an early morning narrative

I have an inability to go to bed when my body tells me it's time to sleep. My body told me it was time for bed 2 hours ago, but I shoved it aside and stayed up. Didn't have a good reason. Didn't really have anything productive to do. And I love sleep. Someone used to tell me that sleep is overrated... for a while I agreed. But I just love it too much. It feels great, and it makes you happy. Sleep and sex - two seemingly antithetical bodily functions, yet they achieve extremely similar results. Sort of. As much as I love sleep, I also love being up at night when it's quiet and I've got the world to myself. I look out the window at the lights in people's houses and apartments and wonder who else is up right now and what are they doing.

What do I do at 3:09 am?

I just heard footsteps on the front porch - scared me for a minute. I went to look out the window. It was a hooded figure with a dark bag. Why is there a hooded figure with a dark bag outside my house at 3:09 am?

Damn you Toronto Star and your early Saturday morning delivery. Why do you need to persist in scaring the shit out of me at this time of night?

That's what I do at 3:09 am. Freak out at the weird noises :-) Or write a journal entry.

short now

it has been pointed out that I am guilty of writing very long posts (or stealing very long articles and posting them)

this is a short post.

happy?

Jews don't go to confession... here's mine

Mark your confessions:

[ ] I'm afraid of the quiet
[x] I'm really ticklish.
[x] I'm afraid of the dark.
[x] I'm afraid of facing my back to open doors at night.
[ ] I am homosexual.
[x] I believe in true love.
[ ] I've run away from home.
[ ] I collect comic books.
[x] I shut others out when I'm sad.

[x] I've stayed out all night.
[x] I open up to others easily.
[x] I am keeping a secret from the world.
[ ] I watch the news.
[ ] I own over 5 rap CDs.

[x] I love Disney movies.
[ ] I love porn... it's not awful. It has it's uses
[x] I am a sucker for pretty eyes
[ ] I am a sucker for hot asses
[x] I don't kill bugs.
[x] I curse once in awhile.
[x] I curse often
[ ] I have (had) "x"s in my screen name

[x] I've slipped and fell in public.
[ ] I've slipped out a "lol" in a real conversation.
[ ] I love Spam.
[x] I cook well.
[ ] I cook badly
[x] I have worn pajamas to class.
[ ] I have owned something from Carhartt. (What the fuck is Cahartt??)
[x] I have a job.
[x] Talked on a phone for 5+ hours.
[ ] I love Dr. Phil
[x] I like someone
[ ] I am guilty of tYpInG lIkE tHiS.

[ ] I am self-conscious.
[x] I love to laugh.
[x] I have tried alcohol.
[ ] I drink alcohol on a regular basis
[ ] I have smoked a pack in one day.

[x] I loved Lord of the Flies
[ ] I have cough drops when I'm not sick.

[ ] I can't swallow pills.
[x] I have a few scars.
[x] I've been out of this country. (Like every weekend?!)
[x] I can't sleep if there is a spider in the room. (Oh shit!)

[x] I love chocolate.
[ ] I bite my nails.
[x] I play computer games when I'm bored. (Minesweeper, baby!)
[x] Gotten lost in the city (NYC and Jerusalem I'm fine... I get lost in Toronto)
[x] Seen a shooting star.
[x] Had a serious surgery.

[x] Gone out in public in your pajamas. (camp, school, israel...)
[x] Have kissed a stranger.
[x] Hugged a stranger
[ ] Had sex with a stranger
[x] Tossed a salad (Like waldorf salad? or eating an asshole???)
[ ] heard a sibling having sex (hell no)

[ ] Been in a bloody fist fight with someone of the same sex.
[x] Been in a fist fight.
[ ] Been arrested.
[x] laughed and had some type of beverage come out of your nose.

[x] Pushed all the buttons on an elevator. (today at work)
[x] Made out in an elevator.
[x] Made out in a bar.
[x] Swore at your parents.
[x] Kicked a guy where it hurts on purpose.
[ ] Been skydiving.
[x] Been bungee jumping. (does extrene skyflyer count?)
[x] Gotten stitches.
[ ] Drank a whole gallon of milk in one hour.
[ ] Bitten someone.
[x] Been to Niagara Falls.
[ ] Gotten the chicken pox twice.

[ ] Crashed into a car.

[x] been to Africa. (Egypt for 5 seconds! Whoo hoo!)
[x] Ridden in a taxi.
[x] Shoplifted. (I think I stole silly putty once from the IT store
[ ] Been fired.
[x] Had feelings for someone who didn't have them back.
[ ] Had a crush on a teacher/coach.
[ ] Celebrated Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
[x] Been to Europe.
[ ] Slept with a co-worker.
[ ] Been married.
[ ] Gotten divorced.
[ ] Saw someone/something dying
[ ] Driven over 1000 miles in one day.

[x] Been to Canada. (ummmm)
[x] Been on a Plane.
[x] Seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

[x] Thrown up in a bar.
[x] Eaten sushi.

[ ] been snowboarding.
[x] been skiing.
[x] Been ice skating.

[x] Cried in public.
[x] Walked purposely into traffic with your eyes closed. (The Joys of NYC)

[x] Liked someone even though you knew you shouldn't have.
[x] Thought of someone almost 24/7.
[ ] Hated the world.
[x] Been In love
[x] Ever thought you were in love
[x] Cried over somebody
[x] Ran in the rain for fun (Hava Nashira!!! Such a wonderful time! Everyone should play in the rain)

A GAME! Can you figure out what happened?

Look at this:

http://utoronto.facebook.com/profile.php?id=28101218

then this:

http://utoronto.facebook.com/profile.php?id=28101108

and this:

http://yorku.facebook.com/profile.php?id=48900038

and finally, this (at the wall):

http://nyu.facebook.com/profile.php?id=802182

Can you piece the story together? Serious points to you if you can.

A Muslim in a Jewish Land [supremely interesting]

A Muslim in a Jewish Land
by Dr. Tashbih Sayyed (Courtesy of Muslim World Today)

On a trip to Israel, a Muslim journalist sees firsthand a litany of lies.

As I boarded EL AL flight LY 0008 for Tel Aviv on November 14, 2005 with my wife Kiran, my mind was busy arranging and re-arranging the list of things I intended to accomplish. I wanted to use my first visit to Israel to feel the strength of the Jewish spirit that refuses to give in to evil forces despite thousand of years of anti-Semitism. It was not Israel's suicidal sacrifices that I wanted to investigate but the foundations of Israeli determination to live in peace.

There are many things that I wanted to talk about with Israelis, the foremost among them being their reluctance to do something about the bad press that continues to paint them as villains. Although I understand why the media, which reasonably covers most events accurately, chooses to ignore all rules of ethical journalism when it comes to Israel, I could not fathom Israel's reluctance to challenge the negative press effectively. Media bias against Israel reminded me of the Nazi era German press that was recruited by Hitler's Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels who picked up every hate-laden word against the Jews. Just like the German press who refused to print the truth about the gruesome atrocities in Europe's death camps - or claimed that it was all an exaggeration, the media today also ignores the Arab terrorism. I wanted to see if there was any truth in the media allegations that Israel was an apartheid state, undemocratic and discriminatory.

I knew that a true Jewish State could not be undemocratic since democratic concepts were always a part of Jewish thinking and derived directly from the Torah. For instance when in the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson wrote that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, he was basically referring to Torah that said that all men are created in the image of God. I was confident that Israel cannot be racist or discriminatory since it is based on the idea of the covenant between God and the Israelites, in which both parties accepted upon themselves duties and obligations underlining the fact that power is established through the consent of both sides rather than through tyranny by the more powerful party.

My understanding of the Jewish State was confirmed when the entry form that I needed to fill before landing in Tel Aviv did not ask for my religion as is the law in Pakistan. Also, unlike Saudi Arabia, no one in Israeli immigration demanded from me any certificate of religion.

As the El Al approached the Promised Land, I continued to shuffle the list of charges
made routinely against Israel by its enemies.


Israelis live in a perpetual state of fear.

Israel is undemocratic.

Muslim Arab citizens of Israel do not have equal rights


Israelis live in a perpetual state of fear:

From Tel Aviv to Tiberias, Jerusalem to Jezreel, and from Golan heights to the Gaza border, I could not find any evidence of fear. In fact the people felt so secure that none of the stores, gas stations, market places, or residences we went to, and where it was known that we were Muslims, deemed it necessary to either search or interrogate us. Especially when Kiran and I went to the Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem one evening, we found it bursting at its seams with people of all ages. The ground was shaking with music and young boys and girls were so busy having fun that they did not bother to even look around. Tourists were busy making deals and the whole crowd seemed to throb with the beat of the music.

I could not help but compare Israel's sense of security with the environment of insecurity that exists in Muslim countries. From Indonesia to Iran and from Afghanistan to Saudi Arabia, people are not sure of anything. In Pakistan's capital Islamabad, and the port city of Karachi, I was constantly advised not to make big purchases publicly for it encourages robbers to come after you. I did not hear news of any rape, honor killing or hold-up in Israel.

Israel is undemocratic:

As a Muslim I am much more sensitive to the absence of democratic freedoms in any society. And I do not believe that anyone but a committed anti-Semite will deny that Israel is not a democracy. Democracy in Israel is proportional and representative, but democratic coalitions, necessary in order to effect any decision making also have its problems.

The very first day in Caesarea introduced us to the Israeli democracy. The air was full of political debate and discussion. Ariel Sharon's decision to leave the Likud and form a new political party dominated the hotel halls and underlined the problems caused by the necessity of having democratic coalitions. "The object of a free and democratic Israeli society is to reach satisfactory compromise but often the conclusions are less than satisfactory -- especially for the majority. It involves coalitions and unity which are also checks and balances on any potential abuse of minority rights. It is a better system than the American representative Republican system -- which is really a representation of power and special interests. In the U.S. you get a democracy for the few. In Israel you have a democracy for everyone."

I tried very hard to find any Muslim state that has true democracy and where religious minorities are accorded equal democratic rights, but failed. The map of the Muslim world is too crowded with kings, despots, dictators, sham democrats and theocratic autocrats and the persecution of minorities is an essential part of Islamist social behavior. But here, protected by Israel's democratic principles, the Muslim Arab citizens of Israel are afforded all the rights and privileges of Israeli citizenship. When the first elections to the Knesset were held in February 1949, Israeli Arabs were given the right to vote and to be elected along with Israeli Jews. Today, Israel's Arab citizens are accorded full civil and political rights entitled to complete participation in Israeli society. They are active in Israeli social, political and civic life and enjoy representation in Israel's Parliament, Foreign Service and judicial system.

The Israeli faith in democracy also explains their refusal to respond to Islamist terrorism in violent ways. Despite my being aware of the human weaknesses which allow anger to subjugate the best of intentions, I could not find Israelis acting in vengeance against their Arab compatriots. My experience as a Muslim was also instrumental in expecting the worst in human behavior; Muslims under the influence of radical Islam have been unleashing their terror against non-Muslims even when the charges of anti-Muslim offenses were determined to be false.

I thought that it requires a superhuman effort to ignore the atrocities meted out to you and remain free of vengeful emotions. In my experience of Muslim societies, minorities have never been allowed the benefit of the doubt. Hatred of non-Muslims and outbursts of violence against minority faiths among radical Islamists have remained a norm rather than an exception. As a non-Wahhabi Muslim I have personally faced their barbarism and have watched Christians, Hindus and other minorities being persecuted on false pretenses. I thought that if Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia can sentence a teacher to 40 months in jail and 750 lashes just for praising Jews, it will not be unreasonable on the part of Israelis to punish Palestinians for throwing stones at worshippers at the Western Wall and burning down the tomb of Joseph.

But even in this section, Israelis have proved the world wrong. Despite daily provocations, they have managed successfully not to descend to the same level of depravity as their Arab enemies. The world is used to daily violence that is unleashed against religious minorities in the Muslim world. Only a couple of days ago the Muslim faithful in Pakistan had broken through the walls of a Church, torching and tearing open its doors. They were reacting to a rumor that a Christian had desecrated their holy book, the Quran. They smashed the marble altar of the Holy Spirit Church and shattered its stained glass windows. They torched a Christian residence and the neighboring St. Anthony's Girls School. Within moments flames were licking the walls and black smoke filled the sky. For days the Wahhabi clerics kept on calling their Muslim followers to come out from their houses and defend their faith by unleashing a reign of terror against Christians.

I wondered if an Israeli may someday find it justified to copy what Wahhabis have been doing in Iraq and other places -- abducting, murdering and beheading "infidels". Most recently, the body of a Hindu driver, Maniappan Raman Kutty, was found with his throat slashed in southern Afghanistan for no evident reason but his faith.

But there was nothing in history that could have substantiated my fears; Jews, despite being subjected to the most barbaric acts of terrorism have yet to react in vengeance against their perpetrators. And I concluded that my first visit to Israel will help me in untangling the knot of Israel's insistence on continuing to remain a target of Islamist terror.

Muslim Arab citizen of Israel do not have equal rights:

As our air-conditioned bus negotiated the mountainous curves of the road to the heart of Galilee, I could not miss the rising minarets identifying a number of Palestinian Arab towns dotting the hillsides. The imposing domes of mosques underlined the freedoms that are enjoyed by the Muslims in the Jewish State. Large Arab residences, wide spread construction activity and big cars underlined the prosperity and affluence of Palestinians living under the Star of David.

On my way from the city of David to the Royal Prima hotel in Jerusalem, I asked my
Palestinian taxi driver how he feels about moving to the territories under Palestinian Authority. He said that he could never think of living outside Israel. His answer blasted the myth spread by anti-Semites that Israel's Arab citizens are not happy there.

Another Israeli Arab informed me that Arabs in Israel have equal voting rights. In fact, Israel is one of the few countries in the Middle East where Arab women can vote. In contrast to the non-Israeli Arab world, Arab women in Israel enjoy the same status as men. Muslim women have the right to vote and to be elected to public office. Muslim women, in fact are more liberated in Israel than in any Muslim country. Israeli law prohibits polygamy, child marriage, and the barbarity of female sexual mutilation.

Moreover, I found out that there are no incidences of honor killings in Israel. The status of Muslim women in Israel is far above that of any country in the region. Israeli health standards are by far the highest in the Middle East and Israeli health institutions are freely open to all Arabs, on the same basis as they are to Jews.

Arabic, like Hebrew, is an official language in Israel and underlines the tolerant nature of the Jewish State. All the street signs call out their names in Arabic alongside Hebrew. It is official policy of the Israeli government to foster the language, culture, and traditions of the Arab minority, in the educational system and in daily life. Israel's Arabic press is the most vibrant and independent of any country in the region. There are more than 20 Arabic periodicals. They publish what they please, subject only to the same military censorship as Jewish publications. There are daily TV and radio programs in Arabic.

Arabic is taught in Jewish secondary schools. More than 350,000 Arab children attend Israeli schools. At the time of Israel's founding, there was one Arab high school in the country. Today, there are hundreds of Arab schools. Israeli universities are renowned centers of learning in the history and literature of the Arab Middle East.

Aware of the constraints that a non-Wahhabi is faced with while performing religious rituals in Saudi Arabia, Kiran (my wife) could not hide her surprise at the freedoms and ease with which peoples of all religions and faiths were carrying out their religious obligations at the Church of the holy Sepulcher, Garden Tomb, Sea of Galilee, newly discovered Western Wall Tunnels, Western Wall, tomb of King David and all the other holy places we visited.

All religious communities in Israel enjoy the full protection of the State. Israeli Arabs --Muslims, as well as many Christian denominations -- are free to exercise their faiths, to observe their own weekly day of rest and holidays and to administer their own internal affairs. Some 80,000 Druze live in 22 villages in northern Israel. Their religion is not accessible to outsiders and Druze constitute a separate cultural, social and religious Arabic-speaking community. The Druze concept of taqiyya calls for complete loyalty by its adherents to the government of the country in which they reside. As such, among other things, the Druze serve in the Israel Defense Forces. Each religious community in Israel has its own religious councils and courts, and has full jurisdiction over religious affairs, including matters of personal status, such as marriage and divorce. The holy sites of all religions are administered by their own authorities and protected by the government.

A Hindu journalist who came to visit me talked about the openness that Jewish society represents. He told me that more than 20% of the Israeli population is non-Jewish of which approximately 1.2 million are Muslims, 140,000 are Christians and 100, 000 are Druze. Another non-Jewish Israeli told me that Christians and Druze are free to join even the defense forces of the Jewish State. Bedouins have served in paratroops units and other Arabs have volunteered for military duty.

The big houses owned by Arab Israelis and the amount of construction that was going on in the Arab towns exposed the falsity of propaganda that Israel discriminates against Israeli Arabs from buying lands. I found out that in the early part of the century, the Jewish National Fund was established by the World Zionist Congress to purchase land in Palestine for Jewish settlement. Of the total area of Israel, 92 percent belongs to the State and is managed by the Land Management Authority. It is not for sale to anyone, Jew or Arab.

The Arab Waqf owns land that is for the express use and benefit of Muslim Arabs. Government land can be leased by anyone, regardless of race, religion or sex. All Arab citizens of Israel are eligible to lease government land.

I asked three Israeli Arabs if they face discrimination in employment. They all said the same thing; normally there is no discrimination but whenever homicide bombers explode and murder Israelis, some Israelis feel uncomfortable dealing with them. But that uncomfortable feeling is also very temporary and does not stay for long.

My first visit to Israel has not only consolidated my belief that Israel is vital for the stability of the region but has also convinced me that the existence of Israel will one day convince the Muslims of the necessity of reformation in their theology as well as sociology.

A journey through the Israeli desert brought another important aspect of life to light; Prophets are not the only ones who can perform miracles -- people who believe in themselves can also perform unbelievable acts. Acres and acres of sand dunes have been transformed into the best possible fertile land; Wheat, Cotton, Sunflowers, Chickpeas, Groundnuts (Peanuts), Mangoes, Avocados, Citrus, Papayas, bananas and any other fruit and vegetable that Israelis want to consume is grown within Israel. In fact, Israelis have proved beyond any doubt why God promised them this land - only they could keep it green.

The land is described repeatedly in the Torah as a good land and "a land flowing with milk and honey". This description may not seem to fit well with the desert images we see on the nightly news, but let's keep in mind that the land was repeatedly abused by conquerors that were determined to make the land uninhabitable for the Jews. In the few decades since the Jewish people regained control of the land, tremendous improvement in its agriculture has been witnessed. Israeli agriculture today has a very high yield. Agriculture in Israel is very effective, and is able to cover about 75% of domestic needs, despite the limited land available.

Looking at the development and transformation that the land has gone through because of the Jewish innovative spirit, hard labor and commitment to freedoms for all times to come, I am convinced that it is true that God created this earth but it is also a fact that only an Israel can keep this earth from dying.

people in every direction

no words exchanged, no time to exchange

where is che?

Has anyone seen my che shirt?

Dammit. He's gonna be pissed.

Stephen Harper has a handsome new hairstyle!

The following is rom the Conservative Party's "Anyonymous Blog"... HA! Utterly dispicable. The tories try to paint everything as either black or white (or in this case, Blue or Red). They make it look like if you don't vote Conservative, then you oppose getting money, and people who oppose getting money are idiots. Such blind rhetoric:

The bottom line is simple: Stephen Harper is promising to reduce the GST to 5%. If you like the idea, vote Conservative. If you don’t, then you’re welcome to take the other option and vote for four more years of ethical lapses, missing billions, investigation, scandal, and corruption. A or B. Blue or Red. Your call.

Meanwhile, the Liberal Party of Canada continues to blog away: "People keep sayng this campaign is a carbon copy of the 2004 election. But that's not true. Stephen Harper has a right handsome new hairstyle."

Useless information segment:
What is Canada's smallest riding? Papineau, Quebec: 9 sq. km.
What is Canada's largest riding? Nunavut: 2,093,190 sq. km. This concludes our useless information segment.

And lastly: OOPS!

Thanks to Dan Cook at the Globe and Mail for the humour!

Surreal Socio-Religious Experience (also known as FUNNY SHIT AT THE SECOND CUP)

I'm sitting in Second Cup, and I needed somewhere to plug my laptop in. The only socket near me was fully occupied. One outlet was being used by another girl's laptop, and the other outlet had the obligatory table-top Christmas tree plugged into it. Now, as mesmerizing as it was to stare into the ever-changing fibre-optic tree, I needed to work. So I unplugged the tree and plugged in my powerbook.

The girl with the laptop looked at me, smiled, and said "You just ruined Christmas for everyone"

I was bursting with laughter inside, but I merely smiled back and said to her "Oh well, I need to study."

How wonderful is it that I unplugged the Supreme Christian Religious Icon so that I would be able to study for my Rabbinic Judaism midterm tommorow. This could be more than a funny coincidence. It could be a supreme sign. Should the Jewish people somehow dramatically and surprisingly increase in size so as to dwarf Christianity sometime in the near future, everyone take note: IT WAS I THAT WAS RESPONSIBLE.

I'm not saying I'm the Messiah. I'll leave that to Dan Bern.

I'm not going to do a whole social commentary on this. I'm just going to leave it pure and enjoyable. Smiling, I'm going to go study Saadiah Gaon while the Nutrcracker plays overhead.

so inspired

Sitting in my Theatre of the Holocasust right now.

So very much inspired.

The teacher of the class is a theatre mother. Not like a snobby "drama mom" but truly, a mother to all of us in the theatre. She's taken care of us this term as we've dealt with a very sensitive subject. It has been amazing to learn with her.

My director right now is incredible - organic, inspiring, inspired, funny, wise... such a pleasure to work with her.

Tonight, I got offered a fantastic opportunity to star in a play being written by the head of the theatre department.

In spite of the three exams and one essay I have on my mind, today has been an incredibly refreshing day.

Wow.

And I didn't even cheat! I swear!

You Passed 8th Grade Science

Congratulations, you got 8/8 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Science?

Yeah, I guess you could say so...

Your Birthdate: September 15

You take life as it is, and you find happiness in a variety of things. You tend to be close to family and friends. But it's hard to get into your inner circle. Making the little things wonderful is important to you, and you probably have an inviting home. You seek harmony with others, but occasionally you have a very stubborn streak. Your strength: Your intense optimism Your weakness: You shy away from exploring your talents Your power color: Jade Your power symbol: Flower Your power month: June

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Amichai poem that describes Israel well--

(Excuse me, this fell. Is it yours?
The stone? Not this, this fell
nine hundred years ago.)

Theresa Tova...Wow

Theresa Tova, the playwright of "Still the Night" came and visited with my Theatre of the Holocaust class this evening. I'm not sure I can manage to explain what just happened this evening, I need to let the experience sink in. In brief:

Laughing/crying/swearing/shouting/whispering/SINGING(in Yiddish!)/drawing us in... her emotions were seamless as she flowed through the text, to the music, to the stage directions, to telling us stories, then back to the play, then filling us in on secrets... all the while bringing each one of us into her life - at one point actually physically taking one of us in.

At one point she got so intense that she dropped her play on the ground. What a moment - for her to be so into the text, that she dropped the physical text on the ground and leapt away.

Words cannot describe the experience we all got to share, but seeing as this is a journal... words are all I can use. So here are some of her words from tonight. I'll start off with my favourite:

"Your truth, as specific as it is to you, universal. You've got to know that. As long as you're true"


"When you're in love, the whole world is Jewish"

"If you do correct grammar and put a Yiddish accent on it, you sound like Neil Simon"

"She never stopped fighting the war" ~ on her mother

"You can't control your parents or the press"

"Ooo he's so frustrating but he's so magical" ~ on Brent Carver

"I don't care that Hitler fucked you up... I want to choose life... I will not hide who I am" ~ to her mother.

"Let's not do the 'poor us, poor victims'. It's not about that anymore... this girls were fighters!"


How did she write her play?

"My work has to come from something I know"
"I just sit in my mothers vibe... I'm fine!"
"I sat with a bottle of brandy for three months at the computer"

driving uptown

It smells like bad Chinese Food...

Coming back uptown after the Halloween party on Saturday night, we got on the suwbay and I immediately noticed a foul stench in the car. Needless to say, Dave picked up on this too, as he uttered (quite loudly) the immortal words: "EWW! IT SMELLS LIKE BAD CHINESE FOOD!"



Also needless to say, the two girls sitting across from us were less than pleased.

I tried to backpeddle, saying "Well, it could be Greek food! Or... Israeli food! Bad Israeli food!!!"

"Nope, definately bad Chinese food!" Replied Dave

He hadn't looked across from us yet.

I had Chinese food for dinner last night.

A conversation with Steve is never boring!

Jesse Juicy Jew: what are you flying (to Houston)?
stevenbuchalter: southwest from Detroit
Jesse Juicy Jew: oh
Jesse Juicy Jew: loser
stevenbuchalter: jew
Jesse Juicy Jew: man
stevenbuchalter: theatre major
Jesse Juicy Jew: guy who goes to western
stevenbuchalter: zionist
Jesse Juicy Jew: canadian
stevenbuchalter: shabbos-respecter
Jesse Juicy Jew: shabbos-defiler
stevenbuchalter: closet homosexual
Jesse Juicy Jew: public butt fucker
stevenbuchalter: hey that's not fair
stevenbuchalter: i haven't called you anything negative yet
stevenbuchalter: go up and check them all
Jesse Juicy Jew: who says butt fucking in public is negative?
stevenbuchalter: am i giving? or receiving
Jesse Juicy Jew: whatever floats your boat
Jesse Juicy Jew: you should fully know that this converstion is going to be published in my blog
stevenbuchalter: shouldn't you have said that before i started talking? that's not a very fair disclaimer
stevenbuchalter: also...if this is going in your blog
stevenbuchalter: pencildick!
stevenbuchalter: jesse has a pencildick!
Jesse Juicy Jew: if you can see my penis from London, I doubt that it's a pencildick
stevenbuchalter: i can...it's the thin snaking flaccid line running down our main streets
stevenbuchalter: with the signs that say "2 miles this way to the head of the world's longest thinnest dick"
stevenbuchalter: yeah how's that for your blog
stevenbuchalter: sorry...i'm on some drugs right now
Jesse Juicy Jew: good enough
Jesse Juicy Jew: thank you
stevenbuchalter: didn't mean to be a jerk
Jesse Juicy Jew: it's ok
Jesse Juicy Jew: you're wonderful
stevenbuchalter: i really do enjoy marijuana
stevenbuchalter: though it's no cocaine
stevenbuchalter: cocaine's a hell of a drug

Happy Halloween

Blue Man Group makes an appearance at York

What I'm fighting for...

THIS ARTICLE IS FROM HA'ARETZ


Reform Transforms
By Micha Odenheimer

Anyone looking at Melissa Simon, dressed in a denim skirt and sweater, walk by on a Jerusalem street would automatically assume she is one of the hundreds of young Orthodox women who have come to the holy city to study Torah.

They would be half right. Melissa is in Jerusalem this year to study Torah. But she is doing it under the auspices of the Hebrew Union College (HUC). In four years, after completing her studies at one of the college's U.S. campuses, she will graduate as an ordained Reform rabbi.

For Melissa, who speaks with the passionate self-confidence of a born teacher - tempered by a tendency to blush at her own displays of eloquence - dressing like a yeshiva girl is a "subversive" practice, a double-edged sword aimed at undermining the preconceptions of both Reform and Orthodox Jews.

Melissa actively campaigns for homosexual rights and abortion rights, and she is an ardent feminist. Yet, she says, "I decided several years ago, while in college, to reclaim tzniut, modesty, in dress and attitude, as a practice and value for the Reform movement. I found it made me think about Judaism every time I got dressed. That's a key part of the whole thing - to enlarge the picture of what being Jewish is about."

Melissa, who observes Shabbat and kashrut and is deeply interested in other areas of halakha that have been long-neglected by Reform, is part of a growing trend that has transformed the movement's avant garde and is redefining what it means to be a Reform Jew.

Although some of her classmates here for the year in rabbinical school still do not wear skullcaps, even while praying, and lament the hardship of living in a city where it is "difficult to find good shellfish," others wear skullcaps and even tzitzit - prayer shawls, even when they are not praying, and "are in heaven" because Jerusalem's multitude of kosher restaurants means they can finally eat out whenever they feel like it.

The movement as a whole has become welcoming and tolerant of halakhic observance, reversing a 150-year history in which Reform defined itself in part by its rejection of traditional practices. "Fifteen years ago," says Rabbi Rachel Sabath, who was one of the first HUC students to raise the flag of Reform's return to halakha, "I was told that I would have a hard time getting a job in the Reform movement, because I refused to do things like take the youth group to an amusement park on Saturday afternoon. But now I am embraced, hired and asked to speak in Reform congregations about my path as an observant yet Reform Jew. They'll go out of their way to accommodate me - I'm told, `We'll do it on Sunday,' or `We'll come to you.'"

A new openness to "the whole array of mitzvot," in the words of the 1999 Pittsburgh Statement, drafted by Reform rabbinic leaders as a deliberate repudiation of the movement's historic - and notorious - 1885 Pittsburgh Platform, has become part of the movement's official doctrine. Some Reform leaders see this sea change as a form of repentance, or teshuva.

Searching for the secret formula

In the past, says Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman, who served as president of Hebrew Union College until 2001, Reform saw its task as radically transforming the Torah. The new task, he says, is changing the Jew. "Our starting point is that the Reform Jew of the beginning of the 21st century needs to be transformed," Zimmerman writes, in an essay called Transforming the Reform Jew. "Transform means to question and challenge the times in which we live. ... Transform means to accept Torah (in the broadest sense, in all its aspects) as the starting point of the encounter, to accept teshuva as the primary category for Jews in our time."

This tilt toward more traditional observance is only one aspect of the changes sweeping through the Reform movement as it renegotiates its relationship to modernity, to tradition and to Jewish peoplehood - all the while relentlessly searching for the secret formula or strategy that might stay the floodwaters of assimilation threatening much of their constituency.

Yet Orthodox ideologues would do well, for the moment, to quell triumphal cries in seeing Reform's religious ferment. For what is emerging from the Reform movement is something more subtle, complex and paradoxical than some form of Orthodox lite: a more self-confident and religiously alive form of liberal Judaism, closer to tradition, yet as subversive of our stereotypical assumptions about Jewish reality as the figure of future rabbi Melissa campaigning for homosexual rights looking for all the world like a modern Orthodox yeshiva girl.

To understood how far Reform has come, it is important to remember where it began. From its inception in Germany, in the early decades of the 19th century, Reform's embrace of modernity was nearly total. Rituals or beliefs that Reform leaders found irrational - and believed would impede Jewish acceptance in gentile society - were excised wholesale from the Reform repertoire, as a matter of principle. By 1883, the Reform movement in the United States had flamboyantly rejected the laws of kashrut. A dinner held in honor of the first graduating class of Hebrew Union College featured flagrantly non-kosher delicacies, and was recorded in the annals of history as the treife banquet. The Platform also rejected the notion of Jewish peoplehood; the Jews had once been a nation, it argued, but were now something more exalted - individuals united by a religion whose pure essence could be summed up in two words: ethical monotheism.

Replacing the commandments and Jewish people-hood was a powerful belief in science and progress, as well as in a God who ruled over a world evolving inexorably toward rationality and goodness. Perhaps most audaciously, the Reform movement believed that modernity itself contained the seeds of messianic fulfillment - the first flowering of the redemption. "We recognize, in the modern era," says the Pittsburgh Platform, "the approaching of the realization of Israel's great Messianic hope for the establishment of the kingdom of truth, justice and peace among all men."

Isaac Meyer Wise, the outstanding leader of American Reform Judaism during the last decades of the 19th century, believed that, purified of its primitive elements and distilled into its essence, Judaism would, within decades, become the religion of all humankind. Zionism was despised as a small-minded, nationalistic throwback.

According to Rabbi David Ellenson, the current president of HUC and a passionate Zionist, when Rabbi Kaufman Kohler became president of HUC at the beginning of the 20th century, "He fired every Zionist faculty member, and gave speeches to the students saying they could choose between the pure God of universal progress and love or the Godless nationalists."

Movement is virtually unrecognizable

The movement began to change its attitude toward Zionism in its 1937 Columbus Platform. But in its religious beliefs and practices, Reform remained, for many decades, largely static - Protestant in its aesthetic and style of worship. Services were mostly in English, and a professional cantor accompanied by a choir and organ sang the liturgy, while the worshipers remained seated and passive. Friday night worship was scheduled for after dinner, not at the traditional sunset hour. Congregants had little knowledge of Jewish sources. Even the rabbis, though eloquent and knowledgeable when it came to American politics and Western culture, were not necessarily Judaic scholars. "There are two kinds of Reform rabbis," one prominent mid-20th century Reform leader once quipped. "Those who believe in ethical monotheism, and those who know Hebrew."

But now, five years into the 21st century, the Reform movement - or at least some of it - has changed to such an extent as to be virtually unrecognizable. Bill Berk, a soft-spoken, engaging man in his mid-50s, is the rabbi of Temple Chai in Phoenix, Arizona, a Reform Temple that many in the movement say they look to as a model. The prayers, which are sung enthusiastically by the entire congregation, rather than by the cantor and choir, are in Hebrew. The services are scheduled for 6:15 P.M., approximating the sunset onset of Shabbat, as is traditional. Berk says that new worshipers who grew up with Classical Reform are often dumbfounded when they walk into his Friday night services. "They absolutely don't believe that it's Reform," he says.

What has catalyzed the changes that are redefining Reform, transforming it from the quintessentially modern religion it was into a new, postmodern era? The answer is multifaceted, with theological notions and sociological conditions fitting into each other like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. One of the two or three most powerful leaders of Reform today, Ellenson, who was appointed president of HUC in 2001, is one of the finest minds studying the puzzle - and is also emblematic of the shifting face of the movement today. Ellenson was born and raised in an Orthodox family, and although he broke away from halakhic observance as a teenager, he is "obsessed" with his field of scholarly research: the impact of modernity on Orthodox ideology and halakha.

Ellenson is a student of Jacob Katz, the towering historian of the Jewish encounter with modernity who died in 1998. Until the modern period, Katz taught, Jews were part of a religious community with a separate political status in the societies they inhabited. Within their communities, the rabbis had the authority to impose communal norms. Emancipation gave individual Jews rights as citizens, dissolving the rabbi's coercive power. Orthodoxy, Reform and Conservative Jewry all grew out of the vacuum of power that was created, as they vied for individual hearts and minds. Reform embraced modernity and its freedom wholeheartedly, while Orthodoxy attempted to preserve the authority of halakha in the face of political change.

For several generations, Reform continued to benefit from the glue that kept Jews together even in the absence of religious tradition: remnants of tribal loyalties, the ongoing threat of anti-Semitism and lingering discomfort over Jewish identity in a Christian society, all of which made intermarriage rare. But in recent years, the glue has melted away. "The issue today," says Ellenson, a warm, genial man with a trim beard, who says that until he became president of HUC he would go to work in blue jeans, "is what to do when you have a fifth and sixth generation American Jewish community that is totally acculturated, when Jews can be officers in companies like DuPont, or presidents of Ivy League universities?" As Rabbi Naama Kelman, associate dean of Hebrew Union College in Israel puts it, speaking of American Jews, "We no longer have to keep up with the Joneses. We are the Joneses."

And yet, as Reform Judaism has learned to its surprise, modernity cuts both ways. "What you see," Ellenson says, "is that modernity destroys tradition, but, at the same time, it makes people seek tradition, so that what you have in America today are trends that move in opposite directions." In the often cold and impersonal contemporary society, Judaism has "vast reservoirs of meaning" to offer. Ellenson says he is open to "the full range of how Jewish spirituality is expressed in our times" - and that definitely includes halakha. "Halakha is the idiomatic way in which Judaism spoke and continues to speak. If you want to talk about the possibility of creating meaning, you have to look at halakhic sources."

But openness to halakha does not mean a return to Orthodox notions of commitment. A recent, influential study of the postmodern Jewish self called "The Inner Jew," written by Israeli sociologist Steven Cohen and Stanford historian Arnold Eisen, paints a portrait of the contemporary American Jew as still connected to Judaism, but on his or her own terms. "Personal meaning," the study concludes, has become "the arbiter of their Jewish involvement. Jews are focused on the self and its fulfillment, rather than directed outward to the group. With the valorization of tradition, the absolute commitment to pluralism and the continuing assumption of individual autonomy, [Jews] feel free to borrow selectively, and perhaps only temporarily, from traditional Jewish religious and cultural sources."

Ellenson sees the significance of halakha and Torah learning in their capacity to produce a web of meaning and memory that can sustain Jewish identity. "Too many people think in binary categories of forbidden and permitted," he says. "We would do better to think in categories of meaning." Although he is endearingly apologetic about it - "I don't know whether it's an emotional or an intellectual problem" - Ellenson admits he is not personally interested in theology and is agnostic about most ultimate questions.

But for other Reform Jews, like Rabbi Rachel Sabath and Rabbi Leon Morris, head of the Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning in New York City, observance does emerge from ultimate concerns. With the messianic hope Reform placed in modernity shattered by the Holocaust, says Sabath, "There is a need and a place for the commanding voice of God outside of human capacity and anything that could stem from reason."

Rate of intermarriage has skyrocketed

Sabath and Morris are both students of Rabbi Eugene Borowitz, the preeminent Reform theologian, who argued for the spiritual necessity of an ongoing inner struggle in which the transcendent voice of God is filtered through our own autonomous ethical sensibility. "What I would like to turn on its head," says Morris, "is that the burden of proof is on the tradition itself - Reform Jews have the right to reject a specific tradition after studying and wrestling with it, and finding it ethically untenable, but the default position is that I have to observe this, it has come down this way, these commandments have a claim on me as a Jew."

The place where the future of the Reform movement will really be decided is in its version of the trenches - in the congregations scattered across America that serve the movement's more than 1 million members. American Jewry, and the Reform movement in particular, were traumatized in 1990 when a population survey showed that the rate of intermarriage had skyrocketed over the last 30 years from about 6 percent to more than 50 percent. In the past, Reform's desire to keep and expand its constituency of highly assimilated Jews - unofficial estimates say 30 percent of Reform congregants are intermarried - has meant a hesitancy to make demands in terms of knowledge or practice.

But in an era of spiritual search, many Reform rabbis have begun to realize that a call for greater commitment and involvement may have a far wider appeal than they once thought. Rabbi Bill Berk of Temple Chai, where hundreds of Jews pack Shabbat services and participate in often- intensive ongoing programs, believes that demanding higher levels of commitment has helped create a more vibrant community. "You have to have a sense of the mitzvah as something coming from the outside so that you don't get yanked away by each passing breeze of the modern world. Living in modernity there are a lot of wounds - unbridled competition, the impact of media, the whole underside of capitalism. If you can be part of a real community, you can survive the shallow side of America."

In a sermon delivered a year ago, Rabbi Janet Marder, currently the president of the CCAR, Reform's rabbinic organization, succinctly expressed the critique of Reform's past, which has caused a return to more traditional forms of ritual and prayer.

"Speaking to God in polite paragraphs of good English prose, or figuring God out of the equation altogether and making worship a purely cerebral act of self-evaluation - these are not activities compelling enough to make many people today opt for Friday night worship rather than a good dinner and a movie." In her address, she spoke about Eileen, a congregant who had recently lost her husband and then discovered that she herself was ill with Parkinson's disease. "Reducing Judaism to an arid core of reasoned principles or generic moral virtues that we share with good people of all faiths, stripping it of its color and vitality and emotional force - these are not enough for Eileen, whose world is collapsing around her. If we have nothing of significance to offer a woman like her, who craves an experience of spiritual sustenance and meaning, then we have nothing of real value to offer the world."

Reaching me in Israel

If you'd like to call me in Israel, dial this number EXACTLY AS SHOWN:

011-972-52-604-1592

This is assuming you live in North America. If you're calling from Israel, you know how to reach me.

If you're emailing, please don't use the @yorku.ca address, use the @gmail.com address.

Have a great summer everyone!

currently experiences technical difficulties

I've been off for a while, and will continue to be off until my time in Israel this summer, at which point this will serve as my trip journal. See you then.

~j

where does the time go when it's not around here?

it's been a month and a half since I've found the time to post. I largely blame it on my submission to the theatre. I remember Janette, one of my theatre teachers in high school used to believe in the theatre spirits/gods/pixies/insertyourfavouritemythicalcreaturehere. Well if she believes that they really exist, then I belive that there exists some sort of theatre purgatory where people slip into during shows. I swear - Ruddigore took a giant bite out of three months of my life, chewed on it, sucked on it, then spat it out in a glory of theatrical wonder.

now don't get me wrong - the show was fantastic, the cast was fantastic - everything was... fantastic. BUT WHERE DID THOSE THREE MONTHS GO? HONESTLY?

the interesting side effect of it is that you delve so deep into the world, that you forget that everyone outside isn't watching your every move (a common feeling when you're an actor) so you wonder why they bitch and cry "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN FOR THREE MONTHS?"

my response: "uhh... I moved into the theatre. yeah... i live under the stage.... in a box"

Yes it's true.... life does go on when you're not looking.


I keep asking myself why I didn't decide to study theatre in university. In retrospect, it's been great studying philosophy and religion - I've amassed a great amount of knowledge. BUT I think I would have amassed a huge amount more of life experience if I had been studying theatre.

It's been beautiful working with vcp, but I feel like I need a more disciplined experience. Now contrast that with my desire to become a Rabbi. People keep saying that they are two careers that compliment each other nicely - Rabbi's need to know how to "perform," they say... so I should do well, they say.

But there's this giant magnet in the theatre that pulls me towards it. I can't escape my desire to always live life on the Stage. capital "S"

To make it all the more complicated - would I have it any other way? - acting is not the only profession I'd see myself pursuing. Lighting and production design have also come to the forefront of my theatre fortes. WHAT TO DO?

I think it's time some of Janette's theatre spirits send me an epiphany.

In the meantime, I'll be looking at the National Theatre School after I graduate York. I know I'm not heading straight to HUC, so NTS might be a nice stop on the way. Or a permanent stop...?

L'Kayitz Haba'ah B'Yisrael

So I just found out that I'll be spending this summer in Israel staffing a NFTY trip as Rosh T'fillah! Needless to say, Jesse is very excited... but I find this part of me is tingling to go back to Kutz. I definately will be in Israel - I think it's the job of a lifetime... but man do I miss camp.

Damn you Joni Mitchell and your "don't know what you've got 'till it's gone." You're so right, and it hurts.

Tonight was a great night

Tonight was a great night. It's good to get drunk with good friends and sing Moxy Fruvous at 2 in the morning. I think it's really healthy - a catharsis of sorts. If songs that Moxy Fruvous wrote 12 years ago are able to help me release the stresses of the week (that and six pints of beer and a shot of Tequila) then I can go to sleep content that it's been a great night.

Thank you friends, you've made it a truly good day!

4, 3, 2, 1...

we're at the barrell of a gun

wrestling with God

I spent the greater part of my day trying to wrestle with God. Not in the Jacob wrestling with God sense, but in the Jesse wrestling with his concept of God sense. Rabbi Elyse Goldstein is the scholar-in-residence at Shul this weekend, and she lead a really interesting lunch session on God concepts. Thinking about God is like thinking about infiniti, you can do it, but it really hurts sometimes. I find that the more I think about God, the more I realize I don't even know where to begin. But Rabbi Elyse said something this morning that really jumped out at me.

She said something along the lines of.... "It's very hard for me to think of God and how God exists in this world, but it's even harder for me to think of a world where God doesn't exist."

I think that I've always believed in God. I don't really remember a time where I didn't. But at that point this morning, I had this connection with my understanding of God that I've never really had before. I realized how scary it is for me to imagine a world where God doesn't exist and where God doesn't play an integral role in existence. I just can't wrap my mind around it. As difficult as it is for me to wrap my mind around the very idea of God, it's terrifying for me to even try to wrap my mind around the notion of a Godless world.

Of course I respect all people's approaches to God... everybody needs to come to the point where they meet what works for them. But in all honesty, I just don't understand atheists. I don't know how you can't look around this world and see God in everything. I don't know how you could imagine that everything that is came to be by accident. Please, somebody explain to me how that could be possible.

So that's been following me around all day. It's a part of my greater transformation and growth Jewishly as of late. I find myself wanting to know more/do more/learn more/experience more, but not necessarily knowing exactly how I want to go about doing these things. What I am certain of is that I'm frustrated and disenchanted with a lot of Reform Judaism. At the same time, I find it hard to imagine being anything other than a Reform Jew. I've had this talk with plenty of people, and I know that I'm not the only one thirsty for more.

What disturbs me is that it's come to the point where I feel more spiritual, more Jewish, and like I can be a better Jew when I'm with a group of people from Kesher (like last weekend in Miami), or with a group of Conservative/Orthodox Jews, than when I'm at my own shul (where I've been a member for almost 14 years). It shouldn't be this way.

Is this just displaced teenage angst surfacing five years later in Jewish form?
Do I dare ask the cliche existential question: Am I the only one? Cause I know that I'm not.

I know that I will change, and that I will find what works for me, and that I will grow as a result of all this. I just wish I didn't have to be angry at what's been an integral part of me for 13 years.

That being said, I did have a lovely and restful Shabbat. To top it off, I'm going to bed!

Was it really a month ago?!

Sunset in Jerusalem 12/30/2004

Continuing my thievery of cool quotes from people's AOL profiles...

A kid goes to his dad and asks, "Dad, what are politics?"

His dad replies, " Put it this way; I am the breadwinner of the family so I am capitalism. Your mom is the owner of the money so she is government. The government is the provider for the people so you are the people. Your baby brother will be the future, and the nanny is the working class. Now think about that."

So he went to bed. He was woken by his brother. The baby had pooped in his diaper. He went to tell his parents, but he only found his mom asleep in the bed. He didn't want to wake her, so he went to the nanny. The door was locked. He checked through a hole and saw the dad in bed with the nanny.

The next morning, he went to his dad and said, "Dad I know what you mean now...

While capitalism is screwing the working class, the government is sound asleep, while the people are watching the future being pooped on."

My new Guitar!!!

Simon & Patrick Showcase Series
Rosewood with cutaway and a B-Band 4.2 pickup
Gloss finish
My new baby!!!

Sun = healthy, Snow = sick

I was perfectly healthy in Miami on the beach. Now I'm home and have come down with the flu. Unrelated coincidence, or a conspiracy by the American government to trick me into thinking warmer weather will keep me healthier? I vote American consiparcy. Call it Flu-gate.

Miami was incredible, the Zionist leadership conference provided me with a lot of great networking opportunities and the chance to hear some really inspiring speakers. But... the greatest thing that the conference gave me was...

A free trip to Israel!!!

Oh yes, that's right, my group won an advertising competition and we were all awarded gift certificates to use towards extended trips in Israel. I'm looking at doing a 5 month ulpan on Kibbutz Tzuba or possibly doing 2 1/2 months of Gadna and outdoor adventuring. It's really exciting to know that I'll be able to be back in Israel soon! I just feel bad that people I was with from Kesher didn't also win... we all got stuck in other groups. Oh well, it looks like they might be taking us to Israel anyways on a seperate training trip, so I hope that works out well.

In other news, shit's going down at the theatre. There seems to be a great lacking in the understanding and reasonability departments. People bitch about unnecessary things, and if there is reason to be upset about things, people express their concern in the most inappropriate ways. I'm tired of people complaining about things behind other people's backs. I'm tired of people not having either the decency or the guts to say things directly to people's faces. And I'm tired of the extreme lack of understanding. Just because people aren't going to be able to do something exactly the way you want it at the exact time you want it is no reason to challenege or question someone's dedication or committment.

Obviously I'm speaking personally here, but it's not only me - there are a number of people who have expressed the same sentiments and it's time that something is done. Maybe we need a revolution or a coup d'etat or... well I don't know. Maybe we can just reenact Les Mis and call it even. Or maybe people can simply be more understanding of each other. That would be nice.

In happier news, I'm off to L.A in a couple of weeks to staff NFTY convention. It'll be nice to see the beach and palm trees again!

That's all for now. I'm going to take a hot shower and then sweat all night long. Damn American conspirators.

Chick flick or philosophical life ponderings?

I just watched Garden State. I liked it. A lot. Great movie. Natalie Portman is gorgeous, but that's not the only reason the movie is good.

The movie essentially follows Zach Braff (of Scrubs fame) as he returns to the Garden State (that's New Jersey for those Canadians who don't fly in to Newark every summer for camp) for his mother's funeral. Sad sad sad. His life ends up being changed when he meets Sam (played by Portman)

Okay, that's enough exposition.

The film definately has a lot of hidden and not so hidden perspectives on life, life choices, and life altering choices. So much of it resonated with me and my experience growing up in Thornhill - or Jewville as it is affectionatly known. But there's this thing tugging at me.... was it just a chick flick with good writing?

I don't think so. I hope not. Because when movies resonate philosophically with me, I love it. It gives me faith that there are true geniuses in the world, people who can tap into the human experience and project it in a media that's accesible by the masses.

That's what music is. Music taps into realms of the human psyche, translates the unintelligible nature of humanity, and projects it out into the world in an intelligble manner. As Nietzsche so eloquently put it: "Without music, life would be pointless"

So I'll sleep on it, dream of the beautiful Natalie Portman, and hopefully wake up not thinking I spent my evening watching a chick flick.

People I've run into in Israel

Israel is the coolest, you run into people in the most unexpected places and it's so fantastic. Here's a running tally of people that I've seen (all but one were completely unaranged and random!)

1. Wes Peskin
2. Rachel Petroff
3. Adam Rosenwasser
4. Seth Winberg
5. David Ladon's brother
6. David Singer
7. Noah Fabricant
8. Emma Gottlieb
9. Isaac Saposnik
10. Matt Rogers
11. Jason Fenster
12. Mike Fuld
13. Mike Mason
    
14. Noam Katz
15. Two cute Israei girls from Kutz a few summers back.
16. A ton of people who go to Hebrew U and know people I do back at York

So much fun.

Shalom M'Yisrael!

It's day 11 here in Israel, and the third day after the official end of the Hillel Pluralism trip. The details of the Pluralism mission are far too many to list right now, but I'll be sure to get into them at some later point. After the trip ended on Tuesday night, those of us who were staying on together headed over to stay at Beit Shmuel at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem; we've been here since. Tuesday night I promptly fell asleep and stayed in a blissful state of rest for 11 hours. It was more sleep than I think I got on the whole trip.

Wednesday morning, we awoke to pouring rain, but nonetheless bounded out of bed, went down to breakfast, then headed out for a (wet) day on Rechov Ben Yehuda. Wandering around the shops was fun in the rain, and it was cool meeting all the kids from Birthright who are the first group to be allowed back on Ben Yehuda since the start of the Matzav.

Last night, we went out for dinner at Burger's Bar, which is by far the most amazing burger joint in the country. We went to the one on Emek Refayim our first night here, so it was fun to hit up the one on Ben Yehuda last night. After a great dinner, we headed out to a Hookah bar in the area and chilled for the rest of the night. It was Kol Tov.

This morning, Jessica, Shuli and I woke up early to grab breakfast and then head out to PARDES (the pluralistic Institute of Jewish Studies that we spent a lot of time at on the trip) for a day of studying. In the morning, I attended a Chumash class that was studying Lech Lecha this day. The intent of the teachers and students truly is awe-inspiring. They study the text so closely that they're only able to get through a few p'sukim (verses) each day. We got through four this morning - a high point for the class!

After the morning studying, we davened Mincha then had a delicious group lunch where a fantastic Jewish storyteller was speaking and telling stories. She was great. We ended our trip to PARDES by meeting with one of the adminstrators who answered some questions for us and basically just talked about what the institute has to offer. I am 99% sure that I'll be applying to spend a year there before I go to HUC. It will definately provide me with a stronger background in Talmud, Halachah, and Chumash. And Hebrew, of course!

For now, I plan on taking a nap, then later tonight we're going to the Kotel Tunnels. After that it will be chilling out in Jerusalem no doubt. For Erev Shabbat, a few of us plan on going to the Kotel, then to Kol Haneshama for T'fillah. Shabbat morning we'll stay at HUC for services. Once Shabbat is out, we'll be heading out to Haifa for the weekend, with a day trip to Tzfat in the works for Sunday.

Monday we'll probably spend in Tel Aviv, then Monday night we're off to the airport. I'd have to be up at 4:30 to get to the airport if we stayed in Tel Aviv, so a few of us are going the night before with the people who are leaving that night. We'll just crash on the floor somewhere and be able to save paying for a night in a hostel.

That's the plan for now, I'll be sure to keep this updated when I can. And stay tuned for pictures and highlites from the rest of the trip!

L'hitraot!