Greetings!!

As usual, it's been quite a week since I last updated!

Sunday-Wednesday weren't such exciting days. Because Ulpan (intensive Hebrew workshop that I have been in since I got to Israel--a 5-week program) was coming to a close, everyone found that
they had to catch up on their Hebrew studying before their finals. On Wednesday, though, I finally got back to my favorite cafe called Timul Shilshom--an ADORABLE bookstore/cafe near Ben Yehuda (big pedestrian mall in Center City Jerusalem). I brought my Ulpan books and notes and studied there for a number of hours during the afternoon. It as really refreshing and nice to have some alone time. In the past couple of years, I've found that alone time is absolutely necessary for me to thrive in a new setting. I love being around people and doing things in groups, but I also need a good amount of alone time to think and just to be by myself. (Not so important--but later that night, the laundry machine in the student village, where I live, ate 20 shekels of mine as I attemped to do laundry--the equivalent of 5 dollars!! ON LAUNDRY!!)

On Thursday of this past week, a couple of friends and I decided to go the Knesset (Israel's Parliamentary building, where laws are made and passed, and where lots of famous dignitaries and important people speak to the government of Israel). On our way, we went to a rose garden that, while it is not so blooming now, should be gorgeous in a couple months! We took about an hour tour of the Knesset building, which included seeing one of the most moving and beautiful works of art I have ever seen. The work itself was made up of three separate tapestries, which took Chagall 4 years in total to complete. They show the history of the Jews--from the Exodus, to 'modern times', and also the future of the Jewish people. If you have ever seen Chagall's work before, his tapestry work is no less beautiful, but in my opinion more impressive, because although it looks painted, it's WOVEN!! (My favorite of three tapestries: here.) I could have stared at that tapestry for hours, but our tour gave us only about 15 or 20 minutes to marvel at it. From the Knesset, my friends and I walked through an adorable neighborhood called Nachlaot, and to the shuk (open-air market). After that, oen friend and I walked from the shuk to the Old City to pray at the Kotel (Western Wall)--a family member of a very close friend of mine has been sick, so I wanted to say a M'sheberach at the Kotel for him. That is the most amazing thing about living in Jerusalem--everything is fairly close by, and it is possible to get everywhere in a fairly short amount of time (and a fair amount of the time, by foot!). It still boggles my mind to think that I am living in such a historically holy city. Even though I'm not always positive how I feel about God and religion (being here doesn't help me... in fact, it makes it much more confusing, if that's believable!) it is incredible to me that for SUCH a long time, so many people of many different faiths have so piously prayed to their respective Gods in the city that I am currently lucky enough to study and live in. I have to keep reminding myself not to take it for granted, as it's so easy to do!

On Shabbat, 5 friends and I traveled to a village right outside Modi'in--which is about halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv (to the northwest of Jerusalem and southeast of Tel Aviv)--to the village where Shlomo Carlebach lived near the end of his life, in a moshav (village) called Mevo Me'or Modi'im--a place his students founded and a place where many of his students and their families still live. It was quite a trek to get there, and we were fairly unprepared for what the weekend would be like. I had been in touch with a rabbi there named Rabbi Avraham Trugman, who does lots of shabbatot of home hospitality for students and others in his home in Mevo Modi'im, who told us that shabbat was free of cost, aside from bringing a sleeping bag and two baked goods to share with the rest of the guests over the weekend. This information was pretty much all we were given about the weekend. We had no idea what to expect of the itinerary or classes of the weekend, but just the reputation of Carlebach's wonderful tunes and services and spirit, and that the people of the moshav are fairly hippie/tree-hugging/spiritual/flower children kind of people. Rabbi Trugman also gave us directions of how to get to the Moshav, that turned out not to be so correct. He gave us the wrong bus times for the buses leaving the Central Bus Station of Jerusalem, but luckily gave us alternate bus routes if we missed the Central Bus Station bus. So luckily we got on the 'alternate' bus around 2:15 and were off to Modi'in. From Modi'in, we had a short walk to another bus stop where we had to find a cab or another bus to Mevo Modi'im. Since Shabbat was nearing, cabs were becoming less and less frequent, and buses almost altogether nonexistent. We finally managed to get in a cab around 4 PM to take us to the Moshav. We learned right away that home hospitality meant exactly that. There were about 21 people (including our group of 6 people) total at the Trugman's house for Shabbat, and we all stayed in the Trugman's house. Rabbi Avraham and his wife Rachel's house was absolutely exquisite-their view overlooked in the far distance Tel Aviv, but their yard was filled with a grove of trees and beautiful flowers and fountains, and was precisely where I would expect that a spiritual leader might live--extremely peaceful and set in such beautiful scenery. The weekend was filled with lots of beautiful tunes, amazing food and LONG meals, lots of stories, dancing, and interesting people. Most of the guests were students around Israel (mostly in Jerusalem, and mostly in much more religious settings than us Hebrew U kids), and all had interesting stories to tell. A highlight of the weekend for me, though, was being in the synagogue on the Moshav. Although there was a mechitza (partition between the men an women's sections, used in very religious Jewish settings) that was front-back (as opposed to down the center), which I don't usually like, the women's section at the back of the synagogue was incredibly beautiful and special. The women's section was a beautiful tent, a gift from a South African guest of the moshav who runs in South Africa an organization called '5-star safaris'. It was a very heavy-duty tent, with incredible works of woven art around the top and sides of the tent, with all the matriarchs and important Jewish womens' names around the tent. It reminded me so much of the book The Red Tent by Anita Diamant (my all-time favorite book), where the descriptions of the women's ritual tent are so magical and wisdom-filled. Although I don't love the idea of mechitza in general, it felt special to be surrounded by the women of the moshav, whose life experiences most likely outnumber mine--both in uniqueness and in number. There was so much passion in the prayer of the people of the moshav--so much emotion in their singing and dancing during services--a passion that I have yet to really find in prayer (and one that hopefully one day I will be able to find). All in all, it was a very unique shabbat--one I am very glad I experienced, and would definitely recommend to anyone spending a substantial amount of time in Israel.

And today is my first day of classes! I am taking 'intensive Hebrew' (which is just one more hour and credit per week than regular Hebrew), Readings in the Zohar (a class about mysticism and Kabbalah), Jewish/non-Jewish relations and rescue during the Holocaust (presumably exactly what it sounds like, though I haven't had it yet), and a class about Jewish Education in North America (a component of which I'll spend working in an English-speaking nursery school/Kindergarten once/week, which was SO fun!!!). I think it will be a fairly light load of classes compared to what I take at Pitt, though it will be counted for 16 credits, which is really nice!

That's pretty much it! I'll write more later. Thanks for reading, if you got this far!! I am currently writing this from school, between classes--once I get home, I will try to upload some pictures of my weekend to this entry!