a quiet fortnight

The past two weeks really haven't been all that interesting. A few little things here and there, but for the most part I've just been staying put and enjoying the simplicity of things. Last week, on Sunday, I went to a Carlebach Kumzitz. Let me explain. Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach was a famous Rabbi who passed away about 15 years ago. During his lifetime he started a movement within Jewry of people who try and get in touch with themselves, their religion, spirituality etc, mainly through music and simplicity. Needless to say his movement picked up a lot of momentum during the flower power years. Anyway, a Kumzitz is essentially a gathering where Jewish thought is discussed, music is played, and a sense of unison is felt. Put the two together and you get...a very musical gathering led by a follower of the Carlebach movement. It was a very nice evening and, while I can't really deal with large groups of Carlebach followers together (too many bright colors and just a bit too hippieish for me) the rabbi who led it told me about a small torah class he offers on Thursday nights. That was Sunday. I hadn't decided whether or not I would go on Thursday or not, but it stayed in the back of my mind. Well, that week proved to be a bit stressful. Really, my stress centered on one thing and one thing only: My Human Rights Class. I don't want to discuss it, because it's simply terribly, but to give you a brief picture: the teacher uses Wikipedia as her lecture, doesn't follow the syllabus, has only taught us about 1 treaty thus far, laughs at human rights abuses...this list goes on. Anyway, I was stressed and I decided that I wanted to take a nice relaxing weekend up in the Galilee, the northern part of Israel bordering Syria that is very green and reminds me a little bit of the mountains back home.
Originally I planned to go to the ancient city of Safed, a city with a very mystical heritage and one of the deep spiritual foundation stones of Israel. Well, hostels are a bit pricey and after speaking with my Aunt Beatrice, I briefly considered visiting my cousin (who lives even closer to Syria) but decided against it. What I ended up doing was going with my friends Scott and Elana (+two of Elana's friends from school) to Tiberius, a city on the coast of the Kineret (Sea of Galilee), not far from Safed. We scheduled to leave on Friday morning, the city being no more then 2 and a 1/2 hours away by bus.
Thursday night I did end up going to the Torah class the rabbi from Sundays Kumzitz told me about and it was both relaxing and interesting. I went with Scott and it was actually funny because I liked the class, but he prefers to go to the hippie-Carlebach in-mass events that I'm not such a fan of. Anyway, Friday morning we headed out, slept on the bus, and upon arrival managed to get lost for a bit before we found our hostel. Let me tell you something, you get you pay for. And when you pay $17ish a night, you don't get very much. We walked around the city about and then started getting ready for Shabbat. For various reasons we decided to not get meals with a local family but rather to make our own Shabbat meals. We bought some food from the grocery store and some bread from the bakery and that was that. That evening four out of the five of us went to Shul at a local Mizrahi (Jews of middle eastern/north African decent) congregation that had been recommended to us by a shopkeeper. Well, the prayers were in a different order then I'm used to and sung in completely different tunes, but it was a nice experience. That evening we took our food with us to the boardwalk and ate basically on the sea. An important note: this "sea"...I've seen bigger lakes in my part of the US, but still, for Israel its special. They are in a desert after all.
The next day was also pleasant. That morning I prayed by the gravesite of Maimonides, one of the most renowned and important figures in Judaism. Oh, I should explain. Tiberius, like Safed, is also historically very Jewish and very mystical. Numerous great rabbis are buried there. We ate once again on the boardwalk and I spent my afternoon reading for class in the sunlight. All very nice. I forgot to mention something else of importance. I had been to Tiberius once before in my life and that was on Birthright a bit over two years ago. What was funny was that I ended up being in the exact same places I had visited when I was there and I purposefully tried to take some of the same photos. We came back Saturday night and it was off for another week of school. Unfortunately, school here doesn't excite me like it does in the states and in fact the academics leave a lot to be desired. Next topic.
This week also wasn't that exciting. I started making my own granola though and I think after Passover I may sell some because people really seem to like it, and I really like making a bit of money. Really, didn't do anything in the week. Yesterday though I went with Zack and Penina (two friends of my friend Tobey who I've become friends with as well) to the old city within Jerusalem and then to the center of town. We went to pick up Zack's ring from a somewhat famous jeweler in the area (the store bears the same name as my sister) and then we went to the Arab Souk for them to pick up some gifts for their friends back in the States. Very interesting experience because I had only been to the Arab souk once before, and that was kind of a mistake...and five years ago. Zack was an awesome bargainer and got the stuff he wanted for amazing prices. I should explain something: Generally when I refer to "the souk" it’s a large Jewish market of food + almost anything in the center of town. The Arab souk, on the other hand, is in the Arab quarter of the old city and deals mainly with touristy stuff and random odds and ends. After that we hung around Ben Yehuda (central pedestrian only street in town with many restaurants etc) and then I went to the torah class I had been to the night before. When that was down I quickly stopped off at Elana’s birthday party and then came back here and, after saying hello to some friends who were holding a mock prom, called it a night. Tonight I should be meeting up with a friend from Binghamton who is here for a week to visit her brother (Channa). She wants to visit "Shira Chadasha" (translation: a "new poem", both words being feminim) a small but popular feminist shul. After that I plan on heading over to Elians place for Shabbat dinner because she only lives a few blocks away. Most of Shabbat however, I hope to spend studying for my History midterm that is on Monday.