Week of Adventure

For the past 10 days, I have been traveling throughout Israel doing incredible once in a lifetime things. We started off going to Masada. We woke up at 4:15 and headed straight to the mountain. The hike up was difficult but totally worth waking up for it. We got to see the sunrise from the east that was over Jordan. During our time on top of Masada, we got to learned about Herod and his construction of the many castles that were hiding places. After our three days at Masada, we went on a hike through a spring that led to a beautiful waterfall. On our way back from the waterfall, we went to the Dead Sea. We got to float and put mud all over our bodies. It was a lot of fun because it is the lowest place in the world. 

After those four days of fun, we arrived at gadna. From the first moment we got there, we were treated like soldiers. It was intense. It really was. Our commander made it clear to us that the #1 thing in the army is friendship and I truly got to experience it during the five days I was there. I was with my group of 13 girls at all times. We did everything together and we all bonded. The commanders taught us all about guns. It was extremely scary to be able to hold and shoot a weapon thats its entire purpose is to kill. During gadna, we had to sleep in army tents, wear the full uniform, and always pay attention to who is talking to you. I had not thought much about going to the army until my week in gadna. Even though the experience was not the best due to the conditions. I would love to stand for the land of the Jewish people. There are many options for me in the future but I am glad that I have the Israeli Army as one. 

Sunrise at Masada

Me in the full uniform at gadna

Taxi ride

When my weekend with my brother away from the Kibbutz came to an end, I had to get a taxi to return to Tzuba. Immediately when I got into the taxi, the man driving the taxi began sharing his opinion with me about politics. He talked about how hebrew is separating the state of Israel, because not everyone is able to speak the language. I was shocked that this random man felt comfortable to share his views with a random American girl. This taxi driver was explaining to me how the language of the Jewish people is not a positive thing for Israel. Even though I disagree with his opinion, I let him continue to speak because I was so intrigued by his political views. As he continued, I was stuck on the fact that this man was so open to share his views with me. I felt privileged that he confided in me so honestly, even though it was not a big deal to him.

Anti-Israel Billboards

In Orlando, many billboards are posted on major streets that are putting down Israel. The billboards are mentioning that America is giving Israel $10 million dollars a day when the organization who posted the billboards and trying to boycott Israel are getting more money than Israel. I think that this situation is a double standard. BDS is short-sided as well as the author because they both are trying to prove that their side is correct.

The author's point was not being shown in the article. I understand that he is going against BDS and their ways but throughout the article, his points were convincing but did not make sense. He was promoting Israel and sharing his opinion. The point told by the author was shallow because there was no conclusion and he did not bring up the opposing side of the argument. BDS has one opinion and the author has one opinion as well but in the article the only opinion told was the authors. I did not get any closure from this article.

The Feeling of Security

As I said on my first blog post, I am trying to become more observant. I have been noticing things that most would not care to pay attention to. One major thing that I have seen wherever I go is guns. It has frequently caught my attention because its not something I see back home. A gun can help people feel protected and secure. I can not imagine living in frequent terror of being attacked. It made me realize how different my setting is now from where I am used to. On the daily, terrible acts continue to occur which causes more people to feel the need of security. It makes me sad that it has come to the point where people need to have a gun on them at all times to feel safe but at the same time it is great that people have a temporary help for feeling sheltered. Throughout my blog, I will try to become more observant and become more aware of safety issues and conflicts that are happening around me.

Adolf Eichmann - Was his fate fair?

Adolf Eichmann took a part during the Holocaust as a Nazi. He was a Nazi Officer who eventually owned up to his mistakes and begged for forgiveness. During the Holocaust, Eichmann was following the commands given to try to stay alive even if those commands were not correct in his eyes. Eichmann was different than most of the officers under the power of Hitler. He didn't think it was right for the Jewish people to be tortured so he was transferred from many positions that wouldn't have direct contact with the Jews. After a long delay, Eichmann finally came out to the world about his perspective from the Holocaust and admitted to his terrible mistakes. June 1, 1962, Eichmann was hung for his actions. My family was personally affected from the Holocaust, and greatly  too. I believe that anyone who had the mindset to initiate terrible acts towards Jews do not have the right to life, with the exception of Eichmann and other instigators that had similar experiences to him.

Eichmann acknowledged his mistakes and tried to get the people of the world to understand that he had no choice during those years. He wrote "I declare once again, as I did in the presence of the court: I detest as the greatest of crimes the horrors which were perpetrated against the Jews and think it right that the initiators of these terrible deeds will stand trial before the law now and in the future". Eichmann did not deserve to be killed . The actions of the people around him contradicted his own morals, and would have killed Eichmann if he did not do what they said.

Distractions During Services

As a teenager, I can not and should not be expected to sit for an exceeding amount of time. During Shabbat services, we were obligated to bring our Tanakh. Casually flipping through that little book, I remembered the assigned pages that I was supposed to read. It took me a while to read those tiny words on those tiny pages to fully understand what it was getting at. The readings started in Genesis 6.17 and on those pages, they were specifically talking about Noah's Ark. While scanning over the story, I realized that the story kept repeating itself. Over and over, the storyline was repetitive and not making much sense. Recalling the information that was taught in Jewish History class a few days prior about documentary analysis, I could see redactor taking bits and pieces from different sources and shoving them into that tiny little book. The exact definition is form of qualitative research in which documents are interpreted by the researcher to give their voice.  That one person who has interpreted the stories of the torah and other sources are changing the original direction. Over this long period of time when I was reading the Tanakh, I started to connect it to me and my Jewish identity.

Since I was little, I have always been involved in the Jewish community near me. I went to a Jewish preschool and was enrolled at a Jewish Day School for 5 years. At that school, I was taught only their outlook on life and Judaism. After I started going to a public school, I was enrolled in Sunday school at Chabbad. It took me a while to realize how there are more than just the opinions that I was taught. I was being taught very contradicting things that most of the time did not make sense. Putting all of those different views together for me, would make my own Tanakh. In the Tanakh, there are different views that are cut and pasted to form a book, and if I were to do the same, I would have my own personal book that probably would not make much sense either. Throughout my life, I have been influenced by many different Jewish perspectives and it is up to me to bring those together (at least try) and give my personal view just as the Tanakh does.

Flying, Sitting, Observing.

During my long day of waiting at JFK on Jan 25, one of the few perks I got to experience was seeing many different types of people. While sitting and waiting for more students from my program to arrive,  I was extremely bored. I got to see a variety of people walking past me, and I thought "what do I have in common with them?". The only thing that truly stuck out in my mind was the similarities between the orthodox jews and me. I became a person who observes everything around me that day; I got to see orthodox families walking past me while I spent all of my time witnessing their actions. My perception of those families was swayed by their outer image and not by their inner beliefs that tie back to the same beliefs that I follow. When the time came to sit for 10 hours on the plane, I became more observant because that was my only option present. I noticed early in the morning, all of the orthodox men got up from their seats and migrated towards the bathrooms to put on their tefillin and pray. Even though their actions that come to play because of their beliefs are extreme, I can see a correlation between my lifestyle and theirs. All of the different types of Judaism that are available for a person nowadays, one would never guess to make the connection between orthodox and reformed. I think that we do have the same core beliefs, we do follow the teachings of the torah, and we do celebrate the same holidays. I am confident that my time in Israel will not only allow me to become more observant but it will also strengthen the parallels between reformed Judaism and other parts of Judaism.