thinking jewish

Election Day

Josh was nominated as a finalist in the "Jewish and Israeli Blog Awards 2004." God knows what this is, but help make his head a little bigger and vote for him.

In other news, I passed Minister of Jerusalem and Diaspora affairs and former Soviet refusnik Natan Sharanksy on the street yesterday on our respective ways to synagogue. Fun stuff.

Words of Wisdom

"Fidgeting is a good thing. It's not a bad habit like picking your nose."

-BBC

The Joys of Mega

Josh asked me to go with him to Mega today, so, of course, I went along. Mega is a big supermarket just a bit south of here. It's basically like any normal supermarket in the states which, compared to most stores here, is amazing, and cheap.

After an adventure in Homecenter (the Israeli equivalent of a cross between Bed Bath and Beyond and Home Depot), we found our way into the Mega store.

Josh got very excited about buying everything he saw - for the first time we were testing out the store's offer to deliver all of your purchases for ₪15, about $3. It was sort of like a game of "Supermarket Sweep."

In the bread aisle, we happened upon an Israeli woman who looked oddly familiar. After a split-second double-take, I realized that she was, in fact, Tamar, one of the two counselors from my trip here in 1999 on Scott Stone. I haven't seen or spoken to her since I was leaving the country from Ben Gurion Airport that summer. Weird. She looked exactly the same. We exchanged phone numbers, and hopefully we'll meet up sometime. Small world...

Then, we were alerted by our friend Joel, of one of the food-tasting tables operating in the store. Just like Costco, Mega offers trials of certain foods that they want you to buy. Unlike Costco, today one such table at Mega was sponsored by a representative from Goldstar Beer. Josh and I eagerly went and picked up our large glasses of free beer. Only in Israel can you walk around the supermarket drinking an open container of free alcohol.

And that was my day at Mega - fun stuff. Now I'm home, fighting off the latest round of HUC-illness: fortunately just a cold this time.

L'hit!

Quote of the Day (#2)

"But if god is any gender, he's a man, case closed..."

-Cheryl Brody

Quote of the Day

"Synagogues might create Home Consecration Committees, developing and enacting a ritual (complete with new music) to accompany the disposal of non-kosher food and utensils, kasher a stove..."

Rabbi Richard Levy
Former CCAR President

Food for Thought

Liz sums up quite nicely why we're here on the Far Side and what this is all about:

"To be given the opportunity to experiment and struggle and to dream and to learn and to meet incredible people and experience wonderful things."

Note to Self: Enjoy the Cold

From July 1 until now, the electric bill that I have been paying has only been an estimate. My meter is inside my apartment, and every time they've come to check it, I haven't been home. So, until now, every two months I've received a bill with an estimate based on last year's usage. I have happily used my heater and air-conditioner to weather the extreme climate.

Today I got another bill.

This bill charges me for precisely what I've used over the estimate to this point. I owe ₪2073.31, roughly $460. This is for electricity for one person.

Accordingly, I will from now on be making nice with the cold weather and lots of sheets. If you are so kind, you can make a tax-deductible donatation to the David Singer Relief Fund, and ensure that this kid does not go cold at night.

Until then, I'll be bringing brown-bag lunches to school each day - no more store-bought shnitzel for lunch.

Coming Soon to a Paper Near You

What the hell?

Click here. Yes, this kid may look familiar to you. His name is Eitan Bencuya. Apparently he's all official and stuff and now writes for the Daily Cal.

It's nice to have friends in high places.

And to think that when I applied for an opinion position they said I was too "high profile"...

Time to See What We Have...

Crazy at it seems, I'm quickly reaching the end of the adventure I've been calling life in Israel. In less than 150 days I'll be heading back to the United States of America. Given, yes, that's still more than four months of living here on the far side. But that's four months, compared to almost seven that I've already been here for.

Tomorrow we begin a four-day colloquium on campus to assess what has gone on here, how it's affected us, how we may have changed, how to incorporate our lives/experiences here into the American Jewish experience, and what the hell this all means.

I am, as you may know, extremely excited to be moving to New York. Since the day last June when I found out that I was placed on the New York campus I have said, and meant, that going to New York will make leaving israel a lot easier. But still, as much fun and crazy and amazing as New York will be, it still won't be Israel.

This place has become such a laboratory for me and my classmates to experiment and grow and change and stay exactly the same. We've been exposed to so many different ideas, so many different options, it's impossible to count them all.

For a while now I've maintained to many that I really haven't changed all that much at all in the half-year I've been in this crazy country. But now I realize I how wrong I am. I have changed - drastically. Not on the outside, but on the inside. Being so surrounded, so intimately, with so many different expressions of Judaism and Jewishness for so long has forced me to more definitely figure out my thoughts and certainties; I have been pushed, unknowingly, to become more confidant in what I do and why I do it, more certain that what I understand and know is right and real.

Bu then I take a step back. What am I thinking about? I'm still here for so long. I can't wait to go home and get on a subway, and see the San Diego sun. I haven't changed, everything is the same.

Everything...

Quote of the Day

"The... Principles... demonstrate the principle that there is no מצוה (mitzvah) barred to Reform Jews, even as the Reform movement does not [specifically] compel the observance of any מצות (mitzvot)."

-Commentary to the Pittsburg Principles
-Central Conference of American Rabbis