I know that I already wrote a post for the 16th of September, but I had something else in mind that I wanted to share so I apologize for the repetitiveness.
It is kind of ironic that the title of my blog today is Safety First. The first question that I was always asked when I told people I was going to Israel for the year was, "is it safe and will you be safe?" I always responded with the following, I feel more safe and protected in Israel during a time of war then I do in the United States during a peaceful time. More about safety in a bit.
Today was a good day, as most days thus far have been. Today I once again had Talmud, so nothing new with that regard. After Talmud I had about a two and a half hour break where I once again did my ritual of lunch, Mincha and work. I then went to Poskim class with the Rosh Yeshiva, Reb Shmuel. It is funny to be sitting in that class because Reb Shmuel was a classmate of the Rabbi I learned with at school for two years and they have practically the same teaching style. Unfortunately, I was unable to stay in class the entire time because of my interview for MADA, Magen David Adom which is the Israeli Red Cross. As part of the Kehilla track which goes to Yerucham, which is a small city in the south, we have an option of training and volunteering as a paramedic for MADA. Something that is new this year is the option of training earlier in the first semester to then volunteer in the busy city of Jerusalem as well as another city near Jerusalem, Beit Shemesh. The interview went very well and was conducted primarily in Hebrew so I hope I did well. At the end the woman asked me what size t-shirt I wore so I thought that I had made it. It turns out she asked everyone what size shirt they wore, so my bubble was popped.
After my interview and what would have been the end of Poskim class, I met up with my Chevruta and friend Judah and we went to dinner with the former International Director of USY, Rabbi Paul Freedman, and his wife Nina for a nice dinner at Cafe Joe. It was a great evening full of Schmoozing, catching up, Torah, and of course good food. After dinner we had a mandatory program that was split up by gender and by track. The program was about healthy choices and about relationships for the most part. It was a good mix of humor as well as information about some serious issues. Everyone got a lot out of it and it took a lot out of us that no one wanted to go out afterward and we all went straight to bed.
I promised I would explain the reason for me titling the blog entry for today, "Safety First." I never really had any interest in going into the medical field when I was younger, but I had always had a dream of being an EMT for fun either during high school or college. I was never good with science or math but their was something about the human body that just fascinated me enough to want to do something like this. I chose to go out for MADA because their is a feeling I get when I am able to help someone in need whether a boo boo at day camp, a sprained ankle from sports, a throwing up friend from a bit too much Manischewitz, and many other things. I feel that if I were to be able to volunteer for MADA and have to answer the emergency call of a terrorist attack, God forbid, it would make me feel accomplished that I was able to do a huge Mitzvah of helping someone in need. Safety is always first and hopefully, I will be able to practice that while on Nativ this year.
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