note: I spent some time thinking about if I'd blog or not. To mass email or not to mass email and yet I'm realizing that perhaps the blog is a happy medium. I can send out a link to everyone and if you want to read, you will. And, if not, then you don't have to be bombarded with the massively long emails that might seem impersonal and unwanted. With that being said...consider this my first blog entry.
Today was the second day of orientation for my program in Jerusalem and also the second day of increased activity, now at two different borders, in the state of Israel. Whereas just 48 hours ago we were seeing increased activity along the southwest in Gaza, we now have entered into what the Israeli Prime Minister calls "general acts of war" along the north, including the bombing of the Beirut International airport as well as other various points that make a statement to the Lebanese government that the pressure they aim to put on Israel will not be tolerated.
Now, I do not write these acts as a means of scaring the people at home any more than I'm sure the Washington Post (sorry dad), CNN and the New York Times could do more than sufficiently on their own. More, I feel the need to write it because I feel overwhelmingly safe here in Jerusalem and find myself having a hard time accepting that I don't feel the anxiety or fear that maybe I should or everyone at home might feel for me (that doesn't mean for a second that I don't appreciate the concern!!). Afterall, I am living in the Disneyland neighborhood of Jerusalem, right?
So, today marks the second day of our orientation but it seems like we are actually going through a dis-orientation. I am repeadidly being told that in order to live the year here in Jerusalem I will need to put on the hat of an Israeli and come to learn what day to day life is about here in Jerusalem. The leaders of our orientation recognize the bubble that many of us come from, but also see it necessary to understand that life is different here and in order to find a comfortable place for the year we are going to need to challenge ourselves to become dis-oriented with the incredible feeling of safety that most of us come from and recognize that life here is day to day, everyone is a risk taker, and when we are thinking about what to major in during our undergraduate careers our Israeli counterparts are putting their lives on the line for the right for this homeland to exist. Life is fragile here. People envy that we Americans plan...a PhD, our family life, our desire to aspire to different levels in society and feeling like we have the freedom to do those things and that issues of peace and security don't exist around every corner we travel. Here we take life one day at a time. We'll wait until tomorrow to see if today's events cause the situation tomorrow to heat up or to die down. Afterall, here things rise in temperature just as quickly as they might take the back burner and return to peaceful unrest.
I've learned a few things in these past few hours. 1. There are many places in this world that are not Greenspring Ave (suburban street in Bmore). The first thing I was told yesterday was that this year will be vastly about dis-orienting myself with every reality I have come from because, in most cases, life here is just not the same. I am not sure if the bubbles that we come from better, or less, prepare us to go out into a place where the issues of life are a bit more complex than what to do on a weekend night and how to properly balance work and fun, relationships and independence. Perhaps we appear to be somewhat naive to the places where the right to express ourselves in the comfort of safety, and the right for those principles to exist in daily life are a constant battle and that backing down could result in the entire elimination of a land that our people will constantly have to fight for it to exist. These are not zionist thoughts and I am not a zealot. I do not think that we should transplant Owings Mills and the 8 x 10 so that we can all show our support for our Israeli bretheren. But I am starting to understand that there is so much time spent on bridging a gap between Israel and America and every day I am more in tune to the vast differences that divide our people and make the possibility of calling us one, not impossible but, definitely a bit more challenging. 2. Perhaps the challenge of this year is not to make it through the year without a car, with a new sense of responsibility as a rabbinical student and not a band groupie (I'm not a groupie!). More so, maybe the challenge is to be able to return stateside with a better sense of understanding how the people here live their lives here and come to better appreciate the challenges that exist here that perhaps we take for granted at home. I feel excited to take on the Israeli mentality and take it one day at a time and see what comes my way. What might be headline news one day may fall to the back burner just as quickly the next. Maybe my voice shouting through the internet can drown the headlines and I can say out loud that I am even happier to be here today than I was yesterday. We all struggle with how Judaism might be relevantg in our lives. Here, I think we are able to see on a daily life the pride the Judaism can be about when it is more than fundraising for a new synagogue or ensuring that we are marrying Jews and making Jewish babies. Amidst all the things I still think the Jewish community has to work on, here it possible to be proud to be a Jew because it is clear that Judaism and the Jewish people are the reason there is a place called Israel and a presence of democracy situated in the most vulnerable land I've yet to see. But right now, there is no smoke in my sky. There is an Israeli rap band playing outside my window as I write. Tomorrow will still be Shabbos at sundown and there is a roots, rock, reggae dance party in the park accross the street from my house tomorrow night post Shabbos dinner. What's bad about that?!
So, I blog and we'll see where it takes me. Hopefully my random nonesence can paint a picture beyond what the picture and credits on the front of the paper may not do. Perhaps I can show you a little bit beyond the lense of the camera what I see here. Daily life, music, friendships, learning. I'm not in the north. I'm not in Gaza. I have sunny skies outside (well, the sun has gone down for today) and my days are filled with great conversations and discussions about the optimism of our community, not the feeling of destruction and uncertainty. If there is one thing I know, the Israeli people are fighters...and not violent fighters, but they fight for what they believe in...for peace, for the right for us to live as a peaceful people and for our right to live our lives out in the open as the people we aspire to become. I can be proud to be a part of that. Maybe that replaces the parts of me that wonder why I don't feel fear right now.
As for what Israelis are saying here about the activity in Gaza and up north...well, we'll wait and see. Only time will tell and hopefully it won't escalate, but, if it does...well, one thing to rest assured...since the day Israel was born, this has been something that this country has been prepared, and continues, to deal with.
I'm blogged out right now. Plus, I have the rest of my life to preach, that is not my intention, but rather I just wanted to share some thoughts with you from my front line...now I think I'll go outside and check out the Israeli rap. It's a beautiful night b'yerushalyim.
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