Stepping out of my comfort zone

Last week I went to Friday night Shabbat Services at Shira Hadasha. I had heard great things about this synagogue, but was very hesitant about attending services there. See, Shira Hadasha is an orthodox synagogue. Men and women sit on opposite sides of the room and are separated by a Mechitza, a barrier between the men and women. Shira Hadasha is not your typical orthodox, however. The Mechitza is a white mainly see through curtain. Women help lead parts of the service, including Kabbalat Shabbat. The women are allowed to say all the prayers, including Kadish. Most interestingly, Shira Hadasha considers their minyan (typically 10 men required to have a service) to be 20 people, 10 men and 10 women. Let me say I am so glad I went.

The services were beautiful, with people singing and praying with such ruach (spirit) and love for their religion. As everyone's voices joined together, I thought this is what Shabbat should be. The services was just so lovely, and I was surprised by how many of the prayers I already knew. While I did lose my place a few times, I easily found it again. I was excited to see women at the service wearing Kippot and Tallis's, if that was their custom (this is not allowed in most Orthodox synagogues) Most surprisingly, I really liked having the Mechitza. As many people know, I am a huge people watcher, and looking up seeing the Mechitza, it would remind me that now my focus should be on my prayer and help guide me back to the service. Shabbat just felt so right at Shira Hadasha. While I will be exploring many synagogues in Jerusalem, I plan on going back their often.

This past week was also the Jerusalem Wine Festival. The Kef (fun) committee at school organized a group outing to the festival on Thursday night. About 15 of my classmates and I went, and it was one of my favorite nights in Jerusalem so far. It was held at the Israel Museum in the sculpture garden which is just beautiful. I am planning on going back next week during our summer break (or intersession as us camp kids are calling it) so I can see the sculpture garden in the daylight (as well as the rest of the Museum). But back to the wine festival, it was 70 shekels to get in (around 20 US dollars) and included unlimited tastes, and worth every cent. There were about 30 wineries from all over Israel, and it was just so much fun trying out all the wines and hanging out with my classmates. I also decided that it would be perfect night to improve my hebrew and decided before getting a wine taste from any place, I would have people teach me Hebrew. I'll be honest and admit in the sober light of the next day I forgot most of it, but I do remember the most important saying I was taught, "?איזה יין שלך הכי טוב" ("Which wine is your favorite").

At the "ahava" (love) sculpture at the Israel Museum

Picture by Elle Muhlbaum

Hanging out with some classmates at the wine festival

Picture by Emma Goldin

Last night, my roommate Elle and I hosted a Shabbat dinner for seven of our classmates (so nine people total). Through a bit of Shabbat magic, we were able to fit everyone at our small kitchen table. It was so much fun, and a great meal including pasta and veggies, zucchini pancakes, garlic asparagus, Israeli salad, pita chips and salatim, desserts and wine (oh the wine!). I really enjoyed spending the day preparing for Shabbat and cooking and cleaning (maybe I will come back to the US domesticated... maybe...). But really, Shabbat is just such an amazing experience in Israel, and I love being able to share it with my classmates and friends. 

A few other odds and ends:

The Shuk. I have finally gotten over my initial fear of the shuk (which is a large outdoor market with many many Israelis screaming out their prices and even more Israelis pushing through the crowd to get to those good prices) and fallen in love with it. The food is so fresh and delicious, and cheap! At one stand yesterday I bought 8 cucumbers, a bunch of tomatoes, several onions, and several bell pepper for 14 shekels (around 4 dollars)! 

As many of you have heard, there was a terrorist attack near Eilat on Thursday. Eilat is the southernmost city in Israel, about 5 hours from Jerusalem. Since this attack, Hamas's militant wing has called off its "truce" (during which they shot hundreds of rockets into Israel anyways). It is a very interesting time to be Israel. I feel very safe currently-- security is up everywhere and I am being very observant and not going on busses for the next bit. 

I want to include one shout out to my Mom, who is having not the best week. Mom- know I love you so much and am sending you a giant cyberhug from Jerusalem. 

Shabbat Shalom everyone!

The Light At The End Of The Tunnel

This afternoon I got to go on the coolest Tiyul (field trip). We went to the City of David, which is the city King David built back in around the 10th century BCE. It was pretty cool seeing the ruins and learning more about the history, but the best part was Hezekiah's Tunnel.

Now the City of David is built on a hill, and the water source, the Gihon Spring, is not in the city. That meant to get water, people had to leave the city and go into the valley where they could be attacked. To make it safe to get water, a tunnel was built, Hezekiah's Tunnel. This tunnel is 1,750 feet long through a rock solid mountain. Today, you can hike through the tunnel, which still has water running through it.

7 of us and my teacher, the infamous Professor Joel "Mustache" Duman decided to go on this hike at the end of our Tiyul. It is a pitch black hike that takes about 20-30 minutes through the water-y tunnel. I wasn't sure if I was going to go at first, since I am not a huge fan of enclosed spaces or the dark, but decided to test my limits and I am so glad I did.

Its amazing think that this tunnel was built in the 8th century BCE. I can't imagine the time or work it took to carve out the mountain. Two teams were working on it, one starting from each end, and somehow they managed to meet in the middle. We had so much fun hiking through the water, which at times was almost waist high (but most of the time came up to our calves). The tunnel is very narrow, at times I had to walk sideways.  The ceiling gets very low at times, for much of the walk my classmates were ducking (luckily I was short enough to only have to duck a few times). Also as I said before its pitch black, so you have to bring a flashlight with you to hike it! I'm sure my explanation isn't doing it justice,  but it is by far the coolest thing I have done so far in Jerusalem. Anyone who comes to visit me, be prepared we are going on this hike!

After the hike, two classmates and I took a quick stroll to the Kotel. Again I did not go up to the wall (this time because I was not dressed properly). I hope soon I will be in the right mindset and clothes and be able to pray there. Afterwards we went on a search for a burger, which luckily was a successful expedition (after a few wrong turns made by yours truly first of course).

Hope everyone has a fabulous Shabbat/Weekend! Miss you all!

Hiking through Hezekiah's tunnel

I have been informed that its been several weeks since my last blog post and I need to rectify that. So here it goes:

I am currently in the 4th week of my six week summer class schedule. Hebrew is going about the same as it was before-- grammar is easy, vocab is right on par, and conversation is still killing me. But I am working on it! I'm hoping soon I will be comfortable enough to start using Hebrew menus at restaurants (or at least beginning with a Hebrew menu before asking for the English one).

Cantillation (chanting) is going ok. We have to change from the Torah twice during services this year, and to challenge myself to really work on my cantillation I signed up to read from the Torah in early October. Fingers crossed I can figure out all these trope by then! Most of them are easy to remember, but one of the trope (which tell you how to chant a word) called munach, is pronounced differently depending on the the trope after it. So far we have learned three different ways of chanting munach- I am hoping that that is it!

Not much to say on Biblical History-- Its very interesting, but the readings are very tedious and I am having trouble figuring out what is the big picture.

Education is by far my favorite class. I love my classmates and love love love my teacher, Sally. Last week we had a potluck at Sally's home (which is by far the nicest place I have been to since coming to Jerusalem) and got to know each other and then watched Mr. Holland's Opus. It was just such a fun evening. Yesterday I gave my hour long presentation on John Dewey and education reform ideas (which he wrote about in 1900). I think it went well, and am just so relieved to have it over with!

Moving on from school, living in Jerusalem is great. I don't get to go out as much as I would (darn schoolwork getting in the way) but when I do get to explore the city I love it. A few weeks ago my Biblical History class went to the Israel Museum and we saw artifacts from about 4,000 years ago. Pretty cool in my book. I had really wanted to explore the rest of the Museum, but it was closing by the time our tiyul (field trip) was done. I am hoping to go back soon and see more of the exhibits.

I have also gotten to go to several get together's at classmates places for Havdallah, Shabbat and parties in general. All of these have been great fun and and its so much fun hanging out with my classmates outside of school.

Of course I have also been checking out as many restaurants as my wallet will allow (so not too many, but still some). A few weeks ago I went to the Waffle Bar- which serves Belgian Waffles with all different toppings. I ate a nutella and white chocolate waffle. It was pretty orgasmic.

Yummy waffle bar

Shabbats in Jerusalem continue to be an incredible time. Fridays are filled with people running around the Shuk and supermarkets getting everything they need for Shabbat and then Friday nights and Saturday morning, the city sleeps. There are very few cars out and most restaurants and shops are closed.  A couple weeks ago I got to go to a community dinner called "Jerusalem Challenge Dinner". It was for young adults 20-35 from all over Jerusalem and Israel. Nefesh B'Nefesh (the group you go through to make Aliyah to Israel) helped sponsor the dinner, so there were many recent Olim (immigrants). It was so much fun getting to meet people outside the HUC bubble and hearing stories of how people came to Israel. There is another such dinner in August which I hope to go to.