Shabbat, Start of School, and Sabras

I know it's been a while since my last post but I have been super busy. This is my attempt at a recap of the past week.

Shabbat:
Last Shabbat was my second in Jerusalem, and I had a great time. I went to services at Har-El synagogue which is a reform synagogue about 5 minutes away from where I live (that was a great discovery!). I am pleasantly surprised by the number of progressive synagogues that I am coming across/hearing about. I didn't know of any in Jerusalem other than Kol HaNeshama where I went the first week. Har-El is definitely more my cup of tea. There is an American cantor who graduated from HUC and a female Israeli rabbi. Most importantly... there's a guitar which I absolutely love in services!

After services I went to dinner at Josh (our rabbinical intern's house). His fiance who I have met a couple times in Cinci is in town so I got to catch up with her and get to know the other two interns and a few of my classmates a little better. Dinner was surprisingly amazing! It turns out Josh is a great cook and he made us figs stuffed with chicken and vegies in a tamarind sauce. Yum!

Saturday I went to a great park called gan saker. It is kind of near me meaning that it is walkable but a crazy curvy and steep hike downhill. Of course that meant that to come home I basically had to climb a mountain. No matter where you go in Jerusalem, there will be hills! Everyone in our class says that regardless of what we get out of the year, we will be leaving with some very defined calves. In the park my friend Brian taught me how to play sheishbeish (backgammon) and we threw around a frisbee for a little while. It was a perfect way to spend the afternoon. This week I will be exploring a different park that I used to hang out in all the time when I was here two summers ago.

Last Shabbat also happened to be HUC alumni Shabbat. They had speakers and events going on all day but I just went to havdalah that evening. Havdalah means separation, and it is a beautiful ceremony at the end of Shabbat that symbolizes the separation of Shabbat from the rest of the week. We had the service outside by the fountains, and it was really nice with all of the current/future rabbis, cantors, and educators participating. If you have looked at the pictures of my campus that I put up on facebook, you know it is gorgeous!

Sunday:
On Sunday I entertained people in my apartment for the first time! We have more common space than anyone's apartment that I have seen so far, so I definitely have been trying to take advantage of it. I cooked my parmesan crusted chicken with white wine lemon caper sauce for five people and I would say it was received extremely well! One of the best things about cooking here is the shuk (market place). Last week I went and got 3 tomatoes, 2 cucumbers, 2 giant ears of corn, and about a kilo of grapes for 11 shekels (less than 4 dollars). It is cheap and amazing because everything is so fresh. I swear vegetables taste ten times better here than they do back in America.

Orientation:
While the Israeli week starts on Sunday, HUC gave us a break and started orientation this past Monday. Although I had gotten to know most of my classmates in the past week, orientation was a nice chance to meet everyone else. The week has been super busy! We have basically had 9 hour days filled with speakers, small breakout groups, tiyuls (hike/walk things), and of course praying. While this definitely wasn't the most fun week, they did break the days into clever categories with a different theme related to why we're here/who we are each day.

On Tuesday we had a picnic lunch where we brought a main course for ourselves and then something to share with the group. This was the day where I discovered my extreme hatred of sabras. Many people are at least familiar with the word sabra because it is the name of amazing American hummus. A sabra is like a cactus fruit and also happens to be a nickname for native Israelis because they are sharp and prickly on the outside but soft and sweet on the inside. Someone ended up bringing these to the picnic and no one was exactly warned about their cactus-like features which lead to many of my classmates (myself included) with a bunch of tiny and almost invisible spikes in our hands. While they are really really small, they really really hurt. I have definitely learned my lesson about touching sabras, and will never make the same mistake again. I'm pretty sure I've still got a spike or two left in my hand.

To backtrack a little bit, Monday was Rosh Hodesh (the beginning of the Hebrew month of Av). There is an organization in Israel called Women of the Wall who are progressive Jews that pray at the kotel (western wall) while wearing tallit, kippot, and singing loudly. The kotel area is under the control of the chief rabbinate who are ultra-orthodox Jews that basically don't believe that women should be doing any of those things. The WOW (women of the wall) often get yelled at and have things thrown at them by the charedim (ultra-orthodox) people that are praying in the area. This past week the leader of WOW Anat Hoffman was arrested for carrying a Torah and singing (the chief rabbinate also believes that women should not be allowed to read from the Torah). I wish I could have been there, but I definitely will be going every month from now on.