Boker Tov, Bloggers!
Get ready for a meaty update- had an action packed week-end to re-cap for you all.
Friday morning I headed over to HUC (my long 4 minute walk) around 8:45 for a morning of study. 9:00am class was called "The Transformation of Ritual: From the Mishnah to Manhattan," taught by faculty member, Rabbi Rachel Sabath Beit-Halachmi. It was an interesting class- we looked at some texts and discussed how we fulfill commandments and carry out rituals in todays modern society. We touched on some common challenges that we all face: the always evolving Reform Movement, our loose interpretations of the not so "set in stone" laws, generational gaps, the digression of the clergy, and congregants who are resistant to change.
The next class was called, "From Bima to Bonfire: Musical Trends in Jewish Prayer taught by interim head of the Cantorial program, Cantor Tamar Heather Havilio. I really enjoyed this class a lot. First she drew a picture of a bima and a bonfire on the board and we described the feeling that each one encourages. After establishing that a bonfire is a more intimate, connected, encouraging, space and a bima is a more separate, formal, and less intimate set-up, we did a listening exercise.
She played 4 excerpts and we had to answer a sheet of questions for each one: What kind of feelings did it evoke? Where would this music be played? Does it encourage/discourage active/passive participation? Do you consider this music prayer? How does the music affects the listener in the "space" in which is it performed? And does the music invoke Bima or Bonfire? The 4 excerpts were a traditional V'Shamru with soloist and choir, a rip-roaring Simon Tov and Mazel Tov, a Tommy Flannigan Jazz piece, and a Carrie Underwood sappy ballad.
It was nice to hear everyone's differing opinions- very reminiscent of the wide range of musical palettes that congregants often voice after services. "I like this, I didn't like this. This did nothing for me. Why didn't you sing Listen tonight- it's my favorite song." By the end of class, we established that its a tricky balance trying to please everyone- it's nice to bring the intimate feeling and casual Kumbaya music of the bonfire to the bima, but important to still maintain some semblance of division between the congregation and bima at times for and the traditional Cantorial repertoire for those people who want to sit back and listen. Basically, as a Cantor today, you need to be able to strum and Kumbaya to Debbie Friedman, rock out to Rick Recht, and put on your opera horns to sing a Janowski ditty like a classical songbird.
Friday evening, the incoming class (all 42 of us) were invited to the Presidents Apartment for a reception with David Ellenson, Michael Marmur (dean), and a bunch of high-ups in
the organizations of the Reform Movement. We chatted a bit, introduced ourselves, listened to some impressive bios, heard some inspiring words of wisdom, did a mini text study, and lit the Shabbat candles. We then headed to the lawn for an outside Kabbalat Shabbat service led by Tamar. Rabbi Gibon and the Brockman's were there- it was great seeing them again. Services were fine- again, a lot of melodies that were unfamiliar to me--which didn't even matter because I couldn't sing (getting to that). After services, they had dinner for all of us. Rabbi Gibson lead the Kiddush (I was his Kiddush cup holder extraordinaire), and entertained my table with tales of his Rabbinic days and plenty of solid advice for our year in Israel.
Saturday morning, a group of us went to services at Kol Haneshama- the popular Reform Congregation in Jerusalem. It's Reform by their standards, but more towards conservative in American standards. They don't have a Cantor- the Rabbi leads everything. He is the brother of one of HUC's current faculty members- she used to be the head of the Year in Israel Program. The melodies were a mix of familiar and unfamiliar to me, but everything was very easy to pick up and I would have enjoyed it more if I was able to participate (again with the lack of voice). I look forward to going back to Kol Haneshama for a Friday night service.
Saturday after services, Josh and Mira, the Newleyweds (just graduated from Amherst and got married last month) had a few people over for a little brunch at their apartment around the corner from me. GREAT apartment and Josh made some deeelicious french toast.
I spent Saturday afternoon getting ready to host my first party/dinner get together at my new apartment. I cleaned, cooked, etc. Was loving every minute of prepping to have my new buds over. The guest of honor Saturday night was one Rabbi Eric Linder hailing from Omaha, Nebraska. One could say that Eric has become an honorary member of our class over the past 2 weeks. He was doing a 2 week study at the Hartman Institute, but I think he got confused and thought he came all the way to Israel to re-do his first year of Rabbinic school. We've been hanging out with him every day- constantly being entertained by his witty sense of humor and "fun guy" charm. The "Eric Linder send off party" was a smash hit success! There were about 18 people over here for the Italian inspired feast and a good time was had by all. I loved having everyone over and playing hostess. AND my schnitzel-esque Italian chicken went over really well :-) Our Havdallah service was beautiful- very moving. Lisa brought over her beautiful new Havdallah set (we pretended we had spices, we'll have to buy some from the Shuk), Eric gave a nice Rabbinic drash, and we all sang the blessings in a circle with our arms around eachother. It's so powerful to have a group of future Rabbis/Cantors/Educators in a room for a Havdallah service. It and sounds pretty good too!!
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Here is an explanation of Havdallah for my non-Jewish friends:
In Judaism, the concept of making distinctions and separations permeates many facets of religious life. We distinguish between holy time and mundane, or ordinary, time. To mark the beginning of sacred time, we light two candles (Shabbat) and recite a bracha (blessing) which praises God who commanded us to kindle the lights in celebration of the occasion. We mark the end of that sacred time period with a ceremony called Havdalah, which means "separation." It, too, begins with light, as we kindle a braided candle. The most common time to perform the ceremony of Havdalah is weekly at the end of Shabbat when three stars appear in the sky. Havdalah is also performed at the end of other festivals and holy days.
The primary symbols of Havdalah are the braided candle, kiddush cup containing wine, and spice box containing sweet-smelling spices. The lighted candle symbolizes the light of Shabbat and the strands of the braid have been interpreted as the many types of Jews in the world, all of whom are part of one unified people. The wine is, as always, a symbol of joy. We take one last sip of the joy of Shabbat as we bid the sabbath goodbye for another week. Similarly, the sweet-smelling spices symbolize the sweetness of Shabbat, whose pleasant aroma we breath in one last time that it might last us through the week to come until we can welcome Shabbat again. There is also a birchat havdalah which praises God for making distinctions, particularly the distinction between the holy and the mundane. The ceremony ends with singing Eliyahu HaNavi in the hopes that Elijah the Prophet will come to herald the messianic age when the world will become one long Shabbat.
For the Havdalah service, a kiddush cup is traditionally filled to overflowing as an expression of hope that the coming week will be a good one. The tradition arises from an earlier custom that the spilling of wine can protect you from evil spirits.
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Towards the end of the evening, after Havdallah, we were playing a fun game of catchphrase, when out of nowhere, my air conditioner suddenly started spitting up black chunks of ice. (all over the people sitting on the couch) It was GROSS. Everyone was cracking up. No one could figure out what was happening.
Clearly, this was a sign from the big old G-D that it was time to break up the party and take it elsewhere. We took the cue, and headed out to Rivlin Street in search of a bar/dance club. We were approached by a few sketchy Israelis who promised us no cover and a free round of shots if we went up to their bar, so we followed. Silly Americains, we should have known that you only get the free shot after you buy another mixed drink. We stayed there for a while. It was nice because there was an outside bar upstairs so at least there was some fresh air, and a nice breeze going on. Although once we went inside to dance with all of the crazies it was swelteringly hot. And the music was TERRIBLE. It's kind of hilarious- they only play trance music and chart-topping hits that were popular 10 years ago in the States in dance clubs here. "Hit me Baby one More Time" came on- I kid you not.
That was Saturday night. Eric got a cab around 1am, for a 3am flight (first of 4 flights which took him 25 hours to get home), so we all said goodbye to him Sat. night. It was sad to say goodbye to him :-( I called it a night around 12:45- (let me remind you that things don't really start until then) I have been exhausted from not getting into a sleeping groove yet.
Sunday I had a semi-relaxing day. I cleaned up the apt. post-party in the morning, bummed around. I finally realized that I must see a Doctor about my lack of voice which has been getting progressively worse over the past several weeks. After a few calls, and a referral from a classmate's NY voice Doctor (he was out of town, but the next guy in line was available), I had an appt. with a reputable otolaryngologist at the Hadassh Hospital. Appointment time: Monday, 4:45pm. Great.
My friend Maura (the one leading the NFTY trip) came over- she was killing some time before a Dr.'s appt. in the afternoon. Unfortunately, she picked up some sort of a weird bug and has been having some major stomach problems. Eek. I went to Supersol to buy baking supplies to bake a cake for my Cantorial classmate's b-day. Had to be a little bit creative because they didn't have icing or writing gel. So, I used a nutella like Chocolate as icing and mini white chocolate chips to spell out "Happy Birthday." It was a fun first baking experience in J'lem. I think I'll brave it again for future cake making occasions.
Sunday night, Benji and Jordan (both my age) took Lisa and I out to dinner. It was a b-day present for Lisa and I was her plus 1 (nice perk, eh?). We went to Sushi Rechavia which is adorable and DELICIOUS and totally satisfied my intense sushi craving. It's been a long time since I've gone a month without eating sushi...especially since moving to Florida. (I lived around the corner from Sushi Thai-yum) Anyway, it was sort of weird to be in the middle of Jerusalem, eating Sushi at this place that looked like it could have been in any other city. The food was excellent, great miso soup for my poor throat, and fabulous company. Benji is from London- he went to Oxford, majored in English, and is a Rabbinic student at the Leo Baeck College. He has a great personality, highly entertaining, and we all love his accent. Obvi. His roomate, Jordan, went to Michigan State, and has worked in London for the last few years directing their youth movement. They knew one another from London and are a perfect match. They are like the odd couple-2 of my favorites so far in the program. It was a really nice dinner.
After dinner, we popped over to Nancy's for her b-day sangria celebration. Almost the entire class showed up which was SO nice. Nancy felt the love, man!! My cake was a big hit- every morsel was eaten, and Nancy said she had been dreaming of a cake that looked just like it. Wunderbar, glad I could be of service.
Yesterday, I had a coffee date with Lydia, one of the interns. She is awesome, LOVE her. Quick, cute, story. She and her husband (both interns this summer and 4th year Rabbinic students in LA) met and fell in love during their first week in Israel 4 years ago- they got married last year. How cute? Anyway, we had lunch together on campus, and I learned it's possible to get a great salad right at Beit Shmuel (the hostel attached to HUC- shares the same campus). Good news.
Yesterday afternoon, a good portion of the class cabbed it over to Shuk Ramle- a clothing/random shit item Shuk (market) right next to the mall, just outside of Jerusalem. Wasn't so into the Shuk. We did a quick walk through, browsed the junk, got a few crappy carpets for my kitchen floor, and headed over to the mall. The Malka Mall is apparently the largest shopping center in the Middle East- I was thoroughly impressed. There were some quality stores (adidas!, my new obsession) and most importantly a decent home store (sort of an Israeli scaled down version of Bed Bath and Beyond), AND a Home Depot where we all purchased some preliminary Ulpan (intensive Hebrew class) supplies. Around 4:15pm, I left to go to my Dr's appointment. Lisa and Dara both volunteered to come with me but I wanted to go alone. Or so I thought...in the last minute before I left, I sort of implied to Dara that maybe she should come with me. I needed her Hebrew back-up since my Hebrew language skills leave a lot to be desired, right??? Dara is awesome- she's from Montreal and has been living in Ottawa working as a legal policy analyst with the Canadian Govt. (got a Wexner fellowship-she's one smart cookie) I've given her the role of cool, older sister that I never had :-)
So, we departed for the Hadassah Hospital, found the private service care office, I paid my Shekels, and went upstairs to see Dr. Eliashar. Since I got to Israel, I haven't been able to sing, my vocal chords have been swollen, and it just hasn't felt right. I knew I had to get it checked out. Real school (post-ulpan) starts in 6 weeks and I need to be healthy. Dr. Eliashar was wonderful, and very thorough. His English was beautiful and he is even going to a medical conference in Pittsburgh in a few weeks at Univ. of Pgh. For some reason, that made me feel better. He was legit!
Here is where the fun really starts...
When he told me that the camera for his throat scope was broken and he would have to go in through my nose, I started freaking a bit. The last time someone used the nasal camera, it was very painful and I said, never again. He reassured me that people don't feel so much pain with him and even convinced me to go sans nasal numbing spray. (He said it's gross) So, I put my faith in the Doc, sucked it up and he starts threading the camera up my nose. (I know this is graphic- but I thought some of you might find it amusing) It is uncomfortable, you feel pressure in the nose, but it was certainly manageable, and he was MUCH better than the last lady who used the nasal scope on me. We looked at the vocal chords on the video screen together. There is no permanent damage on the chords (thank gosh), no polyps or nodes which is great news. But the vocal folds and everything around the vocal chords are very red and swollen. it looked gross. There is nothing worse for a singer than seeing unhappy vocal chords :-( Especially when the video is of your vocal chords! I phonated on an "eee" vowel, tried to sing a higher pitch, and coughed. Before I knew it, the camera portion was over.
I have laryngitis and a viral infection that has irritated/make the laryngitis worse. He put me on complete vocal rest for 2 weeks, and prescribed me a steroid inhaler, then I will go back and we will re-evaluate in 2 weeks. It needs vocal rest so that the chords can heal without coming together at all. I'm pretty sure that the beginning of all of this was during my last week in Florida- I was packing, breathing in dust, not sleeping, and singing on a dead tired voice. Then I never gave it a chance to heal and it has just been getting progressively worse since then, and the infection has really aggravated it. It didn't start feeling this bad, like 2 pieces of sandpaper rubbing together, until the past few days.
I am very happy and relieved that I saw him. Having said that, this is not going to be an easy few weeks. I've only done vocal rest for 1 day, not 2 weeks, and that was hard enough! I am, however, very aware that this is what needs to happen for it to heal. Speaking/trying to sing on laryngitis does lead to permanent vocal damage, and I won't take that risk. Not sure how I'm going to start ulpan on vocal rest but we will figure it out. The Dr. wrote a note explaining the situation.
Basically, I will be carrying around a notepad/dry erase board for the next few weeks for communicating. Other than that it's just e-mail and texting for me. Hopefully the rest will do the trick...
Good thing most of my classmates got to know me over the past 2 weeks because I will be silent throughout our official orientation (starts today) and Ulpan week #1...perhaps the silence will make me a better Ulpan student?? It will force me to listen and write better, that's for sure...
Last night I went out to dinner with a few people to Foccacia bar. (non-Kosher and open on Shabbat- 2 pluses) Wrote on my little pad of paper...I'll probably stick more to myself the next 2 weeks as it's not that fun to be mute around a big group.
Couldn't sleep last night- was up puttering around all night. It was a perfect time to chat with people on facebook though with the 7 hour time difference! I had some nice company :-)
That's about if for now. If anyone made it all the way through that post, a hearty Mazel Tov to you.
I'm off to shower and head to HUC for the Cantorial Student Orientation. This should be fun...
Have a wonderful day!
Shalom,
Lesssslie
