After a very, very, very long hiatus, T-Pain is back to blogging.

I never know whether or not to look forward to Erev Nativ, because I feel like when they don't tell us what we're doing Tuesday night, that the program must be bad.  This time they told us that Rabbi Joel Roth was coming to speak to us, and naturally I began to dread the night even before I had left Yeshiva that day.  Who wants to listen to a rabbi lecture for an hour or two on a Tuesday night?  I have other, more important things to do!  Fortunately, I was misinformed about what the night had in store.

The lecture started off with a fiery rabbi standing at the front of the room basically telling us that Conservative Judaism has failed...but it doesn't have to fail.  The successes of the Conservative Movement are beautiful; e.g. Ramahniks, Schechter graduates, List College, etc.  The failures of the Conservative Movement are horrible, and it's because the constituents are unaware of what the Conservative Movement is supposed to be.  Congregants don't seem to understand that the Conservative Movement is the most authentic, halakhic, religious movement today.

The Four Underpinnings of the Conservative Movement:

1. The mitzvot of the Torah are commands.  Most Conservative congregants believe that mitzvot are just good deeds or nice things to do.  The opposite of mitzvah is aveira (sin).  It's not just nice to lay t'filin, but it is wrong not to!


2. The particulars of the fulfillment of the mitzvot can be determined only by authorities of Jewish law.  Often ritual committees overstep their boundaries and Jewish legal duties by making decisions that are not theirs to make.  It is not the job of the ritual committee to decide that a dance company can come set up for a Bar Mitzvah for that night during the day on Saturday.  A Jewish legal authority is not necessarily a Rabbi, but most likely in your Conservative congregation you won't have any of these other than the Rabbi. 


3. Jewish Law is not monolithic, but is subject to legitimate controversy by among its authorities. PLURALISTIC.  There is not always one answer to a question, but an individual cannot make a halakhic decision if there is not controversy between Jewish authorities.  It is debatable as to whether gelatin is kosher, but there is no debate over whether a cheeseburger is.  Think Hillel vs. Shammai.  Both disagreed, but did not call each other goyim, they just had different ways to practice the same customs.


4. Jewish law is evolutionary and needn’t look today the way it did 50 or 500 years ago.  Laws evolve and at the same time remain legitimate.  One cannot however impose American law on Jewish law or Jewish law on American law.  "Evolution is not Revolution".


And finally, the Conservative vs. Orthodox "Chessboard Analogy":
There are certain rules to chess, and as long as you play by the rules, you can move any piece and change the board appropriately.  Halacha is much like this.  When R'Josef Karo compiled the Shulchan Aruch though, the Orthodox movement placed a dome over the board therefore nullifying the ability to change the board pre-Shulchan Aruch.  The Conservative Movement plays chess with the original board, the Orthodox froze the old board, and started a new game.

Rabbi Roth's Erev Nativ lecture was great, and I look forward to having him as a teacher at List College.  He gave me a lot to think about, and I really agreed.  It's hard to belong to a Conservative shul that's much farther left than you think should be kosher, but is still considered within the Conservative Movement.


 

After 3 days of hiking on my desert survival trip, I am safe at home in Jerusalem, and am writing to finish my High Holidays post with the Yom Kippur Edition.

My Yom Kippur experience started on Thursday, September 24 as the Nativers traveled down to Machane Yehuda (The Shuk (Market)) to participate in the wild pagan ritual known as Kaparot.  For those of you unaware of this crazy ritual, the purpose of it is to take a chicken, impart all of your sins upon it on your behalf by saying a few brachot and swinging the chicken over your head.  Then after all of your sins have been transferred, you donate the chicken to people who cannot afford to buy chickens for a delicious meal.

The scene was set before the ritual even started.  After walking the 15 minutes to the shuk, we were redirected to a parking lot nearby, where as we got closer we observed dozens of chicken feet, and a weird smell exuding from the area.  We walked up the steps into the parking lot, and it looked like an outdoor slaughterhouse with a stinky smell, blood on the floor, tons of people crowding around, and a few shochets (butchers) taking the chickens from the people who had just performed the ritual in order to shecht (kosherly kill) the chickens.  Not to mention the fact that there were dealers selling squawking chickens all over the place, and de-feathering machines hidden off in the back.  The most amazing, yet utterly disgusting, sight I saw was the actual shechting of the chickens by the shochets.  I had never seen animals being killed, and although it was nerve racking to see the blood pour out of the chickens necks as they turned them over and threw them into a cone for draining, the process seemed to be very humane.  Pick up the chicken, move the neck forwards, then backwards (to break the neck), delicately slit the neck, and then throw into an upside down metal cone for draining.  The draining buckets were gross, but I decided not to focus on them.

To begin the ritual, we first needed to buy a chicken.  I split the chicken amongst 4 friends, so we each paid 10 sheqalim, for a total of 50 sheqalim for the bird  (50 sheqalim = $13.50).  We then took our pictures, and started the ritual.  Since I was the one that purchased the chicken from the dealer, I held it for a pretty long time before we started saying the brachot.  Our chicken was pretty heavy, and holding it's wings back and holding it up in the air was neither pleasant for me nor it.  I fought through it nonetheless.  After we had all completed the ritual, let me note that it's very weird to swing an animal over your head, I picked up the chicken and brought it over to the shochet.  I paid 10 sheqalim, and we watched in amazement as the life was drained from our "scapegoat".  The deed was done.

We quickly purelled, and then started to walk back home.  No trip to the shuk is complete without a trip to Marzipan, only the best bakery in Jerusalem, so we picked up some fresh, hot, delicious rugelach, and got fat on our walk home; at least we burnt some calories.

Yom Kippur is the only major holiday this year that is not on Shabbat, so we had a open Shabbat that weekend to have for to ourselves.  I decided to stay at base for Shabbat, and was invited by my Talmud teacher to have Shabbos dinner at her house.  I decided to accept, and that decision really paid off; the food was incredible.  To start off Shabbat, I ventured over to Shira Chadasha, the egalitarian Orthodox shul (yeah I know, sort of oxymoronic), located near Emek Refaim, a street in the German Colony, known for it's wide array of fancy restaurants and chic ice cream and sorbet shops.  While the walk was a bit long, it was well worth it as the community was vibrant, melodically oriented, and peaceful.  There was a mechitza, but it was more like a translucent cloth, with the davening table located at the front in between the mechitza.  Despite the fact that woman leading Kabbalat Shabbat was particularly slow (and I don't particularly enjoy women leaders to begin with), her voice was beautiful, and the emotions in the shul were more than lifted.

After services, I found my teacher and traveled to her house with a fellow Yeshivabucher, along with her daughter Re'uti.  The walk was a bit long, but it was well worth it.  The food cooked by my teacher's husband, Amos, was out of control.  The vegetable soup was thick, like pumpkin soup, but was comprised of many many vegetables in a perfect blend.  The soup was extra hot, and the Shkedei Marak (soup nuts) were extra cold, frozen, to offset the soup.  I would have been satisfied with just the soup, but next Amos brought out a deliciously marinated and spiced chicken with potatoes, rice, salad, potato kugel that tasted like my Grandma's potato latkes, and a multitude of other food items.  To say that I was full after that "encounter" would be an understatement.  After talking, enjoying the food, and benching, we concluded the night and started to head for home.  Amos told us that the only way to thank them for the food was to come back again and eat some more, so of course, how could I decline.  The walk was far, and I was pooped when we got home.  Unfortunately, I missed the tisch, but found a group of friends talking outside that I decided to join.  Man, was I full.

The next morning, I visited Sha'arei Shayna ("The Gates of Sleep") for davening, aka my bed.  I was just so tired, and proceeded to have a restful, and peaceful Shabbos.  I woke up just in time for lunch, ate, and then slept and chilled some more.  An open Shabbos at base was just what I needed to help rejuvenate my body, and get prepared for Yom Kippur.

Yom Kippur was so much better than I had expected it to be.  We ate pretty early, around 3:30, and tried to stuff our faces with as much food as possible to hold us over for the day to come.  We were planning on going to New Deli, but unfortunately everything was already closed, so we were out of luck.  The food at Beit Nativ was terrible once again, however, so even though I ate a lot and felt full, the sensation only lasted for about 5-10 minutes.  Kol Nidre was an awesome experience.  We visited Kol Rina, one of our favorite spots, and were once again impressed by the ruach and home feel.  As is common with every one of my Kol Nidre experiences, I of course dosed off for a bit of the service.  I'm glad that I didn't sleep for too long though, otherwise I would have missed out big time.  The Selichos part of the night was really cool because they used familiar tunes for certain prayers.  I recognized the tunes for Erev Shel Shoshanim and B'Shem Hashem embedded into the liturgy, and found it very easy to follow along and to participate.  The service was beautiful, but wow was I hungry.  It's a good thing my hunger subsided.

As we walked back towards Beit Nativ, we saw a large group of people crowded together in the middle of the main intersection next to our building.  What I forgot to mention is that the streets close down on Yom Kippur, and that cars just don't drive.  Not only is this true of the cars in Jerusalem, the religious bubble of the country, but of all Jewish cities.  You can walk in the street, ride bikes (although according to Halakha you're not allowed to), ride skateboards, or just plain sit.  As we approached the site, we realized that it was a large Nativ group singing Zemirot and dancing together.  We quickly joined in.  The Jerusalem Post chronicled the event after the Yom Tov: 

SOME SIXTY members of Nativ, a youth affiliate of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism in the United States, who are here on a nine-month study and leadership program, organized a Kol Nidre night happening in Jerusalem, by way of a kosher Woodstock at the conclusion of Kol Nidre services. Taking advantage of the absence of traffic, the youngsters sat in an enormous circle in the Agron-Keren Hayesod intersection and lustily sang Hebrew songs. People heading home from nearby Orthodox, Conservative and Reform congregations were attracted by the sound, and enthusiastically surrounded the singers who occasionally got up to dance in voluntarily gender-segregated circles. Smiles registered on the faces of the spontaneous audience, many of the people who stood around tapped their feet and clapped in time to the melodies, and some even joined in.
Via JPost

The next day was full of davening, davening, and more davening, but on that day, I could not have been happier.  Our shul of choice for Yom Kippur was the Ashkenaz shul at Yamin Moshe, where I had been once previously, and where we had met Nachum Binder's dad.  We heard that he would be davening Musaf, and knew that we could not miss out.  Amazingly, we were able to sit in shul from 7:30 to 1:15, without flinching, and felt extremely accomplished.  The liturgy of the day seemed to take on a greater importance, and my Yom Kippur experience was highly enriched due to the fact that I was spending it in Jerusalem.  Unfortuantely, when we left, I forgot my Machzor, but hopefully they will still have it for me the next time I visit.

At Beit Nativ, we slept, and then walked next door to the Masorti congregation for Ne'ilah and Ma'ariv.  I was less than impressed, and to top it off, I was forced to sit on the balcony, where women commonly sit in Orthodox shuls.  People were not there to pray, some men and women were touching each other inappropriately in the context of the day, and it was just an annoyance to be there.  I'm really worried that Nativ is going to turn me off of Conservative Judasim all together, but Rabbi Roth, who spoke to us at Erev Nativ after Yom Kippur hopefully saved me.  Finally break fast came, and we chowed down on cookies, crackers, and mini cinnamon rolls, while sipping juice and lemonade.  It was an easy fast, but the food was just so good.

Never had my Yom Kippur been more meaningful, more spiritual, or just more beautiful in general.  If you have never been to Jerusalem for the High Holidays, then I highly recommend it, and if you have never been to Israel in general, I think you know my thoughts on that point.  All in all, Yom Kippur was awesome, and so was Kaparot.  I've never been so happy with such powerful day.

It's been a while since I've posted, and I know that you guys are getting restless.  I am truly sorry, but with all of the Chagim and Shabbos it's been hard to keep up and to post on a regular basis.  Not much has happened in terms of during the week, so I am going to update you on the High Holidays, then on the past Shabbat, and then I will finally be up to date.

Pre-Rosh Hashana in Israel is a big deal.  When you buy something in the store, the owner tells you "Shana Tova" as you leave.  Random Israelis on the street wish you a happy and sweet new year.  The country is filled with the holiday spirit, and for once, it's not the Christmas spirit.  Although we don't listen to the radio, I'm sure that there is some sort of Jewish music playing, and for once the Christians can get mad at the Jewish music, not the other way around.  A few of my friends and I took a trip to the mikveh and got ritually cleansed; I swear we got dirtier from that water.



The special thing about the chagim this year is that for the most part, they all fall on Shabbat.  It's great because then chag and shabbos are on the same day, and we don't have to "waste" more chag time without electricity, cooking, etc.  At the same time, some of the services combine such as Kabbalat Shabbat.  After getting prepared for Rosh Hashana, all of Nativ convened in the basement and davened together (finally...they always split us up into Kehilla and Kibbutz).  The experience was magically overwhelming.  I sat in a clump with some of my best friends on the trip, and the ruach of Nativ filled the small room to the brim.  I felt as if I were back in my Shabbaton community, but this time with my own friends.  I shuckled back and forth with immense passion, and had a beautiful Rosh Hashana introduction.  We then ate dinner, which was more than interesting, especially when we had to take a bite of the fish head.  I didn't think it tasted that weird, but many, many people were really grossed out.  Some kids even ate the eyes, which I thought was a little much, but apparently it's a delicacy somewhere in the world.

For the first morning, we were hosted by the Conservative Mayanot shul.  To be honest with you, I was less than impressed.  Nativ made the minyan, the congregation was less than lively, and they tried to get me to take the first Aliyah (last time I checked I wasn't a Kohen...so I finally got up the courage to politely ask to switch).  They were nice though in the fact that they let me open up the ark during one of the prayers.  The Kiddush though was pretty good, and I was happy to be hosted for lunch.

As soon as we were done with services, we were quickly welcomed by our hosts, Nehama and Gary Teasedale, and taken on a walk to their apartment.  They were somewhat elderly, grandparents, but still very lively and happy to have us over for a festive lunch.  We first picked up their grandson Jason, and then walked towards their house.  I had lunch with Miri Elmaleh and Jordana Gilman from Nativ, and another family from the shul joined us as well.  The other family had lived in Pittsburgh, so we played some Jewish geography and realized that we both knew, and loved, Rabbi Chuck.  We ate a delicious meal of chummus, wine, salad, meat, and rice, and then talked for a while.  I played a card game much like Yu-Gi-Oh! with Jason, but really had no idea how to play.  Sometimes I won, sometimes I lost...I'm not really sure how.  We met with the rest of the group back at Mayanot, davened Mincha and then headed for home.

The second day of Rosh Hashana was much more enjoyable in my mind.  That morning, I left with my two friends Gabe Cohen and Michael Gelb, to go to the Ashkenaz shul at Yamin Moshe.  I felt much more comfortable in this orthodox shul, in the men's section, using my Artscroll Machzor.  The funniest thing I saw was a man walk in with a gun on his belt.  I was just hoping he didn't shoot himself like Plax did.  That would not look too good for shuls, especially not on Rosh Hashana.  Allegedly Yamin Moshe has the best Kiddush in Jerusalem, according to Gelb, but I have yet to see this phenomenon because for some reason every time I go, no one is sponsoring.  It's a shame because I heard it's delicious.

Later that afternoon, we walked across the street with our group to the park to partake in the Tashlich ritual.  We emptied out our pockets and cast all of our sins into the little creek that snakes through the park.  I was ritually clean and ready to enter the new year.

Rosh Hashana in Israel just isn't the same as it is at home.  At home every Jew you know migrates to shuls, and you see every person that belongs to your shul in shul on the first day.  Here, it's just a really special day of davening.  There is no Rosh Hashana show, no mass migration; it's a special day with a really long Musaf.  I'm really glad I was in Israel for the High Holidays, it was refreshing.  Everyone is into it, but the same people you see on Shabbos are the same ones in shul on Rosh Hashana.  That's just how it is.

It was a new Shabbos and therefore a new experience.  For my second experience, I was asked to participate in the Conservative Yeshiva Shabbaton in Ein Gedi, and I was more than eager to go.  Thursdays are the new Fridays in Israel (not that I went out on Friday nights), so to get up early Friday morning to pack, shower, and get ready for the trip was not the most fun thing in the world.  But trust me, it was worth it.

The one thing about buses in Israel is that you basically always fall asleep on them.  So of course, I fell asleep on the bus ride down to Ein Gedi, while chillin' with Nativ kids, and our British yeshivabucher friends too (they're so funny).  We got off the bus to hot air and a beautiful view of the Dead Sea, which was very close by.  It is definitely easy to tell that the Dead Sea is receding, but lucky for us, there was still plenty to go around.

Our first order of business was to climb up a rocky "mountain" to get to a spring near the top.  I had done the hike before, but couldn't really remember if it was hard, long, or what.  The schedule advertised the hike as about a 2 hour hike.  If by 2 hours they meant about 45 minutes, then yeah.  The hike was pretty easy, but brutally hot.  Fortunately, the spring was cool, and everyone jumped in and cooled off.  We played keep it up with a beach ball in the water after destroying someone's attempt to make us break the ice with everyone there.  There was this really cool crab on one of the rocks too...and then it just disappeared.

We hiked back down the mountain and ate lunch and chilled for a while, before davening Mincha, and taking a trip down to the Dead Sea to have more fun in the water.  Getting back into the water and having that buoyancy feeling was definitely weird, but after a few minutes it felt natural again, except for the insane burning.  I got the saltwater into my eyes a few times, and had to run out to wash my eyes off as quickly as possible.  Wow did it burn.

We eventually settled at the youth hostel in Ein Gedi, and took a nap before getting ready for Shabbat.  The guys in my room were David, Judah, Nadav, Reuben, and me.  They're all great guys, and we had a great weekend together.  When we got downstairs for Kabbalat Shabbat, we first had a Speed Chevruta session about whether the Torah is more like Fire or Water, and how it is portrayed in many sources as such.  My interpretation is that for the regular shulgoer sitting in shul, the Torah is soothing as water droplets, or a stream, but for those interested in exploring the text and understanding the true meaning of the stories the Torah can be more fiery than one person can handle.

To tell you that our Kabbalat Shabbat was good would be an incredibly large understatement; this Kabbalat Shabbat was probably the best Jewish experience I've had thus far in my 18 years.  One of my good friends, Judah Kerbel, a rabbinical prodigy, led services that night.  With the voice of an angel, and a choir of Rabbis, Rabbinical and Cantorial students, yeshivabuchers, and awesomely goodlooking people, the service came together like none other I had witnessed before.  I could have cried I was so happy.

Dinner was exciting as well.  A crazy Sephardi family was also staying at the hostel because a boy had just gotten bar mitzvah'd.  He was wearing some weird pink short sleeved button down shirt with a white collar, that was just downright tacky.  The funniest thing was that some uncle or something gave a really long speech in Hebrew, and I could have sworn I heard Allah 9 times.  He was packing heat (carrying a gun), on the holy Sabbath, screaming, and looked very scary.  When David clapped, he turned around and yelled at him, and then continued to speak.  Sephardis are so much cooler than Ashkenazi's, it's really not fair.

We had an awesome tisch that night after dinner, and after leaving I went star gazing with some friends.  I finally hit the hay and got a good night's sleep.  The next day was uneventful, filled with davening, sichot, and sleeping, and before we knew it it was time to board the bus to go back home.

Motzeh Shabbos everyone came back together after traveling around the country for Shabbat, and dispersed throughout Jerusalem for Selichot services.  Last year was the first time I experienced Selichot, but I could not remember exactly what it was about.  In the States, one person reads from a book, and it's pretty boring.  In Israel, it's much different.  Everyone sings unique melodies from the Selichot book, and I got lost approximately 16 times.  The ruach was great, and the experience very memorable.  Israelis know what they're doing, and have incredible neshamas.  Israel is very, very special.

I realize that I'm going to have to speed up my posting in order to catch up to the present, so I thought I'd give a large update all at once recapping Week 2, the first full week of Nativ, in one post.

Sunday morning rolled around, and we quickly jumped out of bed for T'filot to begin our first official day of classes.  I was headed off to the Conservative Yeshiva for my first day of official Gemara, Torah, and Ulpan learning.

My class schedule is as follows:
Sunday: Talmud I, Ulpan A, Chumash
Monday: Talmud I, Free, Chumash
Tuesday: Chumash, Ulpan A, Modern Jewish Thought
Wednesday: Talmud I, Free, Kabbalah
Thursday: Talmud, Contemporary Issues in Halacha


As you can see, my schedule is pretty beastly, and the classes are very thought provoking, interesting, and fun.  The Talmud/Chumash classes are very long 3+ hours, but the first half consists of a Chevruta period in which we study the material that we discuss in the Shiur portion of the class for the second half.  Aryeh Tepper, our Modern Jewish Though teacher is the bomb, and I will go over that class in another post, but for now I need to move on.

Monday was a fantastic day as David Helfand, Judah Kerbel, and Seffi Kogen showed up after missing the first few days due to Fall Board Weekend and an ingrown toenail for Seffi (oy vey iz mir).  Paradigm of Judah and David's Jewish presence, it was time to go kippah and book shopping.  Josh Sacks, Seth Lerman, Judah Kerbel, David Helfand, Seffi Kogen, and I headed over to Ben Yehuda to start.  We visited our favorite kippah store, אן (Ann), where I picked up a small black/white yeshivabucher kippah and a white Shabbos kippah with silver trim.  My friends purchased some other good regalia, and Josh Sacks bought his first pair of tzitzit!  Satisfied with our new kippot, we headed over to Pomeranz down the street to get Jewish sforim (books).

My first order of business was to buy a copy of the JPS Hebrew-English paperback Tanakh, because I realized that the Tanakh that I brought with me was only in English (huge problem at Yeshiva).  After finding the book, I realized that I had left my Artscroll Siddur at home, and needed to buy another personal siddur for my journeys throughout the Holy Land.  Seffi and David highly recommended the new Koren siddur, produced by the Orthodox Union, edited with commentary by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the chief Rabbi of England.  In terms of buying new things, I am very OCD with the mint condition of anything new.  After meticulously searching through the siddurs, I found one that I was satisfied with, and put it on my card.  I would later realize that the gold print on the front was not in line with the embossed text and that it made me dizzy to look at.  Fortunately, I was able to return it for another copy.

More than ready to break in our new siddurs (some of my other friends had purchased Koren's too), we took a walk down to the old city and davened Ma'ariv at the Kotel.  Let me just say, it was good to be back.  It was also exciting to have so much freedom to just be able decide to walk through Jerusalem on our own.  We also weren't being forced to daven, it was our choice.  The experience was very memorable, fun, and awe-inspiring.  I can't wait to go back to the Kotel.

Wednesday night was Ilana Rosenzweig's birthday, and what better to do than to go out and celebrate!  We took our first trip out to Emek Refaim (The German Quarter...don't worry), a street with many chic restaurants, ice cream places, and boutiques.  We settled upon an Italian restaurant, that I can't quite remember the name, but what I can remember is that the food tasted really good!

To start, we exercised our rights as adults in Israel and ordered 2 bottles of wine.  We thought we were being classy, but we really weren't; one of the bottles that we got was Moscato, which is basically like soda!  I ordered Fettucini with Smoked Salmon in Cream Sauce, and went to town.  The dish was delicious, and didn't cost too much (approx. 60 shekalim = $16).  After we left, Seffi, Judah, and I banded together and sang a special rendition of the classic, "Happy Birthday".  It was a hit, and our harmonies could not have been sweeter.

Thursday night rolled around after a half-day at the Yeshiva, and our staff had planned a Septermber 11th remembrance Erev Nativ program for us.  After listening to Yossi Garr's (Director of Nativ) story about where he was on the terrible day in NYC, we watched United 93.  I had never seen the movie before, but I realized that even on the 8th anniversary it was important that we still remember 9/11 as if it were yesterday.  After the movie, every single person was filled with emotions: anger, sadness, disgust.  The whole rest of our night was clouded by 9/11.  Like the Holocaust, we will never forget.

Nativ is fun, and is only getting better.
2 weeks down, 8 and a half months to go.
I really wish it would slow down...

September 4 -- Shabbos Koidesh

After roughly settling in over the first few days, Shabbos was finally here.  Since camp, my Shabbatot had really been turned down a few notches.  No kids to look after, no camp friends, no Sichot, no nothing.  My Shabbatot had been limited to my experiences at shul on Saturday, which just wasn't the same.  Going from Shomer Shabbat for 9 weeks to the opposite was also saddening.  Shabbos just wasn't the same.

Shabbos could not have come quicker on Nativ, and I knew I would get right back into the swing of things as my USY/Ramah filled Shabbat was about to begin.  We toured Jerusalem, got to know each other through icebreakers and our crazy, off the hook, outing to Ben Yehuda that Thursday night, which was unlike any Thursday night I had ever experienced in my entire life (Thursday and Saturday are huge nights in Israel) and were ready to go.  

Our first order of business was to walk to Yemin Moshe to daven Mincha, Kabbalat Shabbat, and Ma'ariv, overlooking the old city, with a cool breeze, a setting sun, and an enormous rising moon.  I wanted to make sure that my first Shabbat experience in Jerusalem was special, so I stepped up to lead Mincha for our "Kehilla", and davened like a true macher.


Dinner that night was more than lively, and the notorious Nativ Tisch soon followed.  We were handed an enormous song sheet packet filled with 136+ songs that hopefully we would get through by the end of our time in Jerusalem.  Although I never had the chance to start one of my new favorite songs, Im Eshkachech, I was overwhelmed by uplifting nigguns, Acheinu, Tov L'hodot, D'ror Yikra, etc.  Too bad that the Tisch will only happen about once a month, due to the fact that there is only approx one closed Shabbat a month, but the suspense and ruach will only continue to build until the next one.


Next came shul on Saturday.  After trekking around the alleys of Jerusalem for 50 minutes with a few day old friends, and new ones, we finally found our destination, Kol Rina.  As we had heard, Kol Rina was a hippy shul in a converted bomb shelter near the shuk.  We thought it would be an awesome place to start our shul hopping journey, and were told that it was relatively easy to get to.  Apparently the street we were told to turn on didn't actually exist, although our staff was positive it did, we must have just missed it, but nonetheless it was a 15 minute walk, not a 50 minute one.  Along the way we met people who had no clue what Kol Rina was, some people who thought they knew where it was, some people that didn't speak English, and finally one person that actually knew where the shul was.  We walked past the street two or three times, but had no clue what a bomb shelter looked like, so there was no way that we could have figured out where to go.  Finally though, after schvitzing like chazers and ready for some hardcore davening, we had found the bomb shelter with the green door, Kol Rina.


When we walked in, we weren't too sure what to expect.  Would it be small and cramped?  Air conditioned?  Would there be NaNachers?  Or just young Israelis looking for a good time?  After walking through two small hallways, we found ourselves in a "sanctuary" which was really a basement with a low ceiling, fans, and a beautiful Aron Kodesh in the front.  I felt right at home when I walked in, immersed in a young Modern Orthodox with one of the greatest chazans I have ever witnessed.  The chazan was a young, good looking guy, with a beautiful voice, beautiful English, beautiful Hebrew, and beautiful leading skills.  He lead P'Sukei, Shacharit, Torah Service, read the whole portion, read the Haftorah, lead Musaf, and gave the D'var.  This guy was a MACHER.  The one thing he didn't do was lead Anim Zemirot, which he cordially invited the 4, 5, and 6 year olds in the congregation to lead...what yids.  Although we were disappointed that there was no Kiddush, we found a BOMB shul (pun intended), and knew we would be back for more.


The rest of the Shabbos was pretty relaxing, and we ate, chilled, and walked around trying to find a basketball court.  After realizing that the ghetto court near us was unacceptable to play ball at, we ventured down to Gan Ha'Palmon to play on a real court.  We balled hard, and then it was time to go back to Beit Nativ to finish up Shabbat, and get ready for the ISRAEL vs. LATVIA WORLD CUP QUALIFIER SOCCER GAME!!!


I guess that Israelis understand that people enjoy affordable entertainment, because we only paid 20 shekels (about 5 bucks) to see the game.  After choosing seats in our selected gate, we cheered on the Israeli soccer team, and stood up every time they got close to scoring a goal.  The crowd roared in some special chant, but unfortunately the Israelis lost their qualifying game at a score of 1-0.  While this seems very simplified, and yes it is, the game was a while ago, and I can't recount every single detail.  I didn't paint my face completely white, eat an ice cream cone, and have fun though...and fun is what really counts.


Shabbat in Israel cannot compare to Shabbat in America.  I'm glad I'm back home.

September 14th, 1:00 AM -- T-Pain Takes On The Holy Land is born. Throughout the course of the year, I will be updating my blog on a regular basis to recount and depict my experiences for my family and friends to give them an up close and personal view of my life abroad, Israel's culture, and above all Israeli food.

12 days into the program, I finally realized it was time to start my own blog as my other friends were already cooking in terms of blog progress. That being said, I will go back and post about my prior experiences, so for a short time the posts will not be as recent, but I will be sure to mark the approximate date of the event for good measure.

Day 1 - September 1/2
As I got onto the plane to go to Israel, all I could think about was Burgers Bar. Well, there were many other things on my mind such as G'vina L'vana (white cheese), Moshiko (shawarma), Shoko B'Sakit (chocolate milk in a bag), etc. But no seriously, other than food, I was getting ready to immerse myself in a foreign, yet familiar culture; my second home away from home, of course including my beautiful summer escape at Camp Ramah in Canada. For a young American kid, discovering his true Yiddishkite side, I clipped my kippah to my head, donned my tzitzit, helped form a Maariv minyan, and was ready to go. Yerushalayim, Ir Hakoidesh!

After meeting numerous kids in the airport, on the plane, and in the customs line, I knew things were going to be great, and especially after watching The Hangover and Bruno on the plane, I knew I was prepped for my journey.

One thing they don't tell you is how much nicer Beit Nativ is than the silly "Chavat Ha'Noar Ha'Tzioni" that they make you stay at on Ramah Seminar. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Ethiopians and Russians at the youth village, but I think Beit Nativ is just a little bit better. It's a guest house, really a small hotel, and nicer than anything I could have imagined.

Room 622, house of Seth Lerman, Adam Parritz, and Tyler Silver (aka T. Silvs aka The Silver Sauce aka T-Pain (as coined by Seth himself)) is the nicest room on campus because of our nasty porch...we don't call it a balcony anymore. We have a bird's eye view of the "quad", if you want to call it that, can see out to the street, and have tons of space for my crap to be scattered.

After meeting our staff, Noah and Cori, meeting the Yerucham kids, and eating dinner (where I cordially screwed up Birkat out loud), it was time to unpack, chill, and go to bed. Wow was I tired, and wow was I at home. Little did I know, it would only take a matter of days to feel comfortable, if not more comfortable, than I had ever felt in a place I had only been one other time in my life. You see, Israel's not just a vacation spot, a cool tourist attraction, or a Jewish country surrounded by enemies, defending themselves 24/7 (Yes, even on Shabbos), just to get by. Israel is a home, my home.

T-Pain Takes On The Holy Land...