debka_notion

The last few days have been full of little adventures. Yesterday I went with a friend to the Islamic Art Museum, which had a great deal of Islamic Art, mezuzahs on the doors, and a very snazzy exhibit of watches and clocks in the basement. There was an audio guide only for that last exhibit, in Great Detail- I wish that detail had been available for the rest of the museum instead, but I am not a watch enthusiast. The other excitement of yesterday was baking hamentaschen with another friend and having some good hang-out time with her. They were date-and-chocolate hamentaschen, so that's some excitement...

Today started out with what got described as "hippy minyan day" at Pardes- i.e. we sat in a circle and did a bunch of singing. There were a few instruments, but unlike Schechter's attempt at the same concept, these were used well. There are days where it would drive me batty, but they started early enough to have time for it, and it was actually quite nice. I then had a morning at home relaxing and helping outofnapkins prepare props and costumes for her 10 minute play this evening, before I headed out to meet a friend and her new baby (age 3 weeks, totally adorable, and slept pretty nearly the whole time I was visiting). The last time we'd hung out we were both sort of distracted and the timing wasn't so good, so having some time to sit and talk about recent changes in our lives was quite nice.

Then I went to the shuk, and the bookstore, and realized that at that point it made no sense to go home before outofnapkins's play at 8, so I grabbed a bagel, and decided to walk from the center of town to where the play was, carrying all my groceries, books, and other miscellaneous purchases (including both a thing of fuzzy yarn and another of shiny string, because it's nifty, and just what I was looking for), because I needed some exercise, having taken the bus on the way into town. This was indeed good exercise, but somewhat unintelligent, because all the relevant stuff was quite heavy. I also turned down the wrong street and had a few moments of mild anxiety because I couldn't find the turn that I knew was supposed to be there in order to get where I was going. However, eventually I realized what I had done, and then got where I was going just fine, found that I did in fact know a few of the other audience members (I'd invited a friend to join me, but he wasn't available). outofnapkins's play (the event was a set of 6 10-minute plays, all written and rehearsed within the last 48 hours) was very well done and quite hilarious. Afterward, a few of us went out for "coffee"- in which none of us drank coffee, and have now come home. The other person with us seems to need a place to stay for a couple of days after outofnapkins leaves, so I think I may have another house-guest for a few days...

Today turned out to be a really lovely day. I went to minyan in the morning, which was both very nice and sort of frustratingly hilarious all at once (there was some pretty bad gabbayut, that sort of thing), and then came home and had a really good conversation with outofnapkins before she headed out to see some other friends. I had a quiet afternoon at home, called my folks, and then went to a movie with a couple of friends- we saw Avatar. It was a pretty fascinating experience: for one, a surface-level thing- all of the places where the aliens are speaking their own language had Hebrew subtitles and that was it. It made perfect sense, but was this moment of "oh wait- ok, I can do this". The messages of the film were more troubling- there was some good stuff about the environment and the dangers of the combination of the military mindset and large corporations, but there were also these tropes of the Noble Savage, and the White Savior running through the thing in ways that I found rather shocking. I came out of it with this feeling that some of what was happening was a reaction of "well, we can't do this sort of other-ing to people with different color skin, so we'll just do it to aliens instead". Of course it had the big climactic heroic ending with the perfect fairytale "boy gets girl", so I walked away feeling pretty good. I'm glad I had a walk home with the folks I was with, to start to parse things out a little bit.

Quite anticlimactically, I'm done with finals. I just emailed in my last exam about half an hour ago. I'm not sure what my teacher really wanted, I don't know if I gave it to him, but whatever it is, it's done, and I understand a few things in the sugyot that I wrote about better than I did before I started. Besides that, I wrote 8 full, single-spaced pages today. It doesn't sound like so much, but recognizing that I more often write double-spaced papers, and that this would have been 16 pages long, and that this morning when I started, I had a bit under half a page written, that is a relatively significant amount of writing for one day.

The semester is done, but it hasn't really sunken in yet. Perhaps it will tomorrow. I'm sure it will on Sunday when my apartment will suddenly be empty of occupants other than myself. So now (or well, tomorrow or Sunday), I start planning vacation, now that it has started.

As a break from studying this afternoon, I took my hula hoop outside (it being quite a warm day for winter), and decided to play in the front yard of the building, it having a flatter surface and more grass than the back yard. That way I could use the full-sized hoop, rather than the reduced size that I use in the apartment (it comes apart in pieces, and can be put together with either the full 6 pieces or only 5 of them, the latter of which is a bit harder, makes you work harder to keep it going, and fits better in the apartment). There I was, playing with the hoop and working a bit on some tricks, on and off, when practically a whole troop of 3-5 year olds and their mothers come by, and start watching me. So after I did some tricks for them and tried to talk about what I was doing in Hebrew, I offered one of the moms a chance to try it, and then the kids all wanted to play as well. So I spent some time watching a whole series of little kids with my toy- I wish I'd brought my camera down, they were really adorable, especially when one of them asked me to have a turn, and once it got established that we were taking turns now, they all spontaneously lined up to wait their turns- they made a very nice, neat, and respectful line too. So now- if I want to hoop outside without interruption, I know that that's not the place. But for vaguely meeting the neighbors and seeing nice kids- it was great.

There are some guys setting up a stage in our back yard-like-space. (It's a patch of random space with a road going through it, that received a bunch of mulch and a sign saying "Community Garden" a couple of weeks ago.) Said stage- not terribly large- has 6 (count them, 6) Israeli flags, three on each side.

I looked at the random piece of junk mail on our coffee table, and discovered that this is the set up for a municipal Tu Bishvat event, scheduled to begin in about an hour and a half.

I think I'm glad that I have required programming to go to that starts before that, because the sound-checks are Quite loud already (also, the sound-check-guy can't seem to think of anything to say besides "ha. huh huh ha huh huh" over and over and over again.

I've been thinking, on and off for a while, about setting up a reading list of stories and novels that fit conceptually with different parshiot of the Torah. I get a lot of inspiration out of reading regular old fiction, and I figure that this is another way of exploring Torah- rather like some of the theological reflection techniques that I learned in CPE- one of which involved taking an encounter, and coming up with related physical images, biblical stories/images, cultural images, and one more which I'm not remembering right now, and then using those to go back and think about the encounter. So, playing off the cultural and the biblical images- here's another little side project. The book that sparked it was Ursula K. LeGuin's "Four Ways to Forgiveness", relating to any of the parshiot in the desert as B'nei Yisrael start exploring freedom after being slaves.

Anyone else want to play with this idea with me?

This shabbat got a re-working of plans about a day beforehand. Originally, the plan was to have an early dinner with a few friends, go to bed early, and then get up in the wee small hours of the night to go to Bakashot (a Mizrahi custom of getting up in the middle of the night in order to sing various devotional poetry, etc, leading into an early shacharit). I then had a lunch invite from someone I met at a friend's birthday party a while ago, and rather firmly expected never to actually get in touch, although he'd asked for my contact info.

So the lunch plans stayed, but the friend hosting dinner and who was going to be the local guide/company walking to bakashot was not feeling well. So instead I hit a minyan-and-potluck combination instead, which was a bit adventurous for my current norms, as it was a service using drums on Shabbat- something that I'm rather iffy about. After the experience- it was alright, and a nice way of getting people excited, but I'm not sure that it was worth it, in terms of my discomfort, halakhically. It made it feel more like a really fun and inspiring sing-a-long than Shabbat davening for me. Now that could be because I'm not used to it. Nevertheless- well, mostly I was glad that it gave me someplace to be and eat with people, which turned out to be a rather interesting combination of folks.

Lunch was quite pleasant- a small meal (which I tend to prefer), with interesting company, and then we went to the park and read a few scenes of Merchant of Venice. Not at all what I expected of my Shabbat afternoon, but a good time.

As the title says- sometimes I just don't know what to write about. With the exception of various conversations with the nearer and dearer, life over the last few days has been pretty prosaic. On the other hand, in Halakha "Lema'ase" (no way that I try to transliterate that today seems to look even half-way reasonable) today we were supposed to be talking about Niddah- the first of two weeks we're doing on the subject. Instead, we spent much of the time talking about homosexuality, again. Not that I object to the topic, and given my teacher's generally unique approach, it was certainly interesting- although he at one point got so embarrassed, when nothing else had embarrassed him at all, that I got majorly embarrassed as well. It was in relation to something that was apparently fairly new information to him (although I'm not sure why) and he lost all his professional decorum, which was rather distressing for me as a student. Other than that, there was no great hiddush in what he was saying- but he put off almost all discussion of niddah, besides an Extremely basic discussion of the background in Tanakh and Talmud for next week, when we were supposed to have spent this week on the issue of the 7 clean days, and had all next week for a discussion of harkhakot. Honestly, if he knew that he wanted to spend time talking about homosexuality (and it's pretty clear that he did), he should have budgeted it into the schedule, even if it isn't formally part of Yoreh De'ah, which is the topic of the class (but then we don't Get a dedicated semester on Even haEzer, boo, hiss.)

On the other hand, we'll have a different teacher next semester, whom I am Quite sure will have a different approach and general attitude, and he came to talk to us briefly about what we had and hadn't already learned, and what we'd appreciate doing in more depth. So I'm hopeful that next semester will be a significantly different experience.

Next semester in Talmud may also be a significantly different experience- I know that at least one of my two chevrutas is planning to leave the class, as is at least one of our other classmates, who implied that the two of them were not alone in that plan. (By that measure, the class one level down, which already has absorbed I think 4 folks who were supposed to be in my class, if not more, is going to get awfully large...) So next semester should be an adventure by all means.

In other future-related news, at least one of my classmates is planning to take next semester off, because he's unhappy at Machon Schechter, another classmate is leaving JTS next year for RRC, another may be leaving with uncertain plans involving making Aliyah, and 2 more are thinking of spending a second year in Israel. So just as I'm getting to know and like folks, many of them won't be around after this year anyways... Go figure.

It does make me feel rather awkward about JTS, etc. I mean, I'm satisfied enough with it- I have enough good classes that I feel like I'm learning something, I'm going to come out with the degree and title that are going to be what I need for a lot of different things that I want to do with my life, and I'm getting some reasonable training in that direction. And yet many people whom I care for and whose opinions I generally value are constantly dissatisfied with JTS and with the education that they are offered there. Is it a spiritually transformative experience? No. Is it going to teach me pure Torah on the level that I could get at a really intensive yeshiva-style program? No. But if what I need it for is a graduate school, the it does the job, and I am no longer hoping for it to be anything else. I'm not sure if I should hope for it to be something else or not- it would be lovely if it were, but I don't think that it can do that without changing the culture so much as to be unreasonable, and when it tries, it mostly just gets sickening, whereas it makes a perfectly reasonable graduate/professional school.

No institution can do everything, and asking one institution to be spiritually transforming for each and every one of its students, to teach Torah on an intensive level equal to one where the students are doing nothing other than learning pure Torah lishma, and to provide significant professional training for rabbis in a variety of contexts is unfair and unreasonable. And yet, if I express satisfaction with it, even provisionally, I feel like I need to be on some sort of defensive, and/or like I'm giving in and settling for something that isn't as good as what other people are leaving to go find elsewhere- except that in each case, they're giving up some of those list of things that I'm not willing to give up. I just need to accept that what's right for them and what's right for me aren't always the same, and not to take their needing something different as a judgment on what I'm doing- but that's easier said than done.

Yesterday afternoon I braved the Israeli post office for the first time, in order to pick up the package that my parents sent me for Hanukkah. Due to the fact that the post office hours are Very Very similar to the hours that I have class, I had received the notice that I had a package waiting for me nearly a week prior, but only managed to be free when the post office was open on Wednesday. So, armed with directions from Google, I set off- apparently it was only a 15 minute walk.

The beginning of the walk was fine, through territory I knew a bit from visiting with jakal88's aunt and uncle who live just a few blocks away. And in fact, I ran into his aunt walking their younger son home from school on the way. It was a good thing that I did, because what Google maps document as a street named Ben Baba does not actually become anything ressembling a street (even by the looser Jerusalem standards, by which many vaguely paved footpaths are named streets) until a number of blocks after where I was expecting it to be a clearly visible path. Instead, following the advice I was given, I found my way up through a series of stairs and sidewalks in between houses.

Once I got to real roads again, I did just fine, until it came time to find the post office itself. After walking for a while and not finding it, I asked an older lady walking by me on the street. She gave me directions- it turns out that the post office is inside the local little shopping plaza building, not visible from outside. After she gave me directions, another man called out "Doar?" (mail), and proceeded to give me the same directions again. With their help, I found the post office, and successfully was only cut in line by one set of people. After my indignant and mildly confused look, the gentleman behind them very kindly made sure that he didn't cut me as well.

Walking home was uneventful, and then I got to open my box. Having told Mom that I was finding the wardrobe that I had brought with me to Israel rather boring, I had both hopes and fears about what she might have picked out for me. For the most part, my hopes were well rewarded- I am now the owner of a fun gauzy over-shirt-thing (somewhat hard to define, but quite exciting in appearance for me), various sorts of pajamas (she remembered that I needed more of them before I left), an orange button down shirt, a striped overshirt/tank-top/vest, a rather inexplicable black t-shirt with bright bits of color and a large 10 on the front, a sweatshirt (I haven't owned one of those in quite a while, as many of them make me look like a bubble), and two skirts. Also, quite excitingly, a sticker that proclaims "Arghh" in large letters with Milford, CT below. I need to find a good place for it.

I tried everything on in the living room, with occasional commentary from Eve, along with admiration of my full slip- which made trying everything on in the living room a reasonable proposition (we have no curtains/shades on the downstairs windows, and a pillar only provides so much blockage, although the next apartments over in that directions are far enough away that I doubt they'd be able to see much anyways).

The living room light went out as I turned it on. So I grabbed another bulb (after finding out where we had some from the available roommate), and changed the bulb. Not a big deal, except that the last 3 years, I lived in a set of rooms where the ceilings were too high to actually change my own ceiling lights, as I did not own a ladder. (Lamps were a different story.)

I acquired a copy of the new edition of Va'ani Tefilati (the Masorti movement's siddur) today, as they arranged a very nicely priced sale of them at Schechter (less than half the usual price, a very nice thing for us student types). It's hard cover, has all your basic things that one wants in a prayer book, and a nice font. I'll probably stick with my Koren for most things, as that has Sefer Tehillim (the book of Psalms) in it as well as all the stuff that they share, but it's definitely something that I'm enjoying having.

I stayed after school to do homework, today, then walked to the Conservative Yeshiva to do some trope teaching (week 2, and my student is doing pretty well. It's a totally new thing for him, so mostly we did a bunch of practicing, but it's going increasingly well. Darga and tevir seem to be good trope for him, he's caught on to them very quickly, faster than the others. There's something very friendly about that set of trope, somehow, in my mind. Go figure.), and from there walked home with wotyfree. It's been a very wotyfree-full week, which I'm enjoying. We spent some time talking about gender roles and the performance of gender (not that we used the latter term, I don't think, but it's basically what it was). I've been talking about such things with one of the roommates as well. I like differentiated gender roles in social interactions, myself (within reason, of course), and therefore when people use them or respond to my gendered behavior, I tend to reinforce such things positively. It's what I prefer, after all. But at the same time, it makes things more difficult for people who prefer a less gender-differentiated social experience. I'm uncertain as to how to balance between what I like and think is generally beneficial, and what other individuals might prefer and think is ideal.

It is now somewhat later than I thought that it was. Off to bed goeth I.