week 1 brief

Week 1 was overall very positive. The classes are mostly excellent.
The Hebrew teacher is amazing. They should clone her and send her everywhere.
One caveat--not being fluent in Hebrew does not mean I am unfamiliar with rabbinic literature. Hopefully we will ratchet up the pace once the teachers know where we are and what we can do.

Shabbat was overall quite lovely. Friday night at Yakar (upstairs) was a little too sweaty for my taste, but I suppose I am at an age where I prefer to sit for at least part of the service. It was amusin to hear the connections between Avram and Barack Obama, Obama's "lekh lekha" to the American people is "Yes we can!" (I am generally amused when I hear English phrases amidst an otherwise entirely Hebrew conversation, speech or d'var torah.) One of my roommates made a fabulous dinner (as usual). Saturday morning was at Kol Haneshama, a progressive/reform synagogue off Emek Refiam. It is interesting how denominational labels are different in different parts of the world. The service could have been a liberal Conservative synagogue in America. They read the entire Torah reading for the week. They had a remembrance of Musaf. Overall, it was quite fascinating. I will definitely check it out again sometime.

I look forward to my second week of classes. I hope that I will get used to having class ALL day Sunday. That may be the biggest adjustment to make in this country--if you neglect the giant language and cultural barriers.