פורים

As it's the week of Purim, our Weekly Madrichim: Emily and Jeff instilled the dress up everyday rule.

Sunday 4 March

Dress: Hippies.

Best Hebrew lesson ever. 

Best Tanach lesson ever.

Best day so far.

and then:

Worst Asefah ever.

Jeff is such a dick sometimes. Ruined everything. But at least now we have new assefah rules.

We watched Crazy. Stupid. Love in the Dojo for Jemmas birthday celebrations a week late. Jeff got really angry and killed the Dojo. But it will never die. Now its awesome. At around 2am, Jake and I went to get ice cream, we ate it on the couch like teenage girls. It was beautiful.

Sprite Day 5 March
Dress: Sprite Colours

We had a brief excursion to Meyersharim, the really conservative part of Jerusalem. We had to dress really modestly and what not. When we were walking through the suburb I really didn't feel that out of place like some people did. I thought it was quite cool to see these kinds of people really following what the believe in to the max of maxes. Sometimes I feel as Netzer we really don't follow our beliefs and if we do they're never to the full extent. Were all very lazy and it hurts my soul. We should try harder to be better Jews and People and Netzernicks.

Tuna Tuesday 6 March
Dress: Purim Style! I was a Smurf.
We threw a Purim Party for the kindergarten.



I think this discussion was really good for once. A lot of people didn't participate but the ones that did had really interesting things to say. I feel like if we had these kinds of discussions in smaller groups it would allow is a better environment for discussion. Especially because of the intense topics. Because its movement time though, I wish we had more time or a better set out platform to discuss things related to Netzer. We should be discussing our ideology as well as the other topics that we do.
I also had a good think about one of our previous topics after this tuna Tuesday: Consumerist Relationships and what everyone on shnat is gaining from their relationships with other people here. It was quite intense and mos of it is not suitable for the internet, but maybe one day when we all back on opposite sides of the world.


Wednesday 7 March
Dress: Like a volunteer.

Volunteering at the soup kitchen, I felt in the way mostly and like there were too many people and not enough things to do.

All the boys dressed up as girls and we went to a reading of the Migilah, wich is slightly controversial because of us being in a walled city. We had dinner at Japanikah and then we all hopped on a Shirut to Tel Aviv. What a party. There was a shuk party and I met up with Amir and had the most awkward, yet not awkward experience ever. We did a lot of catching up, but we'll see him this weekend because we're having a program with the Israelie shnatties- The Michinah.



Thursday 8 March 
Dress: Purim!

We had a rather interesting reading of the migilah at Kol Haneshamah and then went off into the night time atmosphere of Purim in the holy land. Rosa and I met up with Anat and Noa and Gozlan. We made our way past the shuk party to a house party. We enjoyed eachothers company as the shlichim were pre occupied with their prospective lovers, we danced to Matisyahu and danced in the streets. I'm so glad I got to Fifth wheel on EVERYBODYS lives. (Lily has a Boy Friend!)



Friday 9 March
A chilled Shabbat for us and an excursion through the old city to places that cannot be named. We did things that cannot be told and ate food that cannot be spoken of (it was good though) and I bough me some chocolate for my late night existential crisis. I haven't had many lately though...
Rosa and I skyped Sivan the rest of the afternoon while I made the best pasta salad for our Shabbat Dinner.

I had y first date in the Holy Land! Jokes, it wasn't a date I was just hanging out with Amir having conversations about life. It was great. It felt like old times.



That night we had a Purim Party with the Michinah and Noar Telem. We all dressed like the opposite sex and ate so much sweets and hot dogs and cake and all sorts of fun things. We danced and hung out and the israelies made noises.
After the party our flat was filled with Noam people and we all went out for Hummus. Theyre so cool! I wish we could know noam people. They're basically people from London just here in israel doing a six month almost gap year program. This one guy (His name is Guy) could do the best South African accent. Oh my god it was amazing. They all asked me about Biltong and why I dont say: "Gahy" and "Marituuuuuuuuuuus" It was a beautiful moment in my life.

Tiyul in the morning!

Singing in the Rain

Friday 2 March

Shabbat Dinner with the Gozlan Family.
We finally got to meet the other Gozlan.

The cold rain dripped down our necks and faces and off the tips of our noses as we walked/wondered around the streets of a previously unfamiliar part of Jerusalem. We had met a fellow Saffa at the bus stop and shared a wafer whilst waiting for (hopefully) the right bus. After walking around the streets with soaked shoes and coats, we gave in and called Gozlan to find out how to get to his house so we could be warm. A cup of tea later and I was already sound asleep to the sound of gentle strumming and chatter from Rosa and Gozlan. I have an uncanny knack for falling asleep to them talking. Eventually he made me go sleep in his bed and said cute things like: "I'm closing the light". Rosa came to spoon soon after and we had a sleepy conversation about something. I don't know what it was because I was not concious.
The smell of the house and the warm cuddles from Rosa made me so happy inside.

Dinner was scary to say the least. There was a lot of political debates in Hebrew wich made conversation hard to follow but entertaining nonetheless. The food was amazing. I think I love shabbat the most because the food is so good and it completely backs up my idea of having a warm meal and enough sleep and love can cure, even the biggest bout of homesickness.

A hilarious Skype Date with Gyreth, Sivan, Evan and Jake wrapped up our evening with Goz.

Back at the flat there was a party in the Dojo and Naomi made chips and dips. Jake is still the best cuddler, except when he sits ON the blanket instead of under it.

Saturday 3 March


In the afternoon I met Rosa for some trendoid time in a trendy coffee shop on Hilel Street. we ate malawach and drank hot chocolate and had life crisis about how were homeless and we shold have been more welcoming to our people in South Africa. We came to the conclusion that its really something you have to experience yourself to really understand what its like to be homeless. The hot chocolate was delicious and its really nice to have someone to talk to on the outside of Shnat. They're not involved enough for them to be affected by the drama, but they are involved enough to understand the group dynamics and the life style. I really wish Rosa would be here with us doing shnat, but I'm so glad and proud of her that shes really doing her own thing and that she's dealing with life and growing as a human.
Sounds lame but its true.

Boobs and skirts night!
Basically everyone, and by everyone I mean all the girls got dressed up into a skirt and what was supposed to be a "boob top". We all changed outfits every five minutes, trying to decide what to wear and what constituted the appropriate amount of skirt and boob for skirts and boobs night. The wind was cold on our legs as we walked through the wind, laughing and shouting: "Oh my God! Taglit!" after having a n intense discussion in the Superpharm about how much Sprite to mix with our Vodka. Outside in the street we made friends with a whole bunch of randoms and were having a heated discussion about the rain in Seattle while Noa was being strange in the corner and we couldn't decide what to do with the Sprite. The night quickly deteriorated into grinding in sleazy shnattie pubs on crack square. The loud music of the club was pulsating through the bodies of our fellow Machon Shnatties as we all celebrated Aris birthday.

Lily and I were hanging out with her boy and my ... friend. I decided it was time to stop hanging out with so many shnat people and made friends with some random Americans that turned out to be really nice people and we shared some pizza. We went inside for some warmth and before I knew it, everyone had left me at the bar again, and it was raining outside.

Ari walked me home and it was hilarial. It was raining and I felt silly.
I cant decide how I feel about this Ari guy. He sems really uptight about life and so much less chilled than he needs to be and all weird and up in my grill all the time, but all his friends say he's really great but like... its Shnat, and I'm finding myself.
Jemma was nearly falling off the bed, crying with laughter.

A good night all round.

Thoughts on Life

"We only realise what we had, and how good it was, when we come from a good place to a different place, and we are thrown out of our comfort zone, and everything seems bad."

Things about South Africa, that just aren't as good here:

Good Tea.

After weeks of terrible Israelie fake tea that tastes so gross, waking up to a cup of Five Roses or y sneaky cups of Rooibos is so amazing. At home I used to leave about a centimeter of tea but here I drink all my really good tea, savouring it.

Friends who make you feel at home in their houses.

I've never really understood how horrible it feels to be alone in a country or a city and have no where to go until I got here. I wish I had known before so I could have made our shlichim or even Jackie feel like she had a home away from home. I'm so grateful to all the Israelies here that adopt me into their homes. I also think, that its something no one can tell you, but rather, something you have to expirience it for yourself.

A place to call your own.

I've started decorating the wall above my bed so I feel more at home here. Its the only thing that keeps me sane, even though I hate sleeping in my bed here.

Somewhere were you can hang out and just be naked.

Sometimes, late at night, I walk around naked.

Being barefoot:

I miss walking around barefoot. I dont understand why no one in my house does it. I guess its because its kind of cold, but like the feeling of being so free in yur feet is great and we should do it more often. I cant wait for summer.

Things that are better here:

The fact that it snows.

Living Shant.

Hummus.

Being able to go adventuring at like 4 am.

Making friends with people at bus stops.

Waking up to a Snow-y Day, almost like Christmas:

This is from the Kortel, taken by Noa on her phone:

 This is from when Rosa and I were playing in the snow outside Mor's house, after dinner with Gozlan:

Tonight's the kind of Night

Swirling snowflakes filled the sky above the Kortel as we stood in the freezing wind listening to the thunder. The white powder was piling up along the old cobbled stone streets as we walked back to Beit Shmuel. Warm cups of hot chocolate the only things keeping our hands from the dismal prospect of frostbite. 

The wonder of nature and its power to produce something so beautiful and so different from anything else in the whole world, is astonishing to me. The forces of the universe that must go into nights like this sometimes make me wonder about those people who don't believe in anything bigger than them selves. With views and moments like these its hard not to. Looking up at the Kortel wall at 4:30, standing so close with people I love so dearly is an experience insurmountable to anything that will happen in my whole life. 

A part of me want to write this blog post, but the other half, kind of wants to keep it to myself, like my own personal secret. I don't want to ruin the magic of that night, but I don't want to make it anything less special than it was. 

I feel like I've finally been able to charge the Kortel with meaning. Before it was just a wall and now it has some sort of significance. It will always remind me of this night.


Maybe there is a God.

It had started three hours earlier with complaints about those few people who break the only real rule of the Dojo: "No Sleeping in the Dojo". Although, thinking back, if we had been in the Dojo, we might not have gone on out adventure at all. We had been complaining all evening and we were looking for something to do with our time. It started with watching camp videos and progressed to us making a video of our own- like the ones from That 70s Show. It was very bad, and we were very tired and will only be funny because of how bad it is. Out of pure boredom, and the urge to get out of the apartment we stole up to the roof.

On the roof, that we weren't technically allowed to be on, (but it would be a whole night of breaking rules so lets not dwell on the small ones) we all stood over looking the old city. It was beautifully lit. First rain, then sleet and finally, large drops of ice started falling rapidly from the sky, pilling up against the railing and on the ground. My first ever snowball fight ensued. Excitedly, we all ran downstairs, got really warmly dressed and set off on one of the best adventures one could ever have.

On the way to the Kortel we'd stop to write things in the snow building up on the cars, and along the side of the road and to have snowball fights. It was so lovely to walk and sing and talk and just exist.
Together.

The slushy ice melting beneath our feet filled my socks and shoes with cold icey water. The white powdery substance that we affectionately call Sheleg was piling up on the streets, coating everything in a Christmas-y Glow. I felt like we should be singing Christmas carols and not the Shmah, but that's really the beauty of it isn't it? I felt so content with the world, having these people here, going on this adventure and living in this country. It felt surreal and completely normal all at the same time, if I could do this everyday, I would move here. But it will never be the same, just visiting as it would living.


But I do live here now.


Life is such a paradox.

Something to ponder whilst in Israel:

Slam Poetry:

The only thing known to man, that will make anyone under the age of thirty appreciate poetry.

I am Jewish

By Andrew Lustig

I am the collective pride and excitement that is felt when we find out that that new actor, that great athlete, his chief of staff... is Jewish

I am the collective guilt and shame that is felt when we find out that that serial killer, that Ponzi schemer, that wife beater... is Jewish

I am the Jewish star tattooed on the chest of the teenager who chooses to rebel against his parents' and grandparents' warnings of a lonely goyim cemetery by embracing that same Judaism and making permanent his Jewish identity

I am all the words in Yiddish I've been called all my life that I still don't understand.

I am going to all three Phish shows this weekend.

I am my melody of Adon Olam. I am my melody of Adon Olam. The words may be the same but I am my melody of Adon Olam.

I am not getting Bar Mitzvahed. I am a Bar Mitzvah. 

I am a concept foreign to the rest of the world. I am not Judaism. I am sleep-away camp.

I am your grandmother who's seen Chortkov and Auschwitz, who's seen '49, '67, and '73 and whose tired of trying to make peace with those people who just want to blow up buses and destroy her people.

I am the 19 year old who's seen Budrus, Don't Mess With the Zohan, and Waltz with Bashir and who thinks -- who knows -- peace is possible.

I am the complicated reason you take the cheese off of the burger you eat at the Saturday morning tailgate

I am constantly struggling to understand my Jewish identity outside of religion.

I am the Torah and not the Old Testament

I am a Kepah and not a Skull Cap

I am a Jew and not an Israeli

5,000 years old... not 60

A religion, not a country

I am never asked if I have horns or a pot of gold, if I rule the world or why I killed Jesus. I am asked where my black hat is, if I really get 8 presents on my Christmas, why my sideburns aren't super long, and if I've really never tried bacon.

I am asked what a Gefilte Fish is. I say, "I don't know. I don't like it. Nobody does. But we eat it because its what we do."

I am asked if my dad's a lawyer. I say "no... my mom is... my dad's an accountant."

I am asked if my grandparents were in the Holocaust as if it were a movie. "Yeah, they were. But luckily they were also on Schindler's List."

I am on JDate and not Match.com because, well, it's just easier that way.

I am that feeling of obligation to buy the Dead Sea salt at the mall kiosk because you know the woman's Israeli.

I am an IDF sweatshirt and the Chai around your neck. I am a $100 Challah cover you will never use and a 5 Shekel piece of red string you will wear until it withers away. I am your Hebrew name. I am your Israeli cousins. I am your Torah portion and your 13 candles. I am your Bat Mitzvah dress and the cute Israeli soldier on your Birthright trip.

I am 18 when I discover that Israel is not actually a garden of Eden of milk and honey where Jews of all backgrounds, ethnicities, and styles of worship come together -- eternally happy and appreciative -- to do a constant Hora in the streets of the promised land.

I am still confident it will be.

I am the way your stomach forgets to be hungry and your lungs forget to breathe when the Rabbi commands the final Tekiah Gadolah and an entire congregation -- a congregation that is not any one synagogue but an entire people -- listens to what on January 1st is a ball dropping in Times Square, but today -- any day in late September or early October for the 5770th time is a Ram's horn being blown into for what seems like 10 minutes, like the 8 days the oil burned, and how David defeated Goliath, and how Moses parted the seas -- it would have been enough, dayenu -- how we won the war, and how your grandparents survived, Nes Gadol Haya Sham -- Shana Tova -- time for bagels and lox. I am Jewish. 

By: Rebekkah Karp

(Best Weekly Report Ever.)

Pizza Parties and Pirate Night

 Tuesday 28 Februaury:

TUNA TUESDAY!
Best sandwich from Sandwich Ben Sirah. So good.
Movement time! Sometimes I don't understand what were meant to get out of tuna time. It would be nice to have less peulot time and more general bonding time. I feel like the peulot topics are really disjointed, not only from one another, but also within the peulah. We started talking about stereotypes and got all the way to personality traits and our Maddie was trying to join them together, and I guess tell us not to be fake people and just be real. But you really had to dig deep to get that kind of message from thje stuff we did and read. Its also slightly odd that all we do is sit in a circle and talk. I feel like we need to be ore creative with our lives.

We played games on the grass. It was the best time I've had since playing lap tag in the park that one time during orientation week.

I just wanna finger paint.

On the bus home, Lily and I were existentialise our problems, like we always do. We figured out that we were in the stage of almost being comfortable in life, and not having to try so hard to fit in, and then everyone realised and was like: "Wait, what's going on here? Why aren't you being a fake person any more?" and that now were back at square one where we have to be fake people or pretend that this is what we want to do with our lives. Its a terrible place to be. I don't want to pretend, I don't want to be fake. I'm not that kind of person. That's why I feel like I can blog and discuss feelings and emotions and stuff, because, unfortunately for me, and the people on the other end of my crisis's, I wear my heart on my sleeve.

Instead of going out, Rosa, Lily, Naomi, and I had a mini Ma'amad and jam session and played Bananagrams. I'm getting so good at it, and I even got a few words in Anagrams. We ate so much chocolate and then Rosa and I spooned in the Dojo. It's the day after Sprite Day so we could.

I got to see Lilys hood for the first time, and so skillfuly avoided Ari. Like a boss.

Wednesday 29 February:

Volunteering is so hard and difficult and complicated.

PIRATE THEME NIGHT!

Jeff and Josh made us dinner, of green mashed potatoes and mushrooms. This, unfortunately, was the start of our rainy pirate adventure off to Hummus Ben Sirah. Everyone wearing their silly outfits went off, in the pouring rain to go eat this supposedly amazing hummus that Jake doesn't shut up about. Its really quite avesmagaves.
Jokes.
Best hummus ever.
Not really.

I dressed up like the parrot that normally sits on the pirates shoulder. I really wanted to do my skype interview like that but i thought I should take it more seriously, so I didn't. I think my interview went really well (:

Thursday 1 March


IT WAS A LEAP YEAR!
I also got to run a peulah for all my Etgarnicks. It was in the Dojo and there were way too many people in the room, and way too many candles and people throwing paper around the room. I think that sometimes it was more for me than for the benefit of the other people, and now I feel better about living here. In this house. With these people.
It was also Jemmas birthday so her famjam bought us all pizza and it was so good. Alyson made the best cake in the whole world. If I could only eat one thing for the rest of my life thats what it would be. That cake was soooooo gooooood!
I hope Jemma enjoyed her birthday, but she did look really happy.

No Diet Sprite on Sprite Day

Sunday 25 February:

Back to school! Back to reality!

I thought I was getting really good at this whole "Lets not fall asleep in class" thing, but apparently not. I was so tired from adventuring in Tel Aviv that I fell asleep on y desk. I kind of feel bad, because I woke up during the discussion and it seemed really interesting, but it just wasn't a good day for intense thoughts in my brain. I was so tired I don't even remember what we did in hadracha. The asefah (Meeting) just made life worse because we decided that Machon people cant stay over at the flat when we have programming the next day, and people have taken this as a personal insult. Its really not. They just need to understand that this is our house and they should  be respectful of the people who live here and the rules that we set out. If you think its a shitty flat, go home. Were not forcing you to be here, but you're welcome, if you're going to be a real person.

Sprite Day 26 February:

The worst day I've had so far. Just hated life.
I was cold, and hungry and homesick and I just, literally, wanted to lie in bed and cry.

We had another History lesson. We went to Mount Olives and saw some grave stones and a view of the temple mount from a different angle. We said some prayers and I suppose we were meant to connect to it spiritually, but I just didn't. I don't like praying to a place, and alone. Its just not the same as praying in a community. I really enjoyed the intense discussions about God and weather or not he exists and if Prophets really spoke to him. It was a pretty existential day for me I guess. I spent the day thinking about life, the world and everything. I'm still pretty confused about how I perceive God, and what my personal God Concept is, but I'd love to explore it more and see if I get it. Our lecturer says he's spent most of his life being confused as to what he believes in so I know I'm not broken inside.

We walked through the Water Tunnels, and all I could think about was Josh and our adventures on Israel Tour, then I got more nostalgic and homesick and wanted to cry some more.

Mount of Olives. Looking over the East Wall of the Old City.
Exploring our views from different perspectives

Just before we went into the tunnels at the City of David.
The water was cold, and a few people got their knickers wet

At the Southern Wall. The sky was so beautiful that day.
Naomi ran a really good peulah for us.

This is Ariel being silly. Thats the City of Jerusalem behind him.

Surprise. We had to go to this MASA Cultural event. I went to the dancing session and watched an amazing dance performance. The concept was nice, but the weird video they played was really irrelevant. The dance itself was so complex and full of emotion, it was hard to grasp it all at once.
I tagged along with Lily and her new friends to get dinner, bagels and a sprite, in honour of Sprite Day. He is from Hushy- The Humanistic Jews. They're so interesting AND THEY SHARE. Which is the best part.

I got my hat back.

Then it was time for me to go to bed. So I did.

(Lily had a much more exciting night than I did, but that's a whole other story.)

3 South Africans, 5 Roses and the Beach

Thursday 23 February:

The weekends in this country confuse my body. They start early and end early too, and theres not much to do in between because of the whole "Holiness" vibe. You have to understand that when the weekend comes early, Thursday nights are party nights, Friday nights are chilled nights and Saturdays are like Sundays. So, if you want to go anywhere, like Tel Aviv or Lotan, you have to leave on Thursday night/afternoon.
This leaves the flat almost quiet and empty. Experiencing it for the first time this weekend made me appreciate when there's people everywhere. The quiet is disconcerting, I guess.
Instead of doing the usual bar crawling that people do here (Grinding in dirty shnattie pubs to "My Humps") we took the party to the park and played silly drinking games. Maybe Americans are just bad at drinking, or I didn't drink enough, although probably both, but somehow, on less than a bottle of Vodka, 10 people got absolutely wasted.

Good thing I could sleep in on Friday Morning, oh wait, I had to wake up early, like 5am.

Friday 24 February:

Women of the Wall
I'm not exactly sure how I felt going to this. It was odd. Having been to the wall before and not having had much of a significant experience there, because well, its a wall... I had such conflicting conflicting things in my soul. It was cool to see how people pray, a mix of reform and orthodox methods, but I also felt very disconnected. There were a lot of cameras filming the women as they prayed which kind of freaked me out. Its like filming someone using the bathroom. Its like imposing on their privacy...
I liked the fact that as a group of religious women, they were standing up for their rights to equal treatment and being allowed to pray their way where they wanted to.
The women were all so passionate about it, but what about the women who think its fine to have a less equal share of the wall? What about their beliefs? Why do we think that its all right for us o try and change other peoples beliefs when we get so offended when they try and change ours. Were standing here as reform Jews saying "Women and Men should be equal! Accept our beliefs too! Were all Jews!" and turning around and trying to change what they think is right.
Why are we, as reform Jews, allowed to tell other people that what they think is wrong, but get so defensive when the tables are turned on us?

It just doesn't make sense. Why are we such hypocrites?

That was the existential crisis I had during the service.

After that brief interlude of self pity and wondering it was off to Tel Aviv to pretend I belong to a family and I'm not just a lost/homeless South African.
We stayed with Rosa n Lilys family in Yavne.
We all snuggled into her enormous bed with thousands of big cozy blankets and sleeped. It was the best sleep I've ever had in my life. I woke up about 6 or 7 hours later to a steaming hot cup of Five Roses. It was Shabbat Dinner so the whole family came over. You'd think I'd be used to just joining peoples families by now, but I was still frowking owt and being the old Shy and Weird Kathryn. There were little kiddies running around and playing which made e feel more at home in a way.
We decided that this night would be the one where we learn how to speak Hebrew. We never got to finish our book, but we got up to page 8.
After an intense dish washing experiences, it was some Arak and Vodka and Massages and back  to bed for more well awaited sleeps.

Saturday 25 February:
It was so warm there. Oddly, outside was warmer than Rosa's bedroom, but it was amazing to not have to wear six THOUSAND layers. We walked around barefoot and lay in the sunshine so beautifully. The plans for the day were to go exploring in Tel Aviv.

The smell of fresh, warm sea breese filled the three Joburgers as the ran down the piere in search of ice cream. Success! A quaint yogurt shop would be the next victim of their bad Hebrew and indecisive tendencies. They sat on fake rocks eating spoonfuls of deliciously chilly, despite the weather, frozen yogurt from a quaint shop around the corner.
Flashing lights from cars and busses slowly filled the streets as the country woke from its temporary slumber. They walked and walked and walked, taking in the sights of the new city. Rain gently falling on their heads.

What seemed like the end of the journey was really only the beggining. We heard shouts and chanting from down the road and quickly made our way to see what all the fuss was about. There were children and mothers and almost entire families protesting. From what we gathered with broken hebrew, and asking people for translations they were protesting the act of deporting children who were born in the country.

Finally, we finnished our day with some well deserved coffee in the park with cake we bought from the grocery store.

It was so beautiful.

I love being able to share things. No one in my flat shares. They write their names on their food, and if you eat it they all get ad.

Aaaaah!