מַרְבֶּה תוֹרָה, מַרְבֶּה חַיִּים. מַרְבֶּה יְשִׁיבָה, מַרְבֶּה חָכְמָה

I guess if this week’s blog has a theme it is education.  Mine and others.  

So as I have mentioned, a good deal of my time right now is spent working.  I got through the November 1 deadline for college applications and am now working toward the final one on January 1.  While I finished with most of my Farber students, I ended up taking on more Israeli students.  I now have 10 or 11, but I have also done workshops at the Tel Aviv office for students on the Common Application,  so I have worked with about two dozen more there.  This has been an education for me, but I was thinking that the theme of education relates more to the Israeli’s themselves who are looking to get their B.A. in the States.  A couple of my students have dual citizenship but most do not.  Most are 22 and have done the army and spent another year traveling, working and testing and applying for college.  My Arab-Israeli student is younger since Arab-Israelis do not have to go in the army.  Sometimes I wonder if it is a good fit for these students to do undergrad in the States, but I get that they want an American experience and any opportunities that come with it.

I cannot talk about any of them too much (confidentiality rules) but it will be fun to let you know how they do in the end.  Money is an issue for almost all of them, which I tell them is true for Americans as well, although there is little financial aid for international students.  They are an amazing group of people.  The army tends to be the most important experience for most of them and some of them have been in intelligence units and so their work is classified.  They all travel as a matter of course and are just solid and independent.  Their English is very good and, as I mentioned previously, their math skills are impressive.  (Zoe can also tell you that the math education here is very different and very good.)  I have one student who was a commander in the army and if I ever were to be stuck on a desert island, I want him with me.  He is the craziest combination of competent, tough and sweet I have ever encountered. Another student was the Israeli national champion in a solo sport (don’t want to give away too much) during all of high school and still competes internationally.  They all have very different personalities but if I had to note one common characteristic they all share, it would have to be that they are all crazy honest, to an extreme.  

So there is my contribution to their education.  And then there is my education.

I started taking two classes at Pardes where Seth is studying.  My Wednesday class is “Sages of the Mishna” with Leah Rosenthal who is also Seth’s Gemara teacher.  This is a fun class where we get introduced to different figures of the Mishnah and see how their personalities are created through the stories and their interpretations that are passed down.  We had the third class this week and are up to Hillel.  Last week we had a field trip for the class.  We went to Moshav Beit Meir to their Shabbat Farm where you learn about the 39 melachot (prohibitions) of Shabbat and where they come from.  Learned all sorts of agricultural stuff and how to make wool, etc.  It was about a half hour outside Jerusalem and the area around this moshav is gorgeous - tree covered hills surrounded by winding valleys.  We then went to a women’s craft cooperative in Ein Kerem where women are reviving ancient crafts of weaving and basket making. Neither place had too much to do with the class except for showing us common work from the time we are studying (the Tanaim.)  The tour guide was very good and gave us a history lesson on the bus which was my favorite part, but I was happy to get a field trip and see more of the country.

My Monday class is called “Soloveitchik and Exodus” and is taught by Rabbi Reuven Grodner who was a student of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, or the Rav.  I have tried reading The Lonely Man of Faith about a dozen times and can’t understand a word, so I felt I needed to learn some of Soloveitchik’s wisdom some way.  The fun of this class for me has been all the stories that have been told about the Rav, first by Rabbi Grodner and then by this week’s substitute, Rabbi Aharon Adler who was not only a student of the Rav’s but his personal driver for three years.  Both of them told many stories about the Rav that were very inspiring.  Rabbi Adler happened to mention that the Rav and the Lubavitcher Rebbe were very fond of each other and had gone to school together in Berlin in the 20’s.  

He told us about the time that the Rav and the Rebbe met

and sent us to youtube to see a movie of the event which I did after class. It was a special moment to see if any of you are interested.  Just go  here. It is clear how important these two figures were to post-war American Judaism and how they breathed life, in very different ways, into Orthodoxy at a painfully low point in our history.

I have been thinking a lot about leadership lately and how sometimes in history people are blessed with exceptional leaders who get you through the mud and from one place to another, propelling history forward. Through my mishna class, I have developed two new heroes: although I knew about them before, I have decided that Yochanan Ben Zakai and Yehuda HaNasi were tremendous and greatly contributed to the survival of the Jewish people - Yochanan Ben Zakai during the darkest days of the destruction of the Temple and Yehuda HaNasi about a century afterwards. And then there are the Rav and the Rebbe.  Those who had experience with these two always say that you knew you were around greatness when you were in the same room as them, and I feel a sense of loss not having ever had the experience of being around someone like this. Maybe if we are very lucky, we will get the privilege of having a great leader in our lifetimes.  Whether we deserve it or not.

So this is some of my education going on.  I am struck by how much learning there is in Jerusalem.  One can spend all of one’s days studying with exceptional scholars.  And everyone seems to pass through this city so that there is a cultural richness in the air.   Jonathan Sarna is here for the year and is doing a four-part lecture series at Pardes starting next week on American Jews and politics that I plan on attending.  But there is always someone to see.

And last week I spent one of the most extraordinary nights of my life at a lecture at the Israel Museum.  The ceramist and author, Edmund De Waal was in town speaking as part of a conference on ownership and provenance at the museum. He was mostly speaking about his book, The Hare with Amber Eyes, which is one of my favorite books I have ever read. For those of you who have not read it, it is a family memoir of the Ephrussi’s, De Waal’s family on his father’s side, as told through the whereabouts of 264 Netsuke figurines from Japan,

the sole surviving possessions of the family’s vast fortune from before the war.  

The book is really like nothing else I have ever read, in part, I think because De Waal has an artist’s eye and is so thoughtful and perceptive.  The lecture, to a sold out crowd, was a retelling of the book and his efforts to write it, as well as a post book discussion of his art and life.  He has had major exhibits in Berlin and Vienna since the success of its publication.  De Waal’s art is also very interesting and is so much about loss and hiding and refuge and what you take with you; he incorporates Walter Benjamin and Paul Celan and is always grappling with the past.  The room was captivated by him.  It was a fascinating story filled with personal insight, but what added to the night’s emotion was the fact that De Waal had never been to Israel before and he had just spent his first day there.  He was so emotional about being here and kept having to stop his talk because he was weeping and we were all weeping with him.  When he ended, we were on our feet, practically cheering.  It was a night I hope to always remember.

So there is much learning going on on General Pierre Koenig Street (that’s us!)  Besides our own learning, Seth and I could not be prouder of Zoe and Hannah.  Zoe is doing amazing at Horev and works hard as usual. Hannah is taking nine classes at Tel Aviv U as required.  These classes are in incredibly hard academic Hebrew and she is surviving.  Sometimes we have to remind ourselves that she is an immigrant; she came here on her own when she was 18 and she is making a life for herself.  Even with her visiting family, this is her immigrant moment.  And so learning is essential.

We wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving.  If we do not partake in turkey, I suspect that we will still give thanks.

קשה עלי פרידתכם — It’s hard to be away from you.

So sorry for our delay in writing.  Sukkot always tends to take over life in a big way and things were no different here.  We had to hit the ground running right after Simchat Torah.  Hannah started Tel Aviv University.  School for Zoe kicked in full swing, including having to take her first tests.  Seth was the same (without the tests!)  But I had my week of crazy deadlines which was accompanied by a nasty cold/virus that I got from Hannah.  Anyway, this is a long way of making excuses for not finishing the blog earlier.

Ok, back to Sukkot.

So on the first days of hol hamoed, while Zoe went up north with her Bnei Akiva branch, Seth and I went to Tel Aviv and completely indulged ourselves for around 30 hours.  We stayed at the Royal Beach Hotel, which is a fairly new Isrotel property that is so nice it even smelled great.  We treated it as our 20th and 25th wedding anniversary trip combined.  That sounds a little sad when I read it,  but there you go.

So the reason that Zoe was on a trip and we decided to take a trip is that the whole country uses Sukkot as the major vacation week for the year.  So when in Rome…..  

We shared a ride up with a friend of Allison’s whom we met the previous day at a fun and delicious meal in the Pollock’s sukkah.  It was nice to have door to door service. We dropped off our luggage and explored the city which felt huge and tall compared to Jerusalem.   The skyline is completely dominated by cranes because this city is under so much construction.  I would have loved to do a Bauhaus tour of Tel Aviv but Seth would have none of it.  He is a great husband but there are limits.  Bauhaus tours of TA are so my thing but not his.  We got to see plenty of Bauhaus on our walk anyway because it is everywhere.  When you take a bunch of displaced German Jews in the 1930’s and drop them onto a blank canvas of land and say build a city, what do you expect to happen?  Lots of great architecture and also lots of 21st century graffiti.

We made our way to the Sarona Market which is creative urban development and had lunch.

Passed an outdoor Science Fiction Festival which was crowded with young people dressed in crazy costumes- sort of a cross of steampunk, anime, and fantasy.  Strange.

Back at the hotel, we hung out at the pool for a bit (check out that view!)

This was a treat.  The pool was on the 4th floor of the hotel so we got this amazing view of the beach and the weather was spectacular.  Actually perfect.

Then we made it to dinner. Meatos Fish Market.  We went to their original (meat) restaurant the last time we were in Tel Aviv (something like 5 years ago?)  We liked that, but we really liked this.   The food was great.  (Whole fish for me again, of course.) It was pretty empty when we got there, but there was a nice crowd in the sukkah by the time we left.  Sat next to a French couple with their 2 year old daughter and got to see French table etiquette in action.  Not a peep out of the child for the whole meal.  When there was a slight kvetch, the mother explained to the two year old that food would be coming in its time and that she would be having dinner when it was served, etc., etc.  This is how French people are made.  

Tel Aviv is an amazing city so I hope it doesn’t sound too dismissive to say that the highlight for me and Seth might have been the hotel breakfast!

Just so you know, I am really good at breakfast buffets.  You can ask the rest of my family.  They always are a little jealous of my plating skills.  But no need to boast.  

We had to check out by noon, so we dropped our stuff at the concierge and headed off to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, which has a breathtaking collection of modern art (including one of the greatest Klimt's in the world) and is well worth the time if you’ve never been there.  There were two special exhibits including one by David Tartakover, a contemporary Israeli artist who is very political and very powerful.  Some tough images but really thought provoking and he is really talented.

We were still full from breakfast, so skipped lunch and spent our last couple of hours on the beach watching the ting tong players and surfers

and back at the hotel pool where we experienced pure happiness on a covered pool bed that was very hard to leave (I was reading, The Goldfinch and Seth, The Corrections.)

We caught the train back to Jerusalem, which was a first for both of us.  So glad we did.  It is a slice of Israeli life both on the train and outside the window.  We got to see the Kresch’s apartment building as we passed through Beit Shemesh.  And then the views became something really spectacular -- winding through hills as we got closer to Jerusalem.

But duty calls and while I took pictures and listened to music, Seth got tapped to make a minyan for mincha.  So here we are during sukkot, on the train between Beit Shemesh and Jerusalem and you get ten men together representing a good slice of the Orthodox world.  A couple srugim kippot a la Seth, two massive streimels of the most elaborate fur, two Bratslavers with two white beanie kippot, and don’t know who else, except no known Sephardim, because the Sephardic guy said no if they were davening Ashkenaz.  Really? And just so you know, it is not easy to daven mincha when a train is winding through the mountains outside of Jerusalem.

Zoe and Seth  got one night of sleeping in the Sukkah in before the Chag ended.   Also, check out one of the many cats who live in the park that is our backyard.  The cats loved Sukkot.  Decided to move in.

The rest of the week was spent just hanging out, a lot of it with friends.  The Goldmeiers (all of them + Nati!) were in town and it was a treat to spend time visiting them on Shabbat.  

We were so lucky to meet one of Hannah’s apartment roommates, Eliana. She's great. And a hugger!We had been waiting to meet her for a long time so we were excited to have her stay with us for the last day of Sukkot, as well as Anna Warshay who was in town and got to share Zoe’s bunk bed.  One of my favorite meals so far was Simchat Torah lunch with us, Anna, Eliana, Madi and Abe and Yoni Nadel.  Talk about feeling like home but a little better.  It was a great day.  I will tell you about it.

So guess what Shemini Atzeret is?  I don’t know, I never have, and now that I have spent Sukkot here, I am even more confused.  All the Rabbis ended up giving their talks on how we need to acknowledge Shemini Atzeret, etc. but I think the lady doth protest too much, if you know what I mean.

But how great is one day of Chag?  There was so much time in between Yomim Tovim to spend appreciating the weather and the city; there were festivals everywhere and there was so much going on.  Israelis always seem up for a party.  I did not spend every minute shopping, cooking and eating.

This is how we spent Shmini Atzeret/Simhas Torah last day:

From Seth: I went with Benjamin and Asaf Pollock to the Bratslaver Bet Midrash for hakafot.  It was memorable (I particularly loved the boys’ rebbe who lead their choir jumping up and down on a not-so-stable-looking table and throwing candy to the boy’s non-stop the entire time.  I’ve only ever done something like that once before (25 years ago on a trip into Brooklyn) and had a similar feeling of being out of place.  The dancing was definitely spirited, but I was happy to leave, feeling like I didn’t belong there and almost as if I was at a performance instead of celebrating myself.

The women went elsewhere.  Zoe, Hannah, Eliana, Anna, the three Pollock women, and I  started off at Ramban and then walked up to Yakar.

Ramban was very nice.  After a slow start the women did their own hakafot and it ended up being a good turn out and good dancing (including with Talya Kresch).  We left after a while to check out the “It” place for Simchat Torah which seems to be Yakar.  As we approached up Kovshei Katamon, we saw the crowds outside the shul taking over the streets.  The men dance outside and they turn the inside over to the women.  Crazy, spirited dancing and singing with sooooo many young people.  Hannah walked in and said I think I know about 40 people here.  All people she has met in her few years in Jerusalem. When they reached the last Hakafa, they brought in the mechitza and the men came in so that the room was packed.  The men danced and sang on one side with the Torah and the women on the other.  And for the final Hakafa we sang Sholomo Carlbach’s Yerushalayim at the top of our voices and I knew that it was a not so thinly veiled reference and counterpoint to the Unesco vote on the Temple Mount which had happened right before the chag started.   We spilled back into the street which was showing no signs of letting up and ran into Hannah’s second roommate, Jess, who happened to be there.  It was the kind of place where that would happen.  Jess is South African and quite charming and beautiful.  

We walked home through very crowded streets and had a late but very fun meal that ended with Ben and Jerry’s.

Then we got up to do it all again.  Went to our regular shul, Nitzanim, where we ran into Yehuda Rothner, the recently retired director of Camp Stone and his wife, Adina. Had a great conversation with them about our year so far.  I think most people would agree that Yehuda’s goal in life is to get as many Jews to live in Israel as possible. He is a legend and deserves his own blog.  Maybe another day.  

My one regret from the day is that I went home early to check on lunch because the davening was very late.  I ended up missing what our lunch crowd described as the “most beautiful Tefillat HaGeshem they had ever heard.”  Now if you know our lunch crowd (see above) you know they have been around so that was saying a lot.  Tefillat HaGashem is the prayer for rain which is always done on this day.  We had not experienced a drop of rain since we arrived in Israel and we were so convinced that Sukkot would be rain-free we put our wood dining room table outside in our Sukkah. And it was.  But the beauty of that Tefillat Hageshem proved even more powerful the next day when the first rain in months came, right on cue.  That’s an “only in Israel” experience if there ever was one.

That night after the chag ended, Jerusalem has developed the tradition of keeping the party going with what they call “Hakafot Shniyot.”  It is just more dancing and music and fun.  Zoe and I went to a gathering off of Emek Refaim with Soul Farm and Shlomo Katz.  Very fun, especially when we ran into Hannah Korelitz and Eliana and much dancing ensued.  Zoe and I left a little early and on our walk home we got another huge holiday treat of bumping into Avi Greenbaum who was talking to Merav Edrei on the street.  Crazy Akiva reunion.  And then we went home and it was all over.

Happy, but missing you all, we’ll do our best to stay dry and warm as winter approaches.

What happens in Israel...