Tiyul to the North!

Shalom!

First of all, to understand this post, I should inform you that the word "tiyul" means trip.

After a crazy and chaotic week (I had 2 finals from the summer semester as well as a week filled with new classes) the HUC YII class (yii = year in Israel) departed with some of our favorite faculty for an educational and kef (fun) trip to the North of Israel. [Sidebar: if you're finding these parenthetical Hebrew translations to be distracting, I apologize...it's just that I've been speaking a lot of Hebrish lately and I thought it might be good to clarify]

Looking back on the trip, I'm realizing how much we saw/learned/experienced, so I'm just going to do the highlights reel version. With photos, of course. (Betach is how you would say "obvi" in Hebrew basically. Look what you're learning!)

View of the Kinneret from the Kinneret Cemetery

Okay! Let's jump right into the tiyul. We left Jerusalem bright and early on Thursday morning, and embarked on a quick two hour or so bus ride to the North. We left campus and within about 20 minutes it looked like we were in a different world. We crossed the green line heading east, and were almost instantly in the desert. Now, when I say desert, I really mean desert. Rolling hills and mountains of sand and dust...and, sometimes, you pass a convenience store that has a camel in the parking lot for authentic camel ride opportunities. We even (don't read this Mom and Dad) drove through the West Bank!

Let me tell you something. Being here is not nearly as scary as reading about Israel on the news.

Anyway, we finally got up to the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) and started our program with a framing activity. We stood on this mountain looking into the valley of the Kinneret and we listened to the song Shir Lamaalot by Sheva. This song is really incredible, and it comes from Psalm 121. As we stood above the Kinneret, I was struck with inspiration; from that overlook, I thought about all the people who had seen that same water, who had found a place in that land to start building this incredible country. A large portion of our trip was dedicated to learning about the חלוצים (chalutzim--pioneers/vanguards) who took the leap in realizing their visions of a Jewish state. We also discussed the idea of pilgrimage. Frequently, tour groups to Israel go to the same set of locations; there's a reason that certain places are visited over and over again by people traveling to this land, and we got to see some of those places but from an academic perspective.

Great view of the valley of the Kinneret from the overlook where we started our tiyul

After our time at the overlook, we visited the Kinneret Courtyard. This was cool because we got to watch this semi-hilarious dramatization of the poet Rachel's life and experiences in the North of Israel. For those of you who don't know, I graduated from The Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Hebrew. Yes, I majored in Hebrew. What does that mean? It means I have this weird love for Rachel the poet, thanks largely to some incredible poetry classes with Dr. Tanenbaum. This, in combination with my love for dramatizations (have you ever seen Trauma: Life in the ER?? This stuff is GOLD people!) made for an entertaining video watching experience.

Grave of Rachel the Poet.

Essentially, Rachel the poet was a woman who came to Israel and felt a strong connection to working the land to establish Israel as a Jewish nation. Her poetry is beautiful and poignant. She wrote a lot about the North of Israel, and she felt very connected to Rachel in the Torah. Her poetry is sometimes referred to as a sort of secular liturgy. Continue reading--once we get to the section about havdalah you'll see some of her poetry. We went to the Kinneret cemetery after visiting the courtyard. This cemetery is unlike anything I've ever seen. Buried there are many of the pioneers of the state of Israel, and the location is exquisite. Basically, you stand surrounded by the brilliant and inspiring pioneers of Israel, and you turn to one side and see the Kinneret. It's absolutely incredible because, instead of feeling like you're surrounded by death, you actually feel like you're surrounded by life. It's as if the ideas these people embodied are still alive and tangible. There are even headstones there that just simply list the person's name and when they arrived in Israel--these humbling inscriptions truly demonstrate how important Israel was to those buried there.

This inscription contains only the name of the person and that they came with the Second Aliyah.

Later that day, we traveled to Tel Hai, where we learned about how the top part of the state of Israel got added after WWI and the fall of the Ottomon Empire. We learned the story of Joseph Trumpledor (not to be confused with Dumbledore) and the fighting that went on in the North to secure those communities as a part of the British Mandate.

Tel Hai

That night, we stayed at a hostel in Karei Deshe. We had some free time that evening, so we went for a swim in the Kinneret. That water is so rejuvenating! In 1919, Rachel the poet wrote a piece of prose called On the Shores of the Kinneret, and in this piece she wrote the following:

The Kinneret is not simply a landscape

Not just a part of nature;

The fate of a people is contained in its name.

Our past peeks out of it to watch us

with thousands of eyes;

with thousands of mouths it communicates with our hearts.

The time we spent in that water was short but sweet. Our teachers even came with us which was unexpected and hilarious. After swimming and dinner, we had a program about the New Jew in Film. When we talk about the New Jew, we're talking about those pioneers that were here working hard to establish the land.

Gorgeous view of the sparkling city of Tiberius on the Kinneret

The next morning we woke up and had an incredible session with a man named Muki Tzur. He provided a first hand perspective on what it was like to establish the kibbutz movement in Israel, and he told us all about the these New Jews were encountering. There was so much pressure; many of these young people were leaving their families behind to travel to a strange new land where they were unwelcome, and they basically established utopian communities of orphans.

Because of all that they had left behind, and because of their lofty goals, many of these pioneers battled extreme depression and feelings of hopelessness and failure. It's interesting to me because we hear about these New Jews, and they're presented as these larger-than-life but humble heros. and then we learn about how, truly, many of them could not handle the pressure. Muki Tzur was a great speaker, and he referenced so many of the intellectual greats of his generation that he learned with personally. The thing that struck me most about our time with him, though, was the phrase "life is an obligation." I found the session to be inspiring, and it really helped me to formulate a context for the pioneers we're learning about.

Another view of the Kinneret

Next we got the amazing opportunity to hear from a student at Tel Hai College in Kiryat Shmona. Nimrod, our speaker, was the spokesperson for the student activists at the college, and we got to hear about his perspective on some of the social justice movements that are happening in Israel right now. We even got to go visit the tent city in Kiryat Shmona! This was awesome because, for the entire summer, we've been learning about these tent protests all over the country, and we finally got to see one first hand. This one was particularly cool because they had an area of the tent city that was set up specifically for study. I love that these people are coming together to make a difference, and they're prioritizing learning! Nimrod told us that they meet with political experts and talk about all sorts of different issues; at the end of the day, their goal is to make the living situation in Israel fair, which right now it absolutely is not.

Tent city in Kiryat Shmona

Next we went to visit Moshav Avivim, which is a community on the Lebanese border. There, we heard from a man named Yaakov about the community and what their living environment is like. The community is made up of Moroccan immigrants, and they literally live on the border with Lebanon. This border is not always peaceful, and it was fascinating to hear about how it is to live there. This was also an excellent activity in practicing Hebrew, even though Yael was translating for us.

View of Lebanon from the Moroccan Moshav

Yaakov and translator extraordinaire, Yael

After Moshav Avivim, we went to Kibbutz Hanaton, where we spent the rest of our tiyul. This kibbutz was founded by the Conservative (Masorti) community in Israel, and it's a pluralistic kibbutz with members of various levels of observance to Jewish law.

View from Kibbutz Hannaton

Friday we got acquainted with the kibbutz and their rabbi, Yoav, and then shared shabbat with the community. Saturday morning, during services, we got to experience a Sephardic Torah reading, and, to add to the experience, it was the Torah portion I read for my bat mitzvah! A Sephardic Torah looks different on the outside than an Ashkenazi Torah (even though the inside is the same), and it is chanted in a different melody than in an Ashkenazi tradition. It was very beautiful to hear something so different but so familiar.

Ashkenazi Torah

Sephardic Torah--it's read standing, instead of on a table.

Saturday afternoon we spent some time doing some classwork with our teachers; we discussed an article that discussed some of the same topics we had been hearing about throughout the tiyul, but from an academic perspective. Then we got to go swimming in the kibbutz pool (huge success) and then it was time for an interactive tour of the kibbutz (complete with team building and communication exercises), dinner, and a Jewish meditation session. I absolutely love meditation so this was a real treat.

Horses seen on our drive to the kibbutz

Following meditation, it was time to end the trip with havdalah. We started our service with Eili Eili (I wrote about this in my post about Ulpan Break) and then I contributed the following 2 poems, both by Rachel the poet.

To My Country––אל ארצי

I have not sung to you, my country,

not brought glory to your name

with the great deeds of a hero,

or the spoils a battle yields.

But on the shores of the Jordan,

my hands have planted a tree

and my feet have made a pathway

through your fields.

Modest are the gifts I bring you.

I know this, Mother.

Modest, I know, the offerings of your daughter.

Only an outburst of song

on a day when the light flares up

only a silent tear

for your poverty.

And Perhaps--ואולי

And perhaps these things never were

and perhaps

I never rose at dawn to the garden

to work it by the sweat of my brow

Never, not on long and blazing days

long and blazing days of harvest

on top of a cart full of sheaves

I did not raise my voice in song

I never washed in the peaceful azure

and innocence

of my Kinneret

Oh my Kinneret.

Did you exist?

Or did I dream a dream?

After havdalah, it was time to return to Jerusalem. We learned a lot during our time in the North, and it was a refreshing break from the tension of עיר הקודש (ir hakodesh--the Holy City).

Pre-shabbat sunset on the kibbutz

Now that we're back in J'lem, nothing has slowed down at all. We're in our Fall semester now, which means that there are lots of classes to go to, lots of books to schlep, and lots of knowledge to be had. I'm at a point where I'm unable to prioritize my work effectively because I just want to read everything and know everything right away! Never in my life have I ever wanted to do my homework quite like I do now. There are only so many hours in the day, though. And sometimes you have to sleep. Right?

Anyway, life is good here in rabbinical school. I'm learning so much, and I am just so excited to finally be able to start the coursework that I've been dreaming of for so long.

Oh also really quickly yesterday I had orientation for the volunteer project I'll be doing this year--I'm going to be in Mevasseret Zion once a week volunteering with the Ethiopian immigrants there. We met the staff and a couple of families yesterday, and I can already tell it's going to be an incredible experience! I'm excited to really get started there, but, like a lot of things in Israel, it will have to wait until אחרי החגים (acharei hachagim--after the high holidays) so I'll be going back in October.

I hope this post makes sense--it's been (like always) a really busy couple of weeks, but I'm trying to process through the chaos and let these incredible experiences really sink in. Thanks for reading!