in the American south, but that's one of the factors that I find most attractive. Back when I was applying to college, I wrote my admissions essay for Rice about how my Jewish identity and my Southern identity were equally influential in shaping the person that I am, and I find that that's even more true today. While the two identities certainly don't always coexist peacefully, negotiating the two is part of my reality and the realities of so many other Jews living in the South.

I've spent the better part of this past week packing and repacking, and I think I'm close to being finished. Here are a couple of the more non-traditional packing items that I thought merited room in my cramped suitcase:
-Queen Esther, part of the ever-growing stuffed bunny clan (see the Facebook group "Friends and Fans of the Bunnies"), for when I get a little homesick.
-My apron, to inspire me to cook more and eat out less, and hopefully save money.
-Rain boots - while they're bulky, I hear that the puddles in Jerusalem in the winter are NOT to be messed with.
-Books: A Short History of Nearly Everything (unless I finish it by Sunday, which is entirely likely over Shabbat), Six Easy Pieces by Richard Feynman (I'm on a bit of a science kick), A Walk in the Woods (and also a Bill Bryson kick, plus it'll remind me of the beautiful Appalachians...), A People's History of the United States, and of course my Koren siddur (prayerbook) and my JPS Tanakh (Bible). I couldn't help myself.
-Knitting needles, plus the cardigan that I just finished making (I'll put a picture up when I dig it out of my suitcase).
-Hair sticks, which look quite a lot like knitting needles, except shorter, and for hair.

A few questions for you Israel veterans out there:
-How easy is it to refill prescriptions in Israel? Do pharmacies carry the same brands of medication? What about American generic versions of prescriptions?
-Is there a library in Jerusalem with English books?
-Any good recommendations for yarn stores?

Alright, I think I covered all of my bases for now. My flight leaves from GSP at 5:30 on Sunday, then to Philly, then to Tel Aviv. If you'll be in the holy land at any point during the year, PLEASE let me know! And finally - if I get lazy about updating the blog at any point during the year, please reprimand me thoroughly.

Shabbat shalom!
-Lauren