Lauren, Rachel, me and Rachel and the wine festival
Me and Allie at the beach in Tel AvivSo I haven't really been super busy since I last wrote, and so I have no excuse as to why it's been a while since my last post. I'll just give you a rundown on the last week.
We had our second Masoret Day where we got a chance to put on tefillin, learned some of the choreography of prayer (i.e. when to bow), lift the Torah (Hagbah)-and might I say, it's just as heavy as it looks, and how to call people up for Aliyiot (blessing before and after the Torah reading). At the end of Masoret Day, Gingy explained to us what our role in terms of leading services is going to be throughout the year. Each student reads Torah a minimum of two times (I'm reading once in Nov and once in April), leads services once (I'm leading in Feb), and deliver a devar Torah once (mine is in March). We also have many opportunities to service as Hagbah as well as various other roles in the services throughout the year (all good practice)!
On Tuesday we had our academic orientation. As expected it's going to be a very busy and exciting year. My courses consist of: Rabbinics Lecture, Hebrew, Rabbinics Text, Bible, Hebrew Grammar, Modern History, Education Seminar, Liturgy, and Israel Seminar (every Wednesday we take field trips and have study tours throughout Israel). I'm looking forward to the beginning of classes.
Wednesday all of the Hebrew classes got together to sing a song for everyone else. Kita Bet (my class) got really into it and rehearsed all week (chorography and even attire). We had a lot of fun and so did our teacher Osnat. Here is a video of our performance.
Thursday we ended class at noon and had no extra programming afterwards. It was a very early start to our weekend! I took advantage of the afternoon and caught up on some sleep, but by the end of the day, I was ready to go out. It was our classmate, Brandon's, birthday so we all went over to his apartment to celebrate.
Friday morning I slept in, went to the gym, and then met Allie at a really cute Cafe not far from where we live. After a late lunch we headed home to get ready for Shabbat services at Kol Hanishamah. Before services HUC students had the opportunity to study with four different Rabbis. Rabbi Stanley Davids led a very interesting discussion about Israel-the reality and the ideal.
After services Ally, Allie, and I headed over to Rachel's for a very relaxing Shabbat dinner. We brought our pajamas, made breakfast for (Shabbat) dinner, and watched a movie. We said the Motzi over our large choc chip banana pancake and the Kiddush over the orange juice. After realizing that this was one of our best Shabbat's, we decided that this must become a tradition (at least once a month).
Saturday I slept in a bit and headed to a different cafe (open on Shabbat) for lunch with Rachel, Rachel, Allie, and Ally (I should probably start searching for some friends named Haley). It was delicious! Allie and Ally even got to enjoy a Cheeseburger...in Jerusalem...on Shabbat!
Rachel and Me at lunch
Rachel and Me at lunchAfter lunch Rachel (Kaplan) and I started to discuss some travel plans for our break coming up in just two weeks. It seems as though we (Rachel, Albert, Rachel, Allie, Ally, and Jon) are going to be heading up North to Haifa for two-three days and then spending a day in Tzvat. We are all looking forward to this trip!
Our amazing interns are returning to their stateside campuses at the end of this week (all except Haim who attends the Israeli Rabbinical school) and so they organized an evening in the park followed by Havdallah. It was very relaxing and nice to see everyone and hang out for a bit.
Me, Allie, and Molly at the parkAll else is well in sunny Jerusalem. I'm off to sleep after a long day of ulpan, micha, cantillation, a work out, delicious Cincinnati Chili and a walk to Ben Yehuda for dessert!
Shavua Tov (a good week)!
No comments:
Post a Comment