Not Disney World

My mom, sister and brother were all in Disney World for a couple days this week so I'm understandably jealous. Still, I'm here in Israel, which is pretty good too.

Monday I had Hebrew, lunch at the Frank, Medieval Jewry, and Talmud. Everything was fairly standard. The day is pretty long, especially since the sun sets so early now. By the time we get out of Talmud at 6:00 it is dark out and that makes it feel so late. When I got home I did a little work and then went out to dinner at Thailandi with Gabe. The food was pretty good and not too expensive - plus the company was wonderful, and we discussed all manner of fun things.

Today I had Hebrew at 10:30, but I woke up not feeling well around 8:00 (instead of the 9:00 that our alarm was set for). Hebrew was the same as usual, then we had lunch (guess where) and we were home by 2:00. I got right to work because I have a lot of stuff due over the next two days. I finished the Isaacs essay I had as well as the Hebrew project and half of my freshman writing assignment due Thursday.

Tonight we had Erev Nativ, which I found very interesting. Rabbi Tovia Singer, the director of Outreach Judaism (an organization similar to Jews for Judaism) came to speak with us in an unusual way. Yossi introduced his session by saying that he'd brought in a Jew for Jesus to give us a talk similar to what we might expect to hear on a college campus. Rabbi Singer then came in (using an alias) to the room in a suit with a Jews for Jesus tshirt under his jacket. I realized during Yossi's intro what was happening (having heard of Jews for Judaism) and I resolved to sit back and watch and not become an active participant in the discussion. My fellow Nativers were drawn in to what he said, staying alert and interested. At one point, about half of Nativ had their hands in the air, waiting to ask questions. They were skillfully and smoothly confronted and many of them revealed a lack of knowledge about Judaism (that's not at all to say that they are unintelligent - I may have found myself in the same situation had I engaged with him, though I like to consider myself knowledgeable) and some acquitted themselves quite well. After he finished, he left the room and Yossi said that a rabbi would now be coming in to present the opposite side. Rabbi Singer walked back in (this time in a shirt and tie instead of the Jews for Jesus shirt) and blew the minds of most of Nativ. Once everyone calmed down, and this took some time, he began to talk to us about what techniques he had used earlier and why they were effective, about the tactics of Jews for Jesus and about the fact that the vast majority of Christendom bears no malice for the Jews and doesn't attempt to convert us. It was a very interesting program and I really enjoyed sitting back and observing (though apparently my absence from the discussion was felt - Gabe asked me after if I knew what was going on, citing the fact that I would have gotten heavily involved in the discussion had I not known...he knows me too well). I had always wanted to see one of these presentations and I was not disappointed.

That's all for tonight.

Talk to you soon,
Seffi