Well, that’s it…I have left Israel! I am currently sitting
in a Starbucks in Berlin, awaiting my connecting flight to JFK. There is so
much to say about the Year in Israel program and about my actual year in
Israel, but first let me begin with a quick catchup of what’s been going on in
my life in this blog post. I will post another blog post soon with reflections
on the year as a whole.
Regarding school, not much has been happening since my last
update, my d’var Torah on Acharei Mot-Kedoshim. However, not to pat myself on
the back, but apparently I rocked the davar. Multiple people, including a few
rabbis, came up to me and said I did a great job, and a few congregants even
said I was better than many rabbis they have heard. So while on the one hand
that’s great to hear, on the other it means that I have set a high standard
that I need to keep reaching—and then exceed.
Classes ended quicker than I thought they would, and then
there were finals. My computer was broken again during the few weeks before and
during finals. While this at first seemed like it would be a huge inconvenience
(and it was), it turned out to also be a blessing in disguise. I knew that I
wouldn’t be able to work on papers or study on my computer while the library
was closed at night and on weekends, and therefore I worked hard while it was
open, and so I was able to finish one of my papers a week early. When the last
final rolled around, I was able to walk away a free man. As far as I know, I
passed everything (fingers crossed that I’m right!).
Another thing that happened around the end of the year was
that I organized the student shipping back to New York. It was a huge hassle,
but I stayed nice and organized and everything ran pretty smoothly (you should
see my Excel sheet—it has conditional formatting!).
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| Countless Haredim protesting the Women of the Wall |
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| Haredim standing and watching the protest, sometimes joining in and heckling. |
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| This particular Haredi Jew was extra obnoxious. He kept blowing a whistle to disrupt our egalitarian service. |
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| This time, instead of arresting us, the police were protecting us. |
I also had the opportunity to experience two great religious
events in Jerusalem during my final few weeks. The first, as you may have read
about in the news or on Sam’s blog, was this month’s Women of the Wall Rosh
Chodesh (New Month) event at the Kotel (the Western Wall). While we did not
have the largest turnout as I’ve seen in the past, the opposition did—there
were hundreds of Haredim (Ultra-Orthodox) there to protest us (I say “us”
because, while I may not be one of the women who are at the center of the
group, it is important to show male solidarity). I must say that I am
absolutely disgusted by the way the Haredim acted towards us. They were
spitting at us. They threw rocks at us, one of which hit my friend in the back,
and one of which almost hit a little girl. They threw water, coffee, and other
liquids at us.
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| If you look out the window, you will see some Haredi students heckling our bus. They were kicking it and shouting things. |
They shouted awful names. One of them was blowing a very loud
whistle during our entire service. They got
in fights with the police. This is one thing I am very thankful for: the police were actually protecting the Women of the Wall this time, not arresting them; they even provided buses to transport us safely from the Wall area.It was a
very eye opening experience, and definitely changed my view on the Haredim. On
the one hand, I recognize that these Haredim are not representative of all
Haredim. I know that some Haredi Jews are calm, collected, peaceful people. I
understand that while they may not agree with what we do, they will not use
violence to protest it. Yet after seeing so many of them spitting,
throwing rocks, and more, I cannot help but wonder when I pass one in the
street: Did this one throw a rock at my friend? Did this one spit towards me? Ultimately,
the Haredim at the Wall on Rosh Chodesh was disgusting and despicable, and they
cast a bad image on Jews everywhere.
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| The sun was just beginning to illuminate the sky. |
Yet despite this, my other key religious experience during
my final weeks was a wonderful one. Last week, beginning the evening after HUC’s
closing program, was Shavuot. It is one of the three Pilgrimage Festivals, which celebrates the spring harvest and the giving of Torah. While it is not as
well-known as Passover or
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| The sun was a little higher, but not quite risen. |
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| The sun over the Kotel, early in the morning on Shavuot. |
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| One of my favorite pictures: sunrise over the Kotel on Shavuot. |
Sukkot (the other two festivals), it still has some
great traditions, such as studying all night and eating dairy meals. A small
group of us who were still in Jerusalem decided to get together for Shavuot.
Lori, a fellow rabbinic student, organized a giant dairy potluck dinner which
lasted a couple of hours. Then Jason, another rabbinic student going to New
York, and I organized a Torah study session. We did not have it last all night
long, but rather we ran it for about two and a half hours, and then everyone
split up to find other all-night study sessions. It ended up being great, and I
think everyone enjoyed. After splitting up, Jordan, a cantorial student, and I
walked around Jerusalem trying to find various places to study, and we ended up
at Pardes, an egalitarian yeshiva. We heard the tail end of one lecture, but
then heard a great lecture by the director of Pardes, Rabbi Daniel Landes. When
that ended (at 4am), Jordan, a few other HUC and Pardes students, and I went to
the Kotel to watch the sunrise. I would say there were more Jews at the Kotel
on this morning than I’ve ever seen there before, whether I was there on
Passover, on Tisha B’Av, on a Rosh Chodesh, or any other day. After praying a
bit, I felt the exhaustion of staying up all night finally start to kick in, so
I went home and ended up going to sleep at 7am.
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| "Yizkor" (Memorial Prayer), by the Israeli Scouts, on Yom HaZikaron. |
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| "We will remember," a memorial on Yom Hashoah at HUC |
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| Celebrating Yom HaAtzmaut |
Speaking of holidays, a few weeks ago were the “Israeli High Holidays,” i.e. Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), Yom HaZikaron (Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism), and Yom HaAtzmaut (Israeli Independence Day). For the most part we either had half days of school or had no school. It’s amazing how different these days are than in America. In America, Memorial Day and Veterans Day are barely celebrated, and if they are, they are with barbeques and pool parties. In Israel, everyone is deeply connected to these holidays, often because they know at least one person who died as a soldier or they had family in the Holocaust. While I felt less connected to the holidays than they do because I do not have these familial bonds, I was nonetheless moved by the various Israelis’ emotions that I saw. It was definitely a meaningful experience.
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| Alfred in the toilet. |
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| Alfred warming up. |
And now on a more uplifting note is the story of Alfred the
Toilet Bird! One morning a few weeks ago, I woke up and went to use the
bathroom, and I saw what I thought was a plastic bag sitting in my toilet.
However, on closer inspection, it turned out to be a dead bird! I rubbed my
eyes a few times to make sure I wasn’t dreaming, but no, there was a bird in my
toilet. Unfortunately I had a meeting with a rabbi that I had to get to, so I
decided I would deal with it later. About two hours later, after my meeting, I
returned and tried to figure out what to do. I ended up taking a stick and
poking it, to make sure it was dead…and it wasn’t! At that point, though, I had
yet another appointment, and so again I had to wait to deal with the actually
live bird. About two hours after that, and after buying thick rubber gloves, I returned
home. With the help of Nicole, my roommate, I was able to pick the bird up out
of the toilet and put it in a bucket with a towel. The bird was wet and hypothermic,
so we warmed it up. Slowly it got more energy, until at one point we went out
onto the terrace to give it more water, and we saw it perched on the ledge. As
we approached, it tried to get away…and flopped out of the window! Fortunately
we saw it soar away after falling only a little bit. Yet while this story has a
happy ending, it is still also a mystery; we have absolutely no idea how the
bird got into the toilet. The door was closed, the window was closed, and there
was no hole big enough for him to crawl through. Our current theories include:
aliens, a rift in the space-time continuum that ends in our toilet, or someone
put it there. If you have any theories, let me know!
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| Jordan and me, with our Mevasseret family. |
Other than these events, the rest of my last month was
pretty uneventful. I finished with my Mevasseret family, a family of Ethiopian
immigrants with whom I have worked all year. I did not get to travel nearly as
much as I had meant to do during these last few weeks, but I did enjoy my time
in Jerusalem. I was in the Old City at least every other day, but sometimes I
was there literally every day for a few days in a row. I enjoyed my time with
friends, and spent a lot of time with Sam, since we won’t see each other for at
least three weeks, but potentially more (she returns mid-June, but I will
already be at camp, so I’m not sure when we’ll see each other).
So that’s a recap of my last few weeks. I am going to post
another article soon with my reflections on the year. See you soon, America!
