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