Women of the Wall Up Close

Hanging in the rearview mirror of my cabdriver on the way to the Kotel.
It says,  אין לי ארץ אחרת which means, I have no other country.

I need to start by saying that I love Israel, I am a zionist and I also believe in egalitarian Judaism. I am still able to love Israel even though there are a number of problems related to how much sway the religious right has with the Government of Israel in general and the Kotel in particular.

Some where along the way, the Kotel went from being one of the symbols of Judaism to being a synagogue policed by Haredim. People who go to the Kotel are told how to dress, what ritual objects they are allowed to bring, how they are allowed to pray. The bottom line is that Haredim refuse to recognize that there are other ways to be Jewish. This is something that needs to change, especially if progressive Jews want to be able to go to the Kotel without leaving with a bitter taste in their mouth. Woman of the Wall is an organization that is working to change this, even if their only protest is to pray loudly and try to wear their tallitot and tefillin at the Kotel.

The following is my account of what took place on Friday morning, December 14th:

I arrived by Taxi at 7 AM. At that point a few people were already there, I learned that the officer at the gate decided that the group could not enter with their siddurim (prayer books) and tallitot (prayer shawls). A few minutes later, we were told we could bring the siddurim, but not the tallitot. We waited until Anat Hoffman, other board members arrived, so we could hear how we would deal with this ruling. At this point we were group of about 40 woman and supporters. There were gap year students on RSY Netzer, people who I recognized from Shirah Chadasha and Sod Siach (two of the places I may daven on Shabbat), other students from Pardes and visitors from other places. There were a couple of reporters including one from the AP with a camera man.  The decision from the board was that we would enter the plaza and daven as planned, but that everyone who wears a tallit would hand it to the police officer and explain what wearing a tallit means to them. This process took about an hour. As we were waiting we sang, we did get some looks and a couple of hecklers but nothing too extreme.

We proceded to the women's section and stood all the way at the back with the supporters standing above us on the plaza itself. Four of the woman had given their tallitot to supporters and got them back on the plaza.

Edit based on comment I received when I posted on These and Those: Rachel Yeshurun told me that she was detained, “when I refused to part with my tallit at the security entrance. I told the officer that I insist on entering with my tallit – and he said well in that case you will be detained”. If anyone has more accurate information about the other three I would be happy to hear about what exactly happened. 

These four were detained by the police. There was also one woman who started to put on her tallit, an officer came over and said, "come with me", she gave it to him and was not detained. We were there though Hallel (a special set of prayers that are said on Rosh Chodesh and other holidays), then we moved to Robinson's Arch for torah reading and the concluding portion of the service.

I did my research, I know that it is against the law in Israel to discriminate against someone's religious practices. Apparently, the Kotel is a special case? I am not naive enough to believe that I will be able to pray at the Kotel in a fully egalitarian service. I do however believe that women should be able to pray as loudly as they want, with their tallit and tefillin, if they choose to.

For more information on the Modern History of the Kotel, I suggest looking at this Article by Rabbi David Golinkin, that examines the following questions:

I) Was the area near the Kotel considered a synagogue before 1948 and did it have a mehitzah?

II) Why is the Ministry of Religion in charge of the entire Kotel plaza?

III) What is the halakhic status, as opposed to the legal status, of  the Kotel Plaza; is it really a synagogue?

IV) How should the State of Israel deal with the fact that the entire Kotel plaza is slowly but surely becoming a Haredi synagogue?

Make Your Decisions Carefully (Parshat Toldot)

When  I was asked to write a Dvar Torah for Parshat Toldot, two memories came to mind:

 The first, was from when I was in forth grade, at Solomon Schechter of Bergen County, in New Milford, New Jersey. For certain Parshiot, we were assigned to do a project, Parshat Toldot was mine. I made my mother’s Tomato Lentil soup (with a lot of help) for my class. 

The second memory is about what would happen every time my mother made tomato lentil soup: 

My mother's tomato lentil soup is quite famous (at least among family friends), and due to my mother’s fairly intensive work schedule it was only ever made for Shabbat. In fact, on Friday afternoons, instead of eating (insert your normal snack food name here) for snack after school, my brother and I would occasionally bargain with her for the ability to have her tomato lentil soup before Shabbat dinner. We would say something like, “Sure, we’ll clean our rooms!”, “Of course we will set the table!”. After enjoying our snack, we would run off, promises forgotten. That is until about 20 minutes before Shabbat, when we would be called on to make good on our promises. “What do you mean, I said I would clean my room?!”, When did I promise to set the table?!”. We (usually) made good on these promises, our reluctance apparent to anyone observing. 

In the case of my family, we never made a promise as big as, “I will give you my birthright for your freshly made soup” (as if we have such extravagant birthrights to bargain with!). On a fantastically apropos side note, my brother’s name is Yaakov, and he is younger then me. 

I believe that the Torah is a guide to establishing personal moral code. Much of the narrative that appears does not always portray our central figures as upstanding human beings. I would propose that stories such as this one with Yaakov and Esav illustrates the type of moral stories found in Biblical narrative, things you should not be doing. From this story, I learned that there are some things you don’t bargain with and you should not make promises you cannot follow though with. It is also important to carefully weigh decisions, especially financial ones! When people make rash decisions that seem great in the short term, they may ultimately be problematic at a later time.

Fitting with Pardes tradition, I will end this Dvar Torah with a blessing: I want to bless us, me too why not, to have the clarity to make decisions carefully and to not make promises we cannot keep, no matter how small.

By the way, the recipe comes from The Cranks Vegetarian Cook Book, Cranks is a restaurant in the UK, in fact the first vegetarian restaurant in the UK, founded in the 1960’s. http://www.cranks.co.uk/

Setting My Goals For The Year

During orientation for the program I am in at Pardes (part of the Pardes Center for Jewish Educators), we were challenged to set goals for ourselves for the year. I was a bit apprehensive about doing this at first, and put it off until now for the following reasons. The first month at Pardes was a rush of orientation, meeting new people, and holidays, with only a little bit of time left to get used to the rhythm of learning at Pardes. I wanted to see what I was in for in my classes, before I set goals for myself. This second month has been entirely focused on getting used to the rhythm of learning at Pardes, which was a bit overwhelming at times.

On Friday afternoon, I set my goals while walking from the Nahalat Shiv'a area back to my Apartment (about 40 minutes). I want to tell you my goals, especially everyone learning at Pardes, because I see an opportunity for all of us to support each other in reaching our goals for the year.

 There are a couple of categories that I needed to establish before I could articulate my goals. They broke down into the categories of academic, professional and personal.

There is definitely overlap. For example, Hebrew and leading services are both professional and personal.     

My Academic Goals:

I will finish what is assigned for Chavruta (work you do with a partner) each day. 

I will memorize the list of verbs that appear in the Tanach x amount of times, and finally master those of the concepts in Biblical grammar that I am still foggy about.

I will get beyond my stumbling blocks when it comes to reading Hebrew out loud. I knew coming into Pardes that reading out loud in Hebrew is an area in which I need improvement. Besides working with a tutor for half an hour a week, I am going to spend about an hour in the Beit Midrash (the big room where we do our learning) after school working on this, three times a week. So if you see me reading out loud to myself, now you'll know why.

    

My Professional Goal(s):

I will continue to hone my skills as an educator. This will be achieved through working with a mentor and participating in peer teaching. For this I have to thank the PCJE team for working with us to make it happen, peer teaching was not originally part of the program.  

I will finally make a decision about what grade(s) I want to work with.

  

My Personal goals:

I will speak Hebrew for a minimum of one hour a week (hopefully more!).

The relatively immediate goal is that I will lead pesukey De'Zimra (preliminary morning blessings) at community davening and in the egalitarian service at Pardes. This ties in to my “reading Hebrew out loud” goal. I started with reading these blessings out loud, there are some seriously tongue twisting words involved. 

Next is that I will learn to lead Shacharit (literally the morning service)

Parallel to these is that, I will read torah by the end of the year. This I am learning to do in a class.

All are things that want to take on for myself, and are necessary for a Jewish educator.

The following are goals of well being. These are also what are going to make it possible to achieve my academic and professional goals:

I will walk for at least one hour a day, if anyone wants to join me, they are more than welcome. More than anything I am struggling with sitting in the Beit Midrash and class all day long. Exercise is not only good for you physically, it also releases endorphins which relieves stress.    

I will go to The Open Studio (Avigayle Adler's studio) at least once a month, again, if anyone wants to join me, they are more than welcome. I miss being artistic, and this also is a stress reliever. 

 Even though this is not a Devar Torah, I want to give everyone a blessing, me to, why not, that we are  all able to achieve the goals that we set for ourselves and if the opportunity presents itself to help others achieve their goals as well.

The melody I could not recall

 For the past couple of years, on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, I have been attending this Minyan  (service, today, this word is often used for groups who pray together but are not affiliated with a movement of Judaism) called Koleinu, at my parents synagogue. One year, before Rosh Hashanah, they has a workshop to teach new tunes that would be incorporated into the service. Everything that was taught was really beautiful. However, there was one melody that really stuck with me. This year, as Rosh Hashanah approached, I tried to remember that melody, and I just could not. I was very troubled by this because I usually have a very good memory for music.

Yesterday, I attended Sod Siach, a Minyan, that reminds me of the one from home. All of the sudden, a melody that the person leading us used, triggered the memory of the forgotten melody. As soon as I was outside again, walking home, I began singing the melody so I would not forget it. Then I sang it as I gathered what I was bringing to lunch, and on the way to lunch, I sang it while sitting in the park, and later, while taking a walk on "the rakevet" (a park that connects many neighborhoods in Jerusalem, which runs along the old train tracks). Finally, after Shabbat, I sat down and recorded myself singing it so I would not forget. My hope is that I can soon share this melody with my community at Pardes. Shavuah Tov everyone!

Today I Was a Tourist

(I would have posted this yesterday but I did not have internet) Today is the one day of vacation that is not Shabbat or Chag, that I am in Jerusalem. Therefore, I decided that I wanted to do all the things that I would have done if I was here as a tourist during Sukkot. I went to Machane Yehudah, Ben Yehudah St., and The Old City. This was my first time going to The Old City since I have been in Israel. I have been to Machane Yehudah and Ben Yehudah St. several times. The difference is, that this time I brought my camera. I don’t want to overwhelm anyone with information so I will be breaking it down into several posts. I’ll just say for now that I did in four hours what most tourists would do in two days, and I did it all on foot. 

The Shuk was not as busy as I thought it would be. I started out at my favorite place Pri Ha’adama, a ceramics cooperative.This is a picture of the steps leading up to the store. I know, right (so cool)!

 Right next door is Uzi Eli. The man who owns this store believes that the fruit juice that he sells has healing properties. Even if it does not actually  have “the power”, the juice is fresh and delicious!

After going to these two specific places I wandered around taking pictures.

I just had to take this, I love Jerusalem Street Art!

Gummies!

Proof the light rail train exists and runs!

The following is easily the strangest/ funniest thing I experienced all day: I went into a clothing store that I had been to about three years ago, which is known for its cute skirts. I picked up a skirt and looked at the tag, it said Banana Republic. I thought nothing of it at first. Then I picked up another, it to said Banana Republic. I looked at each of the skirts again and determined that there was no way these skirts are from Banana Republic. I turned the skirts around and noticed the poor sewing job that had been done on every skirt I looked at. Apparently, someone was determined to give buyers the impression that these were from a high end, American retail store. They were better off without being tagged and needless to say I did not buy any skirts today.   

פעילות תרבותית בישראל

Wow! Ever since my blog was added to the list of Pardes Student Bloggers, there has been an explosion of pageviews! Thanks everyone!

So the title of my blog post is, Cultural Activities in Israel. One of my goals for the year is to experience what Israel  has to offer in music, film, ect. So far I have not been working so hard on this goal. As someone who will hopefully be teaching about Israel when I go back to The States, this is very important. I went to this Jazz performance at The Yellow Submarine, a really cute venue near where I live. The music was just a tad more experimental than I like, which is saying a lot, because I really like experimental music.

Last night I went to Off The Wall Comedy. At first I was a little worried when at 9:15 and I was the only one there. Even though the show was slated to start at 9, it did not start until about 9:30. The show was awesome! There were two Israeli comedians and one American, though I cannot for the life of me remember their names. Even though a few of the jokes were lost in translation, I did not stop laughing.

This is the part where I ask for audience participation: I have found a few places to see and things to do already. However, I would love to hear from you. What movies, performances, museums do you recommend checking out in Israel?

Chag Sameach!

צום קל

   Yom Kippur ended a couple of hours ago, but I cannot fall asleep. Instead, I decided to update my blog. I think that this year has been the easiest fast I have ever had. Last year, I got sick enough that I needed to end the fast a few minutes early. I think I was dehydrated when the fast began so not eating or drinking for another 25 hours was not good. I do have to confess that I have drastically changed my diet in the past year as well. My pre-fast meal consisted of whole wheat/ whole grain challah, tofu and veggies and a combo of lentils and brown rice. The biggest difference is that now I only eat complex carbohydrates, along with foods that are high in protein, and low in fat. This may have had an impact on how easy my fast was.

   I think the key factor in this being an easy fast, was Sod Siach, the Minyan (a group of people who gather to pray) I attended from Shacharit (morning service), through Neilah (ending service). This was exactly like the Minyan I have been attended the past few years for Yom Kippur, but higher energy if that is possible. The services were held in a small space with a low ceiling, and it was packed! By the time we got to the very last part of the service, I felt like I could go a few more hours, easily. I davened with some my peers from Pardes, people I had met from Yeshivat Talpiot, one relative, and someone I went to high school with. It definitely did not hurt that Rabbi Elie Kaunfer, one of the founders of Mechon Hadar, led Neilah. Being surrounded by people I know, who were all contributing, helped to make this Yom Kippur one of my favorites. If I had not decided to come to Israel and Pardes this year, I probably never would have had this amazing experience. I should also mention how cool it was to be able to just hang out in the middle of street in Jerusalem, because there are almost no cars on Yom Kippur. This is certainly something I could never experience anywhere else.  I hope that everyone had as meaningful and as energy filled a fast as I have. If you did not, I hope that you get to experience one like it in the near future. Shana Tova!

סוף השבוע הראשון שלי בפרדס

For anyone who does not read Hebrew, the title is, "The end of my first week at Pardes". Wow! What an amazing week. Great people, great programming, challenging but rewarding work. The one thing that I need to change is the amount of time I spend sitting during the day, it is way too much. My back hurts because of it. I also need to work on my posture, which will probably alleviate the pain. 

So, I should start at the beginning. Last Thursday night, was a meet and greet for new students and my birthday. It was great to finally start meeting people, especially those I had spoken to before. Everyone is really nice. A bunch of people just finished ulpan that day and came right to Pardes from Haifa with all of their belongings. When one of these people heard it was my birthday, she ran to her bag and pulled out a birthday candle and stuck it in a flat pretzel. Sincerely, one of the nicest things someone has done for me literally minutes after meeting. On Friday night, I ended up eating dinner at the home of one of my teachers. I could be wrong, but I don't think there are many schools where this is a regular occurrence, but at Pardes this is.  On Saturday there was a huge potluck lunch on the Tayelet (Has Promenade) for Pardes Students. On Sunday morning (we have class from Sunday through Thursday afternoons) we had the opening circle. Every single person associated with Pardes introduces themselves to the community, this took about two hours. This was very long, but I am glad we were able to do it.  Most of the first day was orientation, but we did have one class. There are also evening classes offered (more like after school activities). I decided to finally, actually learn how to read torah (one of the evening classes). This is one of the ways I am challenging myself this year.

I think the thing that will be most difficult for me is the style we use to learn. I am not talking about Chavruta (working with a study partner or two). I am talking about being giving a text and being sent off the Beit Midrash (literally meaning house of learning). In my limited experience with studying Jewish texts, I have been given a list of key terms and concepts to aid our understanding of the texts. If you don't know much about traditional Jewish texts, they are in Biblical Hebrew, Rabbinic Hebrew, and Aramaic. As you might imagine, learning in these languages requires a lot of trial by error, I usually understand the big picture of what we are learning, but get smaller details wrong. It is only the first week so I am hopeful that after a couple of weeks I will be  used to learning this way. 

The most important thing is that the teachers are inspiring and for the first time I am actually excited about learning Jewish texts. As much as I am feeling challenged I am also having a good time. Shabbat Shalom!

The Museum In My Pocket

This is a story that I meant to post last Friday, but time got away from me. Last week, I went to Marzipan near my Ulpan after a difficult day (I mentioned before that half the time in Ulpan is self study and half is with the teacher. During one of the half hours I was supposed to learn some new words and for what ever reason my brain refused to absorb them). As I was paying, I handed the guy behind the counter a 10 agurot coin. He looks at the coin, then at me and says, "Where did you get this?" I explained that before I came to Israel I went around my parents house to find all the Israeli money that had been brought back from various trips. Then he laughs, holds up the coin and says, "this is very nice but you cannot pay with it."
"What", I said.
He told me that the coin has been out of circulation since 1986.
I paid with real money, went home, and googled Sheckel coins in circulation. Sure enough, the coin had not been legal tender since 1986. So of course I looked at all of the coins I brought with me. Almost all of the very small denomination coins (5 and 10 agurot), were completely useless. These coins only amounted to about 3 dollars, but they are heavy and I brought them all the way from America! The question is, what should I do with them now? 

Consider yourself at home

I am starting to feel at home in Jerusalem. On Sunday, I took the bus to the central bus station and got a RAV-KAV (card that allows you to ride buses at a discounted rate). Then my roommate and I walked over to Machaneh Yehudah (the market). Over all, I was very surprised by how expensive food is in Israel. In the grocery store I paid 9.90 Shekels (about $2.48) per Kilogram for grapes. In the market the same amount is about 5 Shekels (about 1.26). There were so many things I would have bought, but in the end I bought fresh, whole wheat pita. This trip was one of the ways I oriented myself in Jerusalem. The neighborhood I live in is one I was not that familiar with. Seeing it on a map is not the same as walking around. Taking the bus showed me how close I am to the city center and the old city. Today, I walked through the German Colony on a tiyul for my ulpan. This is when I realized how close I live  to one of my landmarks, a youth center, which is at the other end of Emek Refaim from where I am currently staying. Knowing where you are in relation to familiar places helps establish connections to new places.

A note on language:
My courage to speak Hebrew, comes mainly from my participation in a Hebrew immersion program at JTS, last summer. Last Spring, I volunteered at a school where I spend several hours a week in Hebrew classes. I did lose some Hebrew during the year. This is why I am very happy to be in Ulpan this month. Ulpan Or, is a great method, with several pieces; part one is a grammer book, two is a book of exercises aimed at increasing vocabulary (reading comprehension, translating, ect.), three is listening to music with a vocab. list. and lyrics, four is tiyulim (trips around Jerusalem). When we meet for class, half the time we work with a teacher and half the time we work individually with mp3s of all the parts mentioned above On occasion, youtube videos and their e-tone a clever play on the Hebrew word for newspaper. If your students are able to deal with being self directed about their work this is a great method to use.

As for me, when I am around town, I try to speak only hebrew if possible. The exception to this has been opening my bank account. While I know the word for account, and atm card, I wanted to make sure I knew what I was getting into. The only way to overcome a fear is to face it head on. Think about it this way, if you make a mistake while ordering food or talking to a cashier you don't need to be embarrassed because you will probably never see them again. Even if you do it is unlikely that they will remember because they deal with novice Hebrew speakers all the time. Most importantly the only way to get better is to practice.

So time travel is possible...

   I just arrived yesterday and it feels like I have been here for about a week already. I have already gotten lost while trying to find a place to at dinner with my new roommate (RM). We ended up at Tal Bagels on Emek. Before going inside I said, "Tal is a New York bagel place, it will be a taste of home!". RM said, "you have only been here for like 5 minutes!" We went inside and who do I see, but two people from JTS.

I already found my bank, pharmacy, grocery store, and Marzipan off of Emek (this took a little detective work).

 To give you an idea of my journey to Israel:

   A few hours before my flight I checked the status and it said the flight was delayed enough that I would miss my connecting flight at Heathrow. I was able to change to an earlier flight, but could not switch to the vegetarian meal (I never order the Kosher meal when I fly, most of the time it is meat) because it was too close to the flight. We left the house at 2:20 first to pick my sister up from camp, then to pick up my father at 125th St. in NYC. We got the the airport at 5 PM for my 6:50 flight. Luckily, I was still 20 minuets early because the terminal is small. The first flight was uneventful, I watched part of Juile and Julia and tried to sleep. 

   Heathrow Airport is one of the most beautiful airports I have ever seen, even nicer then Ben Gurion! Still I had trouble there as well. When you have a connecting flight, you need to go through security again. Before security you show a british version of a TSA agent your ticket and they make sure you are in the right terminal. This a very good thing because had I gone right to my next flight, I would have found that I was taken off of it. Long story short, after 20 minutes I was back on the flight and I set of to spend the one pound I had in my Wallet, which is not that hard to do. The airport was deserted, at least it seemed that way because the international terminal was huge compared to the British Airways terminal at JFK. The second flight had several young children on it, including one old enough to kick my seat, but not old enough to understand proper airplane etiquette. This was fine because I spent about 1/4 of the flight standing. 

   It took about 5 seconds for me to get though customs at the airport, both my suitcases made it with me despite the removal from my second flight. I hopped on a Sherut (shared taxi) bound for Jerusalem and got a mini tour of my neighborhood. When I had trouble finding the apartment someone from the next building helped me find it and helped bring my bags.      

       

Next Stop Everywhere

I meant to post this last week and did not get around to it:

  Next week I am off to Israel for 10 months. The main thing I will be doing is studying Jewish Texts at the Pardes Institute in Jerusalem. I never did a gap year program or studied abroad during college. This will be my first solo trip to another country. Luckily, I do speak the language, though many Israelis do speak English, and sort of know my way around Jerusalem.

 I will also be skyping with students from the religious school I have been teaching at for the past three years. This will supplement their Israel curriculum. Through stories, pictures and videos about my encounters with Israeli culture and people, I will give them a clearer picture of what it means to be Israeli and help create stronger ties to the land.

Oh! I will have a brief layover in London...During the Olympics.

The Post Limmud NY High

   I have not posted in a while because my life has been extremely busy. Over the past few months I have been planning for Limmud NY with the Steering Committee, as one of the coordinators of the Family and Camp Team. I finished my Masters Degree in Jewish Education. I still teach religious school, and I now have an internship with the Schechter Day School Network. I also have another teaching internship pending. Now starts the search for a "real job".
 
   Limmud NY has just ended and I am still feeling the adrenaline rush of the weekend.
In fact every time I attend a Jewish Learning Conference I feel the same way. I am optimistic about my future and the future of Jewish Education and peoplehood.