As I spend time wandering through the streets of Jerusalem, I am constantly struck by the same thought: Israelis are beautiful. I don't mean that in the Glamour or Vanity Fair way. I mean beautiful in the vibrant spectrum of young, old, secular, observant, charedi, white, black, brown, Ashkenazi, Sefardi, driving taxis, putting out fruit at a makolet, studying a page of Talmud on the bus, sweeping the street, hawking falafel, checking through backpacks, running a cash register--all remarkably beautiful.

When I hear Hebrew being spoken--with a variety of accents--on every block of every street, it makes me inexplicably happy. Every day I walk around (slowly, but surely, my ankle is healing) and I marvel at the cornucopia of individuals who have cast their fortunes along with those of the Jewish people and have chosen to be a living part of Jewish history in the land--and State--of Israel. As I write this, two of my friends are on an aliyah flight to Israel, and soon after I wake up tomorrow (perhaps before you go to bed tonight), they will land at Ben-Gurion Airport here...and be home. To Eric and Annette, I am so proud to be a friend to each of you, and I wish you the greatest successes and experiences as you forge your way in our homeland.

I haven't written because I've been exhausted all week...and it rather seemed as though not much had happened, but I seem to have come up with an interesting list. Please bear with the fact that it is not sorted by theme. (Yes, I said that.)

*My ankle is healing. :)
*In addition to seeing many friends in Israel--mostly without knowledge that they would even be here!--I have also seen my students. On Tuesday, I went with two friends/colleagues to the base where many of the students were staying, and we surprised them!
*Heather, I finally went to Joy. Delicious!!!
*Today, I got to see Sarah, Josh, and Sidney, friends who left Chicago last summer.

Talmud continues to be interesting and challenging. We completed our chapter of the Mishnah, and I was thrilled when I came up with an incredible connection/meaning for one portion of the text. If you actually want more details, ask me about salty dishes and bread. Having mastered (?) this section of the Mishnah, we have now dived headfirst into the Gemara. Our instructor likens it to the New York Times crossword puzzle because there are a lot of rules and structures, and you have to figure out how it works to, well, figure out how it works. It's great. Today, I had an exciting moment when a concept in the text, gezerah shava, was familiar to me because I had already learned about it in my Midrash/Aggadah class!

My Tanach class (Reading the Text Closely) is taught by a marvelous, brilliant instructor...and since I'm not using last names in this online journal, I will just tell you that he's pretty well-known for some of his recent views on rabbinic things...and listening to him and learning from him truly make my Monday and Wednesday afternoons incredible. Also--he looks and sounds exactly like Anita's dad. Today, we looked through several sets of verses from the Torah and developed lists of questions about the oddities of the texts (in order to prepare us for what Ibn Ezra, the commentator of the day, had to say about these texts). Sometimes it can be difficult to find the most critical questions--but for one of the passages in particular, I found it with ease and was able to share my find with the rest of the class!

As I write this, I am more than halfway through my time here; it seems like I've been here for so much longer than two weeks, and yet I will be back in Chicago in just under two weeks. I am sorry to announce that our Roach Chodesh festivities seem not to be over...as a Roach Chadash (new roach) was discovered this morning--on my Tanach! It looks like more Raid is in our future.

Speaking of our future, we are planning our next potluck Shabbat dinner. This week, we have a dual theme. Since the date is 7/11, we are planning a Shabbat of Convenience. At the same time, the work Robin and I have done in Talmud class has led us to give our Shabbat dinner a Shivat HaMinim (Seven Species) theme. See Deuteronomy 8:8 for the seven species....or just keep reading: "For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with streams and springs and fountains issuing from plain and hill; a land of wheat and barley, of vines, figs, and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and (date) honey; a land where you may eat food without stint, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and from whose hills you can mine copper. When you have eaten your fill, give thanks to the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you." (JPS translation, emphasis mine)

If you will be near Talpiot this Shabbat, I hope you will join us.

We'll talk soon...
Caroline