ISSI! – Israel – Day 8
July 29, 2012
Israel – Day 8
Today was the second day of the conference and I ditched after lunch. The sessions today were rather boring and dry. There was a symposium on the extent to which the bible and Talmud supported transcendent and immanent notions of god, along with Tony Biondi presenting an argument for the inclusion of such texts into ‘great books’ courses at US universities. The only really interesting paper was an analysis on a daf of Gemara regarding prophecy.
The second session today was a deep reading of something or other, in a traditional format that very nearly put me to sleep. Therefore, after making the most of the buffet lunch I hopped back to Nathan and Debra’s to Skype friends for a short while.
A few phone calls to Sarah and the Weizmann Institute later, I was off on my way to Rechovot, to see ISSI (the science program I did during my gap/shnat year) 2012. After missing two busses and getting stuck in traffic, I finally arrived forty-five minutes later than planned at the institute. Outside I took this photo of the building, at which point the security guard started waving at me to come over. After chastising me for photographing the institute he quizzed me for a good few minutes before letting me in to meet with the group.
On reaching the Young@Science youth village, I gave a massive hug to Nir Zohar my madrich (counsellor) from my year, still working there. After a chat, it was off to visit the Aussies! For those interested, Ezra, Paul and Shale had siblings on the year’s program, all who were very friendly to us. Eventually we were invited to go out on the town with them, as it was their second last night. As the group split up into a few smaller ones, Sarah and I headed out with my Australian friend Julian Kowal and his friends.
After a lovely dinner I trained to Tel-Aviv with Sarah, only to realize that I had purchased a return bus ticket to Jerusalem, losing myself a good 30 NIS ($7 AUD). After helped her get home I returned to Jerusalem for the final day of the conference.