Not only is this the beginning of the new Jewish calendar but it is also the beginning of my year as a Yahel participant. For those of you who don't know, Yahel works with partners in Gedera and other nearby cities in Israel to work with the Ethiopian Israeli population. For more information on their programs and the organization, check out www.yahelisrael.com.
We are now three days into the Yahel program and I could not be more excited about this year. There are 8 of us participants living and working together, and we are from all over -California, New York, Virginia, Canada, and Georgia. We are three men and five women with varying Jewish backgrounds and Hebrew ability. I am the oldest and most of the rest of the group just finished college.
We are living in a house with 5 rooms and 2.5 baths. We have a nice kitchen and an outside patio. We have air conditioning downstairs but not in our rooms. That isn't going to be a problem in the next few weeks because even now it gets chilly at night.
Gedera is a small town with about 20,000 people south of Tel Aviv. The neighborhood is nice and everything we need is within walking distance. The big thing about Israel is they don't have one-stop shops like Target or even the big grocery stores where you can get almost everything you need from one place. Stores here are small and have a speciality for the most part. There is this great spice and bulk food store nearby that we found. At the grocery store, there are mainly only groceries although they have a bigger selection of shampoo than the pharmacy. Need envelopes? I went to a store that had kids' toys and they had some paper goods there. There is a health food store that sells Tofutti and seitan but it is pretty expensive. Sometimes I just miss going to one store and getting everything I need (CVS, Kroger, Target)!
Our orientation for the next few weeks will discuss the Ethiopian Jewish experience in Ethiopia and coming to and living in Israel. We have already discussed what our schedule will generally look like once school is in session. We are going to have ulpan (Hebrew language study) every week for the entire 9 months including a four day intensive beginning session during orientation in a few weeks. We will be volunteering much of the week in a few different capacities and learning about 10 hours week. There are a few overnight trips and seminars throughout the country, as well. In the last few days, We also had a traditional Ethiopian meal with injera, lentils, a dish made from chickpeas, and a potato and carrot stew. We also had buna, a traditional coffee "ceremony" from Ethiopia. The coffee is offered in small glasses about the size of shot glasses and we drink 3 rounds though we were told that you don't have to drink it all if you can't handle the caffeine. People typically drink it three times a day and is a time when mainly the women apparently sit and chat.
From the little information we have received about Jewish practice among Ethiopian Jews, we learned that Ethiopian Jews follow a more biblical Jewish practice. Because it is not written in the Torah not to use the radio on Shabbat, that is not prohibited in Shabbat, and because most Ethiopian Jews did not have electricity in Ethiopia, the practices are pretty different from what I have been learning about lately. Also kosher has a different meaning because the Torah only says not to boil a goat in its mother's milk; hence eating chicken and cheese is not a problem. It is so interesting knowing that all the oral law written down by rabbis after the Biblical period are not followed by this Jewish community yet they are very much Jewish and have always been identified as such in Ethiopia. Only after the community has come to Israel and encountered the other Jewish communities has their identity been questioned by the Ashkenazi or Sephardi communities.
I'm looking forward to continue learning this year and I am so excited about how the next 9 months are going to progress. I know the 9 months will be over before I know it.
I hope everyone has an easy and meaningful fast this Yom Kippur!
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