Chanukah, Part II

The last few days of Chanukah, plus the following two days, have been great.  I’ve lit my chanukiah every night, eaten one fancy sufgania from Roladin (a fantastic bakery!), studied a wide array of topics at the yeshiva, prepared for going to Poland, and planned more of winter break.  Yay!!

Some more details?  I guess I can do that.

Last Shabbat, we had an addition to our usual schedule (light candles, leave for shuls, dinner, tisch, shoko b’sakit (chocolate milk in a bag) and cake breakfast, leave for shuls, lunch, parshat hashavua (discussion on weekly Torah portion), mincha (afternoon prayer service), seudah shlishit (3^rd meal for Shabbat), ma’ariv (evening prayer service), havdallah (service for transitioning from Shabbat to the rest of the week).  This addition was a guided meditation, led by me.  This past summer during Or Tzedek (a Jewish social justice program in which I’ve participated for the past 3 years), we had an activity with someone from the Center for Jewish Mindfulness and meditated.  Then, during Shabbat, one of our madrichot led a guided meditation focused on the 4 letters of G-d’s name and the body.  I took what I remembered from this latter meditation, and wrote a new one.  I taught the meditating techniques to the small group that came, and in the end, everyone had a great experience.

After Shabbat, Julia and I made considerable progress in planning winter break.  I’m getting extremely excited for everything we’re going to do, but there’s still a lot to plan.

Saturday night, it started raining pretty hard, which is great because we haven’t had much rain yet this year.  The rain continued for all of Sunday.  On Sunday, I went to Yad VaShem (the Israeli Holocaust museum).  Walking to the light rail to take me there, I finally saw how important it is for the paths in the streets to be designed as they are: most of the stones are lengthwise going across the width of the path, but in the middle of the path is a line of stones perpendicular to the others, and the path has a slight V-shape, so all of the water flows down the middle row and there is less flooding.  But, there was so much rain, that this couldn’t stop you from getting wet.  I passed a man-hole that was so full of water it was like a whale’s blowhole.

While I tried to find someone to come with me to Yad Vashem (a big group went a week before, and most people had classes or big papers), I am happy to have gone alone.  I was able to speed through the main museum exhibit, walk around to see the all of the monuments, and still have a couple hours in the library.  Two quotes from the museum section stuck out to me.  I feel these two really show how human life should be valued.

“Don’t rush to fight and die…we need to save lives.  It is more important to save Jews than to kill Germans.” ~Tuvia Bielski

“I do not know what a Jew is, we only know what human beings are.” ~Pastor Andre Trocme (August 10, 1942)

In the library, I studied how much Janusz Korczak valued life, as well as his other great values and work.  Anyone can use the archives at Yad Vashem, so I did research on Korczak for my presentation in Poland.  On Monday, I continued to research with Gila (my partner for the presentation) at Hebrew U.  I skimmed through his Ghetto Diary and a parenting book he wrote called Loving Every Child.  He was an amazing person in nearly every way.  As this is already a considerably long post, I’m not going to give the details about his life right now, but please comment if you want to learn more about Korczak in another post.

Sunday night, though I did not think I would, I ended up celebrating Christmas.  With about half of the Kfar track, I went for Chinese food.

Tuesday was an event-filled day.  In the morning, we Nativ yeshiva students went to Yad Lakashish.  Here, elderly individuals (most around age 75-80) have different workshops, including making recycled paper, making things from the paper, painting Jewish items like tallitot and challah covers, metal-works, knitting toys, and ceramics.  We went to visit each workshop and light Chanukah candles for each group and talk a little with the people there.  Then we visited the gift shop to see their final products, and most of us bought gifts to support them.

After this, I had my most Chanukah-y meal: a latke (which was not served with apple sauce or sour cream, like in the U.S., but rather with a pickle) and a sufgania.  For weeks, I have seen the sufganiot of Roladin, but always resisted.  They have sufganiot that you squeeze a small amount of whiskey, vodka, or just chocolate into, sufganiot filled with different creams, and the most common strawberry jelly filled sufganiot.  I got a pistachio cream sufgania, and could not have been happier.  Perhaps this was not the healthiest lunch I could eat, but it was something I had to do.

That night was the last night of Chanukah.  For Erev Nativ, Yossi went over the schedule for the next few weeks, including all of the information on packing we will need.  We have our 2-week break, Israel Experience Week/Poland, a 3-day Israel Today seminar, and a 6-day tiyul (staying overnight at a kibbutz) near Eilat (I’m glad I’m not going to Eilat over break because during the tiyul I’ll have the opportunity to do the water sports I want to do), and then we go to our second semester locations.  For packing, we need to pack up everything we won’t need until we’re at the second semester locations to not see until then, and then have different bags for everything we’ll need before then.  After receiving this information, we walked to the Old City to see a light show, which told the history of Jerusalem.  Walking there, we saw a Chasidic man juggling torches on a unicycle!  It was cool, but I was so tired, I really would have preferred to have been watching a movie in my bed; although, some people absolutely loved the show.

On Wednesday, I went to visit my aunt’s friend who moved to Jerusalem from Milwaukee a few years ago.  When I saw Nativers when coming back to base, I was asked what I had been up to, and I told everyone that I was with “the sweetest old lady of all time,” because that is 100% accurate.  It also turns out that I met her during my first Shabbat on Nativ, because she is the greeter Saturday morning for Moreshet Yisrael (the Conservative shul in our complex).

Finally, last night was the greatest.  I went to Shirat Yerushalayim Hall for my cousin’s wife’s sister’s wedding to babysit my 5 and a half-month-old cousin Sima!  This was the first time I met Sima, and I’m excited to say I met her before my mom did.  She is the most adorable baby!  Twice, she fell asleep in my arms.  It was also great to talk to my cousins a little, but they (especially Tamar, the bride’s sister) were busy dancing, socializing, and doing whatever the bride and groom needed.  I met a few girls my age who last year had the bride as their madricha, but spent most of my time talking with the other babysitters (students of the groom’s mom).  Together we had 5 kids, 3 of whom were born on 3 consecutive days (Sima is the oldest of these 3), but there were a lot of other babies around.  At one point, I went into the dancing section with Sima, along with others with babies, holding paper flowers, and with a sign that said, “If dodas [aunts] were flowers, we’d pick you!”  Babies and weddings are a lot of fun.

Trivia: So what were my yeshiva classes from this past week?  Midrashim on Chanukah, keeping kosher in a non-kosher world, Jewish medical ethics (part I, overview), meaning behind Israeli Chanukah songs, "Broken Tablets, Forgotten Torah, Machloket: The Creative Value of Loss," Jewish medical ethics (part II, beginning of life issues), the “stubborn and rebellious son,” and “Ask the Rosh Yeshiva.”

A Free Pizza Lunch Can be Sad

Shabbat was great.  I stayed at base, which meant the tisch, which I love.  Then I played Monopoly (and won!) and hung out with different groups of friends…but longer than I wanted to because we were locked out of our room. 

I went to the Italian synagogue in the morning, which was interesting; they had different tunes, some added words in prayers, and beautiful Torah trope, but I don’t think I’m going to go there again.  For lunch, I went with other yeshiva Nativers to the apartment of some rabbinical students to celebrate the birthdays of 2 other rabbinical students.  It was a fantastic (dairy!) lunch, but the best part was the sense of community.  We knew most of the guests, and talked and joked with everyone.  We played with the 3 children there (all under the age of 3), and we ate sitting on the floor.  I hope to have a community like this in college and afterward- observant Jewish, casual, friendly, welcoming.  It was such a great afternoon.

Monday, the yeshiva provided lunch for us, as it was our last full day of the semester.  Nativers Becca and Zoe gave a speech on behalf of the Nativers, and others leaving after the semester gave little speeches as well.  All talked about how great of an experience it has been studying Torah lishma (for its own sake), becoming friends with people of different backgrounds, and being part of this community.  While we Nativers are excited for our second semester programs, we’re all going to miss the yeshiva a lot.  Even though the free pizza was delicious, we were unhappy about leaving.  I, and many others, want to come back another time and study there more.

Tuesday morning, my final class of the semester (we do have 2 classes a day most days until Nativ break), was Chumash.  During the semester, we’ve been analyzing Rashi’s commentary, so we did a really cool exercise to further understand commentary.  We each wrote a few sentences answering “What does G-d have to say to humanity today?”  We then traded and drashed (explained) what others wrote.  Some did this like Rashi- taking certain words and specifying/explaining what they really mean.  Some did this more like a midrash, with a story that you really have to think about to understand its relation to the first sentences.  We then worked in chavruta to analyze these.  Finally, we discussed them in class.  It was one of the most interesting, engaging classes we’ve had.

In the afternoon we had different shiurim, with a break for sufganiot (doughnuts).  At sundown, it became Chanukah!  Some of us went to a nursing home to light candles and sing Chanukah songs with the elderly, who were in different levels of awareness.  We talked with some of the Hebrew-speaking residents, but couldn’t say much to the Russian or Yiddish-speakers.  While many people showed no reaction to our presence, many still understood why we were there.  We could also see how much our presence meant to a lot of people.  It was a great experience.

Then that night, each track lit candles together with the chanukiot we made the previous week.  Then we met together, where all those participating in Secret Santa exchanged gifts (I got dinosaur mazes and chocolate!).  But the highlight of the evening was a trivia game.  We sat at tables with dreidles, just to play with.  Then we had trivia questions, each for points to compete with the other teams.  There were also some challenges, like using a squirt gun to extinguish a chanukiah (which did not work) and a sufgania eating contest.  It was fun, plus we got sufganiot at the end.

After this, all of Kfar met on our balcony for a surprise Madrichim Appreciation.  We wrote new words to our “Too Far Kfar” song about them, and gave them gifts.  That night we also wrote letters of appreciation on Post-Its to be stuck on their doors Wednesday morning.

Wednesday, we had a shiur about Bat Sheva and then our final Zionism class.  That night, a large group of us went to Hebrew U for opening night of Les Mis!  Three Nativers are in the cast, one of whom is a lead.  I had low expectations, but the show was actually fantastic!  The music is beautiful and the performers were great.  I really want to see the full show, as in, not the abridged student version.

Now, it is Thursday afternoon, and I’ve had far too many active hours.  I woke up at 5:15 to go with three friends to the Kotel for sunrise.  It’s so peaceful in the Old City at this time.  Then I came back to my room and did a lot of planning for break.  I went for a run, then went out for lunch and some errands with Mia, and later, I may go on a chanukiot tour. 

Anyway, 2 days down, 6 more to go.  Chanukah Sameach!!

Trivia: Where can one find the story of Chanukah?  The actual story can be found in the Apocrypha in the book Maccabees (someone remind me, is it Maccabees I, II, or both?).  The story about oil remaining aflame for 8 days is in the Talmud in Masechet Shabbat.

Two of My Favorite Places, Plus General Update

(in reverse order because it seems to me better rhetoric)

For Erev Nativ a week and a half ago, the Kfarmers went to our Madrich Ira’s parents’ home, just outside of Jerusalem, for dinner.  It was great to have a home cooked meal, a yummy vegetarian option with protein, and meet the ones who made Ira the crazy man he is.  We talked about concerns people have making aliyah (moving to Israel).  This is something that I’d guess at least 88 of the 90 Nativers have thought about, at least to some extent.  First Rachel talked about what she has been thinking, because she is strongly considering aliyah.  Then Ira’s dad talked about how he was first in the IDF and then wanted to make aliyah.  This was followed by Ira’s mom talking about how for a long time, living in Israel was difficult, but she came to love it.  We asked questions and got to think about this issue many more dimensions.

Wednesday, I had my first mishap taking a bus.  I got on the 19 to go to Hebrew U to meet Gila, with whom I’m doing a presentation about Janusz Korczak when in Poland.  The issue was that this bus wasn’t really going there.  After an hour and a half, the bus returned to the general area of Beit Nativ (it was then going to go on the route to HU), but there wasn’t the time we needed to research.  Still, that night I started some basic research, but it probably would have been better if I had gone to the right bus stop and gotten to HU in about 30 min to do better work.

Thursday was Turkey Cookie Day!!!  Every year at Thanksgiving, my family has Turkey Cookies (thanks to my Aunt Trudy).  This delicious concoction is made of an Oreo, candy corn, a Hershey’s kiss, a piece of chocolate, 2 M&Ms, a little piece of Twizzler, and chocolate frosting to glue everything together.  My parents sent me a package with these ingredients, and I made Turkey Cookies in the hall with friends.  (Less exciting, but later that night I went to the Israel Museum, free for Chamshushalayim [Thursday nights in December, a lot of museums and other places in Jerusalem are free], but I really just wanted to see the Qumran scrolls, but this exhibit was closed.)

making Turkey Cookies!!

Friday, I went to Roz’s Minyan in Nachlaot.  The atmosphere here is incredible, and I loved the service, full of many tunes I had never heard. There wasn’t space for everyone in the actual room, but we squeezed as many in as possible.  I loved it, but I think Yakar might be my favorite place for Kab Shab.  After services, I had a delicious vegetarian dinner with Terri, Mia, Deena, and Deena’s parents who are visiting for a couple weeks.

Sunday, in my Talmud class, we took a break from Masechet Brachot to study the very few sources on Chanukah.

This past Tuesday, Rabbi Aaron Alexander, Dean of Admissions from Ziegler, came to speak to use about Chanukah.  This included looking at a text we covered the dai Aaron Alexander, Dean of Admissions from Ziegler, came to speak to use about Chanukah.  This included looking at a text we covered the day before in my Talmud class, and me telling him that his wife is the daughter of my rabbi from home.  It was fun.  Then we Nativers went to make our own chanukiot (menorahs for Chanukah), which I obviously did not enjoy the craft aspect and thus made the simplest menorah possible.  I did, however, enjoy showing off my artsiness in my menorah and looking like a dinosaur in a picture.

I'm blurry and look dinosaur-like

On Thursday, I went to Ramat Eshkol to visit the granddaughters, Shula and Rina, and great-grandchildren, Esther Tova and Akiva, of a couple from my shul at home.  This was a lot of fun.  Even though Esther Tova was really quiet and shy around me for a while, having just awakened from a nap, it wasn’t long before she wanted me to sit next to her when we got pizza.  I love little kids! 

Favorite Places:

1.      Ben Yehuda Street: This famous street is full of falafel restaurants, bakeries, ice cream/froyo places, and Judaica shops.  To me, its main attractions are the stranger, less known things.  For instance, almost every night, there’s a woman playing harp.  Different people will play different instruments, including ultra-Orthodox men playing jazz sax or harmonica.  Once or twice, I a Korean choir was performing.  One night an art group did a fashion show, and a couple times I’ve seen huge bubbles floating around.

2.      Gan Soccer- I don’t know if this is the actual name…I typically call it “the park all the way down Ramban.”  I often come here when I run.  There are fields where you often see people playing football, and occasionally, American football.  There’s a children’s playground, an area of exercise machines where you the resistance is your own body weight, and a lot of open grassy areas where families or school groups will have picnics.  Here I’ve seen people doing different martial arts exercises and poses.  Twice, I’ve seen someone juggling.  If when you reach the park, you take the runners’/bikers’ path to the left, you leave all of this, and enter a beautiful piece of land, full of trees and hills and rocks.  It’s so peaceful.

Trivia: What am I doing for dinner tonight?  Staying at base so I can go to the tisch.  Can’t remember the last time I did that. 

What a Weekend!

Thursday night, I went with Julia to babysit her aunt’s friends’ kids.  This meant we made sure nothing happened to the 2 sleeping kids, and after about a half hour, the 3 sleeping kids.  We then watched the end of Planet of the Apes and a few episodes of The Amanda Show (possibly one of my favorite shows from 1^st grade, and still legitimately funny). 

Friday, I got ready to go to Modi’in for Shabbat (and then around 2:30, went to Modi’in).  This was a closed Shabbat, but the Yerucham track went to Yerucham, the Karmielevators went to a town near Karmiel, and the Kfarmers went to Modi’in to spend Shabbat with host families from Yossi’s shul.  I was housed with Mia, and we are absolutely sure we won the best family.

Why were they the best family?  1) They told us from the beginning to feel at home and they were easygoing.  2) They soon proved to all be really nice, both parents and the 6 and 9 year old girls.  3) Knowing Mia and I were vegetarians, we had dairy meals.  4) According to the father, the girls are usually really shy, but quickly opened up around Mia and me.  5) Shabbos afternoon, a cheetah started running around. 

We were late for a lot of things because we couldn’t bring ourselves to leave their house.  We were also probably the only Kfarmers to neither nap nor attempt to nap, but this is because we preferred to play with the kids and let the parents sleep.  They were just the best, and we plan on visiting again later in the year.

When we returned to Jerusalem after Shabbat, we hung around waiting for pizza that was supposed to be there for us.  We started a new puzzle and some of us did some spontaneous Israeli dancing.  It was great, chill, Kfar time.

A couple hours later the others returned (they were much father from Jerusalem than us).  A bunch of people were hanging out in my room.  Around 10:30 I left my room to watch a movie with a couple people a floor below, and when I returned to my room, I found that my roommates had covered the wall by my bed with pictures.

Since then, I’ve had one night of about 6 hours of sleep, one night of about 10 hours of sleep, and two more free pizza dinners.  I know, epitome of good health.

Trivia: What are the 5 combat units of the Israeli Defense Forces? Golani, Givati, Tzanchanim, Kfir, Nachal.