After Shabbat was over, there was a big rally, organized by the Masorti movement (for most intents and purposes, the branch of the Conservative movement that operates abroad) protesting the Haredi control of Jerusalem. The papers the next morning generally labeled it a protest of Hilonim (secular Jews), which I found rather offensive. There were over 2,000 people there, ranging from totally secular to what Americans would call Modern Orthodox. We marched from Kikar Pariz (Paris Square), across from Beit Nativ, down Rehov Keren HaYesod, made a right to go down Ben Yehuda and then ended at Kikar Zion (Zion Square) at the bottom of Ben Yehuda. Aaron, Jonny, Gabe Co and I peeled off a little bit early to go get dinner, but we got in lots of rallying before we left.
Back row: Asaf and Jonny, Front row: Marc, Jesse, me, Gabe
(Best part of the rally - free tshirts! The front says "HaKotel LeKulam/n" meaning the Kotel is for everyone, but the ending of m/n emphasizes that they are referring to men and women)
The four of us went to Thailandi for dinner (good, but not great) and then went home by way of Kikar Zion to check out the rally. It looked like there was still cool stuff going by as we walked past.
Sunday was our Silicon Wadi class trip to Intel in Kiryat Gat. We had a really fun time with two presentations from people who work there and Q&A sessions as well as a general tour of the factory. Intel exports $5 million per day from Israel and much of the money that the Israeli government invests in Intel ends up right back in the Israeli economy. One really interesting thing about the Intel factory was that there was a Mezzuzah on every doorpost. It was one of those only-in-Israel moments. After the trip we came back to school and the Silicon Seven grabbed lunch at the Frank before heading back to Beit Nativ. Sunday night I again went to Beit Midrash and had fun with free pizza and good learning. Sometimes I feel like I'm monopolizing the discussion, but no one else seems to be jumping in so I think it's ok. After Beit Midrash we watched an episode of LOST (when this post went to print we were two episodes into season 3!!!)
On Monday morning I woke up feeling sick and I ended up staying home. That gave me plenty of time to start getting better and to work on my Freshman Writing essay on Conservative Judaism.
On Tuesday I only had Hebrew (among other things, we read an article about the rally I had been at). During lunch Aaron announced that he wanted to go to the zoo and so Aaron, Jesse, Joey and I hopped on the 26 bus and made our way to Jerusalem's Biblical Zoo. Among the highlights were the lions, tigers, leopards, cheetahs, parrots, red pandas and, most of all, the chimps. We stood by the chimps for at least half an hour just watching them play and fight with each other. We left in total agreement that zoos rock. When I got home, my favorite teacher, Alick Isaacs, gchatted me to see how I was feeling! For Erev Nativ we watched the movie Trembling Before God. This is a documentary made about homosexual Orthodox Jews. After watching the movie, we spent some time examining two of the four teshuvot accepted by the Conservative movement - Dorff/Nevins/Reisner and Roth. Dorff says that homosexual couples should be welcomed into Conservative communities, ordained/trained as rabbis/cantors, and that Conservative rabbis can perform commitment ceremonies. From a social justice standpoint, I may side more with this teshuvah, but from a purely halachic standpoint, it seems to me that Dorff makes a mockery of Halacha. The entire argument is based on the fact that "men don't have vaginas" (direct quote from his teshuvah). To me, that is just not a halachic argument of the caliber necessary to overturn a prohibition from the Torah. I was bothered that the program set up these two teshuvot as opposites, because, though Dorff's is the furthest to the left, Roth's actually is in the middle. The furthest to the right says that homosexuality is a choice and that we should offer reconditioning courses to fix homosexual Jews - obviously an idiotic position. Roth says that we should welcome homosexual Jews into our communities, just not as couples. He also does not allow for the ordination/training of homosexual rabbis/cantors. I think that this is an issue that very few people my age have a concrete and informed opinion on, because it is such a loaded issue where Judaism and the natural social progressiveness of being a college student seem to clash. I think everything right now boils down to the fact that all people should be treated with respect, and that it is not up to humans to decide whether a person has sinned.
Wednesday was a long day. We found out in the morning that one of our fellow Nativers would be going home that evening so there was gossip flying like crazy. When we got home, it was Mark Lazar time and that was fun as usual, though Jordana was out with her dad so she was missed. After J.E.T. I was up late finishing my paper on Conservative Judaism which I think turned out pretty well.
Since Freshman Writing is now over, this Thursday was my first Thursday since the beginning of the semester without class - its going to be nice having the day off. Thursday afternoon I took a bus to Hadassah Ein Kerem for an appointment with a neurologist. I didn't really find out anything new, which is frustrating but what I expected. We had Kol Nativ, which is getting pretty frustrating, but it'll all be over soon (I have a plan for a four-man Yerucham a capella group, should be pretty awesome). Thursday night I really wasn't feeling well so I only went out for about an hour and I only went out at all because it was Jordana's birthday and I would have felt bad not going out at all. Happy Birthday Jordana!!!!
On Friday we had a make-up Hebrew class because Ulpan ends before the semester ends so that we have more time for finals. Shifi knew that it was a big hassle for us to wake up on a Friday morning so she decided to make it more fun for us. We had about an hour of learning and then took a break, followed by a big brunch. We all brought in food (Shifi included) and had a HUGE meal - marzipan rugelach, pita, cheese, chips, burekas, juice, shoko, tea and all sorts of goodies. Don't worry that I missed out on lots of learning during the Hebrew class. The other class watched Sallah Shabbati - a wonderful movie, don't get me wrong, but no better use of my time then our brunch. After eating, we still had time left in the class so Adina came up with the wonderful idea of playing 2 Truths and A Lie. This is an icebreaker where everyone goes around and tells the group two true facts about their lives, along with one lie that they made up. The group then guesses which fact is the lie. We played in Hebrew, so there was at least a little educational value. Shifi made everything so much fun because she is just the cutest Hebrew teacher ever. She is by far the second best Hebrew teacher I've ever had, right behind Morah Besner.
After class ended, a number of us headed over to the Central Bus Station to begin our weekend fun. Adam, Aaron, Joshy, Gabe Co, Asaf, Brian, Nadav, Meir, Jacob, Joey, Max and I went to Ramat Gan to a hotel/resort called Kfar Maccabiah. After a little bit of a room balagan where the rooms that they initially gave us were too small for three people, we ended up moving to bigger rooms that could each sleep four, so we needed one fewer room. We headed to the hot tub, pool and saunas right away and hung out there for a few hours. After that, we went back to the rooms did Kabbalat Shabbat and Maariv, and then had dinner. We hung out and watched tv for a while, and then went to our rooms for bed. In the morning we woke up for hotel breakfast and it was wonderful!! They had fruit and cheese and bread and pudding and yogurt and shoko and juice and cake and parfait and tea...we were all really full after breakfast and we went back to our rooms for late morning naps. When we woke up, we headed down to the basketball courts to play for a few hours and then went back to the pool area for a while. We had dinner back in the rooms with some more tv watching and then took some more napping time. We woke up as Shabbat ended, packed up and headed home. Once we got home, we dropped our stuff off and a number of us headed off to a movie theater/restaurant on Rehov Lloyd George to see A Serious Man (A Good Jew in the Hebrew title). It is based in St. Louis Park, MN where a lot of my friends live. Joey's little brother plays the role of "Daniel's Reefer Friend," who is always asking Daniel to pass the marijuana that he is smoking. The movie is VERY interesting as a modern Book of Job parallel and just generally as a thought-provoking film. I really enjoyed it.
This morning it was off to Silicon Wadi again (with a stop at The Frank first for lunch), and then back home. On the way home I saw a nun in Naot sandals - one of those interesting incongruities that you only see in Israel. We watched a lot of LOST today and then Rachel, Adina and I went to grab pizza. Rachel had a meeting for her Poland trip and Adina and I walked around a little more, then it was time for another episode of LOST.
Now it's time for bed, but it feels really good to be caught up on my blogging.
Talk to you soon,
Seffi
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