It Gets Better :)

Shavuah Tov!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. First, I want to wish a big Mazal Tov to my beautiful friend Emily Danoff who got engaged on Thursday to one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. Also, Michal and Cedric I hope your Kiddush at shul went well….I was in Ramot at the Cowland’s thinking of you guys. Before I move on a quick shout out to this awesome family that hosted me over the weekend and have graciously offered their home as my home. You all teach me new things every time I’m around you and I will do my best to not be so shy and quiet next time I’m at your table b”h. 

Today was officially my first full day of classes.

After a measly 3 hours of sleep (as I am still jet lagged L) I was up at 7 to get ready, daven (sort of), eat, make coffee etc and be at class for 8:30. One necessary thing I have realized in my short experience as a seminary girl is, COFFEE, which at Neve is disgusting no matter how many spoonfuls of sugar and milk you drown it with L

Besides for bad coffee my day began with a tutorial class in the library with a wonderful woman whose name I can’t remember (only cuz I’m so tired). I got the chance to practice my Hebrew Academy Rashi reading skills so thank you to Morahs Mochkin, Elias and Szyf who helped me knock up my Neve confidence by 10 points!

The many exuberant teachers here surprised me - one of which looked anything but when he walked in the room. R’L looked like he would fall over on the spot – skinny like a rake and aged very ripely, he could barely hear any of us and we listened with difficulty ourselves. It turns out R’L is 80 years old and still kicking it big time. He introduced the class as follows (please read this in the most rickety old man voice you could muster): “To begin the class here is today’s weather report – for Americans in the room a high of 80; for those English and Canadians, a high of 32 and low of 22. In the news, I am sad to report that Neal Armstrong has died! Sad…so sad. And now we will learn the Laws of War – BANG BANG DEAD!” Maybe you wont all find this as humorous as I did but this is verbadum what this wonderfully insightful (in his torah knowledge of course) Rabbi had to say. After 4 classes I was super productive and signed up for job placement (paid J) and then also went in search of a workstudy opportunity. Since I got a scholarship to Neve I had to sign a moral obligation which means that I commit that at some point during my lifetime I will pay the school back. I was lucky enough that the woman in charge of placing people gave me a job with her (typing names in excel….wohoooo) so I am proudly on my way to paying off my debt one name at a time (although they’re all pretty much the same so far: Breindy, Rivky, Chana, Chaya Hyndi….)

I guess hashem wanted to show me that after my first day or two there is possibility for a positive experience here by continuing to enhance my day as I ventured into the center of the city to meet Eden Tzoubari (one of my oldest and dearest friends’). However, I wasn’t sure at first if I would make it, as it was aprox 40 degrees outside with 0% oxygen L. After my bus driver decided to pull over on the side of the road to make a phone call (true Israeli style; *note: there is another interesting story about the bus driver that I can share in the future), Eden and I had lunch at Café Café, which is a really tasty dairy restaurant. Unfortunately we had a miserable experience with our food being returned for waitress incompetence, only receiving one beverage and for waiting almost 1.5 hours to eat…thanks to Eden’s Israeli-Yemenite flare we got a 15% discount J (word of the day: Hanacha = discount). Lunch was followed by a frantic expedition in the market (Machane Yehuda) where I frolicked about in my oversized swiss army knapsack and several plastic bags (just trying to paint a picture of just how cool I looked!) of items I was convinced were cheapest there….not so much. After getting into an argument with a toothless Middle Eastern Israeli man who spoke broken Hebrew and refused to sell me a bag, I was severely delayed and in a cool and collected panicked mode I tried to make my way through my errands to get back to school on time. Alas NAY! Not only did I not get all my “to buy” list items – the most important of which means that I will go yet another day without showering (last time was Friday so I’m really not doing so bad; Max try not revel too much in the “that’s so Dananess” of this moment :p) L - but I was so late I had to take a 50 Shekel cab ride back to school. In the end I was on time for two awesome classes by a Venezuelan woman who speaks a mile a minute, has an awesome accent (ladddiiiieeeesss eethh thooo naicee to be herrre!) and so much knowledge it’s astounding. The other teacher was also outstanding who spoke 900 miles a minute too but knew all of our names within the first 5 minutes of class.

All in all I have to say that today was really awesome. Despite the pounds of sweat I released today, the timing issues and angry Israelis, I’m starting to feel pretty settled here. I’ve met a bunch of really nice girls and even ventured into the 4 sheckel store downstairs…that’s $1 for EVERYTHING they have!!! A woman named nechama came to find me because she heard (from someone that reached out to me a while ago) that I was alone here and we bonded over the fact that we are both from Montreal and both went to Hebrew Academy (Shawna she was in your class!) – so that was definitely nice J I am really excited to see how the next 4 classes go and know that I will learn a lot if they were anything like today’s.

Quick Torah portion of the day: We learn about the mitzvah and ways of prayer from a woman in tanach – Chana. She was baren and after being pushed (made to felt bad) by her husband’s other wife Penina and from her own innate pain, Chana cried as she prayed to GD and asked for a child. It is written that she was bitter souled and that she prayed ON hashem. Why would this result in an answer from hashem? It says that Hashem is “V’Karov Hashem L’Nishberei Lev” – “and GD is close to the brokenhearted”. Thus when you are broken hearted the more you recognize that what you have in life doesn’t come from you and your intention is so clear. Chana therefore shows us that 3 criteria that help our prayers get accepted are recognition that we have/do/happen to us comes from Hashem, that we must have kavana (intention) and that we should cry. Take note that prayer doesn’t need to be from a book and that prayer without crying is not less valuable but in this circumstance would be a true expression of the pain one is feeling. (They are about to shut off the Internet for the night so I cant write a whole conclusion but more wise words from Rebetzin Winkler to come)

Thank you all for reading!

Neve: B+

Israel: B/B+ (I need adventures!)

Support: A

Ps the pictures are of my room with my personal touches and of the view from 

one of my night classes

xoxoxo

Dana