A post about: Tisha B'Av, Talent Show, City of David, and Challah.

Every time I sit down to write a new blog post, I look through my calendar to see all the things I did this week, and then I basically compile a highlights reel of things to share. As the summer continues, it's getting more and more difficult to select which things to highlight, since every single day is so jam-packed with learning and sight-seeing and general fun stuff.

Since my last post, there have been so many things to discuss. On Sunday, I gave a presentation (prezentatzyah) in my ulpan class. We have to speak for about 5 minutes on the topic of our choosing, so naturally I tried to do something with music. I ended presenting on the song "Shir Lashalom," which I think is an incredible song. We sang it in the Meshuganotes, which is how I know it, but it's a song with a lot of back story. It was used as a sort of anti-war propaganda when it was written in the late 1960s, and, most interestingly, Yitzhak Rabin had a copy of the lyrics in his pocket when he was assassinated in Tel Aviv. I enjoyed the opportunity to share this song and its meaning with my classmates.

Sign at the Catholic Community of the Beatitudes

Monday was mi padre's birthday, and was also the evening before Tisha B'Av. I can say with all honesty that I have never in my life done really anything at all to commemorate Tisha B'Av, and I was excited to learn more about the holiday and the traditions surrounding it. Monday evening, my classmates and I ventured to the Catholic Community of the Beatitudes. We did some learning about baseless hatred vs. boundless love, and we got to hear some selections from Eicha/Lamentations, as well as various songs to commemorate the destruction of the First and Second Temples (as well as countless other catastrophes in Jewish history), all the while surrounded by Byzantine era ruins at the site where Christian tradition suggests Jesus appeared after being resurrected. I had never heard Eicha being chanted before (a sample can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCgViip7kpY&feature=related) and it's really a haunting tune. Certainly one of the most beautiful melodies we have in Jewish music, in my opinion. Following a selection from Eicha, a cantor named Orit Perlman and her accompanist Gal performed several Tisha B'Av themed songs. We heard songs in Hebrew, Ladino, and Yiddish. It was certainly an interesting experience.

The next morning, we went to Pardes after Ulpan to do some Tisha B'Av educational programming. I decided to go to a session that was taught by the Dean of HUC's Jerusalem campus, Rabbi Naama Kelman. She led a discussion of some of Yehuda Amichai's poems. I first read Amichai in Professor Tanenbaum's class at OSU, and I think he's one of the most incredible poets. We read one of my favorite of his poems, from his series of Poems of Jerusalem.

On Yom Kippur in 1967, the Year of Forgetting, I put on
my dark holiday clothes and walked to the Old City of Jerusalem.
For a long time I stood in front of an Arab's hole-in-the-wall shop
not far from the Damascus Gate, a shop with
buttons and zippers and spools of thread
in every color and snaps an buckles.
A rare light and many colors, like an open Ark.

I told him in my heart that my father too
had a shop like this, with thread and buttons.
I explained to him in my heard about all the decades
and the causes and the events, why I am now here
and my father's shop was burnt there and he is buried here.

When I finished, it was time for the Concluding Service.
He too lowered the shutters and locked the gate
and I returned, with all the worshipers, home.

The English doesn't really capture the brilliant wordplay being used by Amichai, but essentially what he's done here is compared his trip into the newly-reunified Old City of Jerusalem on Yom Kippur with that of a prayer experience. He compares his father to this Arab shopkeeper, and even though he doesn't share his thoughts with the shopkeeper, Amichai reflects on his past and the meaning of the day. I think it's a really powerful poem, so I was glad to study it again.

On Wednesday, things continued normally. We finally got to hifil in ulpan (which is my favorite verb category in Hebrew) so that was nerdily exciting. Wednesday night was the Beit Cafe (or, beit ha-cafe if we're doing our smichut correctly.) I have to say: I am SO impressed by the talent in my class. We had so many wonderful music performances, a monologue, some great cantillation (brady bunch to the tune of...the Torah?!) and even some mad libs. I sang in a trio with Emma and Rachel; we sang "One Voice" by the Wailing Jennys. It was so fun to see everyone performing (and also the potluck was particularly epic). Some highlights of the evening: the interns' skit, Gehenana (mint lemonade with vodka, the signature drink of the evening) and the awesome silent auction. It was a great night!

Our hilarious interns.

Yesterday was a hot mess. We went to the City of David, which was cool, but then we also went into Hezekiah's tunnels. I'm not even going to elaborate but let me tell you---this was NOT a claustrophobe's dream come true.

City of David. A city I will NEVER return to. Probably.

But, better to get the low point of the year out of the way early. After such a disastrous field trip, some of us met up in the Ben Yehuda area for outrageously expensive beverages and some great people watching. Worth it.

View of the Arab village across the Kidron Valley from the City of David. Some of these still have visible tombs from the First Temple Period. Unbelievable.

Today I joined Emma, Rebecca, and Jessie for a trip to the Shuk in all of it's pre-shabbat glory. It's really an incredible experience to go on a Friday morning, because you hear all sorts of different languages and people advertising (LOUDLY) their low prices on everything. The chaos is incredible. Luckily I didn't have an extensive shopping list so it was just a fun little adventure.

Shabbat just isn't shabbat without delicious Challah.

Shabbat Shalom, everyone =)