Mamash Mishmosh of Mishmish

I haven't really taken any pictures illustrating anything I've written about, so I will place unrelated pictures randomly throughout. It will be surprising AND exciting. Starting with:

Jerusalem skies

Sitting by the beach on my birthday day!

Birthday cake with family in Kiryat Motskin

I keep hearing hebrew words around me that, once defined, I wonder how I've been able to avoid adding them to my vocabulary during my many years of Hebrew learning. Like the word for to make an effort...it just seems like I should have come across it by now. But this has been happening a lot, so I'm not sure how my expectations for my Hebrew word bank haven't adjusted to the semi-constant reminder that some pretty serious limitations exist when actually trying to convey accurate accounts of...anything. Something silly: I asked an Israeli friend to speak in Hebrew to me while I answer in English so I could practice some Hebrew without being too significantly and consistently ashamed of myself.  After a while, he told me that talking to me was like being at the theater and talking to an American movie that talks back. Which seemed like a pretty lovely and creative way of putting it. Anyway, just wanted to update all two of you about my slowly progressing hebrew situation (matzav!...situatzia?).

Something important and relevant I found on Instagram

This past Sunday our program spent the day in Jerusalem listening to various representatives from contrasting sects of Judaism. Our first stop was a synagogue in a Haredi community called Belz, where we listened to one of the members speak about the history of this sect and answer questions from our group. Because I've had some experience learning about this sect of Judaism, the most interesting and pretty amazing thing for me was to see everyone's reactions to the extremely unconventional way of life. For example: the complete lack of understanding or even awareness of the existence of sex before marriage (basically, age 18).  It was pretty unfathomable to some that this community would be able to isolate themselves effectively enough to allow parents to prevent their kids from obtaining any kind of formal or informal sex education.  However, as someone who grew up in this community and has a deep understanding of it, this man was quite confident in the effectiveness of the system.  Members of our group were also particularly shocked that teenagers would put enough trust in their parents to completely take over the common practice of romance before marriage.  The man assured us that as opposed to the popular beliefs in more western styles of life, young adults in this community actually believe that parents have their best interests in mind and actually aren't trying to commit them to a life of agonizing torture with an unbearable spouse. Who knew?...Just kidding mommy and daddy, you can of course hand select my husband.

Catblob found in Tel Aviv

The next person we spoke to was a representative from the Israel Religious Action Center.  From the minimal explanation that they gave us, I didn't think I would particularly identify with what she was going to talk about. While understanding that sometimes it's necessary to evolve, I generally like tradition and can understand why religious members of a community would want portions of Israeli life to remain traditional, sometimes with a hint of archaic.  However, I felt that the way this woman approached the issues important to IRAC was simultaneously rational and sensitive and forward thinking.  For example, one of the issues she spoke about was the effort to desegregate buses on a few routes in Jerusalem.  I honestly did not know that this was happening, and initially thought that perhaps it makes sense that women and men would be separated on buses in these communities. They are crowded places and if mainly Haredi men and women who don't touch the opposite sex (apart from their spouses) are using the buses then it makes practical sense that some kind of invisible divide exists.  After clarifying that this organization attempts to combat issues that are brought up by members of the community who feel uncomfortable or mistreated (and not issues that unaffected outsiders simply decide are an issue), it made more sense that segregated buses would put a variety of people at a disadvantage: elderly women who have difficulties getting to the back of a bus or who are forced to stand when the back of the bus is full and no younger man in the front will get up for a woman in order to maintain the segregation (for example).  If one chooses to ride a public bus, they do not necessarily have to hug or sit next to a person of the opposite sex, but rather should accept the possibility of brushing against someone in the process of making everyone involved as comfortable and equal as possible.  A few other issues she spoke about were combating racism in Israel and adding and Egalitarian section to the Western Wall.  All sound like good ideas to me, especially since the Haredi man we spoke to said that as long as he isn't forced to participate himself, he couldn't care less if Jews are adhering to tradition in a less precise way than he accustomed to (he spoke about this in relation to the Haredi position on movie theaters in Jerusalem being open on Shabbat, basically saying that it doesn't affect him if they're open because he wouldn't be in attendance either way. Though when it comes to voting on whether or not it should be open, he can't vote in favor because it is against his beliefs. Which although doesn't make sense at all, oddly makes a bit of sense. I think.).

Yama ladies selfie

Last night I ran my first 10k! One of my roommates (Talya) and I went to Tel Aviv to accompany the 20,000+ runners participating in the Night Run. It was all kinds of fun, but mostly the running kind.

At my shiniest 

Sukkot in Israel

Sukkot in Israel is kind of magical with a hint of silly (this may or may not be a country-wide opinion).  It's pretty amazing to see fast food restaurants on the street with small huts directly outside of them in order to allow people to complete the mitzva of sitting in a Sukka for every day of Sukkot while enjoying their hourly falafel/schnitzel/shawarma/hummus fix.  Also the happy-holiday-wishing LED screens on buses, store advertisements, other things, everywhere, give me such a warm happy feeling of community togetherness that seems like a somewhat ironic/confusing feeling to have and write about in a country of so much recent (as well as a bunch of less recent) tension, aggression, and complexity.  It's not that the pleasant barrage of well wishing didn't happen over Rosh Hashana, but being surrounded by "חג שמח"s accompanied by visual aids in the form of huts plopped every few feet is really something special. But of course it's not only fast food restaurants in Petach Tikva, the Sukkot are pretty much everywhere in all kinds of shapes and sizes and levels of fancy.  I guess enough about the Sukkot, but if you want to speak more about them, I'm open to it. Because they are just great. But for those of you who have had enough, some pictures...

Blurry but smiley picture of the Naims and their beautiful Sukkah

Beautiful Sukkah!

Shop in Tel Aviv exploding with Sukkah decorations

After eating everything and relaxing for the first few days of the holiday, our program took us on a two day trip to the north where we hiked part of the Israel National Trail (שביל ישראל), visited one of the most northern points of Israel at Kibbutz Misgav Am (right by the Lebanon border), and did a kind of fast forwarded tour through parts of Tzfat. 

One of the most beautiful color palettes in a temple in Tzfat

During one of our hikes, we were having a chat with our madricha whose name is Klil (which is also the name of a tree that only grows in northern Israel, where she is originally from). She was talking about nature in the north and mentioned how in the north there's a much larger variety of trees which enables parents to utilize a greater amount of creativity when naming their children. Strange that this trend hasn’t really caught on in the United States, but I guess it would be even stranger to be calling your buddies Sycamore, Spruce, or Oak (unless I live under a rock and these names are currently in use, in which case I apologize to all Spruces of the world).

Trail marker for Shvil Israel-- pretty cool that Israel has a national trail that runs all the way from the north to Eilat and that it's actually a popular thing to do

Post-hike beauties at Misgav Am (Lebanon in the background)

While we were at Misgav Am, we listened to a talk by a man who lives in the Kibbutz whose purpose is to show the radical, far right-wing side of the conflict to every birthright group that passes through northern Israel.  His way was more of an aggressive one, wanting to share his view while closing himself off to any opinions or discussions that my group wanted to share or have, for he was older and smarter and more experienced.  Therefore, he considered it to be a waste of his time to listen to the generation of brains that the future of Israel will have no choice but to listen to.  Needless to say, he rubbed me the wrong way, as intensely abrasive/irrational/insulting people usually do.

However, after we heard from him, our tour guide, Ayal, offered a more rational and objective view about something I’ve never really heard discussed in terms of being a significant component of the Middle East conflict.  He spoke about post trauma (clarifying that there are glaring differences between post trauma and PTSD and they should not be grouped or treated the same way).  As a soldier in a small unit in the 2006 Second Lebanon War he was able to speak about his own experiences with post trauma and how it has affected his life.  He read a small piece written during the war about coming back to his base from a mission in Lebanon with the rest of his unit, laying awake all night with the rest of his unit in complete silence and only being able to understand that the situation was awkward and unusual, hoping that it would silently disappear rather than be understood and resolved.

He spoke about the difficulties of accessing the members who are most likely to directly experience these symptoms—the classically male macho member of Israeli society who isn’t likely to voluntarily voice emotional pain and disturbances or start going to therapy (until a girlfriend insists that she can’t continue living with a screaming person in her bed every night…an example of what prompted one of the soldiers in his unit to confront post trauma years after the traumatic events were experienced).
But night terrors and other sleep disturbances, anxiety, irritability, and concentration issues are only some of the symptoms that victims of post trauma endure.  Nor does it only affect the combat soldiers directly involved.  Ayal also spoke about the effects war has on children, mentioning the extremely high rates of bed wetting in towns like Sderot, one of the Israeli towns that has been the hardest, where I believe he said that 70% of children under the age of 17 wet their beds more than twice a week.  As a result of his interest and concern in post trauma, Ayal is very involved in studying and speaking about the issue both on a personal and professional level.  It was just amazing to hear such intense passion about different populations involved and the negative impacts they have to suffer, all while momentarily putting politics aside.
After the group trip, I went with four girls from my program to the Tamar music festival by Masada and the Hot Air Balloon Festival in Eshkol.  Although we were faced with a few challenges like how to comfortably fit five people in a four person tent (and a few others that would probably be best to discuss on a medium my parents don't have access to) it was a really great and beautiful trip.

Masada was our neighbor for a night!

Hot Air Balloon festival in Eshkol National Park

Somehow we didn't realize before getting there that it was definitely a family-oriented festival...pretty sure we were the only child-less group there

Woke up at 4:30 to see penguin balloon butts at sunrise

Red, White, and Blue German balloon with tiny German flag at the bottom to prove it

Even more!

!חג שמח