Shabbat...Reading Torah...Emma Visits!

This morning I woke up early, went to Shabbat breakfast, then practiced my Torah portion. I was getting ready to chant three aliyot or 9 verses. Noa got me the sheets without vowels after breakfast and I went back to my room to practice. 

We held services in a new location on the Kibbutz. Baruch was not here so the Rabbi who is the director of NFTY in Israel led the service. I was called up to read from the Torah and I chanted my three aliyot. I was nervous but it went very well and the Rabbi told me I did a great job. 


Around 4pm Emma Peabody came to Kibbutz Tzuba with her boyfriend Ilan. For those of you that don't know, Emma is a good family friend from New Jersey. Emily and I gave her and her boyfriend a tour of Tzuba then we went down to The Belmont to chill with them. Noa also knows Emma so she soon joined us. It was really nice to see Emma because I haven't seen her in a while. Of course the first thing she said to me was "you look just like Sandra!" I've been getting that quite a lot on this trip. 

Emily, Ilan, Emma and Alexa

I actually had a lot fun with Emma and to my family--she says hi and she misses all of you! When Emma left we went to the Zula for Havdalah. It was a nice service and very different than anything I have done in a while. It was very camp style. Now I am in The Belmont finishing up homework because school starts tomorrow!

Soup Kitchen....Friday Night Services

Friday morning we headed off to various Tzedakah sites. I went to a soup kitchen in Jerusalem. When we got there we watched a video about hunger in Israel. We learned that one in three children are below the poverty line in Israel. We also learned that many immigrants from the Holocaust have a hard time finding work and therefore have to choose between a loaf of bread of their daily medications. The soup kitchen we went to also provides a free dental care and helps the community get jobs. It is a really cool organization and I'm really happy I had the opportunity to help out there. 

We worked in the kitchen. First we peeled and cut potatoes, then tomatoes, then cabbage. There were other people working in the kitchen from Finland and The Netherlands. We were supposed to go to the shuk after the soup kitchen but it was raining so instead we just came back to the kibbutz. We ordered pizza for lunch which was fun. We split up into groups for Friday night services. I went to re constructionist temple led by a young man who actually participated in EIE in 1994. The synagogue has no rabbi and it consisted of a lot of discussion and music. I didn't really enjoy it, but it was an interesting experience. 

We returned to Kibbutz Tzuba for group song session. After song session Noa asked me if I wanted to read Torah in the morning. *Note it was about 9:30 at night at this point. I said I couldn't because I didn't remember it so then Lior pulled up my portion on his Iphone and I practiced for hours.

 Lights out was at midnight so Noa came to my room to check how it was going. I read for her and she said I would be ready for the morning. I practiced a little more for my roommate Rebecca, then went to sleep. 

Malcha Mall!

Today was a a pretty regular day. I woke up at 7:50 and had to be at breakfast by 8am. After breakfast I had a Hebrew test then Jewish history where Baruch (the principal/director) was our substitute teacher.


After classes we got on our buses to head off to Jerusalem to the Malcha Mall! We had about two hours to roam around and get everything we needed. I didn't buy anything. We walked around, a bunch of people got falafel, and basically just explored.


No school tomorrow! I will be heading off to the Jerusalem Soup Kitchen then we have Friday night services at various synagogues in Jerusalem. It should be a fun experience!


No pictures from today...But my madrich (counselor) Lior wants everyone to know that he wore his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle shirt today. He is now reading my blogs as well. So Hi Lior! 

Tell Gezer Tiyul

View of Carme Yoseff

This morning we got to wake up at 6:30am and be on our buses and ready to go by 7:25am. We were headed off  on a 45 minute bus trip for our Jewish History field trip to an ancient city called Tell Gezer. When we arrived at Tell Gezer, there was a village to our left and it just so happens that is the village where my madrichim Adi grew up. When we arrived we broke up into our Jewish history groups and went over the homework we had and talked about the geography of Israel based off of what we could see. From the top of the Tell (an artificially made hill that is flat on the top) we could see Tel Aviv in the distance, mountains, the only cement factory in Israel, and the village Adi is from called Carme Yoseff. It was a really beautiful site. 


Here are some quick facts about Tell Gezer--

Replication of the stone the ancient Hebrews
in the time of King Solomon wrote
on.

We spent a lot of time discussing how we actually know this place is Gezer. First of all, the Tanakh mentions Gezer quite a lot. Some other hints were ancient pottery chards, ruins, and the fact that it is located along a trade route. At the site, we walked down a large amount of steps to see a dug out tunnel that goes 40 meters below the ground and the goal was to reach ground water. A lot of the tunnel is gone due to cave ins, however it allows us and archeologists to know that this society was technologically advanced. We then saw the ruins of the Gate of Gezer. We learned that the gate is the weakest line of defense and was located at the lowest point. We also saw the remains of the guard tower and the wall and learned why they were in place. Only the rich could afford to live within the walls, so many people, such as Abraham, lived just outside the walls in Bedouin tents. 

Walking down the water source

We also learned about an interesting man named McAlister. McAlister did the original dig at Gezer because his goal was to prove that the bible existed. What he discovered was that he saw the same kind of stone with the same writing on it from everyone the Hazmonian (Maccabees/famous for war with Greeks) had been. What archeologists later learned was that this writing was actually from the time of King Solomon in 1000 BCE. What this means is that the Jews were actually in Gezer 1000 years before McAlister had estimated. 


We also learned about the replication stone we saw when we first walked into Gezer. The stone had writing in old Hebrew on it, and it was a sign the the Jewish people were teaching everybody to write, not just elites and priests. We also learned all about sacrifices and what to sacrifice to the gods. It was a very interesting field trip. Pictures to come...


We got back to the Kibbutz just in time for general studies courses. I have English today, which I only have twice a week, and SAT prep which I also only have twice a week plus all of my other classes. After SAT prep I will be going to Noa for math tutoring. Tonight we have our regular agenda. We meet somewhere for announcements from the Madrichim and group time. 

Close up of water source

Remains of the Gezer Wall

*I just got back in my room for the night. The evening was good. At dinner I talked to my madricha Nicole because I've never really talked to her before. She's really cool and she came to room today. I also had SAT prep and it turns out Noa is my teacher! So after prep she helped me with math again. I also got to skype with Sandra tonight :)

And family....Judy from EIE says hi! and she says I look a lot like Sandra and when I said I was Sandra's cousin, she goes "Oh from California!" so she definitely knew who I was. I talked to Judy for a while before we went back to the Kibbutz. Just so you all know, she really loves Sandra :) 
I am off to English class! But pictures are to come soon!

Western Wall and Ben Yehuda Street

Stacy, Rebecca, Alexa and Natalie

Alexa and Emily

Alexa and Josia

Alexa and Leah

This morning we had a very nice Shabbat service before relaxing for the day and taking a tour of Kibbutz Tzuba, where I will be living for the next four months.

After this, we went into Jerusalem and took a nice walk to the Western Wall. The Western Wall (or the Kotel) is the wall protecting one of the outside walls of the 2nd Temple. When we got there, we split men from women and boys from girls. At first we were not allowed to take pictures because it was still Shabbat. About 15 minutes later, all the women stood on chairs to watch the Havdalah service on the mens side. After the service was over, we were allowed to take photographs.

We soon left the Kotel and drove to Hebrew Union College for the Debbie Friedman Memorial Service. The service consisted of an abundance of Debbie's songs along with readings from some of her friends.


We next walked to Ben Yehuda street! We each got 25 shekels for dinner. That is about $7. I got half a schwarma pita sandwich and a Fanta. Israel is where I had my first Fanta when I was 11. Then a big group of us went and got ice cream from Max Brenners and just walked around the street. It's a really cool street. It was a lot of fun and I met a lot of new people in our group and bonded with them. We then returned to Kibbutz Tzuba to celebrate Havdalah. It was a nice service.

Schwarma!

Then we went to bed to get ready for school. Today was full day of school. It went pretty well. Hebrew class went really well. I learned 9 letters, 3 questions, and 4 sentences. All my classes are great except math is very difficult. But luckily Noa (one of the madrachim) took me to her room and helped me with my homework and told me to call her anytime. Now I'm down in the Belmont just hanging out! Another full day of school tomorrow...

Alexa and Emily with Schwarma and Fanta!