Passover and Stuff

Before Passover

The Thursday about a week before Passover was a fairly exciting day.  In the petting zoo, Arielle and I watched a rat give birth to 6 babies!! Well, we only saw the births of 2 of them, but at the end of the day we had 6.  From this, I now know for certain that rats are cutest straight from the womb.  (Today, as I write this, these babies have already reached full fur, heads as large as bodies, and greater mobility.)  Then Thursday afternoon, I left for Tiberias with Lucy, Maya, Julia, Mia, and Deena to later meet Teri, Jess, Dani, Sandi, and Molly to celebrate Deena’s birthday weekend.  Thursday night and Friday, we all hung out and wandered around the city.  On Friday morning I woke up early and went for a run by the water, but it wasn’t a good run until I started my way back because I was too distracted by the beauty of the Kineret on one side and the mountains on the other.  It was nice being with everyone, but it really became a good time with Shabbat.

Together with Deena's B-day cake

We ushered in Shabbat by walking a short distance to a nice hotel where we knew there would be candles we could light (unlike the cheap hostel where we stayed).  Are we supposed to light candles at a place we aren’t staying?  No, but the only cost was a few strange looks.  Then we went by the water for tfillot (services), which were full of great singing (by this I mean fun, spirited singing…we did not sound so good) and made me feel really close to everyone there.  I remember thinking, if the people from Yerucham hadn’t gotten there so late Thursday night, if we hadn’t argued about what to do earlier that day, if I had eaten pizza for lunch instead of falafel, then we would not have had these moments just as they were.  I think that if it had been different in any way, it could only have been less wonderful.

We went back to the hostel for dinner, mostly eating chumus, guacamole, and fruit salad (the latter two dishes we made that afternoon), and we talked for hours together, but it felt like no time at all.

The next day, we all slept a little later.  We ate more.  Then we wanted to go to the beach, but there aren’t nice public beaches in Tiberius, as we learned that day, so instead we read and rested on a nice grassy hill we found.  It was a restful, peaceful Shabbat.

From Saturday night after Shabbat until the seder, I had a considerably worse time.  These days consisted of head lice (very common in Israel), an ear infection, and sleep deprivation to make everything worse.  But there were some good things about this week.  Tuesday, for Yom Nativ, we went to Tzfat where we did a clay workshop: we each had a small ball of clay to form into something with redemption in mind.  Every 30 seconds, we passed what we had to the person next to us, and we would add to and adjust the new piece while keeping its essence.  At the end, we took our original pieces back to see what they had become, and we combined all of them at the table to have one theme related to redemption.  It was a really cool activity.  Then we had a short study session in small groups in which we contrasted Kabbalistic sfirot (difficult to describe accurately, but something like 10 aspects of G-d) to the 10 plagues.  That night, back at the kfar, we had a campfire singing session, that is, if you substitute campfire with petting zoo firepit fire and campfire songs with Passover songs (I missed Chad Gadya because a baby goat had escaped and I brought him back to the right place…oh the irony).

Thursday, in preparation for Pesach, we thoroughly cleaned all of our rooms and halls to get rid of chametz (leavened foods that we cannot eat, own, or derive benefit from during the week of Passover).  (The kitchen staff had to do a lot for about a week in the kitchen, and even in the petting zoo we had to finish a certain food and clean up any bread in cages.) Thursday night we did the ritual search for chametz, and Friday morning we did the ritual burning of that which we found.

Throughout Friday morning, everyone left the kfar but me.  It was eerie seeing literally no one around.  But I was only alone until my friend Sarah arrived early in the afternoon.  I gave her a tour, and we rested until it was time to go just past the gate of kfar hanoar to meet Gadi (aka Yankel, the person from Yankel’s shtetl if you remember my first blog post on the kfar).

Pesach

We walked together to the synagogue, and afterwards returned to his house for the seder.  Everyone was really nice and it was a lot of fun.  It would have been better if I didn’t have an ear infection inhibiting my hearing (I can manage Hebrew, but not so well when I can’t hear clearly).  It was great doing everything in Hebrew, but this experience made me appreciate seders in English.  I usually love how Israelis read quickly, but the seder felt a little too rushed for me.  We got back to my room around 1:45 Saturday morning and went straight to sleep.  Then during the day we went back to Gadi’s for lunch and again for seuda shlishit.  Overall, I had a great time with the family, playing with the little kids, and eating yummy foods. 

Saturday night post-yom tov was even more fun.  I hung out with Sarah and the many kfarmers that came back that night (a different Sarah, Maya, Julia, Julian, Leah R., and Leah S.), but we all went to sleep way too late.  Sunday morning I worked out, fed the animals, finished packing, and went to Karmiel to meet Mia, Deena, and Teri.  We bought food for dinner and everything we’d need for the next 3 days.  Deena made matza lasagna for us (yum!), and we hung out with everyone who was still in Karmiel that night.  Unfortunately, Teri got sick, so she couldn’t be with us during the week. 

What were we doing?  Hiking Yam L’Yam (aka Sea to Sea)!  This hike, from the Mediterranean to the Kineret (or the other direction), is extremely popular, especially during Passover.  Done in 3, 4, or 5 days, I’m guessing a couple thousand people walk and climb at least part of the trails across the whole country.

The Hike

Early Monday morning, I bussed with Deena and Mia to Nahariyah, a city on the Mediterranean Sea, north of Haifa.  Because we didn’t know how long it would take to get to our first night’s campsite, we took a cab to the beginning of the trail (so we didn’t quite hit the first sea).  Then we started hiking- it was an easy, very flat start.  We crossed little streams, and I am thankful for my water shoes relieving me of the stress of balancing on rocks.  We sang Disney and non-Disney songs, and we passed our madrich Simeon (hiking with 3 of his friends) while singing Build Me Up Buttercup.  In a few places along the trail, we hung out with a group comprised of a South African, a German, and an Aussie. 

Me, Deena, and Mia starting to hike

We made very good time, but got a little lost by continuing walking after the end of one trail (it’s not continuous), so we decided to take a cab to our planned campsite in Ma’alot to spend the night with the other Nativers doing the hike (we originally didn’t want a big group because it is more difficult to plan, but once we were all there, and we happened to all be fairly good friends, joining forces sounded like fun).  Well, with an unfortunate miscommunication, we ended up at a different camp site, farther along the trail.  So we didn’t hike from sea to trail, and we didn’t hike a chunk in the middle, but on the bright side this was better for our backs and we were able to sleep more. We didn’t spend the night with the other Nativers, but we did spend it with TRY (the Conservative high school semester in Israel program) and EIE (the Reform high school semester in Israel program)!  We played some Jewish Geography and met Lucy’s younger brother.  Then we slept under the stars, able to sleep late- until 7ish (which was especially great because it’s difficult to fall asleep and easy to wake up when you’re freezing).

The plan for Tuesday morning: wait for the other Nativers to meet us, then start hiking again.  I’m very impressed with the other 7 people for hiking 4 more hours than us this morning- we were all exhausted by the end of the day.  Ari, Eric, and Smalls met us first (but Lainey, Alysa, Gila, and Neal weren't far behind) and introduced us to balloon time.  Eric brought balloons to blow up and pop for whenever we finished a good hike, including after their hike to get to our campsite.  We mostly hiked that day in two groups: I was with Mia, Deena, Ari, Eric, and Smalls, and about 15 minutes behind us was the other group.  The beginning of the hike (for Deena, Mia, and me) was a difficult uphill, going up Mount Meron, the second highest peak in Israel.  We rejoined at lunch, then continued hiking. 

Balloon Time! (TRY and EIE in the background)

We passed the cave of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.  This was a known landmark, but we didn’t know that this was going to be a party.  Music was playing (mostly “Na Nach Nachma Nachman Me’Uman,” for Rabbi Nachman of Breslov), and a lot of people were around.  Most of the guys in our group went to see the grave, but Gila was the only girl to because we didn’t want to bother with changing out of our shorts (places like this require a certain level of modesty that hiking does not).  We took a nice break here: we filled our waters, many people took advantage of toilets, and almost all of us bought popsicles or ice cream.  It is so great that we could be certain that all of the popsicles, ice creams, and other foods being sold were kosher for Passover.

After not too long, we found where the trail continued and hiked more.  After not too long, the trail we were to follow was a nature reserve, Nachal Amud, in which it is illegal to camp.  Somehow, we got the idea that we should just keep hiking and finish in 2 days, going into the dark.  Well, luckily people told us we couldn’t because it would not have been possible.  We hiked a little farther, then turned off to another trail line to take us out to a campsite.  Sleeping here required a 20 shekel payment, but it was worth it because they had bathrooms that didn’t smell, flat places to sleep, and we had no other options.  (What I mean by this is we don’t need these luxuries, but if they come up, we won’t reject them.) 

We left a little before 7 the next morning, but to us this was too late because we were allowed to get back on the trail at 6:45.  This day, I walked mostly with Lainey and Alysa.  It was the most fun and most challenging day of hiking- a lot of crossing and re-crossing a stream, climbing, and scary cliffs.  This section was absolutely beautiful- the mountains on our sides were full of trees, it was sunny but we were usually in shade, and there were places where we could see far in the distance but see no other groups.  Out of this section of the trail (which took a few hours, but we were making good time), we met up again with the other Nativers and walked for a long stretch through a jungle-like trail: it was mostly flat, but we had a very narrow path with long weeds on both sides.  We sang In The Jungle with a group from post-college Masa programs that we frequently met on the last 2 days.  By the end of the jungle, all of our little groups had re-split.  But we met again at the end of the trail (this was our final trail!) to do the last stretch of the hike together.  We walked through 2 orchards, and then got split up by a large group of Scouts (a youth group) also walking to the sea.  Well, we met again at the Kineret, where we rested and enjoyed a few minutes of lying down, watching the water, too tired to go to a cleaner beach.

I learned a lot on this hike.  I learned that I should never hike with complainers and never hike with people who want to hike at a considerably different pace.  I learned that though I love hiking, I don’t love carrying a heavy backpack, so if I’m doing a multi-day hike, I shouldn’t also have clothes for the days before and after on my back.  I learned that you can’t go so quickly that you don’t give yourself the chance to look around you.  I learned that two minutes of talking with a good friend can make any annoying event not matter at all.

By the end of the hike, I had sore and blistery feet and sun-burnt shoulders.  I was tired, dirty, and smelly.  I had eaten very little besides almonds, matzah, cheese sticks, cucumbers, and bananas for 3 days.  And I could not have been happier.

Most of us in the orchard, almost at the sea.

Post Hike

The majority of us then went to the Tiberius central bus station to return to the kfar, return to Karmiel, go to Tel Aviv, or (for me) go to Ashdod.  I love how here I was able to go to a kosher McDonald’s that was kashered for Pesach and buy a sundae.  It was also nice for the people around me that I was able to “bathe” with wipes and change clothes in the bathroom. 

It was great to see Rachel and her family in Ashdod, but the first thing I did when I got there was shower.  They fed me matzah ball soup, a dish that somehow had not been served at my seder, and I stayed up far later than I should have playing with the kids and talking.  Luckily, I was able to sleep late in the morning.  During the day we went to a park that is also a zoo (obviously I loved this), and then to the beach.  But too soon, I had to take the bus to Jerusalem

Most of kfar, plus a couple people from other tracks, stayed at Beit Nativ for the last day of Pesach and Shabbat (different days in Israel because Pesach is only 7 days).  I rested until dinner that Thursday night, but I made myself stay awake for the meal, and I’m glad I did because it was honestly the best meal I ever ate there.  On Friday during the day, we all read and rested, for a long time outside at the park across the street from Beit Nativ.

After Pesach

On Shabbat (Pesach ended about an hour after Shabbat began), I went to Roz’s minyan for both evening and morning services.  It was great to be at such a spirited service again.  Saturday morning was a bat mitzvah, too!  I had never been to an Orthodox bat mitzvah before.  The girl’s extended family was there, so there were a lot of kids.  She did not lead services or read Torah as is done in egalitarian communities, but after services she gave a davar Torah and we threw candy at her.  Walking out after the service, I heard someone who I am guessing was her father or uncle say (in English- this was an American family), “It’s a good thing she gave the davar Torah in Hebrew because you can’t get away with talking so quickly in English.”

We all returned to the kfar late Saturday night, but there were many, MANY, more people traveling to Haifa that night.  Luckily for us, they provided a second 8:30 bus, but not everyone waiting even fit onto this one.  This was my first bus ride without a seat (they let the buses overfill here), so I was in the isle.  It was extremely comfortable!  I first sat leaning against Deena, then leaning against Mia with Deena leaning on me, and then leaning against a backpack with Mia leaning on me.  When we finally made it to the kfar it was about midnight, and I went straight to sleep. 

Sunday was a normal day of work, slightly hindered by a lack of bread and cereal at breakfast because there had been no opportunity for the kitchen to be restocked.  Before Passover, the petting zoo workers and gardeners had been upset about working in the hot afternoon, so we decided to start working 6am to lunch with a break for breakfast starting Monday.  We left work a little earlier than we should have this afternoon because of the heat to rest, but I feel I made up these hours because later in the afternoon in accompanied Sarah to the refet!

The refet was weird.  Then it was overwhelming.  Then it was smelly.  Then after a while I finally got the hang of everything and it was a lot of fun.  Wearing rubber boots and a water-repelling apron, I learned to wipe, iodine, and re-wipe the udders, and then attach the suction tubes to the udders.  I quickly learned to run to the other side of the little room when a cow started defecating, too.  The older cows produced a lot of milk- upwards of 20 liters (often more than 50 liters for the whole day), and the younger cows produced less.  I think I’ll join Sarah or other Nativ refeters a couple more times in my last few weeks here.

Monday was one of the best days at the kfar.  Starting work early was great.  We were extremely productive, it was cool outside, and we were able to go to breakfast around the time we were starting to get tired.  We had baby guinea pigs, and another chicken started sitting on eggs so we should have more chicks in 3 weeks.  Akiva took us on a tractor ride to dump all of the leaves, weeds, rocks, and garbage we cleaned out of the petting zoo in the past 2 days and from the week before Passover.  We picked up Steph and Deena along the way, too.  It was a bumpy, scary, prickly tractor ride, and I cannot describe how much fun it was.  After we dumped everything, Akiva made tea in the foresty area next to the kfar and we sat laughing and drinking tea until it was time to go to lunch, and we were done for the day with some remaining energy.

Half of Moshe, Jake, Deena, Arielle, and me in the tractor

Finally, today was Yom Nativ- Yom Start Up Nation.  We had activities to teach us about using our resources (for 2 of these activities [making a boat to hold agarot coins and protecting an egg from a boot] we used our physics knowledge!), encouraging creativity (always great to decorate cakes), and getting sponsorship (Harry Potter agreed to endorse my group’s cake).  We also learned about creative Israeli military technology and the correlation between Talmud study and problem-solving skills.  It was a fun and interesting day.

Trivia: Israel’s military developed a bandage that does not need to be wrapped several times around a wound that will still put enough pressure on the wound.

Happy Birthday Mia!!

Purim, Parents, and PFL (plus a backwards c next to the P to make a B because that's what it really was and I just wanted more alliteration)

I apologize for not having posted a blog in a while, but you should be happy because this means I've been good and busy :)

Purim- If you don't know what Purim is, it's a Jewish holiday and out of present laziness I suggest you look it up to have an idea of why we did crazy things like wear costumes.  All of Nativ came to a hotel outside of Jerusalem to spend 4 days together.  I didn't want to leave the petting zoo for so long, but this was worth it.  The hotel at which we stayed had incredible food, we fulfilled all of the mitzvot for the chag (holiday), staff taught short shiurim (classes), and I think we all had a lot of fun.

Wednesday night was the beginning of the holiday, but during the day before this we had 2 shiurim (there were 3 different shiurim for each time slot, and we signed up for all of them before).  My first shiur was with Jules (not Nativ staff, but head of USY) about Amalek and the requirement to remember his people.  My second shiur was looking at a criticism of the Book of Esther, which was fascinating.

Then we got into our costumes and joined together for maariv and megilla reading (Nativers did it all).  Before the service, though, I took a lot of pictures of a lot of great costumes. 

Candy Land

Arielle and Eric, as Prince Eric and Ariel

Danny and Sandy

After this, we had a dance party, which I and several of my friends used as an alternative to our usual workout.  The next morning, we had services and read Megillat Esther again.  Then we went to a town, the name of which I do not currently remember, for a parade where we were able to see real Israelis dressed in their finest costumes.  We went to an unnecessarily (my opinion) fancy restaurant in Tel Aviv for our seudat mitzvah.  When we returned to our hotel, Jules led a session on the status of Conservative Judaism. 

On Friday we went to Jerusalem because it was Shushan Purim there (walled cities have an extra day of the holiday).  First we went to Ir HaKerach (Ice City) to see ice sculptures (a lot of people loved it- I was impressed by the technical skill but didn’t think it was that amazing).  Then we were on our own for a few hours.  Walking down the streets there, you see people in costumes, street performers, beer stands, candy stands, last minute costumes stands, and people reading megilla.  I saw a Magen David Adom blood drive truck, and decided to donate blood with Zach, Jon, and Lainey.  I visited the Conservative Yeshiva (I just missed their play!) and ate lunch at my favorite restaurant (The Village Green).  That afternoon we returned to our hotel with plenty of time to prepare for Shabbat.

Shabbat began with an incredible Kabbalat Shabbat service (honestly, I’m impressed with my fellow Nativers).  After dinner, we had another shiur.  I went to one about independent minyanim with Rachel where we had a good discussion, but of course left more confused on the issue of whether they are good or bad.  After this we had a tisch, and after that I had a 2-hour long conversation with Yossi (plus a few more Nativers) about Jewish communities.

Shabbat morning included services and another great shiur (Adi led one on fate and destiny).  As I hadn’t talked about it enough over the past couple days, I spent much of my free time discussing Judaism with Nativers and madrichim.  Between mincha and maariv, I had my last Purim weekend shiur with Simeon about Maimonides’ and Spinoza’s rational Jewish philosophies.  In all honesty, in less than 4 days, I had some of my most mentally stimulating, mind-blowing, and meaningful discussions about Jewish theology, philosophy, community, and individuality.

Parents- Saturday night in Israel, we returned to the kfar.  Saturday night in Chicago, my parents boarded a plane. 

On Sunday, back at the petting zoo, things were a little crazy.  Food dishes were moved in and out of cages, animals were hungry and thirsty, and a rabbit had died.  On the other hand, all 20 of the eggs one hen was sitting on hatched!  Then that night, I met my parents in Chaifa.

Monday morning, my parents came to the kfar.  I showed my parents around the kfar, and this happened to include watching the birth of goats.  They met a lot of Nativers, and they were surprised at how my peers were even more excited to meet them than they were to meet my friends.  Then I spent the afternoon with them in Chaifa.  On Tuesday, we went to Tzfat, where they got to meet more Nativers as the Karmiel group was in Tzfat for their Yom Nativ.

Thursday would have been the best day for my mom to see the petting zoo, but she was in Jerusalem with my Dad, learning about Israel.  Why would she have loved this day?  A woman came to us with a turtle in a basket, so we then had a turtle (who has since been released into the wild by Harari); a rat gave birth to a litter of cute pink squirmy babies; and we had two new black and white goats.

Friday morning I went to Jerusalem to go to the shuk with my parents and be with them for Shabbat.  I took my parents to Roz’s minyan (my mom loved it, my dad didn’t, as I expected), and we had dinner with Leah, Suzanne, Steph, and Julian.  In the morning, we went to Shira Chadasha.

Building Future Leadership (BFL)- Sunday morning, while my parents continued with their touring and learning program, I went to this Masa conference.  I wrote little notes about the conference for the purpose of this blog for Sunday through Tuesday, but by Wednesday into Thursday I was so tired that I completely forgot about it.  BFL was not very special for me- I would have much preferred to remain at Kfar Chasidim, much of what we did was not very leadership-related, and if a leadership seminar was necessary one of just Nativers would have been preferable- and I do not feel a need to write too many details to remember it.  Suffice it to say the following:

Small groups- We were split into small groups based on the colleges we are planning to attend.  My group was MIT, GW, Penn, Wash U, Vanderbilt, Emory, Northwestern, Tulane, and Tufts (unlike most groups, we had only 4 non-Nativers and no more than 2 people per school).  We discussed the programs of the week in these groups.  It was fun, but nothing amazing.

Tracks- I was in the intrapreneurship track, which was really “how to introduce yourself, how to make a point, visit the Knesset (Israeli parliament) for unknown reason, and public speaking.”  I had a great facilitator for this, and had fun in these sessions.

They spent money- During the week, Masa brought in Shimon Perez and Natan Sharansky to speak to us (Why am I not talking about these seemingly interesting speakers?  They weren’t of substance).  We had fancy dinners.  We received not 1, but 2 pens. We also received nice folders, T-shirts, and framed graduation certificates.

One worthwhile program- Avraham Infeld spoke to us on Thursday morning about how Judaism is a people, not a religion.  He said we need not be uniform, but can be unified with the stability of 3 legs of a 5-legged table where the 5 legs are family, memory, covenant, Israel (land and/or state), and Hebrew.  A 3-legged table is strong and stable, and if all Jews pick 3 of these 5, at least 1 will be shared.  He was not only a fantastic speaker, but he spoke of substance.

Parents (again)- After the seminar, I met my parents and Rachel (the one who stayed at my house 14 years ago) and her family in Ashdod.  It was so nice to see them again.  Friday, my parents and I went back to Jerusalem for their second Shabbat in Israel.  We went to Yakar (along with many Nativers) Friday night, and brought Sarah, Deena, Sandi, and Dana back for Shabbat dinner.  In the morning, my dad went to the Italian synagogue (which he found interesting, as I expected), and my mom and I stayed at the hotel talking.  That afternoon, we took a 2 ½ hour walk around Jerusalem, spending most of this time in my favorite park.  It was great to spend time with my parents, to show them my favorite places in Israel.   I came back to the kfar Saturday night, and Sunday night they went to the airport to finish their trip.

This is the majority of the past 3 weeks.  I hope to have more good things to tell you soon.

Trivia: There is such a thing as a hammock tent. http://nerdapproved.com/misc-gadgets/hammock-with-integrated-tent-tenammock/

What if...?

Since being on the Kfar, many of us have compared our jobs to others’ jobs and our lives to other tracks’ lives.  Recently, I’ve had the chance to experience some of these others.

It has been raining a lot in the North recently, which is fantastic for Israel, fantastic for the land, and really annoying and inconvenient for most of our jobs on the kfar (petting zoo, gardening, maintenance, fields).  Because we need to volunteer on the kfar (I think more to establish that Nativ is serious about this than anything else), the outside workers are moved around to other jobs for the rainy days. 

With the rain last Wednesday, we fed the animals and thoroughly cleaned all of the rat cages.  We also had quiet reading time for a while.  After lunch, unable to do the weeding that I wanted to do, I joined Lucy to paint a wall in the school.  It was nice to hang out with Lucy and a little fun to paint.  Thursday with more rain, again we fed the animals, and then I did maintenance with Harari, which was mostly me standing and watching him try to fix a boiler.  I wasn’t much help besides finding tools and holding things so he could pull something in the opposite direction.  He is only here until 12 on Thursdays, so after lunch I joined the kitchen crew and spent about 2 hours with the very loud dishwasher, loading and unloading trays on a conveyer belt.  It was fun to work with some different people for a couple days, and it was nice to do different things, but I missed the petting zoo.  I am now surer than ever that I was put into the perfect job for me.

Friday morning, I went to Karmiel.  Brief recap of the day: feed the animals (Matilda begged for a lot of attention and managed to slip into the parakeet cage when I went in to change their water), wait for bus 72A, see 2 dogs fight and then trot along together as if it didn't happen, let bus pass by (we couldn’t see the number!), get ride in bus 11 to later 72A stop to still make the desired bus, take another bus to Karmiel, see Karmiel friends (Julia and Hannah [in whose room I stayed], Zach, Neil, Rozzie, Maddy, Teri, and Gila [visiting from Yerucham]), eat deep dish pizza, watch "The Prince of Egypt."

Karmiel Shabbat was great.  We had Nativ Friday night services.  Then dinner, which was amazing!  In Karmiel, where Nativers stay in apartments and have to buy and cook their own food, often during the week two rooms will plan to have dinner together, and it can be even more on Shabbat.  We ate the following food with the following people: fresh challah, barley soup, tofu and veggie stir fry, salad, schnitzel (which I obviously didn’t eat), fries, and chocolate chip cookies; Julia, Hannah, Teri, Mia (also visiting from kfar, along with Arielle, Suzanne, Leah, Steph, and Jesse), Gila, Zach, Neil, Maddy, Hadas (madricha), and me.  It was so great to have home-cooked food!  Pretty much right after dinner, I went to sleep.

Saturday morning, I woke up very early.  I walked around the building for a while and read until it was time to go to shul.  Only Hadas, Maddy, and I went- everyone else asleep- some until lunchtime.  The same 10 of us ate together, but now a dairy meal of challah, lentil soup, a different salad, lasagna, potatoes, and banana bread.  Yum!  Julia and Hannah went back to sleep right after lunch, so I hung out with Gila, Mia, and Teri for a while, and when the last of them finally decided to go to sleep too, I hung out with Rozzie and Arielle.  We didn’t have a minyan (10 people) for mincha, but I managed to chant the few lines of Torah for the service out of the siddur fairly well (not that we had a Torah to do it officially anyway).  Then the 5 of us at mincha played yaniv (an Israeli card game) and ate challah, chumus, veggies, and cakes in Hadas’ room, followed by maariv and havdallah.  Then I packed up and left to return to the kfar.  It was really nice to be in Karmiel for Shabbat. 

Karmiel is a city of about 40,000, a large percent of whom are recent Russian immigrants.  Most of the volunteer jobs here are ganim (preschools), teaching English to children, teaching English to adults, and a Salvation Army-type place.  But there are also jobs at a farm and a special needs kibbutz, where Nativers work with goats, horses, and dogs, and if this was my track, that’s what I’d want to do.  The volunteer schedules are very different for each person.  Nativers occupy the majority of a floor, but could easily not see their next-door neighbors for days at a time.  Their laundry costs 4 shekels a load, instead of ours which has to be sent out for 4 shekels a kilo.

After this weekend, I got a glimpse of what it would be like to be on the Karmiel track, and I think I would have been happy.  I really wish I could buy and cook my own food, and the atmosphere here was much less camp-like than the kfar.  Still, I’m extremely happy with being on the kfar track.  I’ll have my whole life for the independence of purchasing and preparing my own food, practicing keeping a kosher kitchen, and sticking to a budget, but I could see myself loving that life now, too.

Today, Monday, we had a break from our normal schedule to see a play and dance performances.  Many of us wanted to stay at the kfar to do our jobs (finally, it’s sunny and the land is drying!), but the show was definitely worth it.  The play was done by the students (I think 11^th graders) and was about auditioning for a show, so it was full of impressive singing, dancing, and gymnastics.  The whole show was in Hebrew, so I only understood some of the dialogue, but it was still great.  The message was “Every child needs an adult to believe in him.”  After this performance, there was a short video of kfar staff being silly in honor of Purim- it’s so weird to see the serious staff playing in a playground, the kitchen, and the petting zoo!  After this, some professional break dancers performed, and they were incredible! 

Trivia: I now need to scare the peacock away from me when I work because he’ll follow me around; he’s very intimidating.  Seriously.

When I Get Tired, I Play With Animals

On Sunday, once we finished feeding the animals, Arielle and Jake left to work with Yitz and I was alone.  I continued with the work we had been doing, but took a nice break to take pictures of play with animals.  I have realized that our job at pinat chai is like the gardening job (because they’re cleaning before they can actually garden), except we care for animals when we first get to work and can play with them when we get tired.  With my iPod this day, I learned that songs by Bob Dylan are the best for yard work.  On Monday, the 3 of us plus Sarah (who works in the refet/greenhouse/fields but without fieldwork yet this season has a lot of free time to go to other jobs) took another play with animals break.  I held a pigeon this day!  This one dark gray pigeon who still had a few yellow baby feathers let me pet him and then pick him up.  It’s so weird to hold birds, especially being used to just having them on my finger/arm as it was in my high school Zoobot class.

Matilda won't let me take a picture with her face...

Our first Yom Nativ was Yom iCommunicate.  Tuesday is the only day when we daven together, and we had individual prayer to communicate with G-d in our own ways.  We had some fun activities, like playing telephone and making fruit salad in small groups in which some people were blind (blindfolded), deaf (listening to music so could not hear others), blind and deaf, Israeli (only spoke and understood Hebrew), mute, and stutterers (3second silence after every 3 words).  This was truly great programming, giving me some hope for my group’s Yom Nativ.

Wednesday was a busy day back at the pinat chai.  We fed animals, cleaned, raked, weeded, moved rocks, attached a wooden thing with a bunch of different openings near the top of the dove cage (for nests), and, sadly, buried another bird.  Harari also took us away from our work for much of the day: he showed us a chicken sitting on her eggs and another laying eggs and told us they incubate for 21 days; he put a roaming rooster in the cage with chickens (male and female) just to watch them (they’re crazy!); he picked up two younger non-aggressive chickens from this cage, gave them both to me, and had me put them in the cage with the doves.  Like I said before, Harari is crazy.

That night, most of us went to a bowling alley in Chaifa.  It was great to (1) see how the buses work before going away for Shabbat and (2) do something.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the kfar.  I love working, getting back from my job, resting, working out, showering, resting, eating dinner, and then reading or watching a movie until I go to sleep.  I am content just hanging out with friends, not going anywhere or doing anything.  But it was a nice change of pace to do something for a night.  It also helped diffuse some of the tension of people in our group getting annoyed with each other, preventing (or delaying) any real issues.  And most importantly, it was a lot of fun!

Thursday (today) was Rosh Chodesh Adar (first day of the month of Adar).  And, as “When Adar begins, happiness increases,” music was played during breakfast, to which a few Nativers and a lot of yeshiva students sang and danced.  Everywhere, people were jumping, singing, and dancing in silly hats.  They had a carnival or something at the school.  A couple banot sherut walking past the pinat chai invited us to the show, but we knew we had to stay and work.  We could hear the music and cheering, though.  We saw many people with face paint throughout the day, too.  After today, I can’t wait for Purim!  With all of the Adar excitement, finishing the left side of our pinat chai path, finished cleaning out two more sections of the pinat chai grounds, and delicious fresh bread with zaatar (a spice) at dinner, this was a great day.

Trivia: How do I want to spend Shabbatot on the kfar?  After the second week, I learned they aren’t so amazing, so I don't.  This weekend Mia and I are going to visit our host family from when we went to Modiin, next week I’m visiting Nativers in Karmiel, then I’m spending 3 Shabbatot in Jlem (1 with Nativ, 2 with my parents), and after these I hope to travel more.

One Whole Week

We started jobs on Sunday, February 12.  I got the petting zoo job with Arielle and Jake!!  The thing about the petting zoo, though, is the job was meant to be only Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays (I’ll tell you about Tuesdays below), so for Sunday we went to Yitz’s autoshop.  (This whole Sunday thing was later changed to starting at petting zoo and coming to Yitz at 10, then to someone (me!) staying at the petting zoo all day and others going to Yitz after feeding the animals.)  Why do they have an autoshop?  They know many of the students will not attend college, so they teach them trades to prepare them for work when adults.  Yitz was great, very funny, extremely nice, and always impressed at how quickly we finished assignments.  He taught us Hebrew and we taught him English.  After lunch, he brought us clementines.  Most of the day, Arielle and I painted tools to be separated into sets.  We also brushed rust and chipping paint off of mysterious objects.  We had a lot of fun with this work, but I really just couldn’t wait to get to the petting zoo.

Monday, we started at the petting zoo!  Our boss, Akiva, took us around to see all of the animals.  He showed us what to feed them, and I held as many as I could.  This started with the rats, who are in the room also used for food, tool, and random crap storage.  Then we went to the line of cages of parakeets, pigeons and rabbits, a ferret and a cat (Matilda, who we let out), and a chatamon (chatuman?  South American coati).  Past these cages is one of chickens, more rabbits, and guinea pigs; past that cage is one of doves and pigeons.  (We learned the Hebrew for pigeon is ‘doar,’ the word for mail.)  After the cages, we fed the ducks, which are in a fenced in section with a pond.  There were also chickens, peacocks, and a turkey running around free. We then saw the goats, which actually belong to the yeshiva, but they’re close so we can play with them.

The whole area is run down and dirty.  We spent this day completely cleaning and organizing the rat room and cleaning out the rabbit cage- it had been far too long since it was last cleaned.  But the real need here is the land- raking and weeding.

While first semester, Tuesday nights we had “Erev Nativ” programming, second semester Tuesday is Yom Nativ (Nativ Day).  For our first one, we had a programming workshop, brainstormed goals and ideas for our programs, and were broken up into groups of 3 or 4 to organize and lead a Yom Nativ.  My group is with Leah, Aryeh, and Aaron.  Originally, it was supposed to be “Religions/Minorities,” but we couldn’t agree on anything different from the “Culture” group; thus, we decided to make a new topic for ourselves.  We’ll see how this goes.

On Wednesday, Arielle, Jake, and I started our raking.  In one day, we made a huge difference.  We’re also working on making a path to all of the cages.  Also on Wednesday, we met Harari, who is also sort of our boss.  Let’s compare Akiva and Harari so you have an idea of what our job is like.

Time: Neither are with us every day, and if one is, not for long.

Feeding: Harari arguably overfeeds the animals and Akiva arguably underfeeds.

Personality: Akiva is quiet and sweet.  Harari is crazy: he lets the chatuman out to run around, he squirted goat milk into Jake’s mouth, and he will hand a chicken to you (me) by the feet.

?

Expectations: Neither push us to work hard or timely.  If an animal dies, Akiva wants us to bury it; Harari wants us to feed it to the chatuman.  Harari wants us to feed the cageless chickens and peacocks; Akiva says they find enough food around the land.  With regard to the cages with double doors (so a back door can be closed before the front door is open and birds don’t fly out [which we do not have for the parakeets, and on the day I write this, we lost a parakeet to the door being open too long]), Akiva says to put the padlock on the outer door, and, of course, Harari wants it on the inner door.

Thursday was another day of heavy raking.  Akiva was back today, and asked if we could come by Friday morning to feed the animals and just check on the place.  I was more than happy too.  Though we have no requirement to work on Fridays for Nativ, I really want to be there for the animals.  So on Friday, Jake and I went (Arielle was leaving that morning to go away for the weekend, but otherwise she would have come), accompanied by Lucy and Maya because they wanted to see the animals.  As soon as we passed the gate, we saw that the turkey had been attacked and killed.  Minutes later we saw that two pigeons had also died in their cage, probably due to the wind from the storm the previous night.  This was a hard day, a horrible day.  In such a short time we had come to feel that these animals were ours.  The turkey was especially difficult to handle.  He was our only turkey, and in just three days we had learned his personality.  It was a bad day.  Still, despite this day knowing we will have to deal with more dead animals in the future, I cannot imagine being nearly as happy with any other job on the kfar.

Later this day, Alysa and Dana came to visit from Karmiel.  Soon, Shabbat arrived.  Most of our Nativ group davened with the Nativ group, but I went to the kfar synagogue to see what services there were like.  They were nice services, but nothing special by my perspective.  They sang less than my favorite services, but I really liked the tunes they did sing.  There were few people there for the amount of space, and only one other woman- Tamar, Benny’s wife, with whom I talked during the dvar Torah.

I spent most of Saturday at Beth Mitah (For the non-Hebrew speakers, this is a common way of making my bed sound like a synagogue.  Nativers are also big fans of “The Horizontal Minyan,” “Rodfei Chalomim” [Dream Chasers] “Beth Lishon” [House of Sleeping], and “B’nai Pajamas.”), pretty much just getting up for food and bathroom.  My room usually had many people coming in and out to talk, so it’s not like I was being antisocial.  It was a good day.

Trivia: What is my normal bedtime at the kfar? Around 10 o’clock.  Last night most of us went to Chaifa for bowling in honor of Barry’s birthday, and not wanting to pay for a cab, I took the more time-consuming buses and did not get back to my room until around 11.  All of my roommates were asleep and I could barely believe I was awake so late.

In a Kfar kfar, kfar away...

We arrived at Kfar Chasidim approximately 2 hours before we expected to.  Driving from the entrance of Kfar Chasidim through to the entrance of Kfar Hanoar Hadati (translation: Religious Youth Village, this is the part of Kfar Chasidim where we live and work) to outside of our dorm buildings, we saw 5 refetim (cowsheds), the makolet (little shop for basic needs), and the petting zoo.  We knew this was going to be a great afternoon and a fantastic 3 months.

It is beautiful here.

almond blossoms on Tu B'Shvat- a good sign :)

Waiting outside, we heard the school “bell,” which is actually a medley of ice cream truck songs.  Still, several times a day I expect to see an ice cream truck driving by.  We got our rooms (we already figured out roommates- I’m with Lucy, Maya, and Deena; we share our bathroom with Sarah, Leah S. (not my past roommate), Arielle, and Netanya) and began unpacking.  It doesn’t look like a lot of space, and the rooms are clearly made for 3 inhabitants, but with drawers under our beds we have no problems.

At dinner, we discovered the food is good!  We were expecting much worse food.  We did not want to assume all meals would be good, but they have proven to be pretty consistent (just some dairy meals are very unsubstantial).  It was also healthy, and we didn’t have desserts like at Beit Nativ (but we soon learned that nearly all of the vegetable dishes are full of oil, so…eh).

After dinner we met with the kfar director, Benny, and decided to no longer call ourselves kfarmers or kfarniks but The Jets.  We have not stuck with this at all.

Some things about the kfar:

·         Dati- The kfar is religious, and though many of the students here do not come from religious backgrounds, in public we are required to show a specific amount of modesty.  Though girls do not need to wear skirts at all times, as we once thought, only those volunteering in the gan (preschool) do.  We really just cannot wear very short shorts or tight pants.  We also cannot be publically affectionate- this goes for the 4 couples in our track and everyone’s general hugging and jumping on each other- in order to be role models and prevent students from thinking they can act this way towards us.

·         Duration- We are here for 3 months.  While many groups have come to volunteer here before, none have stayed longer than 3 weeks.  We are the guinea pigs with this, but I think this is good because it is even more worth our bosses’ times to teach us how to do our jobs.  The students here are used to groups coming and going quickly, so it will be interesting for them for us to be here so long.

·        Inter-Interest- The students who live here are ultra-Orthodox yeshiva boys and boys of Ethiopian/Indian/Russian descent.  There are a lot of cultural differences between us and these groups, which can make us all uncomfortable at times.  It is definitely a learning experience, and soon we will have programs with the students (not the yeshiva- they really just rent space here) to break down these boundaries.

Day 2: Elana, our kfar coordinator, gave us more information about the kfar and a tour.  We learned about all of the different jobs on the kfar and ranked our choices for Rachel and Ira to decide who goes where.  My top choice: the petting zoo (not really a petting zoo…the animals are in cages…it’s technically the Pinat Chai, Animal Corner).  [Other potential jobs: gardening, refet + fields + greenhouse (the most desired job among us, and only space for 5), kitchen, gan, maintenance + laundry, shadowing students in English, Marom (school for special needs), yeshiva (maintenance in the area with potential opportunity to study), and beautification] 

Later in the afternoon, most of us went to the makolet, which is a bigger store than we expected and very inexpensive.  Internet had yet to be established for us, so we spent a lot of time hanging out together.  I kept on thinking the whole day how much I love just being with our group.  Still, we found we could get internet on the stairs outside of the girls’ building, so we took advantage of that and everyone walking by pointed out how funny we looked doing this.

Day 3: We did awesome stuff that people in Karmiel and Yerucham were definitely not doing. (I later learned they spent much of this day learning about kashrut because they need to take care of their own kitchens.)  First, we went to “Yankel’s Shtetl,” just outside the Kfar Hanoar gate.  Here, a man named Gadi showed us paintings and things that made their ways out of Europe.  The way he presented everything was a lot of fun, plus we took a break to eat delicious challah.  Then we went to the goju.  A goju is the hut that Ethiopians lived in, and one was built just past our cheder ochel (dining hall) to teach people about Jewish Ethiopian culture.  The Ethiopian rabbi’s wife, Tami, cooked for us a lot of traditional Ethiopian food and told us about life in Ethiopia and coming to Israel.  We learned that when she came to Israel (20-something years ago), there was no question about Ethiopian immigrants’ Judaism, but those coming now are coming from intermarried and assimilated families and there is question.

So far, the day was breakfast, Yankel’s Shtetl with challah, and the goju with Ethiopian foods, so clearly we hadn’t eaten enough food and went to lunch.  Then we prepared for our first Shabbat on the kfar.  We showered, cleaned our bathroom for the first time (we’re switching off weeks with our bathroom-sharing room), and got dressed for Shabbat (but I resented this a little because I was ready to not need to be clean, like how it will be for our work).

Shabbat: We had services together as Nativ, and I really don’t think that if other tracks were to do this they would be as spirited.  Then we went to dinner, where we had a lot of good food, but everything was brought out slowly (I don’t know why they found this necessary, but students working in the kitchen brought the dishes to our tables instead of our typical buffet).  Most of us stayed together for a tisch, too.  On Saturday, we had services together, lunch, menucha (rest), a dvar Torah (sermon) by Benny, and our final services to conclude Shabbat.

Motzei Shabbat (Saturday night after the Sabbath), nearly everyone worked out.  All of the guys plus 3 girls started “Insanity,” a 60 day strength and agility workout program of which Jake has a video.  A lot of girls did a few of Lucy’s 10-minute workout videos, too.  I’m really proud of our track for this.  Most of us are trying to eat more healthily, and nearly everyone has stuck to working out every day, even after our physical labor at our jobs, which I will tell you about in the next post (feel the suspense!).

Trivia: The cat at the petting zoo has been named Matilda. 

Tiyul DaROAM

On the first day of Tiyul, we drove south to the Ein Gedi where we were supposed to do either an easy or a hard hike (every day there was either an easy- or non-hike option, but I always chose to do the hard- or plain hike).  However, the night before there was a flash flood, and the hard hike route was full of water and not safe, so we all did the easy one.   There was still a lot of water, and most of us ended the hike with shoes soaking wet.  Rain and flash floods are not too uncommon for January, but not this much water.  There was more water and vegetation this day than Yossi had ever seen there before.

We then went to a Bedouin camp where we first had camel rides (5 years ago I did this late at night for maybe 5 minutes.  This day it was in daylight for a long walk around the desert, so muc more worth it.).  I shared my camel with Mia and we named him Major Major Major Major in honor of the Catch 22 character.  A few people named their camels after Nativers, including Suzanne and Rivka naming theirs Jill Susan Katz; Ira and Yossi named theirs Lucy, but not after the girl in my track, short for Lucifer.

We spent the night with the Bedouins, where we had a really yummy dinner (we vegetarians ate our soy balls together, which were far more nutritious and delicious than we expected our food to be).  That night everyone hung out outside our sleeping tents.  It felt like camp with our campfire, guitars, and singing Jewish and secular songs.

On Friday we had a real hike!  It wasn’t too difficult, but there were some places where we needed ropes or handles.  Again, we saw more water and plant-life than one would expect to see in the desert.  From this hike, I have a small group planning on doing Yam l’Yam (Sea to Sea- a very popular hike in Israel) during our Passover break.

We met the non-hiking group at Kibbutz Keturah, where we were to spend the next 3 nights.  We split into rooms (I roomed with Sarah, but we were in a building that had 4 rooms and a shared kitchen and common room, which was really nice.  It was fun to- in a way- also room with Ellie, Hayley, Courtney, Becca, Sarah, Sivan, Lucy, Julia, and Alisa.) and prepared for Shabbat.  We had a tour to see just how cool this place is; it is not like any other kibbutz.  They have an algae farm, an experimental orchard (growing fruits from other parts of the world), date orchards, the oldest tree in the world (only a few years in the ground, it was started from a date seed found in an archeological dig…hate to say that I cannot remember to when the seed was dated), cows, water desalination machines, the Arava Institute for environmental studies, and solar panels.  Completely surrounded by mountains, it is also an absolutely beautiful place.

We had services all together with a few kibbutzniks.  Everything was led by Nativers, and I must say there was a high Kfar representation.  We had a good dinner (finally somewhere that knows how to feed vegetarians!), and then I hung out in my super-room for a while (the 11 of us were constantly coming and going), staying up just a little past midnight to wish Lucy a happy birthday.

Saturday morning, we had breakfast together in our super-room and services, lunch, and mincha like we normally would.  We had a nice chofesh (free time), during which a large group hung out and read on the grass outside my building.  We also played with these cats that were hanging around, tried to get them to leave, and upon failure, fed them yogurt and hardboiled eggs.  Seeing the cat pounce on the egg was by far the most exciting event of the day. 

On Sunday, I went on the hike while others either did de cupage, choreographed a dance (to a song from Lion King!), or made a movie (It was called “The Negover”, paralleling “The Hangover.”  The kibbutz director, Leah, said, “Over the years I’ve seen a lot of movies made for this activity, and this is one of them,” but I thought it was hilarious.)  The hike included a long, tedious walk to get to the mountain and a shorter but still tedious walk from the mountain to the kibbutz.  The beginning was intense (to me, this means fun), which made it nice.  On the top we looked out to see Keturah and how it was organized (e.g. the refet [dairy] is downwind) and all of the other kibbutzim in the area.

After lunch we had some much needed chofesh.  There was an option to learn about the Arava Institute (environmental studies by a diverse group who live on Keturah), but I am glad I took this time to read in my bed.  Then we went to sand dunes to frolic! This was extremely fine sand, very soft, so we ran and rolled down the hills, did flips we would be afraid to do on hard ground, tackled our friends, and played lap tag (aka sumo, this is a game that involves running, rolling, and tackling, but probably not flips.  I’m not going to explain it here, but I dominated the game this day!).  Later, we returned to the kibbutz and I took a much needed shower to later discover that my ears were still full of sand.

On Monday we had a very good hike, and if I remember correctly, there was water that we had to maneuver around and sections necessitating climbing.  Then we went to Eilat and settled into the hotel (I roomed with Hannah and Sivan).  We had a boat trip that reminded me of my 8^th grade yacht trip: we got on the boat, on one level they played really loud music and people danced and on another level people looked out on the water and talked.  The only difference was no one had cards in Eilat.  Neither time did I find the experience worthwhile, but this time was much better and probably not just because I’m a less bitter person now than I was 5 years ago.  After the boat, we had time to walk around and get dinner.  Eilat reminded me of Navy Pier with the boats, rides, and food.

black mountains!

Tuesday was the final day of Tiyul Darom.  The hard hike group ascended and descended Har Shlomo, but this was not nearly as difficult as Yossi made it sound.  It was steep and challenging, but I think this is better than a slight incline which just makes me sore.  That afternoon we had the opportunity to do water sports, but it was cold and looked like it would rain, so I indulged in my sleepiness and went back to the hotel.  That night, I went with a group to a Beatles restaurant in honor of my Beatles-obsessed friend’s birthday, and they did not play a single Beatles song.  So disappointing.  Still, we had fun hanging out.

Sarah and me on Har Shlomo

Wednesday morning we said our goodbyes.  Some people were sad, but I was mostly excited to finally get to Kfar Chasidim and be with my track only.  Anyway, we’re all going to be together every few weeks.  We got into our respective buses and parted ways.

Trivia: What do most (I assume most, at least) religious Israeli girls and others who have some reason to not go into combat do for the mandatory “army service”?  They participate in Sherut Leumi for which they do national service by volunteering in different places all over Israel.  There are 6 banot (girls) sherut volunteering with kids on the kfar who live down the hall from Rachel, the floor above the Nativ girls’ dorms.