Week 1, Check!

This has been a whilrwind of a week! and I'm sorry to report I have no pictures to accompany this blog post- I will be better next week.



Ulpan officially started on Sunday and I was placed in Citah Bet. After two days in class it was apparent that I was at a different level than the other students. We took a quiz on Wednesday and after seeing that I scored 100% my teacher recommended that I sit in on Citah Gimmel. While it feels like a much better fit, there are a lot of words I don't know, so it will be a challenge! I see a lot of vocabulary flashcards in my future...



On Thursday we began our Biblical History course entitled- The Geography and Chronology of Biblical History. We had about 40 pages of reading from the Encylopedia Judaicato read prior to class, and after the reading I was not looking forward to it! However, the first lecture (8:30-12 every Thursday) was fascinating. We spent some time learning about the topography of modern Israel, which means I got to draw color coded pictures- definitely a bonus. We also learned a little about archaeology and our professor told us about the different trips we will be taking this summer. The first one is a tour of the City of David- sounds like a lot of fun! Throughout the lecture I had flashbacks of my Archaeology class with Dave McCreery at Willamette. Our Prof for this class David Ilan is not quite as Indiana Jones-esque as Dave is, but he is a fantastic teacher. I'm really looking forward to this class!

And Sof Sof (finally) Friday, Yom Shishi, the day before the day of rest. aka, my day off. I woke up super early according to my internal alarm clock, and because of the usual hustle and bustle of the busy street outside my apartment. I met up with a friend of my mom's who was given orders by my mother to take me to lunch and buy me my favorite things for my birthday. Mission successful! We had a delicious lunch at the shuk at an adorable little restaurant that I didn't know existed! I had a sandwich with goat cheese, zuccini, fresh fruit, and walnuts- tasty! And she bought me beautiful flowers and tasty rugelach. Thanks mom! I then took my usual 3 hour pre-shabbat nap before heading to shabbat services.

I had a very interesting Kabbalat Shabbat experience this week. It is a community that meets once a month in the basement below the Reform synagogue near Talpiot. The call themselves "renewal" but Haim, our Israeli intern, refers to them as "the closest thing to paganism you can get in Judaism." We enter the room and see chairs set in concentric circles with drums and guitars. Jews Next Dor-esque! The first 30 minutes or so were fantastic. The ruach (spirit) of the community was impossible to ignore, right down to the people dancing in the aisles singing yedid nefesh and other niggunim (wordless tunes that you can set any prayer to- google "niggun"). About 2 hours into the service, 2 hours of trance-like dancing and loud clapping and singing, we quietly made an exit. It was a lovely spiritual service, but not really my style. A good experience though! Here is the website if you are interested: http://www.navatehila.org/35897/Nava-Tehila

I hope you enjoyed this picture-less post. Pictures from my Israel birthday celebration will be posted soon. And keep a lookout for my new "Milah Monday"

Shavuah Tov!