day 1/2

Day 1:
Long and hungry. The day began nicely with a pleasant davening at Robinson's arch. I'd never been before and it was nice to pray near the wall, the site of the Temple, with both men and women in Tefillin. From there, our first surprise was the lack of breakfast, and from there we had many long meetings in Hebrew. I think we were thoroughly oriented and discovered the plans for the year.

Day 2:
We began the day at a Tali School in Maalei Adumim. We went through a checkpoint and apparently crossed the green line. It seemed just like the rest of the borders of Jerusalem, which is how the Israelis seem to consider it. I understand that some see it as an expanding settlement, but it seems like the natural expansion of a crowded city (Jerusalem).

The morning was awesome! We sat in lines outside while the flag was raised and songs were sung. After that we had a musical tefillah, where the children saw young people with tefillin--both men and women, which is a great example and a great way to start dialogue and change in this country. After that, I went to music class with second graders who knew ALL the lyrics to ALL the songs. They could sight sing. They recognized notes. It was amazing. After that they had recess/lunch/Israeli dancing. Once I get my connection cable from New York, I'll post lots of fun pictures related to that.

A note on the Tefillah--it was interesting to learn a little baout the connections and disconnections of Tali and the Masorit movement. There were definitely some progressive elements in the religious education atthe school, yet the tefillah in the morning included the boys saying shelo asani isha, praying thanks that they were not made as women. For the silly statement of the day: it is interesting how Judaism is so similar and different around the world.