confession/thoughts

Hey World,

Another post?! Yes, but I have something I actually want to say.

So I finally got around to reading Dr. Daniel Gordis' piece about American Rabbinical students and their relationship towards Israel. http://danielgordis.org/2011/04/01/of-sermons-and-strategies/ The article and especially the comments left below the article were very disturbing to me. I don't really understand the climate that has developed in the American Jewish community over the past year, while I am here in Israel, but frankly I am scared to go back to it. While I think it is important to support Israel, and while I do love Israel (if you read my blog you know this), I do think that it is important to have a nuanced and complex relationship with Israel, because Israel is a nuanced and complex place. To me this means being critical sometimes. Tough love. I will always support Israel's right to exist and I think it is so important for us Jews to have a homeland, but that doesn't mean we can turn a blind eye to the Palestinians, and to the other people that are suffering on behalf of the Jewish homeland.

It isn't just the American Jewish community that is the problem. Just last week J street was deemed to be "Pro-Palestinian" by an Israeli Parliamentary committee. Since J street does not offer unconditional support to Israel, in the eyes of the Israeli government it is not pro-Israel. I can't even tell you how frustrated all of this makes me. To expect unconditional support is ridiculous. Even as a Jew of the diaspora I believe that I have a right to speak my mind about what is happening in Israel. If you want my unconditional support, Israel, you need to start behaving like you want it. I am not only talking about "the conflict", I am also talking about some of the b.s laws that are being enforced by the rabbinic courts. For example this whole issue of mesorevet get, where the husband leaves his wife trapped in a marriage, and there is nothing she can do. Along with others.

While there is a lot I am critical of, this does not make me anti-Israel. I am critical because I care (a lot). I want Israel to be the amazing place, and the" light to the nations" that I know it can be. I want Israel to be blameless and perfect so badly, but that's not the reality at this time. I think that by being vocal and having a generation of young Jews who are vocal about both their praise and criticism, we can help Israel improve itself. Instead of accepting everything that goes on, maybe by being critical we can help change some things. Maybe this is overly optimistic, but no one ever brought about change by staying silent.

I have really loved living in Israel this past year. It is so amazing to have a place like this for Jews. A place where Jewish holidays are national celebrations, and where Jewish culture is lived all the time. It's really beautiful. I think Dr. Gordis was aiming his criticism more at rabbinical students who flat out deny Israel's right to exist, and I think that it is scary to think about future rabbis who are actually anti-Israel, but honestly I don't think there are that many of them. I think that Dr. Gordis has decided that certain rabbinical students' actions makes them anti-Israel, when in fact they just have a more nuanced and complex relationship with Israel. For example the case cited about a rabbinical student having his birthday in Ramallah.

One of Dr. Gordis' suggestions to help "fix" this situation is "could we find the funding to place academically superb and unequivocally Israel-supportive professors in the schools that want them? " Sure put professors that are supportive of Israel, but all being unequivocally so? See the arguement that I just made above.  Also by sheltering future rabbis I don't think you are being much of a help to the future generation of Jewish leaders.

I think that by expecting unconditional support of Israel it alienates more people. Let's say you are someone with minimal Israel education, and has maybe come on a birthright trip or something so you have seen the happy amazing side of Israel, but not the more complicated and confusing parts, and then you come to live in Israel for a year as part of your rabbinic training (or just life) and you come into contact with the most challenging parts of Israel (whatever those might be for you). How can you deal with those? I think there needs to be some preparation. Israel education in America needs to prove that Israel has a right to exist and is an amazing place without ignoring the realities of the state. How exactly to do that is a great question, and one I am going to be struggling with for a while. I don't want to turn people off of Israel, Israel has enough haters, but at the same time I refuse to lie and I refuse to ignore the complexities of the situation here.

As a fellow rabbinical student and encounter buddy said (I feel weird using names on my blog, so I won't. ALSO I'm paraphrasing) she highlighted the fact that as Jews we struggle with difficult texts all the time. Every year we read about the binding of Isaac, and struggle with the complexities in the story. We read about God being angry and seemingly far from perfect, and we struggle with that. If we spend our lives struggling with difficult ideas that are put forth in our text, so why can't we struggle with the difficulties that exist in the reality of the state of Israel? It is not black and white, and I feel that it would be dishonest of me as a Jew and especially as a future rabbi to portray the situation as such.

whew. I hope that made sense. I welcome comments on this issue. I think this is something extremely important to discuss, because I think this tension is only going to get worse. I am nervous to see how this will all play out, but at the same time I know that there are many people who feel similarly about this situation, and that this critical and yet also supportive voice will continue to be heard.

Becca

good vibes

Hey World,

First off according to my "stats" for this blog, I have a following in Japan. I'm not sure if this is true, or if it is some glitch. But if you are from Japan reading this blog, consider this a shout out and thank you for visiting. I would love to know how you found me. Also I am hoping for the best for you over there (whether or not you are reading my blog)

Second. I cut my hair off. It's shorter than it's been in a while, and I am LOVING having short hair. It was a necessary change. It's funny how a haircut can really change things.

Third, today I taught my Talmud class, and it was awesome. In honor of passover coming up we studied the 10th chapter of masechet psachim (the mishnah) which is all about the passover seder. I love passover/studying about it so I had a lot of fun with it. I think it is cool that so much of what we do in the seder has already been codified by the time of the mishnah. Even the 4 questions (yes with some changes, but they are still there). I recommend reading it, it's not too difficult, especially if you find yourself a good translation. We had an interesting conversation about what it means to see yourself as if you personally left Egypt and were freed from slavery. How does one do that? Also as progressive Jews should and is our understanding of this requirement different? food for thought...

Fourth, I wrote about this a little bit in a previous blog entry, but 2 weeks ago I went to navah tehillah and we sang part of shir hashirim and I found that they recorded one of the songs we did, which was my favorite one so I just wanted to share it: http://navatehila.bandcamp.com/track/kshoshana So shir ha shirim is a love poem and the chorus of this song is "like a rose amidst the thorns so is my love (beloved?) among the [other] women." awwwwwwwwwwwww.

And also cause I'm in a sharing mood here is anther song I like. This is going back to the beginning of my blog when I used to share music, oooh vintage...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxtzDL3CEHQ

ok off to spin class. woooo

B

what to do if your animal kicks a rock that breaks a window that breaks a vase?

Hello World,

Happy Talmud Tuesday!! That's not really a thing, I just made it up. However Tuesday is the day I have my Talmud class, AND it's alliteration, so yeah.

Anyways I am still taking a Talmud class with the Israeli Rabbinic Program every Tuesday. This semester we have a different teacher, so the class is very different, but I LOVE it. We are doing masechet bava kamma, which is about damages. While some people may think it is absurd to study about what to do if a cow you have is walking in another person's yard and steps on a rock in a way that it flies up and breaks something, or if a bird is flying and the wind that it's wings make breaks something... I think it's awesome! Yes this has very little, if any practical purpose, and I doubt as a Rabbi I will ever get asked halachic questions like this (if you notice there is no religious significance to these questions, it is purely secular dealing with property), but that's not why I study Talmud.

For me the beauty of the Talmud lies in it's organization and logic. Each sugya (section-ish, argument? hard to translate), is organized in such a genius way. When I first go through to try and figure out what is happening I will open up my Talmud and try to translate. The problem is (which I think where the Talmud loses a lot of people), is that even if you understand every word you probably are not going to understand what is going on. Then I go back and try and see the structure. Who is arguing with who, what quotes are being used to challenge someone's point or to support someone's claim. Within a sugya there are arguments/differences of opinions and then arguments over why the opinions differ, it gets pretty meta at times. After working for a while I will get to a point where I can understand most of what is going on, and then it helps to have a chevruta or a teacher to help further clarify and point out the details that I missed/didn't understand.

This whole process is beautiful to me. I want to share it with everyone. The problem is the lack of accessibility of the Talmud. I have been studying Talmud for over 4 years  now, and it is still  difficult for me. You need to have a knowledge of Hebrew/aramaic, knowledge of different talmudic terms and how the Talmud is structured and patience (until you get really good, which I am waiting for). Yes, there are English translations, but the language is weird, because the language of the Talmud is sparse/they don't use lots of words to clarify what they are talking about because a lot of knowledge is assumed. So yeah the translations are also not very clear, and it is hard to get to the beauty of the text through translation.

This is something that frustrates me when I teach my talmud class. I really enjoy teaching the kids and having discussions with them, but I want to figure out a way to show them this beauty. They don't have enough Hebrew to study in the original, and I'm not sure I could do it in translation. I have fun showing them interesting content (which there is a lot of!) in the Talmud, like all the stories, but the structure and the logic is a really special part of the text and I want to be able to bring that in more.

Give the Talmud a chance! Even the people in South Korea realize its genius (it is studied in schools there, look it up).

Ok the end of my not rant, it is a rant that is positive. Is there a word for that? Probably.

Nezek shalem or chetzi nezek?

B

Jerusalem is NOT boring

Hello World,

So the title of this blog post is dedicated to the MANY people (mostly Israelis from outside of Jerusalem) who always say how Jerusalem is boring. I disagree. If by boring people are referring to the nightlife, while Jerusalem doesn't have the same nightlife as Tel Aviv, it still has a lot of options. There is downtown and there are many bars and clubs with many different feels. There is also nachla'ot which has some more chill bars, and there are cute places all over. Same goes with restaurants.

If you are not referring to night life there is still a lot to do here. I hope I have made that clear in my blog. Yeah there are a lot of tourists, but there are places where there aren't. Also the touristy places have GREAT people watching, well all of J'lem has that.

The most "boring" day in Jerusalem is probably shabbat if you are not someone who celebrates it. If you do want the shabbat experience Jerusalem offers a plethora of praying options (I still have some I need to go to) and a very restful atmosphere. If that is not your thing, there are restaurants that do stay open, they are harder to find but I know they exist. There is one on Azza st that I walk by a lot coming come from shabbat dinner and it always seems to be hopping.

In addition to all of this the Jerusalem municipality (or something) puts on fun events. For example, last week there was a food festival in the old city. I went there last Thursday night with some friends and it was super fun. There were all these different booths with yummy food set up. At first we tried to find the food in the Armenian quarter and got lost, so we ended up in the Jewish quarter. It was a gorgeous night, and there was a band playing. It was quite the scene. I had this delicious rice dish, I forget what it was called, but dang it was yummy.

So yeah, Jerusalem is awesome.

I had an eventful and lovely shabbat this week. I went to services at navah tehillah (the renewal minyan). Before doing kabbalat shabbat we sang some of shir ha'shirim (the song of songs), which was a nice change. I learned that if you are sefardi you actually sing shir ha'shirim every shabbat instead of the psalms that are used in the ashkenazi version. Good stuff. Then I had dinner at my friends and it was Mexican themed, which was amazing. I think I've mentioned before Israel's lack of quality mexican food, so this really satisfied my craving. They could teach the Israeli restaurants a thing or two about mexican AND it was all kosher, you can have good mexican without meat (or with fake meat).

After that I went to bed knowing I was going to have to wake up around 4:30am. yikes. Why?? To go to bakashot. A while ago during Israel seminar we visited this synagogue called Ades, which is a Syrian synagogue in nachla'ot. It is so cool it even has it's own wikipedia page. They are known for their particular style of chazzanut (singing of the liturgy) that is crazy complex. When we went on Israel seminar we got to meet a Chazzan and he talked to us about the style and gave us a demonstration. He also invited us for bakashot (literal meaning: requests). Bakashot happen during the winter, but super late at night/early in the morning on shabbat. Everyone gathers in the synagogue to sing special songs each week. So I really wanted to go check it out. And finally this week I did.

I'm really glad I went. It was definitely a totally new experience for me. I didn't know any of the songs. Probably because they were all from this syrian/aleppo tradition of music and I mostly only encounter ashkenazi style stuff. The singing sounded very middle eastern (I don't have good musical terms to explain it). I was sitting with my friend above the action in the women's section, which was cool because I could see everything that was happening. The men took turns singing solos, and wow some of them could really sing! It was great to watch. I HIGHLY recommend you go, if you are in Jerusalem when it is happening. There are only a few more shabbats left until they go on haitus for the summer (I'm pretty sure), so get there! People were very welcoming, they came around with coffee and tea, which was much appreciated in the early hours. (If you are interested more in bakashot, the wikipedia article is also pretty good).

So after a few hours of bakashot, I went home and went to bed. I slept through my alarm so I didn't make it to morning services. I was a bit bummed because I like going on saturday morning, but I did need the sleep. Then I got ready and went to a picnic lunch. It was super nice out today so I wanted to make sure I enjoyed it, which was the logic behind having lunch outside. We had the picnic in gan hapa'amon, which is beautiful right now. There are these really fragrant purple flowers in bloom.

Then I went home and took another epically long shabbat nap. Which always messes me up for falling asleep on Saturday night. oy. I forgot to set one of my clocks to the hour ahead and then I forgot that I forgot so I accidentally had an extra hour of shabbat. I was confused why it was so dark, haha oy. I fixed the clock now so that won't happen again.

Yeah so life is good. I'm starting to feel the time pressure, because I leave for America in less than 2 months (May 24th). April 1st marked my completion of my 9th month here, which is nutso. So I definitely feel the pressure to get to everything that I have been wanting to do and putting off. ahhh. and I also have school, haha.

ok homework time...

Shavua tov,

B

Purim!!!!

Well Hello World,

So it's weird that a week ago I was writing about the bombing, because it almost seems like it was even longer ago. Everything has returned to normal, maybe except for everyone being more alert, but yeah there is so much going on around me even one week seems like forever...

Speaking of, I know it's been over 2 weeks since Purim and I am seriously slacking, so today I will present to you PURIM, wooooooooooooo.

Purim here in Israel was EPIC. In Israel you have the opportunity to celebrate for 2 days instead of just 1 because there are different days of Purim for walled cities like Jerusalem(called Shushan Purim) and for non-walled cities. Purim started on a Saturday night, so in order to celebrate for both days I left Jerusalem, and went to Tel Aviv.

Tel Aviv was insane!!!! Purim is like halloween except better and everyone gets really into it. It was awesome to walk around Tel Aviv with everyone in costume and celebrating. We went to this part of Tel Aviv called Florentine, and there was a HUGE street party going on. Think kind of like the village on Halloween. It was nuts, there were thousands of people in all sorts of costumes and there were different places around the area to stop and dance. It was also just really cool that this huge celebration was happening for a Jewish holiday, something that I don't get to experience in America (well yes the holiday, but not the fact that everyone is also celebrating). There was this sense of community and joint celebration throughout the two days, which I loved.

So the next day (the Jewish day starts at sunset so we are still on day one of Purim, aka regular Purim) I went to Holon to see the parade they have there. Appartently it is a huge attraction because it was super crowded. The parade was clearly aimed at younger kids, but again it was fun to be in the crowd celebrating together. There were lots of cute little kids in costumes. I also think I got sunburnt.

Then after that I went back to Jerusalem with my classmates. I was home for about an hour and then there was a Purim shpiel (funny play for Purim) at school. It was fun to laugh with my classmates and see everyone in their fun costumes. My costume was basically this ridiculous red wig...here's a pic (I've been told it suits me and I should cut my hair like that but I don't think I'm going to).

After the Purim Shpiel, we all trekked out to a bar in the center of town for a Megillah reading (megillah or more specifically megillat esther is the scroll that the story of Purim is written on and a big part of Purim is hearing it read). Yep in Israel you can do a Megillah reading at a bar. HUC had arranged it, so a bunch of my classmates along with some Israelis read megillah there. Next year I would really like to read megillah and learn the trope ,it sounded really nice.

After being at the bar for a bit I met up with some friends at the shuk. Yes the shuk that I am obsessed with with all the fruits and vegetables. BUT it has been turned into this dance party. There were a few djs and a bunch of people dancing. It was cool to see the shuk at night and in such a different light. Almost none of the actual stands were open and yet it was filled with people.

Then afterwards (yes this was a looongggg day/night) I went with a bunch of friends to the Hebrew U purim party. I feel like I have been saying that everything is cool/awesome, and it's true and so was the Hebrew U party. There were sooo many students crammed into this space. Hebrew U/the planners of this party had rented out a parking garage and turned it into a really large dance club. There was great music and lots of people. I even ran into my bro there (he is abroad studying at Hebrew U for the semester). Then at some really late hour I went home.

The next morning I got myself up to head to another Megillah reading (if you want to fully observe the mitzvah of hearing the megillah read you need to hear it twice during the holiday once at night and once during the day, technically if you are celebrating 2 days that means you need to hear it 4 times...). Anyways, I went to the women of the Wall's megillah reading because a friend was chanting there. There are actually a bunch of women's readings where women chant instead of men. In more traditional circles when women chant only other women can hear them because it is considered immodest and also problematic for other reasons for a man to hear a woman singing. But despite this there are many women who do chant because Purim is also seen as a woman's holiday because one of the major heroes of the story is Esther (a woman what what!!!). While there are many mitzvot that more traditional/orthodox Jews argue are only commanded for men, hearing the megillah read is one that is for both women and men, which enables women to be able to chant megillah in a way that is fully in accordance with Jewish law. While a woman leading a service can be more "controversial" a woman reading megillah isn't.

Then I met up with some friends and we explored the downtown area (by ben Yehuda). There were a few street fairs which we went to. There were costume contests for the little kids (ADORABLE) and face painting and people performing. Here are some pictures:

OMG it's spider man!!!!

(band playing on Shushan St on Shushan Purim! Shushan is also where the purim story took place)

Sooo after that I went with some friends and we wandered to nachlaot. Nachlaot is a part of Jerusalem, and I am obsessed. It is THE BEST. If/when I live here again I will definitely get an apartment in Nachlaot. It is right by the shuk and it is a beautiful/funky neighborhood and a lot of cool young people live there. There are some great bars there and just a lot of fun/chill stuff seems to be going on there...

In nachlaot we stumbled on this big dance party in this courtyard type area. People were just jamming out, there were a lot of cool artsy costumes. I think I saw the best/most creative costumes at this party. There was also a drum circle happening right there. The day was gorgeous and it was just perfect. Well minus the fact that I was exhausted from all of this celebrating.

So to sum up. Purim was amazing. 2 days of Purim is hard, it's like a marathon of partying, but it was great. I LOVE celebrating the Jewish holidays in Israel and this was one of my favorites. Purim is one of the less "religious" hoidays because it isn't a yom tov so you can (even if you observe yom tov) still spend money and cook and use your cell phone and all of that. So in Israel that means that everyone celebrates. It's a great excuse to get dressed up and party. It is Celebrating the survival of the Jews even when people were trying to destroy us. Fun times.

My parting (student) rabbinic advice is, COME CELEBRATE PURIM in ISRAEL. Do itttttt. It's the best. Seriously. I don't think we have enough fun with this holiday as a whole in America. Let's change that. There is no reason why Reform Jews (or any Jews) can't get into this holiday. It's fun, theologically it's not so difficult, and all you have to do is hear the megillah and eat and be merry. woooooooooooooooooooo

Happy almost daylight savings time in Israel (it starts tomorrow night)...

B

reaction...

Hey World,

It has been a while since I have updated. I owe you an entry about Purim (which was amazing), but right now I am not in the mood to talk about it.

Today there was a terrorist attack in Jerusalem. A bomb exploded near the central bus station injuring over 30 people and killing one. I was in class when it happened, and we all found out basically through people who were using their computers in class seeing the news. We were listening to this really interesting speaker who is a leader of the social workers strike that is taking place in Israel, but after people found out no one was fully paying attention. Everyone was getting and sending phone calls and texts to make sure people we know are ok/ to tell people who were worried about us that we were ok. Everyone in my HUC class is ok, thankfully.

This was not something I expected to happen while I am here in Jerusalem. There has been relative quiet for the past few years, so I was convinced that this would continue. To be honest I think it might be scarier for Israelis than for me because this reminds them of what happened during the second antifada (where there were bombs in crowded areas quite frequently), which I was not here for.

The violence two weeks ago now in Itamar where a family was brutally slain by an arab-palestinian was tragic to me, but it didn't hit me in the same way. Settlers are more removed from my day to day life and their actions (I think) are much more controversial than people living in Jerusalem. That is not to say that I don't think what was done to the family in Itamar was absolutely horrible, but just that it was more distant for me. Violence in the settlements is awful (both the violence towards the Jews and towards the Arabs), but it is farther away from my reality.

Jerusalem...I live here. It's not that I feel particularly scared, more just shaken up. The uncertainty is also what is getting to me. I want to know who the bomber was, what organization he comes from, and if I now need to expect further violence. I hope not, but I don't know. I really hope this in an isolated incident, but it is impossible to know that now.

Most of all this bombing just makes me extremely sad. I am sad for the people who were killed and seriously injured and even those not so seriously injured. I am sad for an end to the period of silence in Jerusalem. I am sad over the anger that I have seen and heard coming from Jews, not that they shouldn't be angry (heck I'm angry), but that the anger is being generalized to all Palestinians. People are saying, and THESE are the people we want to make peace with?? We don't even know who the people behind this are, the Palestinian Authority has condemned the bombing so I'm going to assume they are not behind this. The blind rage that is resulting from this makes me sad (this is not to say that everyone is reacting this way at all, but there are people). I am sad for the people who are now too scared to take a bus. I am sad for everyone affected negatively by this happening.

Maybe this disruption of the silence will cause more people to think about the situation. When it is quiet it can be easy to forget what is going on, but maybe this will help bring some more urgency to the peace talks. I think that this was a horrible horrible thing that happened today, but if we can get some good out of it somehow at least we could give the huge black storm cloud a small silver lining...

I dunno. It's strange how life goes on.

My thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by today's events. I am hoping for the best.

B

ps thanks to everyone who called/texted/emailed/facebooked to make sure I was ok.

Birffffffdayyyyyyyyyyy

Hey World,

So this past Sunday was my birthday. I know it's rude to ask how old someone is, but since no one asked, and since we are in Israel so people ask "rude/blunt" questions, I will tell you: I turned 23, woo.

Actually 23 seems like a pretty anti-climactic age. 22 was scary because it represented being a "real adult" because I was going to graduate college, and I was no longer the party age of 21. Nothing really scary comes with turning 23 for me. I feel 23, but at the same time I don't. Age is strange.

What else...I taught again on Sunday. It was good times. We did Honi the circle drawer through skits. One story about Honi that is popular is the one about how he sees some dude planting a carob tree, and Honi asks him why he bothers because he is not going to live to see it bare fruit (because that takes 70 years). The man replies that he is planting for his childrens children who will be able to enjoy the fruit. Then Honi falls asleep for 70 years (but he doesn't know it), wakes up and sees the tree with fruit and everyone is happy and yay. Nice story right? You can talk about philanthropy and environmentalism...BUT while most people end the story there that is not the end.

Then end is that Honi goes to his house and tries to convince people it is him, THE Honi. No one believes him because it has been 70 years. So he goes to the house of study where he was and still is a big deal. He even hears them referencing him, but when he reveals his identity no one believes him, and they don't show him the proper respect. Honi gets depressed and prays for mercy, and God takes his life....Kind of a downer. Imagine if they included the end of the story in all those times we read it to the little kids in religious school. Yikes.

There are other stories like that, that have similar dark endings that we conveniently chop off. I do think that you can learn from the story not as a whole, but it is interesting when you get the whole picture. Things become more nuanced. Just like the tanur achnai (the oven of Achnai story). People die at the end of it...

Anyways enough about Talmud. I was craving shakshuka all day today, so I made some for dinner. Soooo good. It's tomatoes and spices and stuff and then you cook eggs in it. It's an Israeli thing. Come to Israel and I'll take you out for some good shakshuka.

I don't know what else...life is good. Tuesday talmud class is good. The gym is good. I'm just so exciting right now haha.

Oh also as un-pc or whatever as people say this song is, I CANT STOP LISTENING TO IT. IT'S SO CATCHY. It's the new lady gaga song...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4a8QtvOkBQ&NR=1&feature=fvwp

and I'm off.

Peace,

Becca