Week One

Looking down into the tunnels by the Temple
Mount in the Old City

I barely know what to say, it has been a crazy week.

To say that this program is not what I expected is putting it a bit lightly. I have made a practice in the past year of trying not to have expectations in new experiences, but the truth is, that is a nearly impossible feat. I spent over a month thinking about this program, so it would be impossible not to have formed some kind of idea of what it would be like.

Each of the stones in the wall is the weight
of a fully packed jumbo jet

To begin with, there is so much more orthodoxy than I was expecting. As an academic, I feel like there are certain expectations from the other girls, the school, and the program, that I be, at the very least monotheist. Of course, This is the kind of challenge that I need right now. I came to Israel to be sure that I was spiritually comfortable with my Heathen practices in concert with my hereditary and cultural Judaism and this kind of program can only strengthen that or break it completely. Either way, I will have an answer to my questions.

The view from the balcony of the apartment, it faces East-North East with the Old City being slightly to the South East of us.
It lines up fairly well with the antenna on the right side of the picture.

One of the major expectations that I didn't realize I had is semantic. The work “Seminary” in non-Orthodox-Jewish US has always connoted to me a school for serious religious study especially for those becoming priests (or Rabbis), therefore, this being a women’s seminary gave me the impression that it was a women’s Rabbinical school, so when I was told it was Orthodox, I assumed Modern Orthodox, which is much more lenient and open to change. In Orthodox Judaism, a seminary is a place for women to learn Torah, which is great, but there is no Talmud study because women are not allowed to learn Talmud.

The view looking directly down from the balcony - look at that
lovely garden

The way I have been putting it here is that I feel a little like I have been thrown into the deep end, and  I was really planning to just wade. But I know how to swim. I have the skills to get through this and to enjoy it. With my training in Anthropology, I am all set, I have nothing to worry about. I am learning and experiencing, and that is what is most important.

View from the plane.

And I’m not alone. I already feel like I have made friends. I am not the only girl having these troubles, and it sounds like, in the past, more of the girls have been in the position of the secular, looking for more academic interest than practical. I am looking forward to the rest of this trip. I know that there are a lot of places it can go, and so much that can o very right or very wrong, but I think I will learn so much.

Tel Aviv from the air.

I am scared of all of the dangers that come with being in Israel, and all the strife that is around me. I am worried that my finances will run out or that I will get lost in an area where no one speaks. English. I'm afraid that my mounting sines infection will keep waking up my room mate and that the antibiotics I just got wont cure it. 

But Jerusalem is beautiful, I am here, and what else can I ask for?