Yom Hamishi, Thursday

Shalom from Los Angeles! Since arriving here on Thursday it has been a whirlwind of visiting old friends, setting up meetings for Yuval to look for jobs, visiting the College, showing off LA, and more. The weather has been great and the only difficulty with the trip, really, is getting used to a ten hour time change. Believe it or not, a vacation in Israel would have been more restful overall! Still we're staying at my friend Richard's delightful home in the center of a neighborhood where I know a lot of people. Yuval got to see the Pacific Ocean for the first time in his life on Friday. . .and now that he is adjusting to the time is enjoying being here. When people ask him to describe his observations of LA, he always says peaceful and quiet. Interesting way to describe LA, but coming from Israel and the last several months, it is understandable.

Yom Re-ve-ee, Wednesday

I just took out my duffel bag and am about to begin packing for a 12-day excursion to Los Angeles (17 hours of flying each way plus a ten hour time change...what fun!) The news this morning:

Explosives-laden car is seized near Umm al Fahm
By Jalal Bana and Arnon Regular

A major bombing was averted yesterday when Border Patrolmen on alert on the Green Line near Umm al Fahm spotted a suspicious car trying to make its way across the border. Although the troops spotted the car from a few dozen meters away, the four men inside the car managed to scramble away before the troops arrived, with two suspected of making their way back inside the Palestinian areas and another two suspected of hiding somewhere in the Umm al Fahm area.

The car was carrying as much as a half-ton of explosives, as well as cooking gas canisters connected to a detonator, said the police. The troops called in reinforcements from both the police and army, which sent a helicopter to help in the search for the four missing men. Police scoured Umm al Fahm, while IDF troops worked the eastern side of the Green Line, but no arrests had been made as of last night.

____

It's important that you hear about stories like this: this was not one suicide bomber, but this was yet another MEGA bomb that seem to be the main industry of the territories these days. There was one in the north over a month ago that was also caught. Think about it: these brave men and women of the border police and the Israel Defense Forces are saving thousands of lives each and every day while their own lives are in danger. Their parents wait to hear from them by cell phone on a regular basis to be reassured. Think about if this mega bomb had made it to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem or other population center.

Now those of you in California: think if you live in, let's say near the Beverly Center, and the LAPD caught a major bomb being manufactured at 26th and Santa Monica in Santa Monica. That's the kind of distances we're talking about here, folks. For those of you in New England, it's like a bomb being made in Enfield to blow up Springfield, or Methuen for Boston or Nashua for Manchester. I think you get the idea.

So after telling you all of this I can still say without equivication: I'm delighted to be going to LA to VISIT and even more delighted to be able to return to Israel in a couple of weeks to resume my studies at HUC in Jerusalem. Life goes on here, apace.

The first semester was wonderful; the second one is sure to zoom by. . .There has already been a not-so-subtle shift in attention to returning to the States as next year's class is currently in the admission's process and the school is preparing for their arrival this summer (if you happen to be a new admitee, be prepared for one of the most moving, exciting, thrilling years of your life.)

I can absolutely say that my relationship to Israel has forever changed. It was always a part of me, sort of a long distance lover. Now we're on a first-name basis and are getting to know eachother more intimately. Just the other day I was just meandering through part of Jerusalem, checking out some side streets I hadn't explored. That's when you feel like you get a sense of a city...when you start getting to the places that most tourists never find!

The colloquium that finished yesterday at school continues to percolate through my consciousness. It was a great three days, truly wonderful learning with the faculty from stateside and my colleagues. We are split into "kitot" or class levels based on our level of Hebrew. Thus, for most of our school week, we hardly see folks outside of our kitot. These past few days allowed us to really learn with each other. We discussed Jewish identity, Reform Judaism, and leadership...(side note: did I really understand the type of business I'm getting into? ) The college is working extremely hard to think about what we will need to be successful leaders and what the future of American Jewry can be best served.

So now, like the dikduk exam from a few weeks ago, I am procrastinating (this time packing). I will, I'm sure, write from Los Angeles as this will be my first experience back in the US since June. This is the longest time I have ever been out of the United States.

One final note for now: I was speaking with Rose, formally known as the director of student services, but we just know her as Rose....wonderful Rose...anyway, Rose was speaking with me about the differences in our class and prior classes. She summed it up this way: during 1991, students asked, at the outbreak of the Gulf War, how they could get home. My classmates asked her how they could make sure they could get back to Israel! That gives you an indication of the extraordinarily strong commmitment my classmates and I have to this place!

Yom Shlishi, Tuesday

A cold, rainy, windy day in Jerusalem. The good news is that this weather IS good...the Kinneret (a/k/a Sea of Galille) is up, but not as high as it needs to go (that would take another five meters!) Still the fact that water is flowing into the Kinneret and into the various aquifers around the country is one bit of good news in this part of the world.

Yesterday we spent time looking at the various platforms for Reform Judaism over the past hundred+ years; it's interesting to contrast and compare. I was struck in the current platform by two things: (1) that in our relationship with God and the "God-Idea" there is no notion of "commandedness", although there was such a notion in 1937 when there was the idea of a "God who rules through love and law." and (2) how pro-Israel the current platform is--in 1885 it was passionately against the idea of a return to the land, in 1937 there was support for the proto-political settling going on in the land, in 1976 it became stronger, albeit with equal emphasis on the Diasporic experience and in 1999 a full-on support of Israel, reiterating, as in 1976, that the movement encourages aliyah for those who wish to move to Israel. (I don't think anyone is anticipating a widespread reform aliyah to Israel anytime soon.)

I am particularly excited right now about Eliazer Berkovits' "Essential Essays on Judaism" (Shalem Press)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/9657052033/qid=1043126089/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/102-3442477-5831324?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Berkovits was a modern orthodox theologian and philosopher who died in the early 1990s; he has profound things to say about halacha (Jewish law) and conscience and how the rabbis have always allowed conscience to enter into their legal decisions and interpretations. I have been struggling mightily with the role of halacha and my transition to the Reform Movement from the Conservative Movement; in the area of gay and lesbians, the Reform Movement has clearly taken conscience and acted accordingly (as it has with women).

More importantly, I am thinking about my relationship with God and with mitzvot and the idea in Judaism that mitzvot allow us to elevate our lives to kedusha, to holiness. I'm realizing, reading Berkovits and having listened to Aviva Zornberg that desire to do mitzvot is what comes before choice--and that at least for me that desire ebbs and flows depending on my belief system at the time. An interesting struggle...and one that I pursue with vigor because, at the heart of the matter, I believe that my commitment to mitzvot should not depend on my "feelings" and should be an integrated part of my life.

(I'm sorry if this sounds like rambling, but it's really the first time I'm sharing publicly this struggle and even though I like to write I haven't yet found the words to express these thoughts.)

So in a nutshell here is the issue: prayer and mitzvot are about a relationship with God that has a element of commandedness; that I have a desire to do mitzvot; and that as I stuggle with belief I hope to not let it affect my desire to be part of this relationship--God believes in me whether I believe or not.

And the other idea I'm noodling around with is that in a world as difficult as this one is, without religion or the "God-idea" it would be worse: religion is a way to mediate our lives in struggle and in harmony with the world, allowing us to surivive the worst and celebrate the best, and most importantly, have faith at all times, good, bad, and just life (stam--because). We don't really get to dictate the terms of what happens to us, but we do get the opportunity to act in a way that we choose.

Wow...see what happens when I try to explain thoughts in formation? I'm sorry! This is an important part of the year here in Jerusalem, that my thinking is "afuch" upside-down; that my beliefs get called into question, that I examine many new ideas and assimilate old ones. I guess these are good qualities to have in a future rabbi!

Yom Rishon, Sunday

Today we continue our mini-conference on Jewish identity at school and then on Wednesday our vacation begins for real! Four-and-one-half years to go! Woo hoo! I can almost taste it (not!)

Thursday Yuval and I are off to a visit in the United States, his first. We are going to Los Angeles for 12 days (when you add in the ten hour time difference I don't know how long it really is.) I'm looking forward to seeing folks I haven't seen since June!

Over the weekend I almost finished moving my place here in Jerusalem from Talbiya, a former Arab neighborhood that is quite ritzy and also quite Jewish now, a ten minute walk from school. Now I'm in "Givat Tzfartit" a.k.a. French Hill, which is about a ten minute drive from here. Since I'm not taking the bus, I will take a taxi to and from school and the school will reimburse me for the portion of the fare above bus fare. It is an offer they have made so that people who would otherwise have to take the bus don't have to do so. Very progressive.

It's been a great first semester even though there is always a certain amount of bitchin on my part and the part of my classmates. I've worked hard, but I haven't killed myself, and I certainly continue to thirst for more knowledge. I know I'll work harder in the second semester (if that's possible) because I want to squeeze out everything I can from my year here. I still can't get my head around the fact that we're past mid-January and before I'll know it it'll be June!

By the way, I think I did well on my grammar exam, although I got the first one wrong. But in the scheme of things I know much more about a dagesh kal and dagesh hazak and more then I did when I got here! Important stuff :)

Off to school . . .

Yom Shani, Monday

(sung to the tune of the Pink Panther theme)

Dik-duk, dik-duk, dikduk dikduk dikduk, dik duk dik duk...dah dah dah dah

Okay, I'm losing it...tomorrow we have our final in Biblical grammar (which Yuval said is like watching nail poilsh dry in terms of the interest of most Israelis). . .but it's important for the trade I'm going into. . .I think it's kinda fun when you're not being tested in it. Still the teacher rocks and it's a pleasure learning this from him.

This morning I studied at the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem (east) where all of the journalists hang out. It's a former home of a pasha, and it is lovely, although it is like being in another country. On the way out I picked-up the tourism guide for "What's Happening in Palestine." On the map there's listed for Jersualem the "municipal headquarters for West Jerusalem." You get the gist...

But the breakfast was great...and it's the first place in Israel I've seen a ham honch on the breakfast table, along with bacon and other goodies that I refrain from eating (just another cultural/religious observation). It is also the first hotel that I have been inside of in Israel with mezzuzot on every door.

I don't know why it's so popular with the journalists except for the fact that they are all there and hang together...sort of the journalists in Israel club.

Anyway, this is procrastination. Cue Homer Simpson voice when he sees food: Must study dikduk.........(I wonder if a congregant will ever ask me anything about Biblical grammar.....)

Yom Rishon, a Second Post on the First Day of the Week

Friday I turned in my tefilla (liturgy) final exam for the semester. I was asked to rewrite, with my own interpetation two parts of the liturgy. The "Geula", or part of the service that commemorates our redemption and Psalm Six, which is said as part of the daily prayers called "supplication." I thought I'd share them on my BLOG:

An interpretation of the Geula:

True and enduring is our relationship: You are Adonai our God and we are Your people Israel.

You freed us from those on earth who believed their hands the strongest, from those who use their power to corrupt, oppress and destroy. You do great things beyond comprehension and wonders without numbers.

You uphold our living soul in life and hold us steady when we are slipping. You give us strength to persevere over all who hate us. You redeemed us from Egypt; it is an everlasting reminder of our freedom.

We see your mighty power in the world today as we did on the shores of the Red Sea. Moses and the children of Israel sang unto You in great joy and they said:

Who is like You among the highest, Adonai? Who is like You, awesome in praise, performing wonders?

Your children saw your sovereignty when you split the sea before Moses: This is my God they said and declared Adonai will reign forever and ever.

And it is said: For Adonai has liberated Jacob and redeemed him from a hand mightier than his. Blessed are You, Adonai, who redeemed Israel.


An interpretation of Tehillim Vav (Psalm Six):

Adonai, do not punish me in Your anger; do not disconnect from me in Your fury.

Have mercy on me, because I am miserable;

Heal me, Adonai, for my entire being is consumed.

My soul, too, is terrified; how long will I have to wait, Adonai?

Return Adonai, rescue me.

Save me according to Your favor, for there is no remembering You in death.

I am exhausted and worn. I am consumed in tears.

Adonai will hear the voice of my weeping.

Adonai will hear my supplication, Adonai will accept my prayer.

Adonai is with me.

Spent Shabbat at the Dead Sea with Val, Dan and Ruth, and their great kids, Gabe and Sarah (I've become quite fond of all. . .Gabe ordered me to be at his bar mitzva yesterday! Ok, Gabe, I'll be there.)

The spa at the Dead Sea is not a fancy American contraption; in fact, it's more of a wow look at all of these "BIG" Russians coming in for the day who don't care how they look in a bathing suit (the anti-LA, if you will). There are hot pools in the locker room and the main building, outdoor solariums where you can slather yourself with Dead Sea mud and bake in the sun, outdoor pools, outdoor salt showers, and of course, the chance to actually float in the sea. When you come back from this place you are incredibly relaxed and your skin is soooo soft. Everyone had a good time.

This morning I walked back to my apartment from Yuval's on French Hill (where I'm moving in a week or so). You walk down a road where in 1948 a convoy of Jewish doctors and nurses were attacked and killed on their way to Hadassa Hospital on Mt. Scopus. From 48-67 it was impassable to Israelis/Jews and there was a gate, the Mandlebaum Gate, enforced by the UN that let people who were authorized through.

Today you just stroll down what has to be one of the strangest streets in any major city. On one side are the Arab neighborhoods and on the other are the Orthodox neighborhoods of the city. Of course you also pass by Ammunition Hill site of one of the stunning victories of the IDF in 1967.

This morning I decided to cut through the corner of the Old City through the Christian Quarter and for the first time in Israel I was stopped by soldiers asking for my identity papers. I don't carry my passport, so my student ID and California's driver's license had to do. Interesting experience watching the soldier figure out what to do with me. He finally figured out that I was, in fact, benighn, and let me go.

As I walked out the Jaffa Gate, I saw another sign of Israel's civil religion (a concept I am much more hip to thanks to reading a great short paper that Val wrote for our Israel experience class). There's a HUGE mezuza on the Jaffa Gate. Now you might be thinking big deal. Yes, it is a BIG DEAL. Here, on a gate that was mostly built by the Turks, inaccessible to the Jews between 1948 and 1967 there is now a big honkin' mezuza. I had to smile.

In California you don't get much sense of borders since we're such a big state. Today I walked down borders that have gone back and forth throughout history and today are part of a united (geographically) city, but is really two cities, Jewish and Arab, and the borders continually blur.

Yom Shishi, right before Shabbat

This is THE time of the week...you hear the birds singing because the noise of the city is starting to die down. Of course, the Israeli driver is in his/her element because with less traffic on the street it means that they can drive even faster, especially if they see a pedestrian crossing the street! Ah, Israel.

Yom Shishi (the Sixth Day, or Friday) is quite the day here. Since I'm done with most of my schoolwork for this semester, I was able to really enjoy it. I took my friend Ian, visiting from Sydney, to visit HUC and show him the campus. There he was able to meet some classmates and also Jonathan Livney who is there for the twice-weekly liberal study group that meets there. It's wonderful that so many people are giving up their free time to learn in a liberal environment.

After Yonatan, we left school and right in front ran into a dear friend, Hanna, a 4th year rab student at the UJ in LA along with my friends Robin (3rd year, UJ, LA), and my other Jonathan friend. We went to T'mol Shilshom for a lovely Friday brunch, where of course I ran into more people...out front was another student from the UJ. Then walking up the pedestrian mall I saw my good friend Gali. What's so wonderful, in addition to the beautiful weather, is that people are out living their lives here in Jerusalem on a gorgeous day. And now Shabbat comes in. . .

Tomorrow I'm going with Yuval and my friends from school and their kids to spend the day relaxing at Yom HaMalach, the Dead Sea.

Shabbat Shalom!

Yom Hamishi, Thursday

Sof ha shavua (week's end) is here! And today we had our last classes of the semester; now I have some clean-up work to do and an exam.

So in my life I've lived through plenty: the 92 riots in LA, the 94 earthquake, etc. I've been through fire drills and earthquake drills and other types of safety drills. Today you can add to this illustrious list a "bomb shelter drill" done at HUC. Now before you think "how scary" think again: we're prepared. We know what to do. We have what we need to survive. And that's better than just sitting around worrying.

The HUC shelter is located adjacent to the garage; there are a number of entrances to it. Inside there is water and showers and food and beds and blankets (no room service) and most importantly a state-of-the-art air purification system and the most modern gas masks. So conventional, biological, or chemical, this is a good place to be!

The war with Iraq is on many people's minds around here, but to be sure, it is different than last time. This time, it is believed that Iraq only has 12 missile launchers; in '91 they had hundreds. And this time, the US Airforce is there to intercept or destroy missile launchers on the ground. So, truth be told, I'm still more concerned about the Palestinian's war against Israel than the pending war against Iraq.

I had occasion this week to be at the American Consulate in East Jerusalem. I had to go next door to the YMCA there where I got to see signs in only Arabic and English, posters that said, "Israel, Stop Killing our Children,"; "lovely" needlepoint maps of "Palestine" (that covered all of Israel and the West Bank), some trinket with tears from Jenin, and other items. Put another way: it was a bizarre bazaar. Here I was, not 15 minute walk from school or the Western Wall and I might as well have been in another country. You can thank the American government for its wonderful ability to site its consulate.

What's also interesting is that on one side of the main street is the Arab part of town and the other side the Ultra Orthodox; all that separates is a main street (at one time it was the border); and in 1948 this street was the site of a terrible massacre of doctors and other professionals who were trying to get to Mt. Scopus where Hadassah Hospital is located. Today you just drive up and down the road....Jews on one side, Arabs on the other. I can't say that it's like any other place I've ever been.

One other thought: so today in the shelter I was thinking that this was kinda strange: here we were, students, faculty, staff and dozens of kids from the nursery school all in the shelter together. Now I know that it's a strange place to feel Zionistic and all that, but I thought: we're here. We're in Jerusalem. We're together. We're with these kids whose parents believe in the future (I hope). We're ready. And we're prepared.

After 54 years of sovereignty, not a bad place to be--but I hope that it remains a place for drills and that we don't have to use it. But you must give HUC credit: they are more than ready and are on top of the situation--it is probably one of the safest places to be.

Now about redecorating the shelter. . .

Yom Rishon
Sunday Night

Was at a seminar at the Shalom Hartman Institute tonight when I heard about the double homicide bombing in Tel Aviv; it's in a neighborhood that is frequented by foreign workers and lower income individuals. Apparently these bombs were particularly devastating.

I can't quite describe what it's like to be here and get this information: you hear it, you process it, you feel sad, and then, like Israelis, you try to push it out of your consciousness. It doesn't quite work, but you get on with your business because you have no other choice.

My business at hand is finishing work for my tefilla class (prayer), getting ready for Hebrew tomorrow, and a million other things that I'm sure are critical to my future as a rabbi but right now seem less important.

Yom Reveee, Tevet 27, 5763

Well, in Israel, it's the day between Tuesday and Thursday, a work day. I know what you're thinking: we get New Year's Day and you don't. Well, this time, you're right. Today we have school, a trip to Meah Shaarim, the ultra-Orthodox quarter here in Jerusalem. AND, to make matters even more fun, I have to prepare for a Hebrew test tomorrow and work on a take-home exam!

It's a brilliantly sunny day this morning, cold and crisp. As you know, we are in an election season, with the election coming on the 28th of January. What is so interesting about this elections is (1) the emergence of Mitzna as head of the Labor Party (2) the strength of the Likud (predicted at over 40 seats), but now it's decreasing as news continues to come out about incredible corruption in the picking of who will be on the party list (such as a 27 year old waitress in Tel Aviv with no political experience); (3) the popularity of the Shinui party (means change) that's neither right nor left, but something of both; (4) how every move (like the US) is political and how Sharon reacts. Let me give you a few examples of number four.

Here's the main story in today's Haaretz:

1 percent negative growth in 2002 is worst in the
West
By Moti Bassok and Lior Kagan

Israel's 1 percent negative economic growth was the lowest recorded in the West in 2002, according to preliminary figures released by the Central Bureau of Statistics yesterday. In a record-breaking bad year for the economy, Israel registered a second 12-month period of negative growth in a row for the first time in history.

The press reports that 2002 had been the worst year, economically speaking, since 1953, greatly angered Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who summoned chief government statistician Prof. Shlomo Yitzhaki to his office for a reprimanded.

The Central Bureau of Statistics is directly answerable to the Prime Minister's Office.

In 2002, Israel's GDP fell by 1 percent, following a 0.9 percent contraction in 2001. The population, however, grew by 2 percent, pushing GDP per capita (an oft-used measure of standard of living) down to NIS 73,900 a year - a 3-percent decrease from 2001, a year when GDP per capita contracted 3.2 percent. The last time GDP per capita fell for the second consecutive year in Israel was in 1953.

Due to the weakening of the shekel, the GDP is even lower when assessed in dollar terms and now stands at $15,600. In 2000, GDP per capita stood at nearly $18,000. The fall in standard of living in both 2002 and 2001 followed a year in which GDP per capita increased by 4.6 percent. In comparison, among the OECD countries, GDP per capita increased a modest (but positive) 0.8 percent, following an increase of 0.5 percent in the previous year.


Note the paragraph where Sharon called in the main statician to reprimand him. That's what Sharon does: he doesn't like reality, so he brings in the folks, yells at them, and then makes them backstep...but that's after the proverbially cat is out of the bag.

So, too, with the Likud scandal, where he has fired a deputy minister for her refusal to cooperate with police investigating, but no such punishment is in store for his son, Omri, who also holds a high place on the party list. (You getting the idea here?)

On busses and bus stops around town, there are big posters: The People Want (in small type) SHARON (in big type). I laugh every time I see it because I remember his promise from when he was elected a few years ago that he was the guy to bring Israel security. Not only does Israel not have security, it has the worst economy in the entire Western world! And the policies of this government do nothing to support the domestic infrastructure--but it does pour funds into building the Orthodox religious institutions (such as the Shas education establishment that doesn't teach math or English to its kids) and into the settlements. (Kids do come to school here hungry, without adequate books or clothing. . .there is real poverty in the country...I have even read of soldiers who don't go home on the weekend because there is no food there.)

So then I read in the Jerusalem Report that people like Mitzna, but they like Sharon as a "grandfather" figure. (Sort of like the way people liked Ronald Reagan???) Still with the scandal and the news that continues to come out, it will be interesting to see how much ( if any) erosion occurs in Likud party support and what that means for Sharon's future. His so-called "Unity Government" was a disaster; Mitzna has pledged not to join a new one.


Whatever happens here, it is my sense that the majority of Israelis don't expect much to change from the election, that there will be another election in the year to come.

So it's Hag ha Sylvester, New Year's Day in Israel. Israelis wake up to more of the same, with a potential war in Iraq looming and unknown consequences for Israel. And headlines about the worst economy, how Hamas has pursued chemical and biological weaponry, and more. . .

But at least the sun is shining. . .