also this is hilarious:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohtaCich0co
if only I was like this after I got my wisdom teeth out. I actually couldn't stop crying for no reason, awk.
"Do you like my shorts?...well then you like my whole outfit." Also vthis guy is rockin' a great jew-fro
Happy tu b'av. Israeli valentines day basically, but it's not as bad as actual Valentines day in the states with all those dumb commercials and cards, flowers and candy (puke).
Shabbat was nice as usual. Very relaxing. Shira Chadasha services were great, I definitely think I'm going to be a regular there. I just love all the singing and the spirit. All y'all in Jerusalem should come with me and try it out. It was cool because they have women leading the parts of the service they can lead under the orthodox interpretation of halacha. Meaning, the women can lead the more optional parts of the service like Kabbalat shabbat. This congregation also will call women up to the torah and have bat mitzvahs and girl baby namings, which very commonly does not happen in orthodox shuls.
It was very refreshing to be in an orthodox setting where women and men pray separately and not feel like I was being degraded in any way. Sometimes if the separator (mehitzah) between men and women is too thick or the women have a really crappy section it just makes me angry. I PROMISE women aren't evil, it's not like our "impurity" or whatever is going to come through a thin wall. Oy oy. I really think separate gender prayer is ok if it's what people feel comfortable with, but there are respectful and disrespectful ways to do it. I don't prefer it, but I'll deal with it if I like the service. Also (maybe this is just me) but I felt this sense of comradery/women power on the women's side of the mehitzah.
All in all it was a good time.
I had an interesting interaction on shabbat in the park. I guess I was looking pretty frummy (orthodox) sitting in the park on a blanket with my conservative dress reading a bible, which lead a very orthodox, black hat guy to come up to me and ask me to watch his stuff while he used the bathroom. Usually this type of people would not interact with me, but I said sure I would watch it. When he came back we had a short little conversation in Hebrew. I told him I was studying at HUC, but I didn't tell him about the whole becoming a rabbi thing (I just wasn't in the mood for an argument). I did however tell him that I was studying Talmud which he seemed surprised about. He had a tractate of Talmud with him and he said it would not be appropriate to study together (gahhhhh studying Talmud with a girl, so immodest, what if she out talmuded him bwahaha, I don't think that would have happened, maybe in a few years).
Jerusalem and especially shabbat is great for the random meetings. I also ran into someone who went to JTS who I hadn't seen in two years in this very same park. All while I was waiting for some friends to join me. Crazy stuff.
About half of the HUC first years gathered in the park for havdallah which was great. It was fun to do and to all sit in a circle together as friends and future colleagues to end shabbat. I hope this continues to happen, it's a nice way to kick off the week. Brings back some memories from camp and nfty in a good (not I'm back in high school kind of) way,
Hebrew is starting to get hard. It's great and I'm still really enjoying it, but I'm definitely getting nervous for our test on Wednesday. Then I have a Hebrew presentation for next Sunday, and I have NO idea what to talk about, any suggestions?
I had a really cool experience today of teaching someone how to wrap tefillin, it was cool to be able to help a fellow woman try out this mitzvah. It isn't as scary as it looks. It was also great because she was really excited about it. Definitely a special experience. I felt very rabbinic haha.
This was a very stream of consciousness blog today, I hope it wasn't too crazy.
Bed time
Peace.
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