shorter bits
I've been learning a lot and it's going to take a while to write it
all up -- certainly not before I get home. So in the meantime, some
shorter bits:
We've had three days of chevruta study so far, two of which were excellent. One of those was led by Noam Zion (you might know his haggadah), the other by Marcie Lenk. Noam's sessions were about seeing God in history and we looked first at the Yosef story and when he saw God's hand in his life, and then at the Esther story, focusing on chapter 4 where Mordechai persuades Esther to act. There's a lot more to say here. Marcie's sessions were about faith and politics and we looked first at the part of Joshua where the tribes of Reuben and Gad and half of Manashe, having settled on the other side of the Jordan, build their own altar and trouble ensues, and then at some passages from Samuel and Kings showing kings acting badly and how prophets (representing God) responded. This reminded me that I need to become more fluent in these books than I am; I'm reasonably good with torah but the rest, not so much. (Read 'em a couple times, haven't really studied.)
They're trying to make sure we get outside of the beit midrash and experience some culture too. :-) Saturday night after Shabbat we went to see a movie, perhaps called The Matchmaker or perhaps Once I Was. (I mean, it was really called Pa'im Hayiti, possibly not with those exact vowels; I think it said "once I was" on-screen but it was called "the matchmaker" in our program, and neither of those seems to be literal.) It was produced and written by Avi Nesher (who apparently is famous here) and it's starting to make the rounds in the US. Anyway, it was a well-done character story of kids growing up in the 60s in Israel and the role a matchmaker played in one boy's life (the boy went to work for him) and how, really, making money from match-making didn't seem to be the point of the exercise. Avi Nesher spoke afterwards, which was interesting. Good movie, though if you need the English subtitles, be prepared to miss a few due to (a) fast dialogue (Hebrew is more compact than English so dialogue can go by quickly) and (b) some poor placement choices (white titles on light backgrounds). I missed some, but not enough to be a problem. I think I missed a joke or two, based on laughter in the theatre.
Monday was field-trip day ("tiyulim"). I went on the one called "faith and geopolitics", which provided a much more nuanced view of the troubles going on over here than we usually get in America. We began the day with a history overview from an academic; we also met with a resident of one of the villages east of Jerusalem (a so-called "settler", though I don't understand why people who approve use that word), a Palestinian Episcopalian priest, someone from one of the organizations that helps buy land (from Arabs for Jews) in the old city, and some others. We were supposed to hear from a representative of the Palestinian waqf, the organization that (among things) oversees the temple mount, but he couldn't make it. It was an interesting day.
There is a program for rabbis that just started, overlapping our program by a couple days. My rabbi is part of that, so I've gotten to see him a couple times. We discussed studying some of the material I've gotten here in more detail when we get back, which sounds great. (I know he can particularly help me understand the Rambam, since that's an area of interest for him.)
And now something not about Hartman at all but just about Jerusalem: I've been kind of surprised by the way random people on the street have treated me when I've asked for directions or for the name of a street. Most say they don't know, and in many cases, once I found out, I disbelieve. For Pittsburghers, imagine being on Ellsworth Avenue in Shadyside and asking someone where Fifth Avenue is -- could someone (who isn't a tourist) really not know that? It's unreal. Some just ignore me. And then there was the guy who chastised me (!) for not talking with him in Hebrew, even after I said (in Hebrew with, I later realized, some wrong grammar) "I understand a little but I don't know how to speak". I mean c'mon, I tried; do you really want to chase people away for not being farther along? Note that I'm choosing the people I ask reasonably; I'm not interrupting people who seem to be in a hurry, nor approaching black-hatted men at all, and I'm scanning for tourist hints before asking (camera, name tag from a tour, sunburn, etc). I don't get it.
We've had three days of chevruta study so far, two of which were excellent. One of those was led by Noam Zion (you might know his haggadah), the other by Marcie Lenk. Noam's sessions were about seeing God in history and we looked first at the Yosef story and when he saw God's hand in his life, and then at the Esther story, focusing on chapter 4 where Mordechai persuades Esther to act. There's a lot more to say here. Marcie's sessions were about faith and politics and we looked first at the part of Joshua where the tribes of Reuben and Gad and half of Manashe, having settled on the other side of the Jordan, build their own altar and trouble ensues, and then at some passages from Samuel and Kings showing kings acting badly and how prophets (representing God) responded. This reminded me that I need to become more fluent in these books than I am; I'm reasonably good with torah but the rest, not so much. (Read 'em a couple times, haven't really studied.)
They're trying to make sure we get outside of the beit midrash and experience some culture too. :-) Saturday night after Shabbat we went to see a movie, perhaps called The Matchmaker or perhaps Once I Was. (I mean, it was really called Pa'im Hayiti, possibly not with those exact vowels; I think it said "once I was" on-screen but it was called "the matchmaker" in our program, and neither of those seems to be literal.) It was produced and written by Avi Nesher (who apparently is famous here) and it's starting to make the rounds in the US. Anyway, it was a well-done character story of kids growing up in the 60s in Israel and the role a matchmaker played in one boy's life (the boy went to work for him) and how, really, making money from match-making didn't seem to be the point of the exercise. Avi Nesher spoke afterwards, which was interesting. Good movie, though if you need the English subtitles, be prepared to miss a few due to (a) fast dialogue (Hebrew is more compact than English so dialogue can go by quickly) and (b) some poor placement choices (white titles on light backgrounds). I missed some, but not enough to be a problem. I think I missed a joke or two, based on laughter in the theatre.
Monday was field-trip day ("tiyulim"). I went on the one called "faith and geopolitics", which provided a much more nuanced view of the troubles going on over here than we usually get in America. We began the day with a history overview from an academic; we also met with a resident of one of the villages east of Jerusalem (a so-called "settler", though I don't understand why people who approve use that word), a Palestinian Episcopalian priest, someone from one of the organizations that helps buy land (from Arabs for Jews) in the old city, and some others. We were supposed to hear from a representative of the Palestinian waqf, the organization that (among things) oversees the temple mount, but he couldn't make it. It was an interesting day.
There is a program for rabbis that just started, overlapping our program by a couple days. My rabbi is part of that, so I've gotten to see him a couple times. We discussed studying some of the material I've gotten here in more detail when we get back, which sounds great. (I know he can particularly help me understand the Rambam, since that's an area of interest for him.)
And now something not about Hartman at all but just about Jerusalem: I've been kind of surprised by the way random people on the street have treated me when I've asked for directions or for the name of a street. Most say they don't know, and in many cases, once I found out, I disbelieve. For Pittsburghers, imagine being on Ellsworth Avenue in Shadyside and asking someone where Fifth Avenue is -- could someone (who isn't a tourist) really not know that? It's unreal. Some just ignore me. And then there was the guy who chastised me (!) for not talking with him in Hebrew, even after I said (in Hebrew with, I later realized, some wrong grammar) "I understand a little but I don't know how to speak". I mean c'mon, I tried; do you really want to chase people away for not being farther along? Note that I'm choosing the people I ask reasonably; I'm not interrupting people who seem to be in a hurry, nor approaching black-hatted men at all, and I'm scanning for tourist hints before asking (camera, name tag from a tour, sunburn, etc). I don't get it.