(no subject)
I had the best Shabbat-Sunday ever.
We were in kibbutz Kfar Atziyon for Shabbat - were two of the girls in my gar'in live. This was our last Shabbat as a whole gar'in, as the girls going into Cheil Chinuch are going into the army this Monday. It was absolutely freezing cold and very foggy, but at least not as wet as our Efrat Shabbat... Though because of the weather two of our scheduled classes with two different Rabbanim got shortened and the tish were supposed to have at one of our Rabbanim's houses got cancelled. But we didn't let that stop us, we made our own tish in the beit yeladim were we stayed. We all sat in a circle and sang and ate (a little) but the best thing was the alternate pe'ilut we had instead of the tish at our Rav's house. Every girl who wanted to thank another girl for something she gave her this year did so. She didn't talk about her, she spoke to her and just thanked her. You didn't have to say anything - only whoever wanted to and felt the need. Some very beautiful things were said.
Even I got thanked - undertsandably not everyone wanted to speak and also understandibly not everyone was thanked personally, so I take that as a large compliment. I was thanked for laughing at someone's jokes - because, as she said, when someone laughs with you and at what you say, you feel like you're worth something. I got thanked (in a group) for being part of a four-way Arabic chavruta - that even though everyone else knows more or less where they're going and we don't, we still help each other along and encourage each other. I was also thanked (complimented?) on simply being me and doing things in my own simple way - I may not be one of the permanent fixtures in the beit midrash but I have my own quiet way that I go about.
I thanked people too. I thanked someone for breaking my cold, shy exterior and insisting on being my friend and being my friend, which is what I wanted in the first place. I thanked someone else for being a microcosm of me getting past my fears and prejudices against people who are different than me and helping me see that they are beautiful people too. And I thanked one more person for her utmost passion and fervor in learning Torah and reaching beyond what she has now to what she wants to achieve. Spomething which has been an inspiration to me and provided me with an ideal to reach for.
I had the greatest Shabbat ever, that was only topped by the Sunday morning that followed. Since this is the last week bnot Chinuch are going to be at the midrasha and each one is leaving on a different day, we decided to have one last together time. So at 5:30 we all woke up to go on a tiyul to Nachal Tavor (me, after three and a half hours of sleep - I stayed up helping make bye-bye presents for the Chinuch girls - no matter; I slept on the bus). They told us it would take four hours and then we'd go to one of the girls' houses in the area and have a barbecue. The one thing they didn't count on was the rains all through Shabbat making the trail extremely muddy. Let's just say that it was so sticky that all through the first hour of the tiyul either I felt like I was wearing an extra pair of boots on my feet it was so heavy, or that I was wearing platform shoes. Mucho sticky-heavy. During the rest of the tiyul we had to cross the stream four times - three out of which I took off my shoes and socks to wade through, because otherwise those would get wet too, not just my feet. Oh, and did I mention that thare were brances everywhere that tryed to puncture you at every turn? And that, mysteriously, I got sunburned? But still, I had a great time, the only drawback being that my sneakers are no longer their friendly blue-and-white but an all-over brown. Oh, and needing to walk around just in my, since-past, white socks - including getting off the bus in cold Jerusalem (the bus driver would let us come on the bus in our yicky, ucky shoes. How ungracious...) Not to mention that the mud on the tiyul combined with the smoke from the barbecue earning me a very long shower.
But it was great. It's funny, I don't have the same feeling about the Chinuch girls leaving as I did about leaving the girls from highschool. Probably because those girls I knew for six years, whereas these girls I've known for seven months. Still, I think the main reason is I no longer consider the leaving as if they're dying or something. I know that the girls I care enough about, I'll make sure to see. Also, it could be because it not me that's leaving yet. There is something I'm melancholy about; that I've only started really wanting to learn now, when there's only two and a half months left of midrasha... But more of that in a different post.
Right now, I'm tired, hot, happy and signing out. Tootles!
We were in kibbutz Kfar Atziyon for Shabbat - were two of the girls in my gar'in live. This was our last Shabbat as a whole gar'in, as the girls going into Cheil Chinuch are going into the army this Monday. It was absolutely freezing cold and very foggy, but at least not as wet as our Efrat Shabbat... Though because of the weather two of our scheduled classes with two different Rabbanim got shortened and the tish were supposed to have at one of our Rabbanim's houses got cancelled. But we didn't let that stop us, we made our own tish in the beit yeladim were we stayed. We all sat in a circle and sang and ate (a little) but the best thing was the alternate pe'ilut we had instead of the tish at our Rav's house. Every girl who wanted to thank another girl for something she gave her this year did so. She didn't talk about her, she spoke to her and just thanked her. You didn't have to say anything - only whoever wanted to and felt the need. Some very beautiful things were said.
Even I got thanked - undertsandably not everyone wanted to speak and also understandibly not everyone was thanked personally, so I take that as a large compliment. I was thanked for laughing at someone's jokes - because, as she said, when someone laughs with you and at what you say, you feel like you're worth something. I got thanked (in a group) for being part of a four-way Arabic chavruta - that even though everyone else knows more or less where they're going and we don't, we still help each other along and encourage each other. I was also thanked (complimented?) on simply being me and doing things in my own simple way - I may not be one of the permanent fixtures in the beit midrash but I have my own quiet way that I go about.
I thanked people too. I thanked someone for breaking my cold, shy exterior and insisting on being my friend and being my friend, which is what I wanted in the first place. I thanked someone else for being a microcosm of me getting past my fears and prejudices against people who are different than me and helping me see that they are beautiful people too. And I thanked one more person for her utmost passion and fervor in learning Torah and reaching beyond what she has now to what she wants to achieve. Spomething which has been an inspiration to me and provided me with an ideal to reach for.
I had the greatest Shabbat ever, that was only topped by the Sunday morning that followed. Since this is the last week bnot Chinuch are going to be at the midrasha and each one is leaving on a different day, we decided to have one last together time. So at 5:30 we all woke up to go on a tiyul to Nachal Tavor (me, after three and a half hours of sleep - I stayed up helping make bye-bye presents for the Chinuch girls - no matter; I slept on the bus). They told us it would take four hours and then we'd go to one of the girls' houses in the area and have a barbecue. The one thing they didn't count on was the rains all through Shabbat making the trail extremely muddy. Let's just say that it was so sticky that all through the first hour of the tiyul either I felt like I was wearing an extra pair of boots on my feet it was so heavy, or that I was wearing platform shoes. Mucho sticky-heavy. During the rest of the tiyul we had to cross the stream four times - three out of which I took off my shoes and socks to wade through, because otherwise those would get wet too, not just my feet. Oh, and did I mention that thare were brances everywhere that tryed to puncture you at every turn? And that, mysteriously, I got sunburned? But still, I had a great time, the only drawback being that my sneakers are no longer their friendly blue-and-white but an all-over brown. Oh, and needing to walk around just in my, since-past, white socks - including getting off the bus in cold Jerusalem (the bus driver would let us come on the bus in our yicky, ucky shoes. How ungracious...) Not to mention that the mud on the tiyul combined with the smoke from the barbecue earning me a very long shower.
But it was great. It's funny, I don't have the same feeling about the Chinuch girls leaving as I did about leaving the girls from highschool. Probably because those girls I knew for six years, whereas these girls I've known for seven months. Still, I think the main reason is I no longer consider the leaving as if they're dying or something. I know that the girls I care enough about, I'll make sure to see. Also, it could be because it not me that's leaving yet. There is something I'm melancholy about; that I've only started really wanting to learn now, when there's only two and a half months left of midrasha... But more of that in a different post.
Right now, I'm tired, hot, happy and signing out. Tootles!