Ethiopian says what

Today we drove to a city north of Tel Aviv. We went to a community center in an Ethiopian neighborhood. There we listened to a lawyer give us the quick history of his people. He told us the story of his specific town's immigration from Ethiopia into Sudan and then to Israel. Civil war broke out in Ethiopia and many Jews decided to leave their homes for refuge in Sudan. Seeing as they were already fleeing they figured they might as well go all the way to Israel, the land of their forefathers. So this man's small community of about 300 up and left their homes with some Sudanese peoples who had made the same immigration. They were traveling on foot when suddenly Shabbat came and the Ethiopians told the Sudanese they could not travel for a day. The Sudanese could not understand and told them that if they stayed where they were they would die and they left them. The Ethiopians would not be moved and they stayed till the end of Shabbat. By 10 AM the next morning they had run out of water and the children began crying and the people were in serious trouble. So the men went out and looked for water even though there were no animals around, a clear sign that there was no water. At around noon a man decided to dig under a pile of rocks and water sprung out of the ground. They finished Shabbat and kept moving. The next day the Sudanese found them and, once they had heard about the water situation, told the Ethiopians that they had traveled the same route for years and had never known of a water supply. The Ethiopians had found an abundant water supply that had remained hidden from the frequenters of the land. Amazing, right? They continue their journey and finally make it close to the boarder of Sudan. On the boarder is a big city, though; a city that the Ethiopians could not afford to go through because of suspicion. So they circumvent the city and go towards the boarder. In the midst of this part of their journey they were severely low on water and a group of armed horsemen came riding up. They told the people that they knew they were Jews and that they were not getting into Sudan at gunpoint; the Ethiopians were devastated. The two parties started to talk and it turned out that one of the gunmen knew one of the families in the group and told his fellow gunmen that they would not harm these Jews in any way and that they'd help them get to Sudan. They show the Ethiopians where to find water and escorted them the rest of the way to the boarder: another miracle.
After listening to this story we were fed Ethiopian food and then made pottery with some woman.

Hike and a Speaker

Since Sukkot we've had a full 5-day schedule of classes. That means that I have classes till 4 and then I'm free for some of the rest of the days. So last week I took my free afternoon and traveled into Tel Aviv with some friends. We then went to see an Israeli ska band at some club. The opening act was the lamest thing I've ever seen on a stage; and I was in Wootton Theater. The lead singer was doing this really fake-looking hardcore personality and the rest of the band was equally lame. The drummer grabbed the mic for one song and sang this Spanish sounding song. The main band was this ska band that was really good and we had a lot of fun.
Last week we had midterms so I had two exams on the first day of exams and then none the second day. So I spent the day buying a tallis.
This past weekend I went on a big water hike in the north with some friends. I'm putting pictures up of that. The hike was absolutely beautiful and amazing. We trekked through waterfalls and streams.




















I also went to listen to a man talk about his service to the Jewish people in the late 1940's. He was in the Merchant Marines during WWII and then was asked to help with the illegal immigration of Jews into Palestine right after the war when Britain. He told us this amazing story of how he was just an ordinary American Jew who was asked to help the Jewish people by complete strangers. The whole operation was done very secretly. The ship this guy crewed brought 1,500 Jews into the Mediterranean, but the damn British boarded their ship and they got sent to Cyprus, like in Exodus. The man was a prisoner there, too. He was very inspirational and I thoroughly enjoyed him.

A Big Post About Sukkot

My last post was on Yom Kippur and since then I have been very busy. In Israel Sukkot is like a vacation time. A lot of people throughout the country do not work and go on trips or hikes (Israelis love hikes). So for the first few days of Sukkot I went to a settlement called Bat Ayin. It is in the West Bank and is the home of the Bat Ayin Yeshiva and about 100 residential families. I went to spend time with Avi and Debby Nueman, a couple who worked at International Kallah, a BBYO summer camp that I attended the summer of last year. Avi is a student at the Yeshiva and Debby works with pregnant women. I forget her title, but she trains them to give birth and then aids in the birth itself. Spending time with them was amazing; seeing as they were both very instrumental in my becoming religious I learned a lot. They have two young daughters whose names I can't spell because they are Hebrew, but they are both very smart and cute. The area that they live in is home to three natural springs called maayans. They are like mikvas, but there are different laws pertaining to them and are more cleansing than mikvas. The one maayan closest to their home was built by Babylonians. It is a natural spring that flows into a pool that is maybe 4 ft. x 4 ft. x 4 ft. and is home to six fish. You go into the pool naked and dunk your head as many times as you want. Some choose four for the letters in God's name, some do six for the directions, but I chose to do seven. Each time in the maayan was very cleansing and
put me in a really good space for thinking and praying. Bat Ayin also has some of the most interesting people I've ever met. All of the people I met were very learned and had a great desire for Torah. I learned so much from the conversations I had with the neighbors. One of Avi's neighbors even lent me a book on Rabbi Akiva. I really loved spending time in Bat Ayin and I look forward to the next time I go there.

I observed Sukkot for the first time while in Bat Ayin. I slept and ate in the Sukkah and shook the Lulav and Etrog that I bought. Sukkot is a really beautiful holiday and it is a shame that it is widely ignored by American Jews. There are only three commandments regarding Sukkot and one of which is simply to be happy. The rest of the holiday is very open ended and allows for time spent with family, loved ones, and God.

Since Sukkot is mostly a vacation in Israel I had no classes and still don't till Sunday. My program took us on a lot of trips. We had a color wars, went to a museum to learn about a special blue dye made from snails that we use on tzitzis, and to a national park where we had to herd a flock of sheep and goats. The coolest thing we did was spend Simchat Torah in Safed (Sfat). It was a crazy party. We stayed in a place called Ascent which is a hotel run by Chabadniks. We then began to eat and drink and dance with the Chasids and it was a really great time. I didn't drink a lot, but some of the kids got super drunk. Some Chabadnik jumped on top of the bima and it broke under him. After a few hours of singing, dancing, and drinking we left for the host families that fed us. We left the hotel about 30 min. later than scheduled so my host family had already eaten when we showed up and they gave us what was left; which I didn't mind. there was another family eating with them and the men of the households, both named Eyal, struck up conversation with us. They are both Chasids who happen to be very smart and knew a bit about Kabbalah. After they told us about the army service they had done I told them about this research paper I did on Life of Pie and Kabbalism and they were both impressed by it. One of the guys even asked me to email it to him. After dinner, we danced some more in a shul with like 20 drunk 15 year olds and then had a little chill session at the hotel where we sang and shared stories for a few hours. I met this man named Osher who told me about how he has lived in Israel with Jews his whole life and has never felt pride in his Judaism like I do because I grew up with so many non Jews. To be Jewish for me means to be religious and to show my Judaism, but for an Israeli to be Jewish is different because he is surrounded by them. The idea that I'm trying to describe blurs the line between Judaism as a people and a religion. After speaking with him for some time I went to bed. I woke up early the next morning at nine and went for more dancing in local shules. At around 11 I was completely out of it. I had slept horribly the night before and my voice was shot and I had been dancing for a while. I basically shut down till a while after lunch. The rest of the day was filled with learning and me being tired. At dinner they brought in this amazing guitarist who played for us. His songs were about God and Judaism. We ate pizza, which was so great, and then went out and danced in the streets with about a bunch of Israelis. It was tons of fun and afterwards we took a bus back to Jerusalem. The bus ride was awful, we got back to the hostel at 2 AM and I went to bed soon after. This post is supper long so I'm not rereading it for spelling errors.