Trip to the Negev

Last week, HUC took all of the first year students on a tiyul (trip)
to the south for 4 days. We got on the bus early in the morning
(during which time I, of course, fell asleep) and woke up to a barren
landscape of beige. Initially not so incredibly thrilling, but I grew
to truly fall in love with the desert.

After visiting the grave site of Ben Gurion, we met our desert guide
and went on what they told us was an "easy" hike. My friends, it was
not easy. Although it started slow, soon we were doing some intense
climbing up a mountain. It's probably one of the hardest (albeit
short) hikes I've ever been on.


The view at the top was entirely
worth it though. All you can see forever are beautiful rolling
mountains in shades of red, gold, beige, and yellow. When the light
hits it just right at sunset, the mountains turn to a beautiful light
pink color. Gorgeous.



That night we stayed in a Bedouin tent where we were told stories and
got to eat wonderful, delicious food! The stars in the desert are
absolutely stunning. They seem so much closer, almost like you could
reach out and grab one. However, it also gets very cold in the Negev
at night, so I soon had to go back inside to warm up.

The next day was a day of hiking. I chose to go on the "easy" or more
relaxed hike...ultimately an excellent decision for me! I was able to
really take my time and walk around and observe on this hike. Our
guide showed us lots of interesting plants and bugs as we walked as
well as explained to us about our surroundings. Later that evening we
went to Kibbutz Yahel. This is the oldest Reform kibbutz in Israel!
The evening was pretty relaxing and allowed time to just hang out with
friends.

Friday, we went to Kibbutz Lotan (also a Reform Kibbutz). This
kibbutz is incredibly environmentally aware. Many of their structures
(a bus stop, things for kids to climb on, etc) are built around
recycled materials and then covered with a mud mixture and then bright
paint colors. They have also made little guest houses this way and
insulate them with hay (which supposedly keeps them cool in the summer
and warm in the winter). It's apparently a pretty easy process and so
most of what is built is able to be completed by the residents who
live on Lotan. It's a great, special place and I highly recommend
visiting the next time you find yourself in the Negev Desert. Following our visit, we drove down to Eilat to go snorkeling. It was a bit too chilly for me, but the water looked beautiful.



Saturday I had the opportunity to lead Shabbat morning services with
Amy (roommate) and Jason (boyfriend). These services were
particularly special because we were in the middle of the desert.
Without even intending for it to be this way, the services were
incredibly relaxed just by virtue of our setting in nature. We
inserted different poems about nature into the service by different
Israeli authors. Here is my favorite:

I see You in the starry field,
I see You in the harvest's yield,
In every breath, in every sound,
An echo of Your name is found.
The blade of grass, the simple flower,
Bear witness to Your matchless power.
In wonderworkings,
or some bush aflame,
Men looking for God and fancy Him concealed;
But in earth's common things He stands revealed
While grass and flowers and stars spell out His name.
~Ibn Ezra


During the Torah service, we gave a few options. You could either
break into different groups and discuss questions from this past
week's Haftorah, or take the opportunity to go by yourself into the
desert to wander/think/whatever you please. I chose the second
option. I found a small tree (the location was in a dry riverbed.
Although most of the year it remains dry, water does occasionally run
which means there is vegetation) to sit in and thought. I realized
that it had been a long time since I last sat by myself with no other
distractions. I had nothing to steal my attention away -- only time.
It's very important I think to have time with yourself. This is what
the desert taught me and I will now try and incorporate more into my
life.

After lunch and an afternoon nap, we packed our stuff up onto the bus
and drove back to Jerusalem. Now I'm home and faced with lots of work
before I finally reach Spring Break next week. However, my sister
comes Thursday!!!! Watch out Jerusalem! The Krevsky girls are in
town :)

I hope all is well with you and spring is starting to emerge back at
home. I shall hopefully talk to you soon!

Long and overdue entry

I'm hanging my head in shame right now. I haven't written about my life in Jerusalem in such a long time that I don't even know where to begin at this point! I'll give a summary I guess of some highlights and then hopefully continue to post regularly for the rest of the year.

- Shabbat
This past Friday night was my final "official" service to lead of the year (I led 3 that I'm being reviewed for). I actually found this service to be a bit more difficult in forming than the services that I have planned for Monday mornings. I think this is partly because there is so much more energy on a Friday night than on a Monday morning. In fact, there shouldn't be the same energy level as a Friday compared to a Monday! How else will you separate Shabbat from the rest of the week? I worked with rabbinical student Meredith Kahan on this service. We both decided right off the bat that music was incredibly important to us. However, we couldn't really decide on any one genre of Jewish music, so we used that to our advantage and honored different traditions in our service. Highlights for me were l'cha dodi and ahavat olam. The l'cha dodi we used was from three different Jewish musical traditions: Ashkenazi, Bratslav, and modern (Rotenberg). The three different tunes flowed into one another beautifully and created such a cool high point in the Kabbalat Shabbat service. We decided to use Debbie Friedman's melody for Ahavat Olam. What made it special was an added flute part that I composed over the course of the week. It ended up being such a simple, beautiful line that it really added something special to the prayer. I was very proud of it.

- Army Base visit
This past Wednesday in my Israel seminar class, we traveled to the Dead Sea area to visit an army base. The landscape is beautiful in the area. The mountains role so beautifully. It's almost like someone laid skin on these vast areas of land. Unfortunately most of the day was just hanging out. We got to hear about how the unit ran though (well, mostly. There was a good amount of information that they weren't allowed to tell us for security reasons). This particular day, they were doing a run of taking over an area. Apparently this is a pretty standard exercise that is done in the army, and although we watched an elite unit, they still needed to review the basics. So at the very end of the day we got to watch them do a "wet" run of this exercise-- wet meaning with real bullets! It was an incredibly intense experience. I feel like I understand that much more about what training is like in the army now though. Definitely an experience that will stay with me when I leave Israel this year.

- New classes
I only have 2 new classes this semester: bible and Israeli Art Music. My Tanach class is wonderful! In the class we each take a verse to read in Hebrew and then are asked to translate the Biblical Hebrew into Modern Hebrew...read that again. Modern Hebrew! Not Engligh! It's incredibly difficult, but soooo wonderful. It forces you to pay attention to the grammar of the sentence so much more than if it was just translated to English (I'm learning that grammar is very important!). We also talk about different concepts in the Tanach as well, but it's always surrounding the translations. My other class is Israeli Art music which is essentially studying classical music of Israel. The content is interesting, but not my favorite class by far.

I know that in the next few days I'll think of more to tell you, but that's it for now! I'm off to class!
Love,
Sarah

Leading Monday services #2

This past Monday morning I led as the cantor for the student led Shacharit services at HUC. My partner was a rabbinical student named Rachel. We began planning this service about 6-7 weeks ago. Let me tell you, those weeks fly by fast!

While I hesitate to say that we had a theme (it's sort of like saying theme in relation to b'nai mitzvah. No, I'm not doing an "under the sea" theme. I'm going to be a bat mitzvah. My theme is entering Jewish adulthood) we had a focus of connections running throughout the service. It sprung from the prayer in the Shacharit (morning) service called Asher Yatzar. In this prayer, we thank God for all of the miraculous connections in our body, for without even one of them functioning we would not be in trouble. We decided to focus on the different connections in our lives: connections to God, our loved ones, ourselves, to music.

A few weeks ago I recieved from the URJ a weekly email called "Ten Minutes of Tefillah." The cantor who wrote it focused exactly on Asher Yatzar and had a mp3 link to Debbie Friedman's setting of Asher Yatzar and Elohai Neshama. Although I'm not particularly fond of her voice, the actual piece is gorgeous. It is a very simple melody that ultimate combines to become a duet. My idea was to include this in my service. However, I wanted to make it a bit more unusual and rather than the second part being sung, I decided to ask one of my classmates (a rabbinical student named Jim) to play the clarinet for me. Rachel is also very musically talented so she added a guitar and our accompaniest played the piano as well. All together the voice and instruments made such a lovely balance. It was so much fun to imagine it in my head and then hear it come to fruition.

Jumping off of the clarinet idea, I immediately though of klezmer music. I was able to find a fantastic opening niggun to use the with the clarinet and I decided to conclude the service with Ami Aloni's Adon Olam. The klezmer sound with such a fun connection to our musical Jewish past and also a generally fantastic way to begin the morning in my opinion. Adon Olam has become one of my favorite pieces now. I kept on expecting an old Hassidic rabbi to pop out from behind a curtain and start dancing.

Another special part of the service was right before the mourners' Kaddish. Rachel had heard a poem called The Lanyard by Billy Collins (read by rabbi) and thought it was the perfect setting for our idea of connections. We read it right before the Kaddish and had many people in tears (I, having heard it in rehearsal many times, also got a bit choaked up). It was an incredible moment. The poem is pasted below.

The Lanyard – Billy Collins

The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one into the past more suddenly—
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid long thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,
laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light

and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift—not the worn truth

that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hand,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.

The service ended and I was immediately sad that it was over. I had such fun standing on the bimah, leading my peers in prayer, praying myself, and making gorgeous music. The kahal (congregation) began singing along altogether during Elohai Neshama and it was an overwhelming moment to hear everyone join in. I half wanted to cry and half wanted to laugh, but ended up just continuing to sing. It was a beautiful moment for me.

It's moments like these that makes me so incredibly excited to become a cantor and to begin a student pulpit next year.

Below are pictures that have absolutely nothing to do with my service. These two pictures were taken by a social worker at Nofei Yerushalayim, the nursing home I volunteer at.

One of the residents began dancing with a nurse. It was so sweet. I must say, it's a bit difficult to sing when you want to cry from joy.

Hope you're having a wonderful week!
Sarah

And look how far I've come...

I've just hit a little over the 5 month mark of living in Israel. How crazy! So much has changed over the past few months that it makes my head spin.

School has been going well. It always takes me a moment to realize, but I have learned a lot since being here both about myself and academically. I now know so much about Jewish music. I can't wait to be in a setting where I have the opportunity to share all of this wonderful information! I keep on imagining different workshops and adult ed. sessions on Jewish music. And it's only 5 months into this fantastic journey! I can't wait to learn more and continue building my repertoire of information and music. My Hebrew has also significantly improved since arriving. The words suddenly just come out of my mouth with much more ease than ever before. I'm still, of course, grasping for words, but I can carry on a conversation with relative ease. It's a great feeling to have.

I've also begun learning and realizing things about myself. Like I said last week, I'm beginning to find that I can pray in almost any setting. Moreover, I really like praying and having the Hebrew words in front of me. Recently in class we learned how to chant the entire weekday amidah. I find this to be such a calming idea. I try every day to read the amidah through. I can't entirely explain why, but it centers me in a really nice way. I really like creating different prayer experiences as well. I'm currently preparing to lead my second shacharit service of the year this coming Monday. I picked out all of the music that I want to use. I also had the idea to include more musical instruments. There's a rabbinical student that plays clarinet and Rachel (the rabbinical student I'm leading with) plays the guitar. They're playing on Debbie Friedman's arrangement of Asher Yatzar/Elohai Neshamah with the piano. Jim (the clarinetist) will also be accompanying a niggun and the beginning of the service and Adon Olam (with a fun klezmer feel) at the end of the service. I'm so excited! The Shacharit service for me is all about waking about and preparing to begin your day. The music that I have prepared seems to do exactly that.

The very first full day I was in Israel, I went by HUC and noticed a posting of all the cantorial concerts this year. I remember very vividly thinking, "Oh my God, what did I just get myself into?" Last night was that concert and I was prepared and did wonderfully. I can't believe how far musicially I have come as well. I can feel my voice getting stronger and more consistent every day. I know that I still have a ways to go, but I'm well on my way.

It's a nice feeling of peace to come to the conclusion that I can live away from home in a different country. It's by no means easy and I've battled with my bout of homesickness. But I know that I've grown and that's a wonderful feeling to have. Shabbat Shalom!

Musings on Shabbat

I have always loved Shabbat. I love getting dressed up to look my best, seeing family and friends and services, praying, hearing beautiful music, and relaxing. I have always been under the assumption though that I could never pray in an Orthodox setting. I don't like the mechitza. I don't like being separated from people I love and the feeling that I'm not worthy to pray with men. And because of those feelings, I made the assumption that I could just never pray in that setting.

Since arriving in Israel, I've had the opportunity to visit different synagogues in Israel. I typically venture to a Progressive/Reform synaogogue. It's where I feel most comfortable. But in my time here, I've also had the opportunity to try out Orthodox synagogues. Tonight for insance I decided to go to the Great Synagogue. The synaogue is exactly what it sounds...great. The sanctuary is enormous with a huge dome ceiling. The acoustics are like none other. The men sit on the ground floor and the women are in a balcony section above them. The cantor there is named Naphtali and has a stunningly beautiful voice. He sings every week with a professional, all male choir. The sound is unreal.

I'm learning more and more that for me, my most prayerful experiences are the ones that include beautiful music. Beautiful music with a choir, a guitar, a piano, etc. It's the music that lifts me and makes me feel closer to God. So while I don't like being separated from the men in synagogue or not being able to sing at full voice, hearing the cantor hit a beautiful, clear high note makes me feel at peace and happy and prayerful. As long as I can be in that environment, I can pray. It's a personal experience. I'm glad I have found a way to bring in my Shabbat.

Off to dinner. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Love,
Sarah

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! I can not believe how incredibly fast the time has been flying so far this year. It literally feels like yesterday that it was scrambling for the High Holidays and taking summer ulpan. Suddenly, I know how to lead a weekday morning service, have translated from the Torah, read Haftorah, traveled to Haifa and Tzfat (yes, again), and saw a Yiddish concert! Oy gevalt! Here is an update on what has been going.

School has definitely been keeping me busy. Besides my regular classes, cantorial students are given the opportunity to lead Shabbat services a few times throughout the year. My first time was last Shabbat. I led the morning blessings with the nusach that I've been learning in class (always great practice). Leading services now are getting more and more interesting for me because of all the Hebrew I'm learning. I'm understanding what the Hebrew is saying and it allows me to put so much more feeling into what I'm singing. I found that as I connect more to the words, in return I also get such a positive response from the congregation. It's so wonderful and fulfilling. I got to lead with a wonderful cantor, Michal Shiff-Matter, who is also my voice teacher and vocal coach. We sang a beautiful duet of Sim Shalom after the Amidah. And because I wasn't doing quite enough in the service (catch the sarcasim?) I also read the Haftorah. I left services thoroughly exhausted, but also thoroughly happy.

Mondays, I think I have mentioned, there are student led Shacharit services. Included in this service is a Torah service. I volunteered to read an aliyah. An interesting tradition that HUC has is that after chanting from the Torah, the reading also translates what they just read. At first I was honestly dreading this a bit and ended up pushing it to the side for awhile. But when I finally sat down to figure what exactly my portion said, I found that I loved translating! It helped my a lot with learning the trope actually and transfering from the vowel to the non-vowel side of the Tikun (where you practice reading Torah). The day I read, it all seemed incredibly seamless. It was a lot of fun.

Wednesdays are one of my favorite days of the week at school. We do not have our regular classes, but instead get to use Israel as our classroom. We go on different trips thoughout the country, hear interesting lecturers, and learn things that would just not have been nearly as meaningful if we only read a book. The most recent trip was a day trip to Haifa and Tzfat. In Haifa, we visited the Leo Beck school. They have the first Israeli Reform day school in the country! After getting a tour of their gorgeous building, we sat in on the elementary school's Shacharit service. It was grades kindergarten, first, and second. 5 children "led" the service alongside the rabbi. We later learned that they wrote everything the said ahead of time. All the children wore a kippah and had a children's siddur. Interestingly, they sang many songs that by American Jewish composers such as Debbie Friedman, Craig Taubman, and Jeff Klepper. They sang Debbie Friedman's Mi Shebeirach, but the English was translated into Hebrew. They were all incredibly cute. After the service we got to meeting with some High School (which is completely secular, no Reform aspects to it) students in the Enrichment program. They had incredibly interesting views particularly on Judaism. They all identified themselves as completely secular. One of the girls said, I'm secular, but one of my favorite things to study is school is Mishna(!). I'm beginning to learn more and more that the term secular in Israel is not the same as when people say "I'm secular" in the United States. In Israel (generally speaking) you're either secular or Orthodox. People who are not Orthodox do not want to be close to that category so they automatically box themselves into the secular category, even though they may keep kosher, or celebrate Shabbat. It was an incredibly interesting day. And as always, wonderful to see little kids again.

Another recent highlight was the ordination of rabbincal students from the Israeli program. Rabbi David Ellenson, the President of HUC, came to Israel for the ordination. It was so amazing to see an ordination and think that it will be me someday! The entire morning was really very beautiful. It was particularly beautiful when one student was ordainded with his mother (also a rabbi) at his side. It was very moving.

Thanksgiving! Yes, we celebrated. Our class decided to hold a huge dinner at school. In order to make sure that we didn't end up with 7 stuffing dishes and only 1 turkey, we made a sign up list for different dishes. I opted to try my hand at apple pie. It turned out absolutely gorgeous! (tasted pretty good too, although I have a few adjustments that I need to make). I was very proud of my pie (I have attached a picture of my picturesque pie -- the second picture is with Amy Goodman, my roommate. She is a rabbinical student at HUC). It was an incredibly fun evening with friends. I definitely missed being home though to see friends and family.

I am so thankful for each and every one of you. I miss you so much, especially now around Thanksgiving. I hope you are healthy and happy back at home, or school, or another country. I hope to talk to you soon! Enjoy Turkey and pumpkin pie!

An Update

I realized this afternoon that it's been a very long time (Yom Kippur already!) since I last updated you on my life in Jerusalem. Things have been incredibly busy here, so it's obviously time for an update. Here are some recent highlights:

1. Reunited with my computer

I got my computer back! If you remember, way back in September the hard drive of my laptop decided it would be a good time to die. (It actually was a good time. With all of the holidays and missing classes, I didn't really have so much work to do). It was rather frustrating living without a computer for a month and a half though. I went to the library a lot and had very kind friends and roommates who let me check me email on their computers. I ordered a new hard drive and it went very slowly through the mail to finally arrive in Jerusalem this past week! My friend (and new hero) Josh was incredibly kind and spent several hours yesterday working to fix my computer and reinstall programs that I need. What does this mean? We can talk much more readily again!!! I can't wait! Want to make a skype date????

2. Sukkot Parade, Etrog Shopping, and other Sukkot musings

Over Sukkot break I decided to stay in Jerusalem. One of the main highlights during Sukkot is the big parade! Different Israeli organizations walked down the middle of the road right near my apartment singing and dancing. It was lots of fun. But more fun that that were the Christians who had flown in from all over the world to also walk in the parade (for the Feast of the Booths I think...I'm still a little fuzzy on the details as to why they were here). But they walked down the street screaming "Shana Tova!" "We love Israel!" It was for sure an "only in Israel" moment.

Right before Sukkot began I went the Shuk (outdoor market) to see the big sale of lulavim and etrogim. People from all over the city come to find the best etrog and lulav set for Sukkot. It was amazing watching people barganining and trying to find the best of everything for the holiday. I'm sure there is extensive criteria to look for, but I have no idea what that is. I decided that I wanted to try to make etrog jam this year (well, why not?) and so I bought three etrogim that weren't kosher (the stem is not attached) for discount price. I need to find time to try this. We'll see what happens.

In general, Sukkot is an amazing time in Jerusalem. I'm incredibly glad that I decided to stay here for the holiday. If you walk down the street to Emek Refaim, you'll see that there is a Sukkah outside of almost every restaurant. It's amazing. There are palm leaves left on the side of the road for the top of your Sukkah. During the entire holiday season, Coke bottles wish their consumers "Chag Sameach!" I have come to the conclusion that the best way to describe Sukkot in Jerusalem is to think of the Christmas/holiday season in the States. It's that kind of craziness. To add more to the feel, the inside of a sukkah is decorate with tinsel decorations! It's not the "traditional" corn and gourds and other east coast fall things that are usually hanging in the Sukkah in the states. Definitely a new idea to get used to.

3. Yad Vashem and Mt. Herzl

Last Wednesday classes officially started back up again. However, our first day back was Israel day so it was techinically just a field trip sort of day. A good way to get back into academic life. First we visited Mt. Herzl.

This dome is is the site of the celebration of Israel's indendence. Every year there is a choir that sings in the dome. Hundreds of people come and watch the ceremonies. It's supposed to be spectacular. This is also where Theodore Hertzel is buried.

This is the grave cite of Golda Meir, the first woman prime minister of Israel. I'm currently reading her biography. It was unbelievable to stand by her grave.

This is the grave of Prime Minister Rabin.

After exiting the museum of Yad Vashem, this is the beautiful panorama you immediately see of Israel. The museum is designed in such a way so that you can't see outside the entire time you're in the museum. The only natural light is from a very thin strip from the ceiling. This very strikingly juxtaposes the end as you walk out onto a porch to face Israel.

4. Halloween in Jerusalem?!
Well, yes. We're all North Americans at heart and it felt very weird to not dress up. So the Kef Va'ad (Fun Committee) organized a Halloween party. I decided to go as Minnie Mouse. It was actually very impressive to see the different costumes people were able to scrounge up. Among the people in attendance: Eve (as in Adam and Eve), James Bond, a Philistine, a Yankee, Luigi (no Mario though), Sarah Palin, facebook, and the three blind mice. We all had tons of fun and got to do a bit of relaxing together which is always very nice. Below is a picture of me as Minnie.

Me as Minnie Mouse!

From left: Rachel (as a Canadia bear), Me, Jaclyn (as Sarah Palin - very funny!), and Rachel (as a Yankee)

5. Nofei Yerushalyim

Every week or so I go to a nursing home in Jerusalem called Nofei Yerushalyim. As I'm sure you know, I very much enjoy going to visit the elderly. I visit with a woman named Audrey who is very sweet and I like very much. This past week her brother came to visit her. It was a particularly wonderful reunion for them because the last time they saw each other they thought it would be the last time forever. This is her brother's first time in Israel.

I go with another cantorial student, Nancy, and a rabbinical student, Sara. After meeting with the residents for about half an hour I break out my guitar and we do a song session for a little while. This most recent week we added in a bunch of Yiddish songs. They were all so happy and excited to hear them! One man was smiling and singing along the whole time, another man started crying, and another woman clapped every once in awhile. It's really just so touching to be able to do that for them. It's one of my favorite parts of the week. Interestingly, Tumbalalaika is a hit both in the US and in Israel!!

6. Shabbat
This past Shabbat I was asked (along with Faryn) to go and sing for a visiting group from New Jersey. I wasn't originally all that excited. All we had to do was sing a few blessings and sing some songs after dinner. It turned out to be so much fun though! It was a group of people about 60-80 traveling for 10 days in Israel with their synagogue. Everyone was so nice and incredibly appreciate that we were there. They asked us all kinds of questions about what we were doing in school and Israel and about our program in general. We sang tons of songs with them and it turned out to be very nice company. It made me all the more excited to begin my student pulpit next year. A few of the women decided to come to HUC services the next morning as well so I got to see them again. They were so excited to see us. We exchanged email address and I hope very much that I'll be able to visit and see them again some day.

Well, that's it for now I suppose. I love and miss you!

Sarah