So I know it has been a really long time since I've written anything on this blog. What can I say?... It's been really busy here. I finished ulpan a couple of weeks ago and since then have started real classes. After ulpan we got a couple day break so I traveled to Eilat with a few friends. Eilat is a beautiful city all the way south (basically in the desert) in Israel that has some great beaches. It was a wonderful chance to relax and just lay out in the sun while not having to worry about anything. The one thing about going to the desert in Israel at the end of the summer was that it was HOT! We all basically melted, but being by the ocean helped a lot, and overall I had a great time.
A lot of great things did happen while ulpan was still going on, so I'm going to attempt to give a little rundown of the major ones (it's been a while so hopefully I don't forget anything, but if I do it will be my own fault for not writing sooner, and you won't know the difference anyway). Some awesome events:
1. The Israel wine festival: The Israel Museum, which has just re-opened after a multi-year and multi-million dollar renovation put on a wine festival with all of the local Israeli wines. Israel has a bunch of vineyards/wineries in the North, and they actually produce some pretty decent stuff. The festival was outdoors with a beautiful view of Jerusalem. Basically, once we got inside, we got a wine glass (which was ours to keep - desperately needed for my apartment where there was only a single glass when i got there. maybe the people before me went to the wine festival the year before and that's why they only had one???) and then we were free to wander around for hours to a bunch of different stands that represented different wineries, AND taste them all! It was definitely a wonderful night.
2. Ulpan class performances and Beit Cafe: Ulpan was divided into levels/classes called kitot (kitah is the singular). For the middle and end of ulpan each kitah had to perform a Hebrew song. Our kitah just happened to be the best out of everyone (you can ask anyone - they will tell you). The first song was a well known Israeli song, and for the end we re-wrote hebrew words about our class to the tune of thriller and did some awesome MJ choreography. The Beit Cafe (kind of a talent show) also involved singing. I have never sung so much in my life as I do here! Me and a couple friends put together a great little song poking fun at how much we pray to the Beatles' 8 Days a Week. I have a youtube account http://www.youtube.com/alexisinisrael where the videos are up/being put up. They are also all on my facebook.
Jerusalem Art Festival and Tel Aviv Art Fair: There was a two week festival in the artist's colony in Jerusalem which just happens to be down the street and down a big hill from my school. Each night they had a different musical performance. The people who performed were actually REALLY famous Israeli musicians such as David Broza and Ivri Lider. I mainly went for the art/jewelry and I would say I was pretty successful. The next weekend I went to Tel Aviv on what happened to be one of the hottest days that I've been here for. There's a great art fair that happens every Tuesday and Friday in Tel Aviv, so since we always have school on Tuesdays I took a little day trip on a Friday. I left early in the morning and was back in time for Shabbat. Tel Aviv is always hotter and more humid than Jerusalem so I, as well as everyone I was with essentially melted (the art fair is of course outdoors). Two of my friends actually bought necklaces just because the person selling them was giving out wet-wipes. Besides from the heat-stroke and the melting, I loved the art fair, got some really cool pieces from an artist that I had been seeking out, and I plan to go back again sometime soon now that the weather is cooling down here.
This week is the first full week of classes. It is technically the third week we have been in school but the first one was short because we had a half week after ulpan break, and last week got cut short by Rosh Hashanah. So far, experiencing services in Israel has been a really interesting experience. We have services at HUC which are very standard/Americanized like what I'm used to at home, but there are also countless places in Israel outside of the HUC bubble to explore. I've liked some of them a lot, and strongly disliked some others, but I'm glad to be exploring places outside of my usual comfort zone. All the teachers here are always telling us that we are here for the year to be able to take advantage of all that Israel has to offer, and that we should take advantage of what is available here, because while there is a lot of Jewish culture in America, we wont be able to find the kind of variety that exists here anywhere else. I am definitely working to get out and explore more, but it is hard to get out of the HUC bubble when we are spending soooooo much time there everyday and always have a whole lot of work to do.
This was my first Rosh Hashanah outside of America, and I really had no idea what to expect celebrating the High Holidays in Israel which is so far away from home, with people other than my family, and in a place where Judaism in ingrained within the daily functioning of society. For Erev Rosh Hashanah (the night when it began - Jewish days/holidays start at sundown) I had a really nice dinner at my house. People are always having potluck Shabbat dinners here, but since some people keep kosher, are vegetarians, etc; the meals often turn into vegetarian dinners based around pasta. Those can be really great, but I wanted something different that made it feel like a Jewish holiday to me so I decided to make brisket. I was pretty worried about if it would be logistically possible... but it turned out perfect and was actually a bit of an adventure. I've already talked about the shuk on here (the market), and that is where i went to get the brisket. First I had to do some serious metric system conversion and figure out how the amount of pounds I needed converted into kilos. Then when I asked the butcher if he had brisket, he pointed to a chunk of meat that looked nothing like any brisket I had ever seen. I was a little worried, but bought the meat, a brand new pot that could actually fit all of it (like 2.2 kilos), and preceded to cook away. I also made a great salad that I remembered my mom always making with oranges, pomegranate seeds, and goat cheese (pomegranates are a traditional/symbolic food to have during Rosh Hashanah and were absolutely everywhere in the stores/markets). The dinner was a great success! The next day I went to services at HUC, and then one of my friends had a new years party/cook out at his place. All around it was a pretty good holiday.
I forgot to mention that for Slichot (a service that is basically translated to forgiveness. The High Holidays are a time to ask for forgiveness for any wrongdoings and repent which lead to Yom Kippur which is the day of atonement) I went to services for the first time. Slichot happened the Saturday night before Yom Kippur, and traditionally there is a service that falls late at night so that it is midnight during the service allowing you to go from one day to another. HUC had a really small service in the evening to allow us to venture out into the community later that night for other services. One really nice things about the High Holidays (HH) is that the cantorial students all get pulpits around Israel where they help lead services. Some of them are at HUC, and it was so nice to have their music added to the services in conjunction with the traditional HH melodies. When one of my classmates Sarah sang Aveinu Malkeinu (a traditional HH prayer/song) at the end of the HUC service, after which I felt completely transported into the HH mood. Another one of my classmates got a spot performing in the choir at the Great Synagogue which is a very famous, very giant, very ornate, and VERY orthodox synagogue that just happens to be right up the street from me. The choir there is very prestigious and well known, and they have a very famous cantor. I decided to go to check it out (I figured it would be a good chance to check out an Orthodox service with the assumption that I could then cross that off of my check list) and support Isidoro (my classmate who was singing - it is a huge deal that he got that gig). That service definitely re-confirmed that I just plain do not like orthodox prayer. The women were in a section above the men (basically in the sky we were so high up). The other really interesting/big deal detail of this service was that the chief rabbi of Israel came to speak. Israel is partly run by a religious authority, and this guy is the head of it. He is basically ultra ultra orthodox and opposes everything I believe in. Among many other things he doesn't recognize reform judaism as having any kind of legitimacy, and especially would NEVER recognize me as a rabbi because I am a women. Basically this guy is not my friend, but it was still really interesting getting to see him. ( I couldn't hear what he was saying of course because I was sitting in the sky.) To be fair, the Great Synagogue was a truly beautiful and ornate venue and the music there really was beautiful. It is funny because the Slichot service there is know for people coming with video cameras etc to record the service (this would not be allowed on Shabbat when they are not allowed to use electricity.) The service started at 10 and I got home around 12:30 am after leaving early.
My classes so far have been really great. To get an idea of my schedule, I have class Sunday - Thursday. Each day we start at 8:30 and go till variations of 3 to 6:15. It is basically like being back in high school with having class straight through the day. Yom Kippur is starting this Friday evening and I am really looking forward to it. Services are in a beautiful part of HUC that looks over the old city and happens to be one of my absolute favorite views of Jerusalem. I can only imagine how amazing it will be to have Kol Nidre (the first service of Yom Kippur), which is one of my favorite services, while watching the sun set over the old city of Jerusalem. I will definitely post about it after it happens.
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