Love of God, Love of Land, Love of Man

Topics!
Health Weirdness
Orientation
Matat
Plans

HEALTH WEIRDNESS

My adjustment to Israel has been generally pretty smooth, thankfully! I think it's because I love it so much here and it feels like home, so I don't feel homesick (Though I do miss my friends and family, of course),  and I already have so many friends here that I feel really loved and supported.

But my health hasn't been fantastic.  Until last night I really didn't sleep more than an hour in the night, and I could barely keep any food down. I had this cycle of pain where I'd miss a meal, then I'd feel too nauseous to eat, even though the nausea was because I was so hungry.

Erin (an alumna of Dorot) suggested it might be because I'm dehydrated, so I started chugging water like nobody's business. I'm going to try to force myself to eat at normal times, even if I don't feel like it, to see if that will help things normalize.

ORIENTATION

This week we had Israel orientation, two days in Jerusalem and two days in Tel Aviv.

In Jerusalem, we had a really interesting speaker, Avraham Silver, who is a professor at Hebrew U. He gave a kind of speed-summary of the Jewish side of modern Israeli history.  It was fascinating, and for me, very uplifting.

One of the things he talked about was how Tel Aviv was founded to be the NYC of the middle east.  When Jews were deciding where to flee during WWII (those that could flee, anyway) many in TLV were adamant that TLV be their destination and not NYC.  "New York is another way station in the diaspora where people will still try to kill you while rabbis try to choke you and keep you from fighting back."

He also described how a lot of the key founders of the modern state were teenagers when they fled to Israel.  Many of them had run away from home (and their families sat shiva as if they were dead) and founded collective farms (kibbutz) together.  So you had these mini societies of teenagers. Silver talked about how they had 3 experiences, as teenagers, they could emulate:

1) Parents homes - no way
2) School - no way
3) Summer camp...

And that is why, Silver suggests, it always feels like summer camp in Israel.  And I have to tell you... it DOES.

And religion became more part of society when the first couple got married on the kibbutz and realized that they wanted a rabbi, and a huppah, and a ketubah, like they'd been raised to want. And he told a story about this grand secular leader who on his death bed asked to be buried in his tallit, which had been under his bed for 60 years.

He also talked a lot about tensions between different Jewish bodies, like Ashkenazi (Eastern European) vs Sephardi/Mizrachi (Spanish/Eastern/North African).  And he told us this quote about how a Member of Knesset (Parliament) was lamenting that all his life growing up he'd been called "jew" in Russia, and now that he's in Israel, they call him "Russian."  And another MK Responded "What happened to you is terrible, and I'm sorry you've dealt with this prejudices, but your children... all they'll ever be is Israeli."

And Silver talked about the sacrifice that immigrants to Israel make, how they will never really integrate, but they make that choice so that their children will grow up in the Jewish state and be Israeli to the core.  Which is of course something I think about a lot.

He also touched upon the idea of Anglo culture/society in Israel, which is really interesting to me.  As an Anglo considering aliyah, I think about how I can integrate into society, be more Israeli, etc.. But Silver suggested there might be something worth preserving, certain American values and viewpoints, and I guess I can get behind that. It reminds me of other cultures in the States, who try to preserve their ways of life rather than assimilating.  I've just never thought about American culture as a thing like that.  Lots to consider.

In Tel Aviv, our guest lecturer gave us a walking tour from Yaffo into Tel Aviv.  It was lovely and I learned a lot!

Yaffo from the Tel Aviv side

Rav Kook's house... kind dilapidated because I guess there's a controversy about whether it's state or private property

There was also an alumni panel, and Jonah was there! I know Jonah because we were at Ein Prat/Tikvah together last summer.

Reunited!

We did a lot of meta-discussion at orientation... big sessions about how we're going to make decisions about seminars, big discussions about what our seminar topics will be (for the first 4, we chose: archaeology, civics, the naqba, and military and Israeli society... I'm helping to organize the military one, which should be interesting.), discussions about discussions... it was a lot, I'm pretty exhausted.

Orientation ended with an activity in which we had an hour and a bunch of craft materials to make some piece of art in response to the prompt "Israel and Me, Judaism and Me."  And then we went around and wrote little notes to each other on our art.

This is mine... the kotel, a phoenix, and a wolf... I'll let you decide what you think it means

It was fun to go back to first grade for a little while and play with paint, and the other fellows wrote me really sweet, thoughtful notes that made me feel really seen and heard as part of the group.


MATAT

When I first got to Tel Aviv, Matat picked me up!!! She is one of my closest Israeli friends, we met on Birthright two years ago.

It was so amazing to see her! Kind of surreal. I can't believe 2 years ago we were bunking together on Birthright and now I live here.  I'm actually pretty proud of myself.

Anyway, Matat is amazing and hilarious and I probably laughed our whole night out in Yaffo.  I hope to see lots of her this year.

PLANS

Now that orientation is over, I need to start finalizing my schedule.  I am going to set up a Hebrew tutor, try to get into an Israeli lit class at Hebrew U, and try to find a good volunteer placement. Then I'll plug in writing time. Hopefully I can get a good start on this tomorrow!