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:
Gotta love school
Wish me luck!
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
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.
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 4th, 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 4th, 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!
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!
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.
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!
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…
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!
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
Facial Hair update
MUCH LOVE!
