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.
Shabbat Shalom!
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