7-24-08 2nd session of STEP begins

This week wasn't too out of the ordinary. I have had a few small adventures in trying to make myself more comfortable in Israel. One of them is in trying to acquire, for myself, a bike. Haha I should just write entire blogs in Talmud language... which is very similar to Yoda coincidentally... anyway I want to get a bike because it would make going out much less of a day trip than it currently is. I took a bus today, for example, to the Kotel(Western Wall). I had heard it was a long trip and I made jokes about it zig zagging accross Jerusalem... not knowing how right I was. This bus literally drove North (while the Wall is south east of me) and proceeded to zigzag through almost every major neighborhood between here and the Wall. There was literally a point (I was following on my map) where we were traveling north east and then south west... not only zigzagging but literally going backwards!

Anyway, I've kind of given up on the bike because they're all really expensive new and Israels craigslist and other similar sites are barely used. So now I'm searching for inexpensive ways to buy the books I need for Yeshiva come September. I almost bought a set of the Torah with commentary for $165... luckily, with all the time I have, I searched for other places and ways to get it. I eventually contacted the publisher who gave me the personal number of the distributor in my area. They then sent me to their shop which is really hidden in a building in a religious neighborhood's shopping center. Although she lied to me on the phone and said it was only around $110, it actually is around $125! Saved a bunch... and the dollar is getting stronger!!! So I'm gonna wait and hopefully buy it when the dollar gets even stronger!

I guess none of that is too exciting but today was pretty awesome. I went with my cousins to this crazy "time elevator" thingy that goes through the history of Jerusalem. There was a whole part about Jesus that was really dramatic and I was turned off by it at first. But then I realized how they were trying to make it work for Jews, Christians and Muslims and I was actually impressed by how well they presented all the material. It was definitely for the younger crowd but it did leave me with a greater sense of appreciation that I have the ability to live here this year and come back as much as I want. I love Israel... so holy... so good

Anyway, we walked around a bunch. I love my cousins. I want us all to live together in California. I have a plan with Karen and Brent to move to CA and then make the rest of the cousins follow.

I felt weird today because I keep finding myself babbling on about the Talmud and Judaism etc. It's tough when you get asked a question and you've been talking about the information in serious depth every day haha. I hope I'm not coming off as a crazy religious person. In this blog I don't care cuz your choosing to read it so you can complain all you want but it'd be easier to just stop reading. But in person, feel free to gently slap me cross the face.

Speaking of that, I made a facebook group called Challenge a Rabbi. I want people to send me the hardest questions they possibly can to try and stump the Rabbis because that's what I do in class all day anyways haha. It actually helps me learn because I keep finding intricacies in the text and opening up discussions about them. Talmud is the only place this is allowed. Anywhere else people will just get angry at you when you ask such seemingly minuscule and detailed questions.

So today is the second session of STEP. I lost my chevruta(study partner) from last session because we have less people and he was added on for me last session. It's sad but he was nice and gave me his info to host me for Shabbat some time. However, I have Rabbi Silber now. And he is amazing. He actually taught one of our classes and was working with Akiva (who went home today but is much more advanced than most of us) and so I'm very lucky to have him as a partner because he understands everything really well. On top of that he's hilarious and fun.

We also got 2 new guys so far. One guy names Solo(like solomon i think) and I believe he's from Chile. He speaks Hebrew, English and Spanish and we tried to teach him pig-latin so he could have a 4th language. There's also a guy that just arrived from Ethiopia. Now you might assume he was black. Nope, he's actually a red-head from CA. He just travelled randomly with his dad to Ethiopia to be awesome and help people. He also did USY and goes to Columbia so we knew a bunch of the same people. Pretty cool stuff!

Anyway I hopefully will get to take my laundry out soon and go to sleep cuz its super late. BTW Marzipan is the best rugelach in all of Israel.

I'm out,
OMz