Thursday/Friday – Day 151/152
December 31, 2012
Thursday was snowing and thus I was inside much of the day, visiting various galleries and reading lots of books. Finally I was getting the holiday I needed! In the afternoon I went to see Les Miserables which by my reckoning was good. Just good. Not particularly great as many had hoped. I put this down to the musical character of the movie, which was a little repetitive and thus dull. Many of the actors spent the entire time speaking the songs with trembling lips and tearful eyes, which meant that not that much singing actually took place.
Friday was shorter than I would have liked, largely due to the early dinner and shabbat time of 4:30. Thus my day mostly consisted of going for a walk in the city then catching up for coffee with Irit Shacharai, one of my mentors from the Weizmann Institute, pursuing research at the Rockefeller Institute. After that it was back to Yoni and Rivki’s for dinner with the girls and then some peace to read!
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.
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.