It's Raining Men in Jerusalem(10/27-29/09)

After a very standard week at the Yeshiva and nothing to spectacular to blog about I have decided to blog about something that has happened several times since I have been in Israel. If you notice the title of this blog post, it is dedicated to the Weather Girls and their classic song, "It's Raining Men."

Since I have been in Israel, from the beginning of September, it has rained here in Israel more then it has rained in years past. The funny thing about it all is that the rain is earlier then it usually is. Traditionally from what I have been told, Israel gets a little rain on Rosh Hashanah and doesn't see it until December/January time. However, that has certainly not been the case this year. I have seen rain from heavy downpour to lite drizzle at least 5 or 6 times. It is an absolutely incredible thing to see.

My friend Judah wrote something on his blog that I would like to share that talks about rain in Israel and its connection to Judaism. I think it is exactly what I am trying to say about that power of the rain.

People often talk about how neat sunrises, scenic views such as cliffs overlooking valleys, and nature inspire their praying – all of those are creations and powers of God. Likewise, we recognize at the beginning of the Amidah, when we say "mashiva ha-ruach u-morid ha-gashem," that God has great power in allowing it to rain. It was also shortly before I said the prayer "v'tein tal u-matar livracha," asking God to let it rain for the good, that it began to rain. When it rained tonight, I was praying in the midst of God's great power. Rain in Israel is a huge blessing, and I hope that the prayers of all of Israel will be a source of blessing just like the rain God provides for us.

In Israel, people care a lot about the rain, more so then they do in the United States. Rain is a precious thing in this country that we constantly ask for it and don't get it. However, this year I have a feeling that we will be shocked to see how much rain we will get. Last night, Thursday, we had our weekly NBA(Nativ Basketball Association, games. As we all go to Gan Hapaamon to play and we stretch out and take the court, I notice some drops coming from the sky. I say to my team, play smart its going to get wet and slippery, which it certainly did. We ended up playing basketball in a very constant and heavy rain for about an hour and a half. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done. Growing up and throughout high school it was a normal occurrence for it to rain while playing soccer games or at practice. But, I had never ever played basketball in the rain. It was also a tradition that after those rainy and muddy games, my mother would put me or my brothers into a giant yellow trash bag because she didn't to get her car dirty. So as I was walking home from the games, I called my mother and asked her if she would meet me at the park and to bring a giant yellow trash bag, to which she responded with laughter.

Generally speaking, I don't praise the rain or any of the natural wonders that come to us, however now that I am in a country that celebrates and enjoys rain as much as they do, I have a new found appreciation for the rain.

May we continue to see much rain in the country for the remainder of my year and continue to get wet while just merely walking down the street in the middle of the day!!!


A preview of my Shabbat plans.

I was supposed to be staying in Jerusalem and be hosted for meals, but I decided I wanted to get out of Jerusalem. I am going to Ra'anana to stay with a friend who was a staff member on the summer program I hope to be working with this summer, USY on Wheels. I am excited to get a good Shabbat in and be with good company and hopefully great food. After Shabbat, we are driving back to Jerusalem as she is going to be staying on base for a night or so. Their was supposed to be a memorial concert/gathering in Tel Aviv for Yitzchak Rabin, who was the Prime Minister of Israel who was assassinated in 1995, but due to the rain it has been postponed to next weekend. So that is what I am up to for this Shabbat.

Shabbat Shalom!!!

Shabbat and Idan(10/24-26/2209)

Shabbat October 23-24,2009

As I mentioned in my last post, Shabbat was going to be full of Rabbinical Students. On Friday night I went to shul at Moreshet Yisrael, the shul next to base, where I was honored with hearing Rabbi Brad Artson, the Dean of the Rabbinical School at the American Jewish University. It was my kind of speech; short, sweet, and to the point. After shul, I went with a bunch of the Reb Students from AJU to lunch at one of their houses. It was a nice lunch with good food, good company, and plenty of 90's pop culture references. People don't understand how I am so well versed in the 90's pop culutre, and then when I tell them that I have two older brothers and some of the things that we do/did together growing up they put it all together.

After lunch, I came back to base and read a little and then went to Mincha, Seudat Shilshit and Maariv to end Shabbat. At nigth, Judah and I were invited to a Malavah Malkah, a extension of Shabbat after Shabbat, at a different Reb Students house. Rabbi Artson taught at the Malavah Malkah and their was food and it was just an opportunity for people to be together and celebrate the ending of Shabbat. After the Melavah Malkah, Judah and I went back to base and I watched a movie on my computer with a few people and called it a night.

Sunday October 25,2009

Today was the same as every other day at the Yeshiva. I had Talmud in the morning and then Pirkei Avot followed by Tanach. The excitement was what happened at night. MASA is an organization that helps Jews from the age of 18-35 get to Israel on different types of programs. Nativ is a program affiliated with MASA. Sunday night MASA held its annual concert for all particpants on MASA Programs. The concert was held at Binyanei HaUmah, which is a beautiful theater directly across the street from the Central Bus Station of Jerusalem. The special performer at the concert was none other then the Idan Raichel Project. The Idan Raichel Project is a group comprised of musicans from all across the world who have different styles of music to create one amazing band. I had never seen them before but I had always been told that they know how to put on a show and they most certainly did. He started out very chill and calming with everyone sitting in their seats. After four songs he starts his fast paced songs and his songs that people get out of their seats and go crazy for. And we did exactly that. I have 4 favorite songs that he plays and it was nice because he played 3 of the four songs; Mimamakim,Brong Fraye,Bo'ee, but he did not play Im Telech, which happens to be my favorite of his songs. It was an incredible concert that I will never forget and I can't wait to go and see him again when he comes back to Jerusalem.

After such an amazing concert it was time to get on a bus and head back to base and reflect on the night as well has listen to his music on my IPod as I fell asleep.
What a great night. Now for pictures.























Until next time.....

Dedicated Learning(10/22/2009)

Well for the first week back at the Yeshiva, I have to say that it was a good week and I am glad to be back at Yeshiva. Today was a emotional day of learning at the Yeshiva. Several weeks ago both the Yeshiva Community as well as the Nativ Family heard of the loss of Rafi Lehmann. I never knew Rafi, but I have heard lots about him over the past few weeks. Rafi was a Rabbinical Student with my brother Corey as well as a good friend of my brother in law Josh. He was also a counselor/staff member of several of my Nativ friends at Ramah Darom. Rafi passed away suddenly several weeks ago from what I don't know. I have heard many amazing things about how he was a dedicated Jew, and an overall Mensch. Today at the Yeshiva, the learning was dedicated to the life and memory of Rafi. My brother-in-law, Josh, who was a room mate of Rafi's several years ago spoke for about 15 minutes and retold several stories of Rafi and just shared the memory of Rafi with all of us. Reb Shmuel's weekly Sicha was also dedicated to Rafi and he focused on a topic that was near and dear to both the heart of himself but also to Rafi; Teffilah/prayer. It was certainly an emotional day for us at the Yeshiva as we celebrated the life of a amazing person who I feel I knew all my life, but in reality had never met once in my life.

At night after dinner with a large majority of the Nativers, I watched two movies that I have recently acquired from friends, I Love You Man and Miracle. After that it was time to go out and spend the night on the town. I went out for a few hours and ran into a few friends who I hadn't seen yet while being in Israel who are on a different program then I am. I came back at around 1 am and went to bed cause I was a sleepy boy.

A preview for Shabbat:

On Friday night I was asked if I would come and be two groups of Swedish people who came to Israel to learn about Judaism and spend Shabbat here. I was asked by two of the Rabbinical Students from AJU that I am at the Yeshiva with. So that is Friday night. Saturday morning I am going to Moreshet Yisrael, next door to base, to listen to Rabbi Brad Artson give the Dvar Torah and then after that I am going to a Reb Students house for lunch with a bunch of other people. Motzei Shabbat their is a little get together at another Reb Students house with Rabbi Artson and the other Reb Students at AJU. It should be an exciting weekend.

Shabbat Shalom and now for the pictures of the day.

Education(10/20&21/2009)

I would like to open with a Mishnah from Pirkei Avot, the Ethics of our Fathers, that describes the past two days perfectly.

רבי טרפון אומר, היום קצר, והמלאכה מרובה, והפועלים עצלים, והשכר הרבה, ובעל הבית דוחק

Rabbi Tarfon said: The day is short, the task is great, the laborers are lazy, the wage is abundant and the master is urgent. 2:20

Over the past two days I have been learning intensively like crazy. Tuesday morning I had a very intensive Tanach class where we discussed on of the prophecies in the book of Amos. I am finally starting to understand how all the different prophecies happened and finally realize that it must have been a very difficult job to be a Prophet. Thank God I am not a Prophet. It would be to much stress and pressure. I am really enjoying my Tanach class because the teacher is incredibly brilliant as well as an absolute angle. I wish I would have had a Tanach teacher like her in school because I would have learnt so much more then I know today.

After Tanach, I had my weekly lunch date with Rabbi Paul and Nina at their favorite joint, Cafe Joe on King George. We had to cut this one short this week because I had to get back to the Yeshiva to listen to Chancellor Arnie Eisen of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. Dr. Eisen spoke to us about Conservative Judaism without talking about Conservative Judaism. I know it is complicated and it took me a little bit of time to fully comprehend his topic. He spoke about the continued need for Jewish Education as well as people needing to live Jewish lives. He was very fascinating, however he spoke for only 20 minutes which to some people would be plenty of time, but I would have liked to hear him speak for a little longer. I also got to meet the Chancellor after he spoke and got to exchange a few words with him so that was nice.

After the Chancellor spoke I had about an hour break before my next class. However, I decided not to go to my next class of Modern Jewish thought. As I have mentioned in the past, the class is a mess. The class discusses great topics and the teacher is brilliant, but he is all over the place and goes off on too many tangents and it is difficult for me to follow. It turns out it was a good thing that I didn't go to class. Turns out that the entire class was bombarded by Hebrew U students and Ulpan students who were off of class and had nothing to do. Turns out those extra kids would not stop talking and causing trouble to the teacher and he was unable to teach the way he normally did. So, had I been there originally chances are I would have walked out on the class. This was probably the first time in my entire educational career that I believe I skipped school/class. It was slightly odd, but I am glad I made that decision.

Tuesday night is Erev Nativ and for this weeks Erev Nativ we had a Beit Midrash session with some of the Rabbinical Students from JTS. I was in a session that dealt with Mishnah. It was a good session, however the teacher lacked a little in my opinion. But none the less it was a good session. The JTS Reb Students are going to be leading a Beit Midrash for us Nativers on a weekly basis, completely optional, that allows the Nativers to learn a little from potentially our futures Rabbis and Jewish Educators.

After Beit Midrash I went to shower and got a good nights sleep.

Wednesday was also full of learning. I started learning brand new Tractate of Talmud, Bava Kama. I am in a different class now and I have different Chevrutas so it will be interesting to see how it goes without Judah. It is a different teacher who has a different approach to teaching. He is more of a philosophical teacher and he is also British. I may or may not be switching back into my the other class that I was in before, but I am going to give this class a little bit of time to see what it is like.

It is funny that to learn what I am currently learning in Talmud class. During Junior year of high school I took a class with one of my favorite teachers in school, Rabbi Sosover, and he taught us the same material that I am currently learning now at the Yeshiva. The only bad part about this whole situation is that I didn't retain anything that I learned back in JR. year. I am excited to re-learn the material and then be able to go back to Rabbi Sosover one of these days and say it all back to him and thank him for giving me the fundamental building blocks for my skills in Talmud.

After Talmud I had lunch and a break before my last class of the day started, Poskim with the Rosh Yeshiva, Reb Shmuel. In class today we read an introduction to a Halachic work that was going against another Halachic work. It was interesting to see why people thought that one major work was not as good as a minor work and why they felt the need to have so many authoritative books about the same subject matters.

After Poskim we davened Maariv at the Yeshiva, which I got to lead, and then I went to dinner with a Reb Student from AJU, David, who I am in a lot of classes with. Now here I am writing this blog post and just relaxing in my room listening to music with our open door policy.

Two good days full of learning. Welcome to Israel, the 24/7 location for learning!!! And now for some pictures of what I look like in case you forgot.

David


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Back to Normal(10/18&19/2009)

Back To Normal

After a very restful Shabbat of doing nothing and sleeping all day, I started back at the Yeshiva after being gone for a week because of the training course for Magen David Adom. I never thought I would be the one to say such a thing, but I really missed classes at the Yeshiva as well as the environment. The people and the atmosphere at the Yeshiva is just so calming for someone to be a part of and after a long break from not going it is good to be back.

Classes resumed as usual for all of us and it was a pretty standard day at the Yeshiva. Today was slightly upsetting because I once again had to miss my favorite class of Tanach with Vered because I had to Skype into a meeting in New York that went for over 6 and a half hours. I was sad but I knew that life would go on and that it was part of my job responsibilities for USY.

I ditched the meeting a little early and borrowed my friend Mark's bike and rode all the way to Gan HaPa'amon for our weekly meeting of the NBA, Nativ Basektball Association. I was just in time for my team to play and sadly we lost. After basketball I went back to base and showered and then changed my sheets on my bed and crashed cause I was sleepy.

Monday October 19,2009: The Most Typical Day!!!

I don't really have much to say about today. It was a very standard day with Talmud, Halacha Le'Maseh, and Advanced Midrash. I didn't really learn so much today, it happens. Sometimes you go an entire day without learning much which builds the anticipation of learning much more the next day. I promise the next time I post I will have more excitement to share.

Lila Tov for now,
David

Long Time No Post!!!!(Dates Undetermined)

I don't even remember the last time I posted to my blog, but what I do know is that I have a lot to share. I am not going to go day by day just because it is somewhat repetitious because of the training for Magen David Adom being everyday since last Wednesday. But here we go....

Shabbat/Shmeini Atzeret/Simchat Torah(October 9 and 10, 2009)

The culmination of the Jewish Holidays in Israel couldn't have ended in a better way then it did. In Israel we only celebrate one day of Yom Tov for holidays, whereas everywhere besides Israel celebrates two days, so Friday and Saturday were a very long Yom Tov. We started the Chag by going to shul at Kol Rina which is a very small shul in a bomb shelter in Nachlaot. We got there and we did Kabbalat Shabbat and Marriv and after Maariv we introduced the Holiday of Simchat Torah. It is customary on Simchat Torah to dance with the Torah for seven Hakafot, processionals. So we did just that. It took about 45 minutes to start the first one because the Rabbi of the shul kept trying auction off the first and the sixth Hakafot to people for large sums of Sheckels, upwards of 2,000. It was very frustrating and people started to leave but we all decided to stick it out for a bit longer and then we finally started dancing. Dinner at base was called for 7:30pm and we left Kol Rina at about 7:15 and they weren't even on the third Hakafah yet, so I can only imagine how late they went. After dinner all of Nativ gathered for the weekly Nativ-a-Tisch and we sang and ate and then I called it a night cause I was dead.

Saturday morning a bunch of us got up early and headed to Shira Hadashah for Shmeni Atzeret and Simchat Torah davening. We had been told that it would be the longest davening of the year with the exception of Yom Kippur. The reason for it being this long was because it was two holidays into one davening and they had to get a lot in. Shul started at 8 and I was there from 8 to about 2ish. It was a long yet joyous davening. The Hakafot this time around started on time and went for about an hour and a half. It was great singing and dancing and I got to hold a Torah for a little bit which is always nice. After we did the Hakafot we prepared for the completion of the Torah as well as the starting of the Torah. For the completion of the Torah they set up 7 stations throughout the building and had people go to a station in order that everyone at shul would take an aliyah. It was a very creative system that I had never seen before. After everyone in all 7 stations had aliyot we all came back together for the reading of the Torah for the Chag and Shabbat as well as the completion of the Torah and the starting of the Torah. It was a great service and probably one my most enjoyable services I have been to in Israel thus far.

After davening we went back to base for lunch and a little nap, but that didn't really happen cause once again Shabbat ends so early in Israel right now that by the time you finish lunch it is nearly time to say Mincha and then end Shabbat. So we did just that, ate, Mincha, and then Maariv. After we all davened Maariv we had dinner at base and then everyone went and got ready and dressed for Hakafot Shniyot. Hakafot Shniyot are the second set of Hakafot done in Gan HaPaamon, Liberty Bell Park, after the Chag is over. The Hakafot are full of singing, dancing, live music, food, and different activities for kids. We as Nativ decided we would take over the basketball court that we normally play on for the NBA(Nativ Basketball Association) and we would sing and dance like crazy teenage American Jews that we are. It was a great time. Those of us who were doing MADA left early because we had a study session for our Mid Term first thing on Sunday Morning. After I studied I crashed in bed cause I was exhausted which happens to be a recurring theme for the rest of the week. Now for pictures of Hakafot Shniyot.

A tower of Seffi, Seth, Aly and myself at Hakafot Shniyot


Me on the shoulders of the Great Seth Lerman


Me and Seth being ourselves

Sunday to Thursday (October 11-15,2009)

Everyday this week we had Magen David Adom from about 9 in the morning to about 7ish at night. It was a very intensive week filled with different medical terminologies, diagnosis's, procedures, and most importantly demonstrations and practice. No one ever said that the training for Magen David Adom would be easy and it certainly wasn't. Lets fast forward to Wednesday. We are all ready for our final. The final was split up into two parts. The first part would be a written test with multiple choice questions, short answers, true/false, and vocabulary. Along with the written test was test that had about 30ish phrases/commands/questions in Hebrew that we would have to translate into English. The second test was the practical test. The practical test had four parts; adult CPR, baby CPR, back boarding and PHTLS which stands for Pre Hospital Trauma Life Support which are the procedures that you do when you arrive at a trauma patient. After lots of studying and test taking I passed the tests and felt so accomplished. I was officially a First Responder for Magen David Adom. I would know have the chance to volunteer in Jerusalem a few days a week as well as during the second semester in Yerucham. On Thursday morning we had a tour of the Jerusalem MADA station as well as a walk through and demonstration of the ambulance that we would be working on. Now for some pictures...


I promise I am not a terrorist!!!


Me all bandaged up. Look no bleeding and no feeling!!


The Nativ MADA class on the Ambulance!!!


Digging for Gold!!!

So now that MADA training is all over I am able to just reflect on the experiences and the lessons learned and I can finally get some needed R&R. This Shabbat I am staying on base and plan to just sleep as much as possible and I am so excited. I think this has been a long enough post for now. I will add a few funny pictures for a cheery on top.

Shabbat Shalom,
David

NEW POST TOMORROW BEFORE SHABBAT!!!!!

David