End of week one

This morning I spoke to Shlomo Cohen who lives in Tel Aviv. Those of you from Norwich will recall that he was our High Holiday cantor for a number of years. We have kept in touch. I plan to take off after Ulpan on Monday and take the bus to Tel Aviv to meet with him. Roz arrives that afternoon and he offered to drive us to Jerusalem.

Today at lunch, we had the second meeting of the Legacy Heritage Fellows. We divided into small groups of similarly situated people to talk about solving our mutual problems. We were supposed to discuss the use of sacred texts to increase people's connection with Israel. I was paired with Chanah who lives near Hamburg Germany. She relates that in Germany, synagogues are either Orthodox or Liberal with no significant Conservative representation. Chanah did not feel a part of the Orthodox and when she tried to get the Liberals to read Torah, they asked her to leave. Now she is struggling to create a Conservative synagogue with a small group of older Jews. They have no place to meet and no funds. Interestingly Hebrew literacy is minimal and she meets with resistance when trying to recruit learners. Consequently, she is looking for a transliterated siddur. I suggested that she contact the Federation of Jewish Men's Clubs for their Siddur Hebrew program. If anyone of my readers has a suggestions for her let me know and I will be glad to relay them.

In our midrash class, we discussed a midrash which deals with Abraham's journey out of Ur Kasdim. In the story, a man was traveling and passed a burning building. The man speculated that there must be no acaretaker of the building since it is on fire. The caretakerthen appeared at the top of the building. The traveller is Abraham, the building is the world, and the caretaker is God. Even though this world is on fire, it does not mean that ther is no God. I see this as an allegory for Tikun Olam. Not God but people have the opportunity to put out the fire that is consuming the world.

Speaking of Tikun Olam, this afternoon a group of us went to a nursing home to visit with the residents. One of the students brought an accordian and we sang with the residents and danced for them (well some of us danced). We also had a chance to practice our Hebrew skills. The woman I first sat with was born in Turkey. She also wanted to talk French. I had a surprisingly difficult time shifting code to French but I was able to tell her how my mother used to talk about my barely passing French grades with my H.S. French teacher, Mr. Furman, in Yiddish.

Here we are dancing. Chasha, the accordian player and Cantor from Chicago is seated on the left. Chana, my friend from Germany, is the taller woman standing on the left and Sharon Astor is facing the camera on the right.

I have worked in many nursing homes and found this one to be a bit above average. The residents, as well as the facility, seemed clean and well cared for. I was told that this was a government facility with all or most of the patients on public assistance. As our visit went on, this room full of bubbies got warmer and more lively with singing and clapping from qquite a few.

After I got home, I went back to the Shuk and this time I brought the little wheeled basket that came with my apartment. Now I realize what it was for. As it is Thursday, the pace of things there is a bit more hectic and the crowd a little bigger. I got a little more brave and picked up a few staples and delicacies.