First Day of Classes (No, We Did Not Take a Picture Before Leaving the House)

Friends, let me tell you--sometimes it's true when you say, "I walked uphill to school--both ways." The walk from our apartment to the Yeshiva is only two miles, but the terrain makes it feel like much more. Whether I start at home or school, the walk begins with a nice stroll downhill, followed by a lengthy walk on near-level ground, and concludes with a fun hike straight up a hill. The training is great, and all I can say about the 3-Day is thank goodness Chicago is flat!!!

However, you probably want to know about the more exciting parts of Israel...like Shabbat. On Friday night, my roommates and I went to Moreshet Yisrael, the Masorti synagogue connected with the Fuchsberg Center for Conservative Judaism, for tefillot, followed by Shabbat dinner. The next morning, we ventured out to one of the many shuls in and around our neighborhood. We picked Kol HaNeshama, a Reform/Reconstructionist congregation in Baka, where we unwittingly walked right into a bar mitzvah. It was lovely. While the congregants, guests, and itinerant daveners (like us) hailed from many different countries, the parents of the bar mitzvah were American olim. Their four children spoke Israeli-accented Hebrew, and among the four of them, they read the entire parasha. Binyamin (the bar mitzvah) gave his Dvar Torah in Hebrew, and just like at CJHS graduation, an English copy was circulated to everyone present, including his many family members who had traveled from the U.S. Being present at this lifecycle event was tremendously meaningful to me--especially seeing liberal Judaism thriving in Jerusalem. The rest of Shabbat was restful and fairly uneventful.

On Saturday night, my roommates and I had a crazy cleaning fest--how many people can scrub one tiny bathroom at once?--and embarked on a laundry challenge...I guess that's not so exciting, but it was pretty funny to the four of us who were here.

Classes began on Sunday morning at the Conservative Yeshiva. The day began with davening, always one of my more treasured parts of the day. My classes have been thrilling and engaging. Talmud is opening up a whole new world to me--wait until you see what I'm learning about brachot--and my tefillah class has left me even more enamored (after only one session) with prayer than I was before. These are only two examples of the exciting learning opportunities here!

I'm sorry that I haven't written with more detail, but I seem to still be suffering from jetlag, and I'm having trouble falling asleep and staying asleep.

One last note, as I may have mentioned earlier, my roommates and I are having a fabulous time getting to know each other. We're planning a red-white-and-blue potluck Shabbat dinner for this Friday night (July 4). If you're in Talpiot, you are more than welcome to join us!

I'm off to bed. I hope to write more cogently in the coming days.

We'll talk soon...
Caroline