Thanksgiving in the Desert! (aka A Lot To Be Thankful For)

Hello everyone!  Happy belated Thanksgiving!  I hope everyone had a wonderful celebration with family and friends.  This year, I was in the desert for Thanksgiving on a class trip, and while it was very different from past years at my aunt Rachel's house with my whole family, it was definitely an experience!  The trip took us to the Arava area (between Beer Sheva and Eilat).  We stayed at a Reform Kibbutz in the area (Kibbutz Yahel), which upholds many of the socialist values that the early kibbutz movement in Israel propagated.  Every person, regardless of income, puts their money into a general fund that benefits every kibbutz member, and each family gets a monthly allowance that is based on family size.  Many people work on the kibbutz, which has a dairy farm, vegetable crops, and guest houses for visitors.  Others work outside the kibbutz in Eilat or the surrounding area.  The Kibbutz is sponsored by the Reform movement but not all of its members are Reform, some are secular and some are significantly more religious. 

There is a rabbi who lives there, but he also works with people at other kibbutzim and communities in the area.  He spoke to our group while we were there, and one of the things he said was that his job was very much about meeting people where they were at in terms of religious observance.  He described a time when a family approached him about having their son have an "aliyah l'torah" (basically, a chance for their son to read from the Torah).  They were not a particularly religious family, and the son's main interest was scuba diving, not practicing Judaism.  They wanted to have the ceremony in their home, and wanted this rabbi to do it.  He was more than willing, and brought over a Torah scroll for the boy to read, and adapted the service to make it appropriate and meaningful for them.  It was a great example of how rabbis need to adapt to the needs of their communities, and its not just about making sure that traditions and rituals are upheld.  In fact, that can often be a turn off and make people feel isolated or excluded from Judaism, but if you are willing to help people find spirituality or meaning in a way that makes sense to them, then that is going to create a more welcoming environment for them to approach Judaism and Jewish life.  I definitely feel that this is why I want to become a rabbi: not to ensure that everyone is practicing Judaism "correctly" or to help people find the "right way" to be a Jew, but rather to guide people towards a sense of connection and meaningful relationship with Judaism and the Jewish people, and to allow people to question and wrestle with their faith in a productive way.  Part of that is teaching people the Jewish traditions and the meanings behind them and allowing for them to interpret those that they find pertinent and important to their lives. 

In addition to spending time on Kibbutz Yahel, we hiked, took tours of other kibbutzim in the area, and went snorkeling in Eilat!  All in all, a very fun and relaxing trip.  Students from the Jewish Theological Seminary and American Jewish University (both Conservative seminaries in New York and LA respectively) came with us, and it was great to get a chance to meet them!  I knew some of them already from other things I have done, but it was fun to see them again and to interact with new people!  Don't get me wrong, I love my HUC class, but a little variety once in a while is definitely nice. 

It was great to spend Thanksgiving in the desert, and being out there really was a beautiful experience.  The stars in the sky there are just so much clearer, and its pretty powerful to look up and see the wide expanse above you.  I was walking to dinner with a student from AJU, and he said "the stars up there--those are the same ones Abraham saw when God told him his people would be as numerous as the stars in the sky."  It was a really amazing sentiment, and made me feel so connected to the land and to the Jewish narrative.

Now is the final push until winter break--so I will be busy with papers and tests and lots and lots of work.  But, I am glad I got to spend Thanksgiving with people I have grown to love over these last few months, and I am so appreciative to each and every one of them for making me feel like even though I wasn't with my actual family for Thanksgiving, I was with another just as wonderful group of people. 

The Knesset, Meeting with Rabbi David Ellenson, and Other Reflections

Hello everyone!

Happy Tuesday!  This week has been busy (and its only Tuesday!) and its only about to get busier!  Yesterday my Hebrew class took another field trip and we went to the Knesset building.  I had been there several years ago when I came to Israel the first time with my family, but this time the tour was in Hebrew!  It was really fascinating, and gave me a first hand glimpse into what Israeli politics is like.  It's one thing to read Ha'aretz or Jpost, but to really see where the action happens is incredible.  The building itself isn't particularly interesting, but there were two things in particular that stuck out to me.  As part of the tour, we got to visit the room where the knesset members meet, and it was really cool.  Very different from the capitol in DC.  The room itself clearly hasn't been renovated since the early 70's, and the whole beige/orange/brown decor is pretty terrible.  But, it was still really amazing to be in a room where so many powerful people sit, and where so many important decisions are made.  The guide we had told us that the cameras that film the knesset meetings are always facing the opposition of the party that is in power.  This is because apparently they make for more interesting television!  It's more exciting to see their reactions rather than those who already agree with what's going on, so they focus the cameras towards them.  Hilarious.  Also, there was apparently a problem in the past with members pressing the voting buttons of their neighbor, in the hopes of scoring some more votes, and so they had to put people's names on their buttons to make sure it didn't happen again!  Sneaky Israeli Knesset members!  The tour was pretty awesome, and I understood about 70% of what was happening, which I was happy about.  Clearly my Hebrew is improving!  Always a good thing. 

This week the Board of Governors of the college is visiting, and they are all on campus in meetings and such all week.  They are even coming on our tiyul with Israel Seminar tomorrow--which should be interesting.  Tonight we met with the president of HUC-Rabbi David Ellenson.  I had met him several times before, because his son was actually a camper of mine at OSRUI, but it was nice to see him again (and he most definitely had no idea who I was, so I had to introduce myself again.  Totally understandable---I am sure he meets and talks to a million other more important people than his son's summer camp counselor!) The conversation we had was really nice, it was certainly very candid and honest which I appreciated.  He talked about his own journey to his job, which was cool to hear.  He also touched on the financial situation of the college, which also was interesting.  He told us the outrage that people felt at the thought of closing one of the campuses, and how they had to come up with other ways to cut costs so all three could stay open.  I appreciated his willingness to be open and honest with us! 

In other news, I am leading services again next week, which I am very excited for.  This one is a mincha (afternoon) service, which means its a lot less work and a lot fewer prayers than the one I led before.  I am MUCH less stressed about this one.  The support I felt from my classmates when I led a few weeks ago was unreal, and I was so grateful to each and every one of them.  I am struck constantly by the incredible generosity of so many of my classmates.  Example: I needed someone to co-lead services with me, and I was having trouble finding someone who was able to do it because everyone was already leading the week before or after, or was already participating in some way in the Torah service.  My friend Lenette immediately offered to lead, even though she certainly didn't have to because she was already leading later in the semester with someone else (we are only required to lead one of each kind of service this year). Also, when I asked my friend Jeremy to play the guitar for us he immediately said yes, no questions asked.  I was so happy to have their support.  And, when I was expressing how nervous I was before services, my classmate Yael said "don't worry about it, we will support you no matter what."  It was so incredible to hear that.  Not to mention reassuring!  Everyone sang super loud and participated fully and it was so so so wonderful. 

Ok, time to go finish studying for a Hebrew test!  Another post will come soon.

My first service!

Hi everyone!

This past week, I led my first HUC service.  It was such an incredible experience!!  I have been preparing for this for weeks, and my friend Lenette (another rabbinical student) and I have been working hard trying to create meaningful prayer experience for our classmates.  I was SO nervous before the service, I actually was shaking a little bit as we started the opening song.  But, as we continued through the service, I began to relax.  My classmates were unbelievably supportive, and looking out at their smiling faces as Lenette and I went through the prayers of Thursday morning services, I felt so warm and happy to be part of such an amazing community.  It was wonderful to feel supported in such a tangible way, and I really couldn't have done it without everyone.  My classmate Jeremy played the guitar for a few songs, which was also fantastic! People came up to me afterwards and told me how much they enjoyed it, and it meant so much to me.  It reminded me why I wanted to come to rabbinical school in the first place.  One of my classmates told me that he entered the synagogue feeling a little down, and by the end of the service he felt refreshed and so much better.  I was SO happy I could provide that for someone, and it made me feel great!  I am leading again in a few weeks and I can't wait! 

Things have been crazy busy here with midterms and lots of work, but I am still enjoying everything so much.  Israel is a crazy country and I love living here!  My parents and sister were just visiting, which was wonderful.  We went to Yad Vashem, the Israel Museum, spent time with my family in Ra'anana, and i was able to introduce them to many of my classmates.  I loved being able to show them my life here.  We also went to visit my cousin Ariel at his army base in Beer Sheva, which was incredible.  Seeing my little cousin wearing a uniform and holding a gun was a little overwhelming, but it was great to see him and he seems to be enjoying his army service.  He's in the air force and hopes to be a pilot one day! 

A new post will be up soon but I just wanted to give a short update now since its been so long since my last post.

xoxox
Rebecca