Moshav Matityahu

Yesterday, I went to Neve Yerushalayim to check out classes. This is the seminary that I was originally supposed to attend, but couldn’t because their summer session starts July 5^th and they don’t take summer students before then. Laura had gone previously to check it out, too. She’s not 100% happy with Shearim. She suggested that I sit in the Level 5 classes, which are the next level up from beginner. I did so for the whole morning until lunchtime. I really liked the classes! The first teacher was Rabbi Smith, who I remember taught our Hamerkaz group from last summer! He started off the class talking about music and its power (this is where I thought of my sister!) Yesterday was a huge cooking day! Laura, Melody, Melissa, and later, Dana, helped cook for Seudah Shlishit – the third Shabbat meal we are going to have at the Shabbaton on Moshav Matityahu this weekend! Wow…none of us knew how many hours this would entail! We stayed after school for 5 hours. We made so much food! Garden salad, tuna salad, cabbage salad, pasta salad, potato kugels, and apple kugels and chocolate chip cookies for dessert. There will also be humus (with zatar!) and matbuka (red pepper dip) (not homemade). And don’t forget the challahs we made with Shoshana! And all this for 45 people! We are all a bit confused why we were given such a huge job. I know Shearim is trying to cut down on expenses, and I understand this, but it’s still way too much work. I am going to ask for work-study hours for this! I am currently at school finishing up dressings and packing into containers and labeling – probably another hour. I’m excited to go to this moshav! It’s probably going to be similar to Har Nof – American baalei teshuvah (people who have come back to the religion). It’s probably all separate homes instead of apartments, like in Har Nof. I’m staying in the same place as I am eating (not everyone has this arrangement) with Laura, Melody, and Shoshana (our communal 74-year-old Russian grandmother!)

The Shabbaton at the moshav was wonderful! Mrs. Migdal and Rebbetzin Sperling both live on the moshav and work at Shearim. That’s a long commute! We all had to take a bus separately to get to the moshav – it took 50 minutes. Mrs. Migdal’s son was the rabbi-tourguide leader on our tiyul! Mr. Migdal talked to us about how the moshav was founded exactly 30 years ago. The mindset was to create a Torah community. They are also very Zionist. There is quite a spectrum of people – black hat and crochet kippot. The moshav 30 years ago  was a big dirt hill that had to be leveled off. To get to it, you had to use a cattle truck and there were 5 arab towns surrounding it. Wow. I wouldn’t have the courage to up and go to such a place, but what they’ve turned it into is AMAZING! Concrete roads, trees, flowers, a playground, a kindergarden, single-family homes, the works! The moshav is about 20% Israelis and 80% Americans. I stayed with Melody, Laura, and Shoshana by the Norden’s, a cute, older couple from the States. It was a very relaxing Shabbat. Unfortunately, it’s more humid on the moshav (it’s closer to the Mediterranean), so we didn’t take Shabbos walks. Shabbos evening, though, we walked around for a bit. They have a huge chess set on the grounds, but no one knew how to play in my group L The third meal was wonderful – I was worried about the food, of course, but people liked it. Shoshana’s challah was a success; everyone got to try it. We had also given a loaf to Yitzkah, the man who takes care of Shearim, cleaning, fixing, doing everything. He had cleaned our oven for the challah very last-minute, so I told him we’d give him a challah! We also had lots of left-overs, and someone found out that there was a family sitting shiva (one week of mourning for a family member that passes away), so we brought over some of the food. I had never been in a shiva home before. There is a blessing to say before and after coming, wishing them strength and only happiness in the future.

We got back after 11pm to Har Nof. We came into our apartment and saw all the lights on. It was freaky! Then, we found out we have a new roommate, Melanie, from England! No one had told us she was coming. She’s very sweet. Laura and I did a quick tape of a few 5-minute toning exercises, and then off to bed.

I had checked in with Rita and Gera before Shabbos. Rita was making challah from the recipe I left her! I was so excited, and so were her boys! It’s very cool that she’s doing this. Maybe it’ll become a tradition J Today, I am sitting in Level 1 classes at Shearim instead of Taste of Torah. In the morning, I did Chumash with Rebbetzin Raff. This means that we took a few “psukim,” verses, from the Torah, read them in Hebrew and translated them. We didn’t get to Rashi commentary (one of the biggest rabbis of all time and the most well known commentator), but it was a great start. Imagine, reading and translating the Torah! But, that was the most interesting thing today. I was bored the rest of the time, and now it’s lunch. Maybe classes will be better after lunch, but if not, I’m going to transfer to Neve. Even though I’m not paying right now for seminary, I will have to pay over $3000 later, when I get a job. It’s like a future contract. So I better get the most out of it. It’s really hard to know which seminary you want to go to…

Ahava from Israel!

Elina