High Holidays; Higher Fevers

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday/weekend! I’ll pick up with my blog right where I left off!

So after the mikvah, I took a nice nap, and got ready for holiday! I made a couple of phone calls to friends and family, took a shower and got dressed up for the holiday! I then went down and took pictures with friends before services! Yossi Garr, the Nativ director lead the service, which was really cool, because I got view him from a different perspective than I normally do! After he lead a beautiful service, where I got chills from everybody singing, we had an interesting dinner. It amazes me how much I can learn about Judaism, even though I already know so much!

I learned that there is actually a Seder (in Hebrew: order) for Rosh Hashanah!

Some of the items that were on our table were beets, dates, honey, and a HUGE DEAD FISH HEAD! It was so gross, and so cool at the same time. It was awesome, but it kinda freaked a lot of people out (me included! Have you ever eaten a meal with a dead fish staring at you? Its really uncomfortable!)

After dinner, I did the coolest thing I’ve done yet. We (about 15 people) walked to immen Moshe, an overlook of the old city. Walking there was so cool, because we could walk in the road, as there were almost no cars driving on the holiday! Only in Jerusalem… At Immen Moshe, we could see the walls being illuminated with lights, and the gold of the Jerusalem shining, even at night. It was absolutely beautiful. The fifteen of us sat down and started to sing niggumin (wordless songs) and songs about Israel. The sound was magnificent. So magnificent that the tourist who were coming by to Immen Moshe were all stopping, and taking pictures and videos (even though it was a chag) of us. It was a really spectacular experience, and was definitely the highlight of my holiday. It is one of those moments that you just had to be at to experience the power and beauty of. Hopefully my description gave you a little taste!

The next morning, I went with about half of my kehilla group to a conservative synagogue called Ma’anot. The service was… not the amazing religious experience that I was looking for. It was slow, I couldn’t get “into” it, and the person leading had bad voice as well as selected uninteresting melodies. After the service, David and I went to a host family’s house for lunch! The host family we went to was from Britain and we (Helf and I) weren’t quite sure of the family dynamic. He said he had 3 kids, but there was a nephew and the guy said that he was working on trading kids? It was an… interesting… meal. On the bright side, we met a (beautiful) girl, who just turned 19 last week, and joined the army 3 days early. That was all that I needed to make my meal great. =) What a great way to meet nice Jewish girls! We spent the rest of the day relaxing, praying and hanging out with friends, enjoying our lack of electronics!

The next morning, I went with 15(ish) other people to a synagogue called “Kedem” (like the grape juice!). Now THAT is what I was looking for in a service! Since the synagogue is conservative, there is no rabbi or cantor, and it is completely lay-lead. The girl that was leading did not have the greatest voice, but she picked great melodies and I felt comfortable in the service! I even got the Levy aliyah, which was totally awesome! A bunch of other nativers also got Aliyot, and we felt completely welcomed, which as absolutely amazing! I know that Kedem is a synagogue that I will enjoy going back to in the future! Like Saturday, we spent the rest of the day relaxing, napping, and not doing anything exciting! After the holiday ended, I went with a bunch of boys to Café Joe to watch some football! It was awesome, but I went back to base at halftime, cause I was tired.

The next morning I woke up, feeling absolutely horrible. I walked my way to services with a huge headache and was not looking forward to the day. I walked into the room where we pray, and my staff took one look at me, and sent me back to bed. I had a terrible cough, producing green phlegm. So I went back to bed for another 5 hours. After I woke up again, I had lunch and went to Hebrew University so I could catch my Jerusalem class. Big mistake. I went for half the class, and then had to leave, as nausea hit me really badly. I’ll save you the details, but I was sick, so I went to bed at like 8, sleeping until 7 in the morning the next day. I woke up the next morning (in case your lost, this is Tuesday morning) and went to the doctor. It took about 20 minutes to walk to there and then I spent about 2 hours inside the doctor’s office. Nativ’s insurance policy paid for everything, so that was really cool. I was diagnosed with a Sinus Infection, and I was given antibiotics (again, Nativ’s insurance paid for it!), went back to base, and fell asleep for the rest of the day. I am now feeling much better!

So, last week, I had an interview with Magen David Adom (MADA), the jewish red cross. The interview was to see if I would be qualified to become an EMT, and help out in the ambulances here in Israel. I was nervous, because I don’t know Hebrew well, and you should have decent background knowledge of it to get in. I went into the interview thinking that I wouldn’t get in, but I wanted to try. Anyways… I GOT IN!!!! So, in about 2 weeks, I am going to begin my intensive training, and I will keep you updated with that!!!

Tonight, I went to do something amazing, but I’m going to make it it’s own post.

See you soon!