Check out the Shrine of the Book in the background.
Once we got home, everybody split up. Gabe and I went up to our rooms and then realized that we were hungry. We decided on a walk and eventually ended up at Sushi Rehavia on Emek Refaim. It was a nice nighttime snack and Gabe and I always enjoy our one-on-one reminiscing sessions.
On Friday morning I had to wake up earlier than usual for a Friday because even though it was a closed Shabbat, my track was going as a group to Yeruham. We got on a bus for the ride down (or up, as Ben Gurion would have said) into the Negev. We got to Yeruham around lunchtime and ate in a small forest by the lake. I know that "forest" and "lake" aren't words usually associated with deserts, but there they were. Many of you many be aware of my love for JNF, well this is just one more area where the work that they do really has a lasting effect on the Land of Israel. After lunch we met our Yeruham guide (Yoram from Yeruham) and were given a look at the lake (fit for swimming by next year), and Be'er Rahma (Well of Mercy), the well that some believe is the same one from which Hagar drew water after she and Yishmael were sent away by Avraham. We headed into town then and it was already really upsetting to hear the groans of people who thought that Yeruham was simply too small for them (pop. 9,500). It would be an overstatement to say that I had fallen in love with the town, but it is very cute and I didn't want to hear people complaining about it. We got into our rooms at the hostel and got ready for Shabbat. I stayed with Joshy, Joey and Tyler this Shabbat. The hostel is not where we'll be staying next semester, we'll have apartments, but for now it was an ok place for Shabbat. We lit Hanukkah candles and then I led Kabbalat Shabbat and then we did Maariv and had Shabbat dinner (the first of a series of awful meals, courtesy of the Yeruham hostel). After dinner, Joey and I shot around on the basketball court for a little bit (he made shots and I put up my best effort). Then we needed to go back to our group room for a limud session with some famous woman from Yeruham. She made a big deal of winning a Supreme Court case to force the town council to appoint her to the religious council. She was a little annoying and insane and loquacious, but I paid attention as best I could. Once she left, a local rabbi came in and led our tisch (his yiddish accent made everything a little weird). He was extremely impressed that we knew all of the songs he led and he told a few stories - I think most of us would have preferred he told fewer stories and we sung more, but it was what it was - a pretty ridiculous change of pace. Our staff for some reason deemed it impractical to get marzipan rugelach or sufganiot for the tisch and we found this egregious breech of protocol to be unforgivable. Once we got to our room, the four of us got ready for bed and then spent some time talking about Shabbat and God and lots of deep discussion. The four of us come from very different places religiously, but we are all either already quite observant and knowledgeable or trending in that direction. Everyone had a lot to say and it was pretty interesting.
In the morning we woke up and headed off to shul. Even though the shul was basically down the street, our staff got horribly lost leading us there. It was ok in the end though, because we got an impromptu tour of the town. We showed up at shul in time for the seventh aliyah. The shul seemed nice and there was a lot of sefardi going around - it made me feel right at home. The building itself was pretty and it should be a nice place to spend a little time when we're in Yeruham on Shabbat. After davening, we went to an all girls school down the street to have a session with a woman named Debbie who runs an NGO (with Yoram from Yeruham) to promote something or other in Yeruham. She taught about Tikun Olam with a specific but subtle emphasis on the importance of moving to the Negev. Lunch was a little better than dinner, but not by much. We had a few hours to chill, and then Yoram from Yeruham took us on a walking tour around town. We saw a number of interesting things - some of the 27 synagogues in town, the young adult center that JNF is building, several schools, and two of the places we'll be staying next semester. I'm gonna focus on a few of the places we saw. One of the apartments was actually a small freestanding house that looks fairly decrepit, but would be lots of fun to clean up and decorate together. The other was an apartment on the third floor of a walk-up. It was pretty small and there was a hobbit hole inside - if you know Lord of the Rings, you'll know what I'm talking about. We passed by Eli Cohen neighborhood. Yoram from Yeruham said this with no additional information but as Eli Cohen is one of my favorite modern Jewish heroes I walked with YfY for a little bit to learn more. He told me that Eli Cohen has no particular connection to Yeruham, but because he was Moroccan (like many of the Yeruhamites) they were very proud to have an Israeli hero of their own (someone not Ashkenazi). We walked to the top of a hill and saw the white towers of Yeruham. These tall, thin, pointless towers, are a piece of art to help give some personality to Yeruham. They are spaced about three feet apart, with stairs and a slide in between to make them less menacing. The spacing in between, also forces the eye to look out at the forest, hills and lake, which the artist described as the true art of Yeruham. For some reason the Negev has never gotten proper credit for being the playground capital of the world. Everywhere settled that I've been in the Negev has simply incredible playgrounds - Yeruham has at least four. Tanni should love it here.
After the tour, we came back the hostel and davened maariv and did a little singing. We made Havdallah and had dinner. There was some extra time, so I spent about half an hour having a catch with Joey and Noah. Noah is a lefty and so we traded gloves and he got to test out being a righty and I got to work on throwing lefty. We then got ready to head over to the community center. There, in their brand new facilities (theater/concert hall, cafe, maybe other stuff), we listened to an Indian band perform and watched a young girls Indian dance troupe. The performance was lovely. I talked to a few residents and they seem so nice and I just can't wait to get to Yeruham for real.
On Sunday we got up and davened (I read Torah), and then had breakfast, made lunch and got on our bus. The bus took us to Sde Boker where we did stuff about Ben Gurion. It was pretty comical. Our guide greeted us and asked how many of us had been to Sde Boker before - all but two or three hands went up. The rest of our time there was pretty useless, except we watched the movie which I like. Our guide pulled me aside as we were walking between places and told me that she had noticed my accent and wondered if I had any British in me. I guess maybe she meant that I spoke intelligently, because I certainly don't have a British accent!
We got back on our bus (without actually going to the graves of David and Paula, which was weird) and traveled to Ein Ovdat for a short hike. It was really more of a walkabout - there was nothing strenuous about the hike at all. I guess it was a little pretty, but I like hikes to be challenging and climbing, not just walking. It was still pleasant, the weather was lovely.
Our bus driver home decided that it was so pleasant that we didn't need air conditioning on the way home - he was wrong. Jordana slept on my shoulder the whole time (just as she did on the way down) and the bus got uncomfortably hot. It was great to get home, especially since I needed to get to work on an Isaacs essay. When I got to my room, I was too antsy to get down to work, so I went with Joshy, Jesse, Joey, Asaf and Jordana on a sufganiyot tour of Jlem. We went all around the shuk and that general area looking for a custard-filled (Boston Creme) donut. I packed away five sufganiyot during our search (two jelly, one vanilla, one caramel and one glorious custard filled one), and in total, the five guys ate 21 1/2 sufganiyot in the hour or so that we were out. We also restocked on gummies.
Today It was off to class (Heb U was closed yesterday for Hanukkah vacation). Classes went as usual, and then I got home, lit candles, and headed over to the Dan Panorama to see Grandma and Uncle Danny! They are here for the week, and I'm so excited to spend time with them. They gave me some Hanukkah presents and then we went out to dinner at Hashipudiah. Hashipudiah is a skewer place that they both like a lot and now I do too! Dinner was lovely and we had a great time talking and eating. It will be really nice seeing them many times this week.
That's all for now, talk to you soon
Seffi Kogen
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