No need to worry

Dear friends and family,

By this point, most of you are probably aware that there has been a bit of chaos here in Israel. I understand that Israel has been making the front cover of the newspaper for the past few days. Well, I just want you all to know that even though the newspapers make it sound scary, we are JUST FINE here in Israel. I am not near Gaza, where the actual bombing is happening. The rockets that the Palestinians have been shooting have only a 40 km range, and since Yerushalayim is far out of that range, I am in no danger from those rockets. I won't be going anywhere near where the rockets can reach, I promise. I admit that the danger of Palestinian retaliation in the form of suicide bombing is always there, but there is always danger wherever you live, and I'm going to be careful about avoiding crowded places until this stuff dies down. So, my dears, please don't feel like you need to worry AT ALL. All is well. :-)

Dear friends and family,

Merry Christmas! Though there are no signs of Christmas here in Yerushalayim, I am aware that it is the 25th and I hope that those of you who celebrate this day have a wonderful holiday filled with love, happiness, and family.

Last night, I went to the wedding of one of my (former) apartment-mates. The wedding was truly breathtaking. It took place at this huge and spectacular synagogue in Jerusalem. Unlike the last wedding that I went to, I could actually see everything that was happening--there weren't tons of men in black hats surrounding the chuppah blocking me from seeing! The bride looked beyond beautiful and incredibly joyful. My friends and I stayed there dancing until the band finally stopped playing sometime close to midnight. One of the really cool things about religious weddings is that unlike typical weddings where the bride and groom are supposed to mingle and entertain the guests, the guests are supposed to bring joy to the bridge and groom! It is a great mitzvah to bring simcha (joy) to the bride and groom. The bride and groom are literally sat down and have people dancing and doing generally goofy stuff in front of them to make them laugh. I peered over to the men's side and watched one of my most reserved rabbis dancing and spinning around in front of the groom to make him laugh. It certainly worked for me! At one point, I saw a woman running over to the bride dressed in a kimono-type outfit with one of those Asian pointy-hat thingies on her head. She saw me and beckoned me over and gave me a pink kimono-thing and a pointy hat and we went and danced in front of the bride! It was such a blast. I really had an amazing time.

I'm also enjoying having a couple of days off for Chanukah. I've slept in two days in a row, which is pretty exciting, and today I get to baby-sit for a super cute little baby girl. Then I'm going to get to meet up with my brother and his fiancee again to spend some more time with them, which is so nice. :-)

Lots of love!

Dear friends and family,

I noticed that I tend to spend a good bit of time kvetching about Israelis, so I wanted to share something cute about Israeli kids. There’s not a ton of parental supervision in Har Nof, so the little kids approach you and ask you to help them cross the street. Since they’re Israeli kids, they come up and ask you to “Can you cross me?” Basically, it’s ridiculously adorable.

In other news, Phil is here! He’s studying at a nearby yeshiva, so he’s very close by. Yay ☺

Also, it's Chanukah! Chanukah in Israel is amazing. I love that when I walk outside at candle-lighting time, I see menorahs lit in every window. And when Phil and I went for a walk in an outdoor mall, there were tons of holiday decorations...no Christmas trees... just dreidels and menorahs galore! What a unique and incredible experience.

Meanwhile, I am sitting right now with Becca and my brother (being incredibly rude by using my computer....in my defense, I haven't been able to get internet access since last week). Becca just got here yesterday, and I am so thrilled to see her! Hooray for wonderful visitors to Israel.

I hope everyone has a wonderful, happy holiday!

Love,
Rachel

I'm getting pretty used to this haredi (Ultra-Orthodox) neighborhood in which I live. I know this to be so ("can you see how this is so?"-Rebbetzin Heller reference for those of you in the know) because when I go into town, I do a double take when I see women in pants. I know: women in pants. Shocking. The other day, in my school building, I saw a rabbi wearing a blue collared shirt with black pants instead of the typical haredi "uniform," a white collared shirt with black pants. I actually turned around and stared for a moment because I was so surprised to see a man wearing a color! Oy vey. It's a good thing that I'm spending a little time escaping the seminary bubble...

Also, I just remembered that it's almost Christmas. Here in Israel, you don't hear too much about that holiday. However, it is almost CHANUKAH! And I'm excited. Happy Chanukah! Merry Christmas (to some of you)!

Hello, friends!
I had a wonderful Shabbat. My friend Ana and I went to the house of one of our rabbis. He is an older gentlemen, and he and his wife were so sweet! We had such a good time...so much fun.

Meanwhile, last Thursday was my last day of Mechina (beginner) level classes. Yesterday I started a new level! It's really exciting for me. Even though I still don't have so much of an idea of what's going on, I now walk around pretending like I know oh so much because I'm not in Mechina anymore...now I'm clearly an expert! ;-) In my new classes, I now have to learn how to translate Torah text from the original Hebrew. It's really exciting for me to actually be able to learn in Hebrew instead of English, but I can't help but feel a little bit frustrated, too. All the usual challenges of learning a new language obviously apply. I have NO CLUE what I'm doing. Fortunately, I have a tutor that I meet with four times a week to work on this very thing, so theoretically, in a few months I might actually be able to do this stuff...we shall see...I'll keep you updated :-)

Living in Israel is such a different experience. Even though so many of the people (at least here in Yerushalayim) speak English, the culture is very different. I think largely due to the type of life people live here--a very precarious one--they don't put much importance on little things. There are no false pretenses of kindness to strangers (including service people like waiters!). I am trying to appreciate the culture difference when I interpret certain behaviors as rude, but it just drives me a little bit crazy at times. People have no conception of lines here...if you wait for a bus for 20 minutes, 40 people will slam into you to push past you to get onto the bus when it finally arrives. When I walk around the streets of my religious neighborhood, if I smile at people that walk by they look the other way. Including little old ladies. At the same time, these people live with the knowledge that all of the neighboring countries would love to see them wiped off the map entirely. One of my teachers was talking yesterday about her concern with our lack of rain lately. Anywhere else, a drought wouldn't be nearly such a cause of concern...neighboring regions with water would help out. There are no such friendly neighbors here, and water is life. When I go into town, I pass by a pizza place that was blown up just a few years ago. I have walked past the yeshiva where not so long ago (within the past year) a gunman walked in and shot students studying Torah..young kids. I found out that the number bus that I take regularly was blown up a few years ago. I say these things not to frighten my friends...I truly feel perfectly safe here...but simply to share the reality that Israelis experience. It's pretty sobering.

Hello, friends!
So you'll never guess where I am...wait, did I hear someone say coffee shop? Yep, you got it! I don't ever know how you figured it out.

So, tragically, the only places I've found near campus with internet access are now password-protected, so if I want to check emails and update here I have to trek to a coffee shop. Ah well. Such is life!

Yesterday was quite the wedding-oriented day. First I went to the tichel party of one of my friends and apartment mates. (A tichel is a headscarf; religious women cover their hair after they get married, usually with either a tichel or a sheitel, a wig). The tichel party was so much fun. She tried on all the tichels we got her and modelled them for us. I really enjoyed the little celebration, and I'm excited for her wedding in a couple of weeks! Speaking of weddings, after the tichel party, I went to a wedding in Bnei Brak! Bnei Brak is a very religious community near Tel Aviv. The wedding was of my roommate's cousin, and it was beautiful. Getting there was a bitof an adventure. We left much later than we meant to, and we ended up having to take a later bus. We were sure we'd missed the actual ceremony, since it is usually pretty short. We finally got to the hall, but we couldn't find the wedding, and no one we ran into spoke English (unlike in Jerusalem, where almost everyone speaks English). Anyway, I was at least able to understand the woman telling me "lo po" ("not here") and she pointed us in the right direction. When we FINALLY found the right place, it turned out that the wedding hadn't started at all...hooray! The wedding itself was really cool, though I mainly couldn't understand a thing that was going on because the chuppah was surrounded by men in tall black hats and everything was in Hebrew (how rude, right?!). The bride was sweet, and very young (20), and it was a lovely wedding.

It’s Friday, and I’m sitting in the coffee shop in town. I ordered an iced tea, and I’m guessing that’s not a common order here. The woman looked at me and said, in broken English, “We make it, ok?” I’m really not exactly sure what she thought that I would think, but I was kind of hoping they would make it for me, seeing as I was ordering it off of their menu! (They do make you bag your own groceries at the grocery store, so maybe some people like to make their own drinks at coffee shops?? Lol.) When I got my iced tea, they also gave me a little clear plastic container with some sort of liquid in it. I was a bit confused. I gave it a smell and finally a taste test…sugar! They gave me sugar already melted in water so I could just mix it in to my tea. Better than mixing sugar into unsweet tea, but still a bit unusual…. Oh, Israel!

It’s almost Shabbat. I’m staying at Neve with friends again for Shabbat. I really want to travel more, but somehow it hasn’t been working out. I’m really excited for Shabbos, though! My friends here are lovely. I am feeling kind of homesick the past day or two. I miss my family and friends and puppy! I got seized yesterday with an urge to go home. I don’t actually want to go home, and if I did go home I don’t know what I would do, but you know how it is sometimes. But I am far from ready to go home. I have a lot more learning to do…I’ve barely touched the tip of the iceberg. (And remember, the iceberg is only 10% of the glacier...this metaphor so aptly describes how much there is to learn about Judaism…and myself…) It’s not that I’m not still having an amazing, meaningful time of growth… I absolutely am still loving being here and learning so much. I guess it makes sense that after almost two months away I’d miss home! I love Israel, but I can’t imagine ever staying here. So many of the women at Neve want to make aliyah, move to Israel, but I want to go back to Atlanta! ☺

Ok, I should head back to do my toranut (my chores around the apartment) and shower before Shabbat! Shabbat Shalom, my friends.

Love,
Rachel

Hello friends,
So it's another hip hop happening evening. I'm sitting in a coffee shop! :-) I'm trying to think of what to update you guys with, and I can't think of anything of that much interest. Things here have really settled into a routine, which is good, but it means I can't think of anything worth sharing. I did get another roommate today; she seems very nice, and she's only here for two weeks. Shabbat was really nice; I loved getting to spend time with my awesome big brother, and we ended up getting to baby-sit on Saturday night for three absolutely adorable kids. It was a really wonderful weekend.

Ok, really...I'm boring...but I love and miss you all!

Hello, friends.

It's a rainy day in Yerushalayim. I am spending Shabbat with my brother. Last night was Thanksgiving, and I was excited to actually be able to celebrate it (since for some bizarre reason, Israelis don't typically celebrate Thanksgiving :-P). I went with the big bro to a T-giving celebration of the rabbi folk, and it was so much fun. The food was amazing (especially after endless cafeteria food!) and the company was great. There was even a precious little six month old baby for me to play with! So all in all...pretty wonderful night.

So, now I'll tell a random story about why Israel is such a kooky place. First of all, as I've mentioned before, the drivers here are completely nuts. They have no qualms about not slowing down for people in crosswalks, and they regularly pass cars they think are going too slowly by going into the opposite lane. About a week ago, my roommate and I were approaching the bus stop as we saw the bus we needed drive away from the stop. We were disappointed, naturally, since they typically come every 15-20 minutes. When we reached the bus stop, though, we were pleased because another bus came in just a few minutes. We hopped on. After a little bit, we noticed that we'd caught up to the first bus. Apparently, our bus driver decided that the first bus was going too slowly, so this huge bus goes into the other lane to pass the first bus. (This is not the first time that I've been on a bus that has passed another bus...it makes you feel like they're racing! I'm not such a big fan.) Anyway, because our bus passed the first bus, we made it home sooner than we would have if we hadn't missed the first bus. Kind of hurts your brain a bit, doesn't it?

That's all for now...Shabbat Shalom, everyone!

It's my BIRTHDAY!

Dear friends,
I had such a lovely birthday today, thanks largely in part to all of you--my incredibly thoughtful, caring friends. I felt so loved with your messages, birthday cards, and even phone calls. I am so thankful for all of you.

My day started off on a sad note, because one of my wonderful roommates, Emily, had to leave to head back home (I miss you already!). My day picked up with class though; they were amazing today because my favorite teacher, Rabbi Marcus, returned from a two-week trip to the US, and a new teacher I hadn't had before, Rabbi Kelleman, arrived. He is a fantastic teacher, and I'm so glad to get to have him for the next couple of weeks.

I came back from class to find that my sweet roommates had decorated my room with signs and balloons.

Then, big brother took me out for a delicious sushi dinner. Such a lovely day. A great start to my 23rd year. :-)

Dear friends,
I really enjoyed your comments. Samuel, rest assured, your posting that it's almost time for me to wake up did NOT in fact wake me up. Have no fear. :-) Mandy, I love that 50 degrees is warm for you and 60 degrees is chilly for me. I guess that's what happens when you live in Illinois versus Israel. And Amy, I'm sorry that I'm making you look up words...but I'm glad you're managing to follow along!

I had a very lovely Shabbat. My entire class (about 20 students) piled into two sheiruts (which is sort of a combination of a cab and a bus. They each fit about 10 people. It was an interesting ride to Ramat Bet Shemesh. Travelling anywhere in Israel is always an interesting experience...I usually end up feeling a bit sick and hoping that I'll make it to my next destination (the drivers here are terrifying!). Fortunately, we made it to Ramat Bet Shemesh completely intact (if a bit nauseous), and it was beautiful. Jerusalem is mountainous and very beautiful, but it's a city and there are buildings everywhere. In Ramat Bet Shemesh, you could see beautiful mountains that aren't covered with buildings...just natural beauty. I stayed with three of my friends from my class. We stayed in the house of a family that wasn't even there...they just left their keys. I was pretty amazed that there are people willing to do that sort of thing. The house was beautiful...completely different than the Jerusalem apartments I'm used to seeing. It was huge and lovely; in Yerushalayim, the apartments I've seen generally look like they're falling apart (and they often are...) Most excitingly, I got to sleep in a REAL BED! My mattress at school is about 3 inches thick and rests upon a plywood board for support. (Doesn't that sound comfy??) So you can imagine how thrilled I was to see thick, plush mattresses...it was a very cozy night.

Besides a cozy bed, the Shabbaton was wonderful. My rabbi's wife was lovely, and since she's from Memphis, we bonded over being from the South. Since I've been in Israel, I've never identified with the South more! Most of the Americans here are from New York, and even though I've always imagined myself a partial New Yorker, I now realize that I am NOT a New Yorker....I am much more a Southern girl. (I actually had someone tell me that I have a southern accent...I wanted to tell her that she doesn't know what a southern accent sounds like!)

My favorite part of the Shabbaton was shel shiddus, the third meal of Shabbat, right before the sun sets and Shabbat ends. The rabbi left, so all the women could sing (Orthodox women are not supposed to sing in front of men, as men are not allowed to hear the singing of any women other than their wives). All of you know how incredibly happy it makes me to sing. I loved every moment of it. It really was a beautiful, moving end to Shabbat.

Last night, my roommate and I watched an episode of Grey's Anatomy that she downloaded from itunes. I'd seen it before, but I can't tell you how exciting it was to watch TV! I didn't bring any DVDs at all, so I haven't seen movies or TV since I've gotten here. Even though I love all of the learning I've been doing, it was such a relief to just watch television after the emotional and spirtual intensity of Shabbat. Gummy worms and Grey's...a marvelous end to the weekend. I really can't get used to classes on Sundays, though! Waking up this morning and getting out of bed was rough...8:30 classes on Sunday mornings are really not that fun, but fortunately the rabbi is great, and I'm learning a lot.

Hope all is well with you, my friends.

Shabbat Shalom, everybody! I'm looking forward to this Shabbos. It's a Shabbaton at the house of one of my rabbi's, for my mechina class. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh, somewhere in Jerusalem. There are about 20 of us going...we won't all be staying at his house, of course, but it should be a lot of fun.

It's been raining the past couple of days, but today is beautiful, sunshine and a cool breeze. It's a bit cool for me...its about 60 degrees...but it's incredibly lovely weather.

My, this is quite the exciting post, isn't it? So far I've told you what I'm doing this weekend and talked about the weather. I apologize for being a bit dull. I'd love to share more, but I need to go do errands before I leave for Shabbat.

Miss you guys! Lots of love! :-)

Hello, my dear friends. This having my computer thing is quite a pleasure.

So it's Monday, which means I have morning classes and then I'm finished for the day...no ulpan (Hebrew class) or evening classes! Today I went shopping with some lovely new friends. Of the group, I was the only American, which really made my day. Two are from England and one from South Africa. They all have amazing accents, and it's just such a pleasure for me to get to know people from all over the place. And there are so many amazing women here at Neve that I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to get to know.

Right now, I'm sitting in a coffee shop preparing to go for dinner and then to the kotel with my roommates. I haven't been to the kotel at night since I've been in Israel, and I really think the kotel at night is much more peaceful and special.

Life continues to be good. I've had some excellent classes in the past couple of days. One of them was about the mitzvot, particularly kashruth (keeping kosher), and it resonated quite a bit with me. The very simplified gist is that what we put into our bodies affects us spiritually, physically, emotionally, etc., and I thought that was a pretty interesting thought. We also talked about elevating the physical to the spiritual, an idea I also really like. The concept that we can make any moment holy by simply stopping and thanking Gd before we say, take a bite of an apple, is pretty inspiring stuff.

A computer returns home

Hooray! My computer is back and sitting safely on my lap as I steal wireless internet from unsuspecting Har Nof residents from a children's playground a block from campus. Yes, you heard right--there is no wireless internet on Neve's campus. What, are these people living in the dark ages? A bit, but fortunately, not all Har Nof-ians protect their wireless internet, so I can find spots around the neighborhood--yay!

So now that I actually have my computer, I can actually write updates. First I will share the Computer Saga of 2008. Two days after arriving in Israel, my lovely, brand-new laptop stopped recognizing internet connections. I bought an applecare warranty, so no big deal, right? Um, not exactly. There are no apple stores in the middle east. At all. There is one, apple-authorized store near Tel Aviv, but not actually in Tel Aviv, thus making it virtually impossible to actually access. My AMAZING big brother thus decided that he would rent a car and drive me to the store an hour away in a totally sketchy part of Israel. Now, for those of you unfamiliar with driving in Israel, you should know that it is not like driving in a normal, civilized city in the United States. No, driving in Israel is pretty much petrifying. My very brave brother took on this task and got us safely to the not-apple store, where they agreed to fix my computer and honor my warranty--but it would take two weeks for them to do this task. Ugh.

So I "patiently" waited my two weeks without my computer, missing my cute little white laptop terribly. (Her name is Bella, by the way). Finally, on Sunday, I received the much anticipated call--Bella was healed! Unfortunately, picking Bella up from the "doctor" would not be such a feasible task. The store gave me the name of a delivery service, which I called. And called. And called. For a good two days. No one ever picked up. Awesome.

In swoops Super Big Brother. He had someone at his school (who actually speaks the language here) get a delivery company to agree to pick it up for me and bring it to me here in Jerusalem. Excellent. Simple enough. They were supposed to pick it up and deliver it Thursday. Thursday comes and goes--no computer. This morning (Friday) I get a call that wakes me from my slumber (we have no classes on Friday--we have them on Sunday instead!) Of course, the delivery guy doesn't speak English, so I have no idea what he was saying. Fortunately, my amazing roommate Emily helped me out...she speaks Hebrew very well. I gave her the phone (she was sleeping too) and she found out that the guy was here! So to make a short story very long, I got my computer back today. Hallelujah!

Now that I've gone on and on (and on) about computer drama, I can start telling you about life in Yerushalayim. I've been at Neve for over two weeks now. I have two roommates, Emily and Sammie, both from New York and both recent graduates of college. There is a wide span of ages here, women from 19 to in their 30s, though most are around my age or a little younger. Living in Har Nof, an ultra-religious neighborhood of Jerusalem, is quite interesting. Really a cultural experience in many ways. Women here must dress modestly, with skirts that cover their knees, collars that go up to their necks and sleeves that cover at least their elbows. Women also cover their hair once they get married, either with a wig or a scarf of some sort, known as a tichel. Men tend to dress mostly in black, and they wear these big black hats. My school, all women, doesn't allow men on campus (except the rabbis of course and the husbands of the house mothers, who live in apartments at the bottom of the dorms). So big brother Philip cannot visit me in my dorm. That's ok, though, because I'm learning the bus system and making my way around Jerusalem quite expertly (by quite expertly, I mean that I have yet to get too terribly lost). I like going down to Ben Yehuda street, a very popular spot for nightlife, mainly because there is a great coffeeshop with an internet connection and an AMAZING gelato place. What more could one ask for? (Here in Har Nof there is an awesome frozen yogurt place where they actually make you frozen yogurt out of whatever fruit you choose--it's fun!)

My classes are also incredibly interesting. I have about 6-8 hours of class a day. I have four hours of morning classes, optional afternoon classes, and two hours of evening classes each day. Since the school is Orthodox, all of the rabbis have pretty extreme views. Some of the rabbis rub me the wrong way and I don't agree with most of what they say, but most of the rabbis are excellent teachers with a lot to offer, even if I don't agree with absolutely everything that they say. I'm right now in the most beginner level of classes, but I think I may check out some of the higher level classes just to see what those are like and if I might want to switch up. We shall see!

There is so much to share, but I think I may stop here for now. Now that my computer is back, I promise to update my blog much more extensively whenever I can. Since there isn't internet on campus, I can't check my emails every single day, but I will be checking as often as I can. I love to hear from you guys, so email me and tell me how you are.

Lots of love!
Rach

Hi guys! Life is wonderful. Sorry for so few updates, but my cute little new computer is in the shop (when it comes back I'll sit down and write all about that adventure!). In the meantime, I'm borrowing my roommate's computer (she's great!) and sitting in a coffee shop. I've moved into my dorm, and classes are wonderful. Sorry this update can't be longer--her computer battery is about to die--but I hope you all are doing great and I promise to give more updates when my computer returns (let's hope that's within the next week!!!!)

Love,
Rach

Hello, my friends. Shabbat just ended here in Jerusalem. I am so happy to be in Israel. Philip's apartment is in an amazing location, and I've now walked to the Old City twice and explored quite a bit. My sense of direction here is terrible (ok, it's terrible everywhere, let's be honest...), but fortunately, I've had some good guides! Shabbat starts and ends VERY early here. Candlelighting yesterday was 4:25! I'm used to the sun setting late in Atlanta, so this is something I'll have to get used to. Last night we ate Shabbat dinner in the sukkah of a JTS friend of my brother. Today I tried to get up for services, but ended up sleeping until 12:15...oops. Apparently, my body is still a bit confused! That's ok, though...my brother woke me in time for Shabbat lunch in the sukkah at the Conservative yeshiva. From there we walked to the Old City, explored quite a bit, and then davened at the Kotel (the Western Wall). It was an amazing Shabbos. I'm really enjoying being here with my brother, and all three of his roommates are great people.

I miss you guys lots!

Hello, all! So many people asked me if I was writing a blog that I decided perhaps it is a good idea. So here it is!

The very, very first leg of my adventure has begun. I am now in New York with Philip and Becca, getting ready for Sukkot and visiting my grandparents before the next, big adventure begins. Good news for today: both of my suitcases weighed in at 49 pounds. Hooray!! Somehow I managed to barely make it under 50 pounds. :-)

Tomorrow I get to help Becca shop for her wedding dress, see my grandma, and celebrate Sukkot... and I'm leaving for Israel in just three days!