Beginning of the year

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!

Rosh Hashanah

Shana tova everyone! I spent the holiday with a friend of mine from the Jewel program. It was a thoroughly Latin American/Israeli holiday. The first night we went to the home of a rabbi from Argentina. Everyone spoke Spanish (and some English and some Hebrew but mainly Spanish). Since my Spanish is much better than my Hebrew, I understood at least some of the conversations. Monday morning we went to shul and heard the shofar blow. For lunch we went to a family from New York, so I could participate more in the conversation but for dinner, we had guests over and the conversation was mostly in Hebrew. I am picking up a few more words here and there but I need to study more. Looking forward to ulpan starting next week. We had played a lot of Monopoly (the travel one with the cards instead of the real monopoly) and I read a bit. We went back to shul on Tuesday and then chilled the rest of the day. Tuesday night after chag was over, we watched a movie.

I tend to use this time of the year To reflect on the past year and look ahead to the next year. I usually participate in 10Q (google it) that gives prompt questions every day between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. It's amazing how much of a different place physically, mentally, and spiritually I am this year than last year. I think we often forget to stop and reflect on how life changes and where those changes influence you as a person. I'm learning so much about myself and what I want for myself in the future but also I'm leaning about the vast difference and similarities between people and among cultures. Being a backpacker, you meet so many different people and hear their stories. We are all typically trying to make the best of our experiences.

Anyway, I wish you all a happy and healthy new year and year to come!

Travels through next week

I haven't written in a while. I've been too busy traveling! After our cruise, Helen and I spent a day in Athens to see all the sites there and then took a day trip to Delphi. Both are really neat and I really enjoyed learning about and seeing some of the ruins. It is just so crazy to think that these structures were constructed over 2000 years ago and are still standing. Then in Wednesday, we went to Budapest. We got there in the evening and were too tied to really do anything. Plus I started to come down with a cold. By Thursday, my cold was full blown, but we did a 3 hour walking tour, mostly of Buda, then found the Great Synagogue in Pest and went to the Széchenyi thermal baths. That was exciting for a while until I started thinking about all the people in the baths and the bacteria. Then I was ready to get out. We ate dinner at a place that my friend Libby suggested since she lived there for a year and then we went back to the hostel to pack. Some travel stress ensued due to the Lufthansa strike, but everything turned out okay. When I got back to Tel Aviv after midnight of Saturday, I was exhausted. My cold got worse and I spent Saturday in bed. I'm feeling better thanks to medicine!
I've been in Eilat since Monday. I waded in the Red Sea (which is not red but is gloriously chilly) and you dry off within 10 minutes of getting out of the water. Tuesday, I took a jeep tour to Timna Park, a desert near Eilat that has wall carvings from ancient civilizations. Today, I went to Petra, Jordan. It was cool, but a long day for only 3.5 hours at the site. I'm going diving with dolphins tomorrow and then back to Tel Aviv before spending Rosh Hashanah with a friend and her family. I'm hoping to go to Jerusalem next week for a few days before ending back in Tel Aviv to meet up with my group for my program. Looking forward to doing laundry, unpacking, and settling in one place for a while!

Not an upscale ferry

Helen and I booked a four day, three night cruise in the Greek islands a few months ago. My mom was convinced that it was an "upscale ferry." At last, I'm glad to say that it was not an upscale ferry. We started in Athens on Friday morning and left the port around 11am. We spent the day on the boat (I went to the pool and laid out in the sun) and arrived in Mykonos around 4. Mykonos was adorable and we walked through town for a bit. Watching the sun set was gorgeous but there is no way my camera would capture it well enough. Even so, I took lots of pictures. We went back to the boat for a three course dinner and went to bed early. The ship was rocking pretty hard in the middle of the night. We got up early Saturday morning to join our excursion in Kusadasi, Turkey. In Kusadasi, we saw Ephesus with one of the wonders of the ancient world. It was so great to have a tour guide. We wouldn't have known anything that we were looking at without one. They also took us to a rug store (Turkey is known for their rugs) and we watched a demonstration of the different rugs available. They were so amazing but incredibly expensive. I chose to buy a small square that you can put on a table or something. Then we walked through the bazaar on our way back to the ship for lunch. Again I went to the pool after lunch but got sunburnt - oops. In the evening, we stopped in Patmos and we just walked around for a bit. Sunday morning, we woke up to for our trip to Oia Village in Santorini. The island is very pretty and full of shops. I bought a lot of souvenirs and we ate on the island. After getting back to the ship, we promptly took a long nap before dinner. This morning, we had to get off the boat by 7am so we got up early again. The cruise was so nice and relaxing and it actually was not very expensive, even with the excursions.

Today we are finally seeing the sights in Athens and tomorrow we want to take a tour to Delphi before going to Budapest on Wednesday.

Have a good week everyone!

Israel in four days

Helen and I have been traveling for a few days already. We started at the Dead Sea, swimming there for all of 10 minutes until it burned too much to stay in any longer. We stayed at the youth hostel and there was only one other woman in our room but she spoke zero English and zero Hebrew. I think she spoke Korean but I couldn't be sure. The next morning, we took the cable car up to the top of Masada and spent about an hour there. Then we said good bye to the Dead Sea and drove to Jerusalem. After spending too much on parking (and driving in circles) and then finding the hostel parking, we made our way to the Old City and walked along the Via Dolorosa, which is the route Jesus is said to have taken when he was arrested and eventually crucified. We ended up at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and had to read through the guidebook a few times to understand the significance of everything. I still don't understand everything but that is ok. We spent the night at the Abraham Hostel, which is much more like the hostels I remember staying at while traveling in Australia and New Zealand. They had activities, a hang out area with a bar and a pool table, laundry (I love clean laundry so much!), and bigger rooms. We stayed in a 10 bed coed dorm and met one guy from Belgium who was not enthused with Egypt and one guy from California who is considering going to the Aish yeshiva but hadn't made up his mind. At the end of our "what are you doing in Israel?" script, he asked if he could ask a political question. Sure, why not? What do you think of the settlements? ... Um really? I said I didn't know enough too have an informed answer. Which is true. I don't know what he was expecting to hear. He was just out of college from UCLA so I don't know what he was going for. We left the hostel and drove around the Old City (no easy feat when street signs are not visible) and parked close to the Mount of Olives. I was terrified that the car was going to get broken into, but thankfully it did not. We went into the Church of the All Nations and then walked up the hill to see Jerusalem from above the cemetery there. It was breezy but warm and the view was nice. We drove quickly by the Garden Tomb and then headed out of Jerusalem to make our way north to Nazareth. Let me say that our GPS hasn't been the greatest help, but has gotten us at least to the somewhat right direction where I can find the correct signs to point us on our way.
We made it to Nazareth and of course the hostel we are staying at is not located on a street with a name so we drove in circles until we found some signs and parked. Then we checked in and had to move to car. I was completely stressed about damaging the car and having to pay for it but luckily we are okay. Found parking and saw a few churches here that were very cool. Even though we didn't do as much walking today as yesterday, we are both beat. Hopefully it won't be too hot and too noisy to sleep tonight.
Tomorrow we are going to explore Capernum and the Sea of Galilee before heading back to Tel Aviv. I am so excited about going to Greece on Thursday!

End of program and beginning of vacation

I haven't written in a while. Sorry about that! My first program has officially ended. I'm so glad I went on it. I've learned so much more than I had anticipated. What it has really taught me is that I want to keep learning. There is so much I realized I don't know about Judaism and what I want. One of the big points that we discussed was living a life with gratitude. Everything we have and every experience we have, good and bad, happen to us for a reason, whether it is to make us stronger emotionally or recognize that we aren't being grateful for what we do have - health, love, and sustenance. While I still have so many questions and I'm still learning about myself and what I believe, this program has really shown me a part of Judaism that had never been discussed with me before. We spoke about many philosophical questions that were not talked about in Hebrew school, and we spoke about relationships in a way that I had never thought about before. Of course we would not have talked about that in Hebrew school, but I think that the topics we covered are really helpful to me now in identifying what I want out of life and how I want to lead my life. I still don't know yet, and I'm still learning and growing, as I will throughout my life, but this program has made me begin to consider things I have not before or has given me the opportunity to begin to understand how to begin thinking about Judaism's role in my life.

The next two weeks will be spent vacationing with my friend Helen! We are in Israel now and then we will head to Greece for a cruise and to Budapest for a day and a half before I return to Israel to travel some more and she returns to the States to go back to work.

Tzfat

This past Shabbos, we had a free weekend, meaning we could leave Jerusalem and do what we want from Thursday evening through Sunday at 1:30 when we were expected to be back for lunch. One of the other participants and I went to Tzfat. The entire ordeal was so typically Israeli and bizarre.

We left Friday morning to catch the bus that should have departed at around 9am. On the website for the bus service, there's a note that says all departure times are approximate. We assumed that meant 5 or 10 minutes or so. Actually that meant that 3 full buses passed by the stop, late, and then they sent for another bus. Before the fourth bus came, at one point, we were pushing to get on a bus and Elle grabbed my hand and said we are either both getting on this bus or neither! Luckily, we got on the fourth bus (leaving about an hour after the original time) and had seats. The driver was incredibly angry and yelled at some British travelers, though we didn't understand what was going on because it was all in Hebrew. When we finally made it to Tzfat, one passenger got off and dropped her sunglasses so she requested that the driver open the door again. They were not on the bus and he yelled at her. We were just sitting there laughing awkwardly.

We figured that would be the extent of the weirdness, but it just continued. We arrived at the hostel and all the receptionist did was give us the key. We had given our credit card number over the phone but she didn't ask to see them or anything. We dropped our stuff in the room and went for a walk down to the artist's colony. After eating some great falafel and Elle buying gifts, we went back to the hostel. There were a lot of people around. There was a short lecture that I didn't understand and then there was an "orientation" during which the few English speakers including Elle, two girls from our dorm, me, and then two Hebrew speakers introduced ourselves and were prompted to say when we felt G-d's presence. We English speakers were like uhh. The other two girls were cool. One was from San Francisco living in Israel for the summer to get inspiration for her art degree. The other was on an 8.5 month round the world trip with her boyfriend who was in Portugal and was going to meet her soon. She was from Melbourne, Australia and is starting a job in law in March. We received our directions for the family we were going to for the Shabbos meal, and we followed a group who were supposed to take us to where we were going. Elle and I were together. Actually, though, the guy directed us down the wrong street and we had to ask 4 or 5 people for directions. We finally made it to the apartment. However, when we got there, we found that the family did not speak English, except for the mother and the 17 year old son who knew English from rap songs. It was a bizarre meal, though we were able to talk about American music and movies a bit. At one point, the son turns to his 15 year old sister and says, "fuck you bitch!" Elle and I were like, we understand that! It didn't appear the sister understood the meaning and we were shocked and didn't know what else to say. What was so interesting about this family was not that they were religious and had 8 kids, but that oldest son did not wear a kippah and was typical Israeli through and through. He was ecstatic to be joining the army next year. He wanted to be a fighter and said so. I wondered what his family thought about him not wearing tzitzit or a kippah. His mother was not religious until after her army service, so that might make a difference. The fact that I am vegetarian also was not passed on to the family, but I had rice and a potato and lots of the salad from the first course. It was nearly 10pm so I wasn't that hungry anyway.

After dinner, we walked back to the hostel and sat on the porch. It was beautifully breezy and cool. A huge group of Israelis showed up and we started talking with a few in English. That was great and we ended up chatting with them until 1am by which point we decided it was time to go to bed.

The next morning, there was another class, a big second meal, and then we promptly went back to the room and took a glorious Shabbos nap. Afterwards there was more food, and a women's circle, which we thought would be a good discussion but we ended up just singing and talking about ways to overcome adversity and rough times. It was pretty intimate for having a discussion with people I don't know. I watched the sunset instead which was so beautiful but by the time the circle was over, I had decided I was ready to go back to Jerusalem. We had the Havdalah service, which was actually fun with music and dancing (gender segregated).

After 36 strange and uncomfortable hours, we assumed it would be easy to get back to Jerusalem but we were wrong! We woke up early Sunday morning to catch the first bus back to Jerusalem. It was full and by the third stop there were people standing. There was a commotion with one guy trying to get on the bus and again, the aggravated speech was in Hebrew so we weren't sure what was going on. Apparently, there was another bus that might come. The driver turned the bus off for a few minutes and another passenger went up to try to get this guy off the bus. We weren't sure if there wasn't enough space or what. Finally after 5 minutes, the driver started the bus again and people clapped and we were on our way.

I'm not sure this post really conveys the feeling of the bizarre weekend, but I definitely experienced some culture shock and was incredibly glad to get back to Jerusalem.

Things I learned about Israel this weekend:
1. The bus system is not standardized. It can take much longer than you expect to go places if you take the buses.
2. My limited Hebrew really makes it difficult. Not everyone speaks English. Even so, I had a great conversation with an Israeli Friday night in English.
3. I think Israelis are New Yorkers on steroids. Think about how they drive (like they own the road and you are obviously in their way), talk (passionately and with chutzpah), and act (no real manners). On the other hand, Israelis can be so incredibly welcoming even when they know nothing about you or your story.