Long Post with a Guest Blogger!

Call off the dogs! I’m here! I’m here!

I have heard your calls, and I am back to blog about life here in J-town!

One of the reasons why I haven’t blogged in so longs is because I have fallen into an everyday pattern of going to school, coming home, and studying. Life has been really busy with schoolwork, as finals quickly approach! In fact, I had my first final yesterday! It was an oral exam in Hebrew. My partner, Jordana and I had a dialog that we created and memorized that involved me dressing up, going to the post office, and having a conversation with the clerk (Jordana). It went really well! Our teachers loved our script and loved my costume. They even took a picture of me in the middle of our skit!

Now since I am so far behind, I figure that I’ll just update you on the recent, most exciting things that have happened, specifically in the last week!

Anyways, back to the previous week. On Friday December 11^th, 2009, I woke up and said goodbye to everyone from Nativ. The Yerucham (Kehilla) track (my track) was going to Yerucham for the weekend, and the Kibbutz track was going to a kibbutz up north. I was staying back at base because… MY PARENTS WERE COMING TO ISRAEL!!!! I spent the entire day cleaning up my room, reading and I going to the shuk to get some marzipan and other fun food. At about 4 PM, I walked across the street to the Prima Kings hotel and sat in the lobby, awaiting the arrival of my parents! No longer than 2 minutes after arriving, I saw two familiar faces pull up in taxi! I ran out of the hotel and gave them both a huge hug and kiss. It was SO good to see them for the first time! It made me really happy that I got to spend the next week with them! Side note: Friday night was the first night of Hanukkah. In Israel, Hanukkah is a huge deal and all of the streets are filled with menorahs and it’s an incredible experience. So after my parents got situated into their room, and showered and everything, we walked over to Beit Nativ, (literally right across the street) and lit the Hanukkah and Shabbat candles on my balcony. It was great to welcome in the holiday with my family, truly something to be blessed for! We had Shabbat dinner at Beit Nativ and it was actually a lot better than what the Nativers eat for our meals. I feel like we are being cheated out of our delicious meals, which included an amazing orange Tang drink that we are never served! After dinner, we put on some warm clothes (it was relatively cold for me, not so much for them) and I took them to Yemin Moshe, a neighborhood with a beautiful overlook of the old city. It was stunning to see Jerusalem’s golden façade at night. We then went back to the hotel and hung out in the room for a while. It was a relaxing way to end an amazing day!

The next morning, I woke up, got dressed for shul and went over to the hotel to pick up Dad. We went to Kol Rina, a synagogue in a bomb shelter, and Mom went to Moreshet Israel, a conservative synagogue located at Beit Nativ. Because it was both Shabbat and Hanukkah, the services that I was used to at Kol Rina were a little different and longer than normal. But that was ok; it was still a fun experience. After services, Dad and I walked back to base, where we meet up with Mom for Shabbat lunch. Again, I felt like the Nativers were getting the short straw by not getting the Tang juice. It was so good, and it’s never served to us. It would indeed be an upgrade! After a great lunch full of hot dog barakeas, chicken schnitzel and more, we walked back to the hotel to take a nap. After a 5 hour (!) nap, we all woke up and realized that Shabbat was already over! Wow, that went by fast! We got dressed to go to dinner at La Guta, a really nice restaurant (one that I wouldn’t go to on my Nativ budget, but since my parents were here, I had to make the most of the opportunity) =). The food at La Guta was absolutely incredible and it was a wonderful way to kick off the evening. We took a cab from La Guta to Ben Yehuda, to see what exciting activities were going on there! We got off at the top of the street and started to make out way down, with mom stopping at stores, searching for looking for things to get. We stopped at “Ann”, my favorite kippuh and judaica store. We went in, and spent a good amount of time in the store. At one point, Dad tried on a tallit, and absolutely fell in love with it. After spending some time debating if it was worth getting, he decided that it was perfect for him on the high holidays and other chaggim! I also got 2 kippot, which I have been wearing all the time now! We walked around town and I showed them where we like to go out to the bars, and a bunch of other places. When we got back to the hotel, we climbed into bed, and put on the movie “Up”. I have never seen it before, and I absolutely loved it. It was funny, cute and told a great story of friendship. Needless to say, it was a late night, and we all had a hard time falling asleep after our 5-hour nap!

Sunday brought up an exciting day for us! We got off to a late start, and went to make a reservation for a car for them for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. After that was settled, we walked to Babet for a waffle breakfast. After walking all the way to Ben Yehuda, we got to babet to find out that it was closed! So, using my vast knowledge of food in Israel, I guided them to a place, which makes delicious crepes. It was great! Afterwards, we headed towards the old city, to go shopping and exploring the old city! We stopped in a couple of stores, but didn’t purchase anything. It was around lunchtime, and we were all getting a little hungry, so I decided it was time to introduce my parents to the wonder, known as Burgers Bar. We sat in the old city and had a great meal. Afterwards, we walked down to the Kotel, also known as the Western Wall. It was here where I realized how fortunate I am to be living here in Jerusalem. While my parents were wowed and religiously motivated to go pray and touch and kiss the wall, I did not feel the same need as them. To me, I could do this any day of the week, and although it was still amazing and special, it wasn’t a one-time thing for me. I know how fortunate I am and I can’t thank my family and friends who supported and continue to support my decision to spend a year of my life living here. After we left the old city, we went to the new Mamilla shopping center right outside the old city. It was a cool experience to show my family one of the up and coming places.

We went back to Beit Nativ and waited for the Nativers to come back home, so I could introduce them to my parents! It was kinda harder than I expected to do this because everybody walked in at the same time and it was a mad rush to get back to their rooms. But Ann and Mitch got to meet a bunch of my friends! That night, we went out to an Italian restaurant with David Helfand, who my parents met when he stayed at our house for a night before Nativ. It was a great dinner, and after hearing David speak Hebrew, they no longer thought mine was that impressive =( (just kidding, they were still impressed, but they were also really impressed with David’s ability)

For the next two days, Mom and Dad went to Haifa and Caesarea to spend time with family and friends that we know. Maybe I can get one of them to “Guest Blog” about their experience, so you can hear about it!

Ok. Fast forward to Wednesday, I get home after a long day of school, and meet up Mom and Dad, who got back earlier in the day. We walked over to Beit Nativ, and met up with a Adam, Hadley, Tyler, Shira, Sender, Ally, Josh and David, who all joined us for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Caffit. It was a great dinner, and my parents really got to know a group of my close friends. My parents loved everyone there and really had a great dinner with them. It was a great meal, and the company of all of my closest friends and family made the meal that much better!

Thursday was an absolutely incredible day! After waking up on the later side, the parental units and I took the 19 bus to Hebrew U and I got to show them around school! I showed them where my classes where, where we hang out, and of course, the Frank Sinatra lunchroom. I decided that we should eat there, and show my parents why I can never get enough of “Franky C”. The only downside of the day was that the weather was actually really sucky, and it was almost impossible to see the beautiful sight of Jerusalem through the dust and fog. I thought that was really unfortunate, because it is amazing to look outside your classroom and see clear across the entire country. After a terrific lunch, we took the 19 back to Beit Nativ and met up with a bunch of Kehilla-nicks who were going to volunteer at a place called Shalva, so we tagged along. Shalva is a home for kids with special needs, where they can go and have fun with other kids. It was an incredible experience and it was great to see the kids lighting the Hanukkah candles. That night, my parents were “lucky” enough to experience a rare Jerusalem rainstorm. As I’ve said in previous posts “We never complain when it rains in Israel” however, this rain was really frustrating. I was going to take my parents to my favorite place in the entire country to eat, Moshikos, where we were going to eat schwarma. But because of the storm, we had to change plans, as there would be no place to sit (it’s a stand) and we didn’t want to walk. Needless to say, I was sad that my dad wasn’t able to experience the beauty that is a “Schwarma Laffa Shel Moshikos Im Hummus, Salat, Mayod Chamutzim, Chips, Falafel Balls v’Tichina” (A large schwarma wrap with hummus, Israeli salad, lots of pickles, fries, falafel balls and tichina). Hopefully I’ll be able to take Mom and Ashley there within the next week. Anyways, we wound up going to Café Joe, a local café with good food for dinner. It was a nice dinner and relaxing! It truly was an incredible day

I woke up Friday morning, and walked over to the Prima Kings, where I met up with Mom and Dad, and hopped in a cab to take us to Tel Aviv. The drive took about 35 minutes. When we got to our hotel, the Dan Panorama, we unpacked a couple of things and watched some ESPN, something I haven’t done in a LONG time, and missed it a lot. As we looked outside, it started to rain. So we hung in the room for a little longer, watched more ESPN (not complaining!) and kept checking on the weather. When it finally appeared to stop raining, we took the elevator down the 17 floors, and by the time we got to the main entrance of the lobby, it was raining like there was a hurricane! We toughed it out and went to an indoor mall where we hung out for a while. As we waited in line at Agvania (literally translates to “tomatoes”), I felt someone jump on my back! I was confused, and when they found finally got off of me, I saw that it was Aaron Leven and Gabe Cohen, 2 Nativers who were in Tel Aviv! We decided to pull up a table and eat together! It was a fun meal, and my parents got to meet more of my friends! After lunch, Aaron and Gabe left, and the Lerman clan stayed and shopped for a little. I wound up getting an external hard drive and a new case for my computer! On the base floor of the mall, there was a shuk (market), so we stopped and got some food! We had delicious pomegranate (“Rimon” in Hebrew) seeds and other stuff too! That night, we had a GREAT Shabbat dinner at the hotel and a great time enjoying each other’s company. It was our final meal together, as Dad had to catch a flight after dinner.

It really was incredible to spend time with him, and I know that I am fortunate enough to have him come visit me here in Eretz Yisrael, and he gets to see where and how I live my life. It was hard to say goodbye and I already miss him more than I did before he came. It was kind of a tease to see him for such a short time and then to have him leave =( But, Mom is still here and Ashley just joined her!

I’ll update you all later in the week about my experiences with them later, but now, I have a special guest blogger – Mitch Lerman

Thank you Seth for this opportunity to guest blog – here goes:

Well – the Chicago Blackhawk’s continue their fearsome presence in the NHL as each day moves forward. The recent shutout against the Detroit Red Wings, by Cristobal Huet, marked his third of the season – adding to the three others posted by his teammate Antti Niemi. That makes Chicago the NHL leader in shutouts for the season as of today!

Oops…..wrong blogging……..

As I traveled back home over the long 12 hour flight to New York just the other day – it was an appropriate time for me to reflect over the past 10 days. The opportunity to visit Israel, in itself, is rather fortunate. But to do so while visiting Seth as he journeys along, marks the travels as a life-time adventure.

Seth was a great host – sharing his home, his community, his surroundings – and his soul of the Land of Israel with me. He was truly my guide, my interpreter, my planner – along with being the loving son, as always. He welcomed me with great excitement upon arrival – as the expectations I may have put upon myself were immediately cast aside – so I could experience the days with an open mind, heart and soul.

He shared with me the street he walks on, the synagogues he prays at, the school he studies at and the friends of his community. It became very clear to me – and of great comfort also – that he is well settled in this environment, fully accepting and taking ownership of the challenges of his decision to spend this year in Israel.

The moments were many that we shared together – too numerous too detail in this one message. Whether it was Shabbat at a synagogue located in a bomb shelter, the ‘Frank Sinatra’ cafeteria at Hebrew University, sharing the holiday of Chanukah or simply walking the streets of Jerusalem - they all combined for chapters of their own.

And when I was not with Seth, Ann and I had the opportunity to travel to Haifa, Caesarea and Tel Aviv – to visit family, friends and the country itself.

I think there are three aspects of this trip that have left a special mark upon my life:

1. I traveled there in a different capacity as compared to before. My earlier opportunities were as guided tours with the congregational community I belong too. Those were important in their selves - to teach me about the Land of Israel. However – this time was just on our own – as a traveler picking and choosing what to see, where to go, what bus to ride, take a taxi to wherever or walk to Ben Yehuda street. Tour buses out – personal decision making in.
2. The opportunity to be in Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel, during the Chag (holiday) of Chanukah. It is a deep and moving feeling for me to have experienced lighting candles, every night, in a Jewish state. To walk the street in the evening and see Chanukiah (Menorah’s) burning brightly in nearly all windows – was a visual and constant reminder of the miracles that happened in that land. The holiday will never be the same for me again.
3. Most important though to me was the opportunity as a parent – to see a child – fulfilling a dream of theirs that was beyond our thoughts years ago – and to share it with him. That is the true miracle today.

It is most appropriate to also share that Ann, of course, has been a significant part of this experience – along my side nearly every moment. Though it is inappropriate for me to assume her thoughts were similar to those I have expressed – my guess is that they are probably pretty close! Many, many (many) years ago Ann made a ‘wish book’ of dreams she had for us to share experience’s together. Israel was in that book. However, this may have even surpassed the dreams of that page she created – thank you Annie…..

In closing, I need to say thank you Seth - for opening yourself to share this experience with me. I am eternally grateful for this opportunity – and your willingness to let me be a special part of your life.

B’Shalom….

Hi, Me Again: Here are some pictures!

Talk Soon!

Seth

Good Girls Gone Bad

I was asked to share this video with you, since I forgot to put it on my blog!

This is a video of Josh Sacks and I dancing around Hebrew U one day after class. Josh and I synced our iPods together so we could sing the same parts of the song at the same time. Ally Turkheimer pulled out her camera, so we posed for a picture. Little did we know that she was actually filming!

The following is the result:

When the Tough Gets Going...

Ok, so things are a little overwhelming right now, so I thought I would share with you the amount of schoolwork that I have to do… without further ado, I give you…

Things Seth has to do between now and next Wednesday:

1. Write a 5 page paper (Freshman Writing)
2. Write an outline for a 10 page paper (Freshman Writing)
3. Write a midterm (Modern Jewish History)
4. Write a midterm (Holocaust class)
5. Take a midterm on Monday (Talmud Class)
6. Take a midterm on Wednesday (Hebrew)

Gotta love school

Wish me luck!

The One With The Facebook Status

(The formatting of this is a little off. I apologize for that!)

Hello everyone!

I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated this, and I apologize. Since I have been at Hebrew U for 4 days a week, I really don’t have a lot of exciting things going on. But, I’ll catch you up on a couple of fun and exciting things that have happened around Beit Nativ in the past two weeks!

I’m going to do something a little different this time, and use my facebook status updates to tell the story! I hope you enjoy the change!

Seth Lerman SHABBAT WITH JULES GUTIN, DARN TOOTIN'!!!

November 6 at 3:27 pm

So, for our first real closed Shabbat of Nativ, Jules Gutin, the international Director of USY came to Israel to teach us about Conservative Judaism. For those of you who do not know Jules, he is a great teacher and I really feel like I learned a lot from the three lessons that he taught us. Here is an excerpt from Jordana’s blog, in which she talks about one of the sessions:

“A highlight of the study session was definitely when Seth made a parallel to penguin families and Adam, who was sitting between me and Seth, interrupted Seth to correct him by saying, "Have you SEEN the penguin movies?" I'm still laughing. You might have to know them.”

Overall, it was really great to spend a Shabbat with Jules, who I very much enjoy and also spend it with everyone else from Nativ, something that doesn’t happen very often.

Seth Lerman is in Tel Aviv, At The Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Service

November 7 at 6:27 pm

On Saturday night, 48 Nativers, including myself, boarded a bus and went to Tel-Aviv for the annual memorial ceremony for Yitzhak Rabin.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Yitzhak Rabin, I’ll give you a short summary of what happened on November 4^th, 1995. Rabin was one of the most admired IDF figures during the 1948 war. He quickly became the secretary of defense and worked his way up to becoming Prime Minister. He won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1994, for signing the Oslo accords, in an attempt to bring peace between Palestinians and Israelis. On November 4^th, Rabin attended a peace rally in Kings of Israel Square. At the end of the rally, he led the crowd in two songs, Shir LaShalom (A Song For Peace) and Hatikva, (Israel’s National Anthem, also translated as The Hope).

The Chorus for Shir LaShalom goes like this:

So just sing a song for peace
don't whisper a prayer
Just sing a song for peace
in a loud shout

Lachen rak shiru shir lashalom
al tilhashu tfila
lachen rak shiru shir lashalom
bitze'aka gdola

And Hatikva

Then our hope - the two-thousand-year-old hope - will not be lost:

To be a free people in our land,

The land of Zion and Jerusalem.

After Rabin sang these two songs, he got off stage, and was shot by Yigal Amir, a leftist, who was upset with Rabin signing the Oslo Accords. Something like this was unheard of in Israel, and it literally shook the entire nation. The plaza was shortly renamed Rabin Plaza.

Back to the ceremony… It was a very interesting experience. I was really excited for it, and wanted to see what it was all about. When we got to Tel Aviv, Parritz, Gabe and I went on a hunt; a hunt for food. We found a pretty good schwarma place that was by the ceremony. The ceremony itself was HUGE! They closed off all of the surrounding streets and it was basically a huge street festival. I have been to Rabin plaza multiple times before, but this time was completely different. It was sooo crowded! I meet up with a guy named Perry Swenson. I met Perry while in Bat Yam visiting Arielle a few weeks ago. He and I got really close and since I first met him, we’ve ran into each other a bunch of times. As it turns out, he went to school with a girl from Nativ, and they are really close, so they hang out a lot. He’s a really cool guy and I really enjoy hanging out with him. Once the ceremony got started, a bunch of important people spoke such as Talia Rabin (Yitzchak’s daughter), Shimon Perez and Tzpini Livni. I obviously couldn't understand what the speakers were saying, so after a while I kind of tuned them out, but it was still cool to see them. In the middle of the speeches by everyone, a video message from Barack Obama played. It was a nice change of pace to hear some English, but I found what Obama said a little controversial, as did a lot of Israelis. I kinda find it surprising that most Israelis don’t really like him. Anyways. The service started to conclude with a popular band “Hadag Nachash” playing their most popular song. I’ve seen them in concert 3 times, so I enjoyed it a lot!

At the end of the ceremony, they closed it with Shir LaShalom and Hatikva, just like Rabin did. It was incredibly emotional.

I was really glad that I went, even though I didn’t really understand what was going on! It was an amazing experience that I will never forget.

Where Rabin Was Assassinated

All of the people at the Rabin Memorial

Perry

Seth Lerman is SKYPING WITH CHUSY!

November 8 at 8:03 am

Every year, at CHUSYfest, CHUSY’s fall convention, the Jr’s and Sr’s go into a room after the dance on Saturday night, and call the current CHUSY Nativers. This year, we got to upgrade, and we were able to Skype with them! For those who don’t know what Skype is, it’s a program that allows you to video chat with people for free! (If you have Skype already, ADD ME! [Just search ‘Seth Lerman’]. If you don’t, you can get it here, it’s a free program and works wonderfully) It was so cool to answer people’s questions and see them again! It kinda made me realize how much I miss being in USY, and makes me sad to have to accept that I am out of USY now =( Miles, Ethan Josh and I all had a great time talking to them!

Seth Lerman "she's just mad because she got hiked in the face" - YAY GIRLS FOOTBALL!

November 9 at 10:08 pm

So, as you can probably tell from my status, I went to the girls football game on Monday. This time, 3 things were different than last time.

1. I was allowed into the stadium! Yossi Garr, The Nativ Director, talked his way into letting the league allow guys into the games! Go Yossi!

2. Brian Cook, the Head Coach, was stuck in bed, because he was sick. This meant that the girls were short a coach! Naturally, I stepped in! It was a lot of fun to coach the girls!

And…..

3. THE GIRLS WON!

The girls’ winning is actually a HUGE deal because apparently the Nativ program doesn’t have the greatest winning percentage throughout the years and its huge accomplishment to see them win! With a close score of 14-13, the girls pulled out. None other than Coach Adam Parritz said the quote “She’s just mad because she got hiked in the face”. After scoring a touchdown, the girls lined up to go for the extra point. A girl from the other team, not knowing what she was doing, or where she was going, was running around aimlessly. She wound up running right in-between the quarterback and the center, at the same time as the ball was snapped, and the ball hit her in the face. I don’t want to laugh at other people’s expense, but man, was that hilarious. Typing about it, a week later, still brings a smile to my face. It was declared the conversion was good, because the defense was offside’s, and it wound up being the game winning point! WHAT A WAY TO WIN!

Seth Lerman is going to be the next great messianic rabbi...

November 10 at 10:18 pm

Every Tuesday night, we have a mandatory Nativ program. Sometimes these programs are interesting, others, not so much. This program was really interesting.

Yossi introduced the program, immediately explaining the seriousness of Jews for Jesus and understanding their role on college campuses. He explained that Mitch Goldberg, the director of Jews for Jesus from New York, was going to speak to us. Then he told us that they wanted a rabbi to come speak with him, but most rabbis he asked rejected the request because they felt it would give legitimacy to the speaker. Instead, Rabbi Tuviya Singer would be willing to speak afterwards.

The guy walks in wearing a Jews for Jesus shirt sported by a jacket. He gives us a sentimental introduction to his background, about he grew up Jewish and went to Hebrew school, and at college his roommate showed him a copy of The New Covenant and at first thought it was bull but then bought into it… he showed clear ignorance of our tradition, quoted the generic bogus verses from the Bible that supposedly allude to Jesus, asserting Rabbinic Judaism as being false. Soon enough he opened the floor to questions, and people started challenging him in no time. A tactic he used was asking people their names and addressing them by name as he spoke. When he opened the floor up for questions, I shot my hand up, wanted to ask him questions. I got called on first, and asked him what it was like to be rejected by rabbi’s but he quickly changed the subject on me! He started to personally attack me! He asked me if I observe all of the laws in the torah perfectly (of course not, but I try to do it to the best of my ability) and then he said that I was a sinner! He said, and I quote “if it would be okay with you Seth, I am going to pray for you to find the path to Yeshua (Jesus) and you will be forgiven of your sinning ways”. I was really offended! Not that I dislike other peoples religion, nor do I feel like they are wrong by believing in what they do, but it was not what I believed in! He then added “Seth, I think you would become an excellent messianic rabbi!”. I am told that the look of shock on my face was priceless, and I was pretty sure I felt my jaw hit the floor. It was absolutely absurd. He kept talking to us for another half hour~ish, and I got reflecting on my previous Jews for Jesus experience at CHUSYfest. The Jew for Jesus exited the room, and re-entered the room as a “Jew For Judaism”, an advocate against Jews for Jesus. It began to click that this was the same thing! If only I had realized this early!!!! As it turns out, I was right, and the same guy walked back into the room, wearing a nice shirt, and turns out, he was an orthodox rabbi and he was doing the same thing!

It was a great program, and everyone left happy.

Seth Lerman loved law abiding citizen. great movie, even with the intermission!

November 15 at 12:22 am

On Saturday night, I was talking with Parritz, about what we wanted to do later that night, and we were talking to Gabe and Nadav, and someone said, look at the preview for “Law Abiding Citizen”, so we looked up, and it looked awesome! So we decided that we were going to go on an adventure and go to a movie! As we gathered to go to the movies, the word spread and more people wanted to join! So, we wound up going in a group of 10 to the movies! There are a couple of differences between movies in Israel and in America. The ticket prices about the same costing 35 Shekels (about 9 dollars), and the popcorn and drinks were about the same too! But then things got a little weird. We had to buy all 10 tickets in together, because there is assigned seating in the movie theatres! Weird! Once we got into the theatre, we noticed that there were people on a balcony! There was an upper deck to the movie theatre! The movie was English speaking, so there were Hebrew subtitles on the bottom! It was exciting when I could recognize a word, and hear it at the same time! However, the weirdest thing about going to a movie in Israel, is that there is an intermission! The movie is cut directly in half, and you have 10 minutes to go do whatever you want (for most Israelis, it is to go smoke a cigerette and get their nicotine hit). The problem is that it is literally cut in half, so we were in the middle of an intense scene (the one with the judge, if you have seen the movie), and the screen went black. When the movie came back on, less than a minute later, an important part of the movie happened. I kinda felt like it ruined the scene a lot =( oh well. It was still a great experience!

That’s all of the status updates, but I still have more!

A couple of quick notes. This past Shabbat I went with Judah and David to Rabbi Epstein’s house for a Shabbat lunch. It was a great meal, great company and a lot of fun! Rabbi Epstein is great and I had a wonderful time! We wound up staying there for almost 3 hours! It was a great meal and a lot of fun…

Lets see, I can’t think of anything else, so I’ll leave you with some new pictures!

Stay Well Everyone!

Seth

Dirty Room

Clean Room

This is what happens when a Philadelphia Phillies fan and New York Yankees fan make a bet on who will win the world series... Joey (the Phillies fan) lost the bet, and this is what he had to do to his head!

Before

After!

Have A Good Day!

See You Next Post!

Rain, Rain (DON'T) Go Away!

“The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain.” - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

So, as you can probably guess from the title of this blog and the quote from above, IT’S RAINING IN JERUSALEM!

The raining all started on Thursday night, when we were about to start an NBA game. Since we went to the Idan Raichal Concert on Sunday, we needed a make up date, so we picked Thursday to be good day. The entire day was cool, and a little breezy… I kinda had a feeling it was going to rain! Right as the NBA tipped off, it started to come down, at a relatively hard drizzle. I was on the court at the time, and was not sure if I wanted to be running around on a slippery court, but we decided that it wasn’t raining too hard, so we would played it out! About 3 minutes into the game, it started to DOWNPOUR! It was crazy! All of the players in the game were having so much fun, that we didn’t want to stop, so we didn’t! By the end of the second game I played, I was completely soaked! It was the most fun I’ve had playing in the basketball league, and our team improved our record to 5-1! At the moment, I am second in the league for rebounds, with 10.2 rebounds per game!

After NBA, the rain stopped, and everyone went back, showered, and got dressed up to go out for the night! It was a Nativer’s birthday (Adina Allen), so we were going to go out to a classy bar, instead of the gross party bars that we normally spend our Thursday nights at. It was a lot of fun, and about halfway through the night, it started to downpour again! It was so exciting! I love running and playing in the rain and it’s so fun to do in Israel! The only problem with this is that Jerusalem stone gets incredibly slippery when wet! So while I was running around, I slipped, fell, and got really dirty. Thanks to Jordana Gilman and her quick camera work, you can see me on the wet Jerusalem stone!

After the exciting night in the streets of Jerusalem, we went back to base, and fell asleep! The next morning, I woke up around 11:15, feeling really hungry! So, Parritz (my roommate), Gabe Ciuraru, and I went to “Babbets”, a waffle house off of Ben Yehuda Street. I have heard incredible things about it, and it totally exceeded my high expectations! It was the most incredible breakfast I’ve eaten in Israel. You get two waffles, and you get to choose your toppings. I got one waffle with a cinnamon cream cheese on top (sounds gross, I know, but it was FANTASTIC!) and the other with vanilla crème base, and chocolate drizzled over. It was just so incredible.

While in Babbets, enjoying our delicious breakfast. The beautiful weather that we had walking there disappeared and it was (surprise!) pouring, once again! Normally, I would love to run in the rain, but this was a different situation. Because it was beautiful when we left (literally not a cloud in the sky), I was wearing my Naot sandals, basketball shorts and a t-shirt. The end looked nowhere in sight, so we decided to run home, as fast as possible! It was crazy, because it’s about 10 minutes away from Beit Nativ, and we (once again) got soaked! I wound up taking off my nice leather sandals, and hid them under my shirt, allowing me to run barefoot through the park. It was crazy!

And, of course, the moment we got back to base, the rain began to slow, and eventually come to a complete stop. Go figure! =) Adina just woke up from her party night, and was walking downstairs when Parritz and I got back. She took this picture of us, showing how drenched we really were! We’re so wet that you can’t even tell that my shirt is actually light gray, not dark!

Since It stopped raining, and I was already soaked, I decided it would be a fun idea to play in the massive puddle right outside of the building! The puddle (almost a lake!) went up above my ankles!

(As I write this blog entry during a 4-hour break between classes, I just got an email saying that my Talmud class was canceled! Yay! Too bad I have a class afterwards, or I could go back to base at 11 AM! At least I get a 6-hour break!)

Something that is amazing about Israel is how different peoples attitudes are towards the rain. While back in the states, I sometimes get annoyed and frustrated with it. But, here in Israel, it’s completely different! I never have seen people so grateful to have it rain! At the beginning of the Amidah, the silent personal prayer, we say “"mashiva ha-ruach u-morid ha-gashem," that God has great power in allowing it to rain. Events get canceled, the streets become flooded, you get unexpectedly drenched, and people are SOO happy. It’s absolutely incredible. There is currently a severe water shortage in Israel, and the rain does wonders for the country. As Elkana, the Nativ assistant director, says, “Remember that in Israel, we never complain when it rains!”

Friday night, I went with Miles to a synagogue called “Yikar” which is a Carlebach synagogue about 20 minutes away. It was actually a really fun service, as the melodies were upbeat and uplifting! It was a great way to bring in Shabbat. The reason Miles and I were there was because we met up with Lital Casper afterwards! Lital was the CHUSY Region Shliach for two years while I was in USY. She was brought to Chicago to raise Israel Awareness and help out with programming and spend time with kids! Throughout my years in USY, She and I got really close and have stayed close friends since we first meet in December of 2006, at International Convention In Boston. Lital invited Miles and I back to her house for Shabbat dinner with her family! We ate dinner with her Mom, her 2 Sisters, her brother-in-law and her boyfriend. Her family was soo nice, spoke incredible English (what a relief!) and extremely welcoming. Her boyfriend, Ari Rosenberg, who grew up about 20 minutes from me and went to Glenbrook North. I’ve meet him a couple of times, and he’s so awesome! It was so great to see Lital and I know that I’ll see much more of her, because she is studying law at Hebrew U! The law building is literally right next door to the international school, so we’ll have lunch dates together! After dinner, Miles and I made the 40-minute walk home, through drizzles. It was really nice, and I love spending time with him. He’s such a great and interesting person! Miles was in CHUSY, even though he lives in Madison, so I’ve known him for many years now!

Last night, I stayed up until 3 AM watching the Packers-Vikings game. Miles, Gabe Ciuraru and I are Packers fans, even though Gabe is from Minnesota, and I am Chicago, we are strong Pack Fans! Unfortunately, Parritz, Nadav and Cookie are from Minnesota and are hardcore Vikings fans. It was an exciting game to watch, even though the packers lost.

Ok… that’s all for now! I’ll leave you with some pictures for you to enjoy!

At the girls football game, where the boys were not allowed in! Standing next to me, is my Madrich (staff), Noah

Chilling at the Idan Raichal Concert

Me in my Magen David Adom (MDA) uniform

Room 622-207 Love

Facial Hair update

MUCH LOVE!

My Amazing Weekend

Shalom Everyone!

I’m here to update you on what’s happened to me here in Israel over the past weekend! It was a great weekend, and I can’t wait to tell you about it! I would like to thank Josh Sacks for allowing me to borrow some “snip-its” from his blog to help me out!

Friday morning, October 23rd, Josh and I board a bus from the central bus station en route to Bat Yam [meaning The Daughter of the Sea], a suburb of Tel-Aviv. One of my friends from Camp Chi and USY, Arielle Rosenberg, is currently on Young Judea Year Course (YC). Unlike Nativ, YC is split up in 3 different locations (Jerusalem, Bat Yam and Erad [A city in the dessert]). The three different groups rotate between cities every three months, and at the moment, Arielle is currently in Bat Yam, so Josh and I went to visit her! Arielle lives in an apartment with 4 other people, which is extremely similar to what I will be doing come February! The bus ride over to Bat Yam is about an hour and a half, so it was just the perfect amount of time to watch a video on my iPod (Thank You for Smoking). Unlike the cities that I have visited already on Nativ (Jerusalem, Kiryat Gat, Tiberius) - Bat Yam doesn't have a central bus station. You just need to get off at a stop that is near your destination. Unfortunately, we weren’t really sure where our destination was, so we accidentally passed it. It was ok though, nothing a 20-shekel cab ride couldn’t undo! Once we go to Arielle's apartment, we rang the door, and discovered that she was actually out, at the Laundromat! Her roommates let us in, and we hung out with them for about 10 minutes until she got back! Her roomies are actually really awesome people, as are all of her friends that I met this weekend! I really enjoyed hanging out with them, and cant wait to do it again in the near future! Josh and Arielle decided to go out for a walk, while I stayed and hung out with her guy friends and some of her roommates. I also snuck in a quick little shluf (nap)

After Shabbat started, and we went to a Year course Ulpan dinner. Josh, Arielle, Marissa (Arielle's roommate) and I walked towards the Ulpan, where the dinner was. On the way, we picked up one of the Tzofim (Scouts), Yoni, along the way. Tzofim are Israeli's that live with Year Coursers, just graduated high school, and basically are taking a gap year before the army in Israel. Each apartment has a Tzofim that stays with the students. Yoni is a really cool guy, and he cooked a delicious Challah for the dinner. There were about 20 people at this dinner. We did the blessings, ate, and played some games as a group. This was a cool experience for me because it gave me a little insight into what being on Year course is like. Apparently, this not only was my first official year course dinner, but Arielle's too. She said they don't really do the whole "communal meals" too often. That made me sad, because I really enjoy our Kehilla (community) that we have on Nativ. I feel like it gives me a much closer connection to everyone else on the program.

After a great dinner, filled with meeting lots of new people and having a great time, we made our way back to change into bathing suits. We were going to take a little night swim in the sea. Arielle lives about a 20-minute walk from the sea, which is incredibly nice! I barely had gone swimming here, and really do miss it in the heat! At the beach, we met up with a bunch of other Year Coursers. We didn't end up swimming, but just ended up talking and hanging out with them for a while. There were about 25 of us there, and I had a great time! Around midnight, we made our way back to the apartment for a good nights sleep.

[Side Story] So, everybody that we spent the weekend with, (Arielle and her friends) are all in Magen David Adom. They have been working shifts in Bat Yam and have some amazing stories to tell already! Arielle’s VERY FIRST shift involved somebody who had lost an arm AND a leg in car crash. She had to help carry them (the limbs) back to the ambulance, and eventually the hospital. Hearing them tell these stories made me realize how much of an impact I am going to be making by volunteering. I am excited to help out with MDA and make a difference! [End of Side Story]

The next day, we woke up around 11:30 and Marissa and Josh went to the boy’s apartment to get some eggs and bread so we could make French toast. And by we, I mean Arielle made French toast. It was delicious, and I’m not even that big of a French toast fan! After the Brunch, we all decided that even though we woke up about 2 hours ago, it was time for another shluf.

After the nap, Josh took the lead and said "time to go swimming”. We got to the sea just in time to swim, and eventually see the sun set again. It was sooo beautiful. I forgot how much I love the yam (Sea)! It was so fun! After a good swimming/body surfing session we returned a final time to the apartment, made some pizza/pasta dinner and said goodbye. It was an incredible way to spend Shabbat!

Josh and I then boarded the bus, and went back home. Seeing and experiencing other study aboard program made me realize how happy I am that I was on Nativ. Not that I didn’t have a good time with YC, its just that Nativ is just SO perfect for me and my lifestyle. I was so happy to go back to Beit Nativ and meet up with my friends.

This was an incredibly busy weekend at Nativ, because 3 people (Michael Gelb, Max Gan and Becky Constantine) all had birthdays! Saturday night, we decided to go out and celebrate! By the end of the night, I was walking around with a group of 8ish Nativers trying to get random people to kiss Max on the cheek for his birthday. Our goal was 19, as that was the age he was turning. We happily settled for 51 different people kissing him on the cheek that night. It was just a really fun night with the Nativ boys!

Sunday was a great day, allowing me to recover from the night before by sleeping until 12:30, and going out for pizza with Tyler at Pizza Panini. Since I had no classes on Sunday, I had nothing to do! So, I thought I would be studious and start working on my homework for all of my classes! It was good to get ahead in my classes and stay on top of my work. As Mitch Lerman frequently says to me… “Don’t forget you’re in Israel for school…” Don’t worry Dad. I know.

That night, all of Nativ got dressed up in matching outfits (Nativ 29 shirts) and went to a MASA program. MASA is a government program that helps send people to Israel for school, through financial aid. At this program, there were over 3000 students from over 160 countries! It was at “Binyanei Hauma”, Israel’s National Convention Center in Jerusalem. The main event at the program was a concert by Idan Raichel, a famous Israeli Pop musician. I have already seen him in concert before, and I loved him then. His concert, which lasted about 2 hours, was totally incredible! They played new songs, and old songs! It was absolutely amazing! Not quite as good as Matisyahu, but still, really great. It was cool to see all of the students throughout Israel in one building. I ran into a bunch of people, including Omri Kempler, a girl who went on pilgrimage with me! I was so happy to see her, and it totally made my night. I forgot how much I missed her, and spending time with her brought back all of my good pilgrimage memories!

Monday, I had class as usual, nothing exciting there. But last night was the first game of the Girls Football league! A bunch of girls from Nativ are on a flag football team, coached by 4 Nativ boys. I was really excited to go to the game, and cheer on the girls! They play at a legit stadium, called Kraft Stadium. It is named after Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, the New England Revolution, and Gillette Stadium. He is a Jew and donated money to create a stadium in Jerusalem. It is really nice and has a Patriots logo in the middle of the field. As I was walking into the stadium, a big bouncer stopped me and told me that I wasn’t allowed into the stadium. I was really confused, so I asked him why I wasn’t allowed in! As it turns out, there are a lot of really frum (religious) girls in the league, and since they weren’t wearing skirts, they didn’t want to be seen by men. Even the 4 Nativ boy coaches had trouble getting in (but they were allowed to be inside after talking to the commissioner) It really frustrated me, but I could understand why. The guard told me that I could watch the girls from outside of the stadium. So I scaled a wall, and watched from above the bleachers. It was actually really cool. The girls lost 27 – 0, but apparently, this looks like the best Nativ team they’ve had in years. We’ll see! Despite the loss, and the whole not being allowed in thing, I still had fun watching the girls play!

While I was watching the game from the bleachers, two Yeshiva girls came up to me, told me that they were interested in starting a team from their school. The Nativ boy coaches told them that they should come talk to me about coaching them! I told them to get things organized, and if they get a team together, complete with a sponsor (every team needs one), then I would talk to them about helping them coach! It should be interesting to see how it plays out!

SO… that’s what’s been happening here!

Hope all is going well, whereever you are!