Flying By?

I literally feel like I closed my eyes for 30 seconds and once I opened them, it was almost a month since I got back to Jerusalem. I have a feeling that I will be feeling this way the ENTIRE semester. Yes, I was told that it would fly by, but I had no idea how quickly.

Here are some updates/highlights of what's been up with me:

* I am taking two new classes: Rabbinics (divided into a survey lecture and a text course) and Politics of Israel. I am learning in the survey lecture course about the history and emergence of the classical commentaries of Judaism: the Talmud and Mishnah. In the text course, I am translating one of the aggadic (legendary) texts of Rabbinic Judaism: Fathers of Rabbi Nathan from Hebrew to English. Mishnaic/Rabbinic Hebrew, while it leans towards more Modern Hebrew compared to the Biblical Grammar I have been learning, has many differences. While we are focusing on the concepts with the text, we are spending more time focusing on how to read it and translate it (yay, more vocabulary!). In Politics of Israel, I am realizing how complicated the Government is here - I am not even 100% sure if I will understand it all at the end of the semester. Nevertheless, its a great introduction and I am going to be writing an awesome paper about the role of the Chief Rabbinate within Politics (a great example of how there is no separation between church and state)

* Cincinnati, Here I come! Over the past month (and will be continuing in March), we have had many visitors from the Cincinnati campus giving us the "411" of our coming 4 years. Next year, I will be taking 2 bible courses, 2 history courses, Biblical Grammar, Hebrew Literature, Rabbinics, a Professional Development course in Education, and a Ritual course (I will become more comfortable with Trope, and learn about how to actually lead many life cycle events and services). In addition, I will be working at a pulpit once a month and I will indeed be "the" "rabbi" I put both in quotes purposely to stress that these congregations crave for Student Rabbis since they have no clergy of their own, and I will likely be called "Rabbi Schwartz" even though I will only have a year's worth of schooling under my belt. In addition, I will be teaching Religious School once a week. I am strongly considering requesting to teach high school next year, because it will give me the opportunity to really delve into issues within Judaism. Over the coming months I will start recieving housing information, insurance information, applications for my pulpit and religious school positions, and more. I'm not going to lie - its all a bit overwhelming, and I will definitely have to review some material that I learned this year this summer to prepare myself, but I am more excited than anything else.

* Next week we go to the Negev - visiting the grave of David Ben Gurion, hiking, seeing Egyptian copper mines, sleeping in a Bedouin tent, and spending Shabbat at a Reform Kibbutz. I will post pictures this time, and will be much better about it.

* FSU - The 35 or so people that are going to the FSU have been working hard to make things happen. We have been trying to raise enough money to make this trip happen, as these commuities in Russia are relying on us to give them a Pesach experience. We have been writing programs - and attending programs - to prepare ourselves for a once in a lifetime opportunity. I have to raise $2000 USD - to contribute to the overall costs of an $80,000 project. Every donation, small or large, helps! To donate, click here: Former Soviet Union Pesach Project. Please make sure you specify "FSU Pesach Project PJ Schwartz".

That's it for now, I am off to class to go to meet 11th/12th graders at a high school in Jerusalem and interview Israelis on the street.....

PJ