Vort/Neve

I went to my first Vort ever yesterday! A vort, in Yiddish, means engagement party. Bina, a girl from seminary (from the States), got engaged to a guy also from the States. He wants to be a rabbi-chaplain in the U.S. army. They’re going to be stationed in Dallas soon. So exciting for her! She met him sitting on the other side of the table at a “kosher” bar on Ben Yehuda Street called Off the Wall. This means that the bar is more like a lounge, serves kosher food, and is more observant-friendly in terms of music and dress. So no Rihanna’s new song (yuck! I still can’t believe she would come out with such a song…) and no miniskirts. As soon as Bina said this, I said, “I’m there! Who wants to go?” Hahaha! Well, even though I’m not ready to get married, it would still be fun to go to a classier kind of lounge. His name is Joey, and he has a Guatemalan-Jewish stepmother and half-brothers and sisters! I don’t know if she converted or is a Sephardi Jew from Guatemala, but she was SO sweet! She and Joey’s rabbi and rebbetzin arranged the vort. They bought beautiful flowers and provided drinks and treats. They made Bina a beautiful cake, too. I was happy for her, since her family couldn’t be there. It was a small gathering at first – the men sitting at the living room table and the women schmoozing in the kitchen (lol). Then, a whole host of Shearim girls showed up and it became crowded. I was very glad that Bina had so many guests J On the way home on the bus, I sat next to an older lady who spoke to me in Yiddish. Another lady helped translate for a bit but then had to move seats, so I was stuck trying to interpret! (I think) she gave me a bracha (blessing) to find a husband and also had me write down her phone number so that when I do get engaged, I can call her for another bracha! Then, she told me she had a (grandson?) in New York. I said “Ani rotza b’Chicago” in broken Hebrew, roughly meaning that I want in Chicago. Didn’t know the word for “stay” or “live.” She understood.

Today, I went to Neve again because it was their last day of classes. Summer session starts July 5^th. On the way to the school, I saw Mrs. Freishtat, the administrative coordinator at Shearim. She said, “You’re going the wrong way!” Oops…I told her the truth, that it is Neve’s last class session and I was interested in seeing what it was like. She asked if I had told anyone. I hadn’t. She told me to let her know next time. So this isn’t a secret anymore. Anyway, I sat a level up this time, Level 9 (they don’t go in order on purpose). We had Rebbetzin Heller for Chumash (Bible)! I was so excited – she’s very well-known and has written TONS of books. She likes doing round-table discussions and had her students prepare dvar Torahs (discussions on the Torah portion of the week (called a parsha). It wasn’t the parsha of this week, so I was quite lost. One girl was very prepared; the others had a little bit of wisdom to offer. But I’m excited to do this kind of prep when I’m actually in-the-know. At Shearim we don’t have assignments or test; at Neve they do. On the one hand, it’s annoying because it’s the summer. On the other hand, information retention is that much better. And you don’t have to be stressed about a grade on these assignments/tests. Speaking of grades, I really hope that I can still get Loyola credit even though I’m between two seminaries. I’ll have to have each of them write something up for me.

The next class was this week’s parsha, parshas hookas. The rebbetzin who taught it was very animated! Afterwards, Rabbi Bear (yep, that’s his name), taught on davening (prayer). And then I joined Mechina (beginner level) for the famous and beloved Rabbi Katz. I had heard him last year while on Hamerkaz. He is a fantastic rabbi who used to be a film-maker in Australia! Crazy, no? He likes to incorporate terminology and analogies from his past life in his shiurim (lectures) J He is very esoteric! He spoke on the topic of Shabbat. Then, lunch. After, I went to the admissions office where they looked up my application which, thankfully, was still on file. The lady had me write a note to the rabbi-principal explaining my situation. Then, I went down to see the financial director, Mr. Starr-Glass, yet another Scottish Jew! His name really sounds Scottish, too! He told me when he was growing up, the community in and outside of Glasgow was 12,000 people! I couldn’t believe it. He said that it has since been halved. He explained that Jews ended up in Scotland and Ireland and on the British west coast because they were originally trying to get to America but decided to settle in those areas instead. He had a tiny hint of an accent J Tuition for my stay: approx $1400. This includes housing and three meals a day (not exactly happy about this – I like having a kitchen, fruit for breakfast, and salads/fish for dinner...but it’s ok, it’s not for that long. Mr. Starr-Glass said that there might be some work-study opportunities; I’ll have to grab one asap. I went back up to admissions where I found out that I’m admitted to the summer session! Yay! I am very excited and hope that this will be a good experience for me.

I went back to the apartment, put in laundry, went to Ye’sh, the grocery store (where I spoke French with the Tunisian-Jewish lady at the cash register and Russian with the store’s security guard), and then to She’arim for my toranut (duty) (but work-study, in actuality) of cleaning the fridge together with Julie. My, what a wonderful job. We finished in an hour and a half. Went back to the apartment, did 50 minutes of a cardio tape and 15 minutes of toning exercises, made dinner, and am now updating this blog. By the way, we have a new roommate who I haven’t even seen yet! I came back from cleaning the fridge (Melody and Laura had waited for me and came back with me) and was told by Melanie and Dana that there is a new roommate, Tamara, who had come, dropped her things, and gone to the old city. Well, this is interesting! Melody and I were just joking that we will wake up tomorrow and see someone we don’t know in the bathroom haha! I wonder if she’s going to be Sephardi like all the rest of the Russian-Jewish girls? I need Ashkenazi representation here! J

Ahava from Israel!

Elina

Bina and I

Bina's cake

The men (Bina's fiancee is the young man sitting on the left side of the table next to the older man