Evidence

I apologize for not writing in a few days. A lot has happened since I last wrote, though. I had my first Shabbos in Israel for the year, and we have taken a number of really great thought-provoking classes.

For Shabbos, we went to the Aish building and lit candles then sang Lecha Dodi before heading down to the Kotel to pray or dance or sing or simply experience Shabbat. I have gone to the Kotel for Shabbos before and it is really amazing. There are Jews from all over who are observant, non-observant, just passing through, or Israeli and they all come to the Kotel to celebrate Shabbos. It is really do amazing and I think everyone should have the experience of celebrating Shabbos at the Kotel at least once. It is loud and you can hear the singing and praying and feel the fullness of the energy even when you aren't at the Kotel yet. We ate Shabbos dinner at Aish and then walked home.

On Shabbos, we slept in late and then had meals, a few classes, free time, and eventually Havdalah down the street.

Sunday is like the beginning of the week again. We had to get up early and we had some amazing classes. Starting with an ongoing class on women's role in Judaism, we spoke about the feminist movement. I didn't agree with the interpretation of the feminist movement, but it helps to identify how the Orthodox movement in general views the feminist movement. We will be touching upon all the questions of Jewish womanhood in the next few classes on that topic. Next wad a bit of ulpan, or Hebrew class. I thought it was so helpful and I have a few phrases I can say. Clearly I can't speak in long conversations but I can ask simple questions and know some of the responses. This week our themes of the classes have encompassed G-d, the physical world, the spiritual world, and the divine origins of the Torah. These are ideas and arguments I have never heard before and it has been so incredibly interesting and made me really think. I have so many questions, but I am starting to understand the idea of G-d and Torah from the Jewish perspective, and what I find most intriguing is that these are topics and discussions that we have never had in Hebrew school or other Jewish discussions I've had. This is the core of what Judaism believes yet my Conservative Jewish synagogue did not even touch on the idea of G-d or why we believe what we believe. Yesterday, we participated in the Aish Discovery program, a one-day seminar that seeks to prove that the Torah was divinely given. The three afternoon sessions really were intriguing. The first was given by the professor Dr. Gerald Schroeder who wrote the book, The Science of G-d, a New York Times best seller. In it he essentially argues how the Bible is correct on creation looking at science and using science. One session was on Torah codes and that section really threw me. This is different from Bible codes in general, and the speaker spoke about peer-reviewed articles in nationally published science journals that discuss the validity of the Torah codes that have predicted everything, from the diabetes solution to terrorist events and natural disasters, along with the names of prominent rabbis and the dates of their deaths. I am so interested in getting my hands on these articles. Finally the last session discussed history and the land and nation of Israel. I bought the book that discusses all these points again so I can reread and process everything we discussed that day.

Today we discussed the purpose and meaning of life. What I liked most about it was that the rabbi spoke that he is not there/here to convince us that G-d exists but rather to be open with our emotions to what we believe. Are we looking and hoping that G-d doesn't exist? If so, then nothing else is going to matter. We spoke about purpose and justice. He essentially said that even though he doesn't feel that there is justice in the world and we get what we may deserve, he is saying that there must be justice elsewhere if a G-d exists. He compared life with games. In all games there is a game designer. Soccer, basketball, monopoly, etc. it is because of the rules of the game that you know when and how and who has won. There can't be purpose in randomness and there must be a game designer who also knows the purpose. If life is random, why are we here? What is the reason? The only way life has purpose, the rabbi argued, was if there is a game designer. We may not understand the goal, but we can strive for it.

Today we also spent about an hour packing boxes of food for the needy in Israel and we had a short discussion on chesed or kindness.

It has been a few very eventful days in class but I'm exhausted, since living in a dorm makes it difficult to sleep. Also sickness has been making the rounds and I'm trying to stay well. Of to sleep! Hope everyone is doing well in the States!