Shabbat – Day 11
August 2, 2012
A late wake up followed by a simple lunch in house made the perfect start to this Shabbat.
At about 1:30 my phone rang, indicating that Colin Bulka of machon fame (director of part of my gap year program) was waiting downstairs for a walk. I came downstairs to find him and his bike in top shape, rearing to go for a walk down the hot and humid streets of Tel Aviv. After a good chat, my skin almost felt seared off by the unforgiving rays of the sun.
Walking to Sarah’s place for a quiet afternoon seemed like a good plan, however, with the fast of Tisha B’Av (jewish fast day of mourning) quickly approaching we instead set off to the boys’ apartment for the pre-fast Seudah (feast).
After the departure of Shabbat, Sarah and I went to Frishman beach, where the synagogue was reading Megillat Eicha, the book of lamentations. The Rabbi described the relevance of reading it at the beach as stemming from the deportation of the Jews from Israel from the ancient ports and their return via nearby Yafo (Jaffa). The reading was mostly pleasant, though I did miss the sound of practiced singer lifting up in mournful cries as with the trope of Eicha.
We then returned to the apartment to pack and await a lift from Gali Birenbaum, a mutual friend of ours from ISSI, who would be hosting us over the next few days and helping us manage the fast. She picked us up and subsequently another friend, Ariel Kliger and we chilled at her place till the late hours of the morning.
Clean plaid clothes or dirty clothes? And a kumta!
Tel Aviv – Israel – Day 9
July 30, 2012
Today the conference had its moments of complete and utter boredom and a few really shining lights.
The first lecture I can hardly remember now, but was an analytical look at prophecy in the bible and whether there is virtue in suicide for the sake of others. The second was quite an interesting look at the principles of jurisprudence as derived from halacha (Jewish Law). However, the third one I practically fell asleep during. It covered some purportedly exegetical analysis however seemed to be more of a personal interpretation of things with little regard to historicity.
The penultimate talk was genius. An analysis of psalm 19 using biblical criticism in order to draw conclusions that would in fact be supported by a traditional reading, and using it to show how the traditional reading would be in fact more reasonable than that which broke it up into multiple parts and authors. Any one interested is well encouraged to ask me more!
The final talk was also of note, regarding the story of the Oven of Achnai was a reading of it as a tale of different kinds of power, and the utilization of violence as a core motivator in ancient political systems.
I left the conference somewhat more satisfied than when I came in, left with a few new insights and a happy tummy. Yum.
From there I left to Tel Aviv, this time to stay. Unfortunately when packing my backpack this time, I rather severely under-packed. Two t-shirts, one shirt, one shorts, one pants, one pair of sandals. Not enough for a whole week.
Arriving in a friend’s tiny apartment in Tel-Aviv, I showered in small quarters before meeting up with more friends from the Weizmann Institute, Gali and Ariel, and went for Pizza with them, Sarah Silverberg in tow! After a walk to ice-cream, (delicious,) it was home time again. Sleep came quickly.