I meant to blog more frequently, but somehow I ran out of time. This past week has been incredibly long, mostly because I woke up before 6am more days than I would have liked. But lets start at the beginning.
I last left you the night before I was off to Tel Aviv. HUC organized a beach day for us, and almost everyone went to the beach for the day. We got up and went to HUC where we had minibuses to drive us the hour to Tel Aviv. A group of friends, Lyz, Maya, Jenn, and I started off by wandering around the artists fair at Shuk HaCarmel. There was a lot of really cool art for sale, like melted wine glass clocks, judaica, jewelry, paintings, and more. We walked around for an hour or so, stopped for iced coffee, and headed to the beach. We found a spot under a canopy, dropped our stuff, put some sunscreen on, and headed for the water. The Mediterranean Sea is incredible. The water is warm and clear, and for most of the day, not too rough. I was probably in the water for about three straight hours. It was glorious. We found some other HUC people and hung out with them in the water and then a group who had gone out to breakfast at Dr. Shakshuka had made their way to the beach. We got out of the water to hang with them and eat some lunch before returning to the ocean. I reapplied sunscreen and headed back into the sea for a bit. Only to exit a few minutes later when I got stung. I have only been stung by jellyfish twice in my life. Twice in the Mediterranean Sea. Not fun. So I got out to go dry off on the sand until it was time to go to the dock for Kabbalat Shabbat services. Now, I mentioned several times that I put on sunscreen. However, I apparently did not put on enough because I got badly burned on my shoulders. But I survived. We rinsed off and walked to the dock (about an hours walk) for services. We got there kinda late and there were no chairs left. Well there were chairs, but it was like one here and one there. So a few of us found seats on the floor right up front. Services were on the dock overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. It was beautiful. So were services. Lots of songs and instruments. They had this cool part where they took the microphone around to people in the audience and asked them what they were thankful for. One of the people who spoke was the husband of my education professor. So it was cool to see her there. After services, we got dinner at Pasta Factory and ate on the ground before making our way to the buses for the ride back to school. Our bus was pretty awesome. We played a few games on the trip, and I got to learn more about my classmates (maybe even more than I wanted to know). But it was fun.
Saturday we had services at school and I went over to my friend Ashley's for challah french toast afterwards. We hung out, did homework, practiced cantillation, made quesadillas, cleaned the kitchen (well she cleaned, I played games on my iPad), and got ready for havdallah with HUC. For havdallah, we went to this park overlooking the old city, which was gorgeous. We had wine and cheese and snacks for a bit before it was time to start havdallah. But before our service, we had a little goodbye ceremony for our interns who were leaving this week. Our interns organized a lot of programming for us, during orientation especially, but also throughout our first month at school. They were wonderful and we wanted to thank them. So we bought them presents and sang them a song and made them cry. It was fun. Then we had one of the most beautiful havdallah services. I think celebrating havdallah with this class has been my most favorite experience. It was just lovely.
Sunday started another week of classes. Ulpan, cantillation, T'fillah, and biblical history. I really love all of my classes, with maybe the exception of biblical history. I think it is a very interesting class, and I like the lectures, I just don't like the structure (or lack there of) in the presentation of the materials and what we are expected to know. My professor is brilliant, but a little all over the place with his lectures, making it really hard to study for quizzes and tests. I was not sad to see the end of my biblical history tiyyulim (field trips). Yesterday I had to be at school at 7am to get on the bus. Which meant I was up at 530 to get ready and walk to school. Too early. So yeah, the trips are cool, but I would prefer to not be tested on the information. I think it would allow me to enjoy the trips better. Maybe assess us on a paper at the end, not quizzes that focus on the minute details of our extensive readings.
But enough ranting. Wednesday morning, I had the wonderful privilege of welcoming the new month of Elul with Women of the Wall and their monthly Rosh Hodesh (new month) prayer services. I was up at 5am to get ready to get to the buses by 615. We boarded the buses (most of my HUC classmates were there) and headed for the kotel. We were escorted by the police to the entrance gate, and because of last month's fiasco, waited until Anat Hoffman (the president) went in to see if we had space to pray on the women's side of the wall. While we were not allowed on the women's side, the police and military had set up a barricade towards the back of the Kotel Plaza where we were allowed to pray. So they herded us into our pen and created a human wall, in addition to the gates, between us and the Haredi who were not happy that we were there. I donned the tallis I made with my mom at a women's retreat more than ten years ago, and joined in with the many men and women who were singing in the new month. The Haredi men and women who were protesting our presence blew whistles and shouted and had posters expressing their outrage. But we prayed, we celebrated a Bat Mitzvah, we sang, we danced, we blew the shofar, we ignored them and went on with our service. Afterwards, we walked as a class back to HUC for our ulpan class. It was a very interesting experience. I am still trying to gather my thoughts and reactions. Maybe next month will bring more clarity.
Today, I slept in, am working on homework, and am going to make brownies to bring to Shabbat being held at my colleagues' apartment.
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