Abraham and Lot in the Bible

In my Chumash BeIyun class we have learned about interesting relationships that have come.  Cain and Abel, Abraham and Lot, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, and Joseph and his brothers are the main ones.  We first look directly at the text and then we see what different commentators have to say about it.  One of the more interesting ones was the relationship between Abraham and Lot.  This is the only relationship that doesn't include brothers, rather it talks about and uncle and a nephew.

In the basic text in Bereshis 13:5-18, the shepherds of Abraham and Lot were fighting because there wasn't enough space for them. Rashi expands a little bit more on these pesukim.  He says that the only reason that Lot had all of his possessions was because he was with Abraham.  He was with Abraham when he went down to Egypt and he ended up with a large amount of possessions because when Pharaoh sent them away, he sent them with money, animals, food, and much more.  Rashi also states that Lot's shepherds were evil and they would let their animals graze wherever they wanted, even if it meant they would graze in a privately owned field.  Abraham's shepherd's, however, were righteous and they would say to Lot's shepherds that what they were doing was wrong.  They responded that god said that the land would belong to Abraham and Lot would inherit the land from Abraham because he had no sons so it would go to Lot, his nephew.  However, the shepherds didn't understand that it didn't belong to Abraham yet; it still belonged to the Canaanite and Prizite nations that lived there.  

Once Abraham saw that there was a problem, he proposed a solution.  He proposed that they split up.  Lot went westward to a city called Sdom.  Rashi says that he went there for many reasons.  Firstly, he was close to Abraham so just in case he needed protection, he wouldn't be too far away.  Secondly, he chose it because it was very good for agriculture.  There were plains and rivers where he could grow plants and trees.  However, by separating himself from Abraham, he also separated himself from god.  Sdom was a place with very bad people.  They were people who sinned and they wanted to rebel against god.  It was good for Abraham that Lot separated from him because he was a bad influence.  We learn this by seeing that right after Lot left, Abraham gets a prophecy from god.  Abraham didn't receive any prophecies all the time that Lot was living with him, and once he left god began to tell Abraham about the nation that would come from him.  

The Ramban expands on what Rashi said.  Rashi stated that Lot’s shepherds thought that the land would eventually belong to them and since they had so many possessions, it would be okay to take from fields that currently had owners.  Their mistake was that the land was meant for Abraham and not Lot. Abraham was afraid that since they had so many possessions, the people of the land would hear about them and drive them out of the land.  When it says in the pasuk that there wasn’t enough land for Abraham and Lot, it meant for Abraham and Lot, who had such a large amount of possessions, and the nations who were already living there.  To solve this problem, Abraham would re-locate every year so that his sheep and cattle would graze in different areas in the land so as not to take advantage of one specific region.  When Abraham and Lot separated, Lot lived in one place, on the banks of the Jordan River, and Abraham continued to re-locate every year but he never went near the area where Lot was living.

The next perek that speaks about Lot shows that he has grown into a very materialistic person since he left Abraham to go live in Sdom.  In perek 14 there is a war between the 4 kings and the 5 kings.  The war was basically about materialistic possessions.  During this war, Lot was taken captive and Abraham organized and army to go and save Lot.  This could be taken metaphorically to mean save him from materialism. Even after Abraham saved Lot, he continued to live in Sdom.  Along with saving Lot, Abraham also saved the possessions of the 5 kings that were lost to the 4 kings in the war.  When he was given a part of the possessions as a reward, he refused it and said that all of the possessions should go back to the people that they belong to.  

Out of all the relationships we spoke about so far in class, this one was basically the only one that didn't have a large fight in it. Instead it was resolved peacefully. May we all have peaceful and successful relationships throughout our lives. Shalom V'lehitraot!

David Project Trip

The David Project is a class I'm taking in Israel Advocacy.  Today we went on a full day trip to help us understand some of the things they're trying to teach us.  Our school split up onto two buses and we basically did the same things except in different orders.  Our first stop was in Giloh on a road overlooking the security fence that protects the Jews from the Palestinians living on the other side.  Many people have a misconception about this fence which they call a wall even though only about 10% of it is a wall.  Even though it was really foggy outside, we were still able to see the fence.  A tour guide came onto our bus to talk about the fence for about a half hour.
Next, we went to help out some archaeologists by sifting through their finds.When the Dome of the Rock reopened to Muslims, they found that it wasn't large enough for everyone to fit, so what they did was, they dug out another entrance that was hidden almost two stories underground.  The problem with this was, that the Dome of the Rock is located on a very large archaeological site so anything dug up around that area was filled with hundreds of years of artifacts, which they just dumped into a valley.  These archaeologists decided to take that dirt, sift through it and see if they could find anything of interest.  So far, they have found coins from every time period since the times of the prophets, weapons since the time of the Maccabees, jewelry, pottery, and many other things.  They said that at least one coin was found almost every day.  We worked in pairs to sift through buckets of dirt.  I worked with my friend Eliana and we found a bunch of cool stuff.  First we would pour the bucket of dirt into a sifter.  Then we would rinse out the bucket and then rinse of the dirt so we could see the rocks or whatever else was underneath.  We found metal, bones, glass, marble, and a bunch of other cool stones.  The coolest thing we found was a large greenish piece of marble which they thought was from Italy.
Next, we went to the Mount of Olives.  If you look at Mount of Olives from Jerusalem, you will see a very large amount of Arab houses with an Israeli flag sticking out of the middle of them.  Towards the bottom of the mountain live about 80 Jewish families, there is also a cemetery filled with hundreds of famous Jews, but right in the middle, there is one Jewish apartment building with 8 families- the rest of the people who live there are Muslim.  We visited that one house right in the middle of the Mount of Olives.  There we learned about temple deniers, and the crazy things that they say to try to prove that they are right.  We were also able to see an amazing view of the entire Jerusalem since we were at the top of the mountain which is parallel to the mountain that Jerusalem is on.  We were actually able to see the Dome of the Rock from the other side, which is something I had never seen before.
Our next stop was a little further away in a city near Tel- Aviv.  We went to a hospital to learn about Save A Child's Heart (SACH). SACH is an organization which brings in children who have heart diseases that their countries can not treat.  Israel has the resources to perform these operations.  50% of the children come from Africa, 40% are Palestinans, and 10% is from the rest of the world.  Each operation costs $10,000 and they get a lot of donations but not enough. The kids who flew in live in a house about 15 minutes away from the hospital before and after their operation for as short a time as possible so they could go home.  We went to visit the kids who were staying there now.  We met a 17 year old boy, 2 little boys, and a 10 year old girl. We colored with them and took pictures with them and we really had a good time.
We had a really long day today and now it's time to sign off.  Shalom V'lehitraot!

Kedma Choir

Every year, there is an inter-seminary choir competition in order to raise money for a charity organization called Kedma.  Kedma has many different branches but the money raised for this competition goes towards helping underprivileged women.  Every seminary that wishes to enter is required to raise 1500 shekel and a prize is given to the seminary who goes above and beyond that and raises the most money.
The Kedma choir competition is an event that many seminaries look forward to every year.  A little over a month ago we started practicing and we've been practicing ever since.  It took a lot of hard work, a lot of dedicated people, and a lot of talent to make the choir happen.  Things were a bit shaky in the beginning and many changes were made until we found exactly what was right.  We had to sing some parts over and over and over again.  I think we probably sung the introduction about a hundred times and still at the end we sometimes had trouble finding the right starting note.  This past week was the craziest of them all.  Every lunch time and right after classes finished we would have practice. Each time, we got better and better and better.

When we got to the competition tonight, there was hundreds of seminary girls sitting/ standing in an auditorium screaming for their seminary to win.  The energy in that room was insane (not to mention that it smelled pretty bad too.) The night started off with a couple of speeches- one from the dean of Stern, and one from a volunteer choir group that would sing in old age homes.  Then the judges were introduced and then the competition started.  There were eleven seminaries that competed and everyone did very well.
Right before it was our turn to go on stage, everyone was lined up by the side of the stage.  Everyone was excited and you could feel the adrenaline rush in the air.  It was very hot in the auditorium so we passed around my water bottle so everyone could get a little bit of water before we went on.  When we got on stage, everyone in the choir was smiling, our fans in the audience were cheering, and we were ready to go. My friend Sharona made a little speech about our theme and then it was time for the choir to sing.  Once we hit our first note, we knew that this was what we've been working towards and we gave it everything we had.

The theme of the competition was Jerusalem and our specific Harova theme was fire.  We also had a really cute dance, which I didn't really get to see because I was too busy singing, but it was basically Israel through the ages.  First came the time of our forefathers, than the first people to come back to Israel after 2000 years of exile, and lastly modern day Jerusalem.  The choir was set up in four groups: low, mid-low, mid-high, and high.  I was in the low group, which was also the largest and loudest group and we were really the heartbeat of the whole song. 

I would like to thank all of the heads of our choir for doing such an amazing job.  We really wouldn't have been able to do it without them.  Firstly, Shira, who was in charge of the whole choir and who put together the song including the order of the parts and all the harmonies.  Next, I'd like to thank the choir heads. Sarah, who was head of the lows, also taught everybody in the choir their parts. She is an amazing teacher and was so patient with us. Jane, head of the mid-lows, Annie and Nirelle, head of the mid-highs, and Aliza, head of the highs, were also really, really good.  Thanks guys- you're awesome!

I had a really crazy but fun night and after a long week of late night practices it's time to chill out and get some sleep. Shalom V'lehitraot!

Shabbat at Nishmat!

Friday morning 8:00- It's pouring outside...
I woke up, ate breakfast, and got ready to go.  I was going to Nishmat for Shabbat where I was meeting up with a bunch of old camp friends and friends from Flatbush.  Noga and Yvette organized where everybody was sleeping and what we each had to bring to eat.  My friend Yifa't and I were making the soup.  Our first stop was down the block to get soup mix and matzo meal to make matzo balls.  Our next stop was the shuk.  Now don't forget, this all includes walking and waiting for buses in the pouring rain.  At the shuk, we bought carrots and onions for the soup and Yifa't bought dates for another one of our friends.  The last stop was Nishmat.  We got on the 18 bus but we weren't exactly sure when to get off.  Luckily, we met someone on the bus that was also going to Nishmat so she showed us where to go.
We got off the bus, settled in, and then we had to start cooking.  Everything was a little bit disorganized, but we eventually figured it out.  We made our soup and matzo balls and then we added in noodles and we finished just minutes before shabbat started.  We lit candles and then were able to relax.  We hung out for a while and then sat down to eat dinner.  We had the challah, and then the soup, which turned out to be pretty good even though the matzo balls weren't very soft.  Then we had salad and homemade deli rolls which were so good. After dinner we just hung out for the rest of the night. It was just really nice to see everybody again and to have a really chilled out shabbat.
I woke up at around ten the next morning to find everybody around me sleeping.  I got up anyway to see if anybody in any of the other rooms was awake.  I found some people and we played some card games while eating cookies.  A couple of hours later we decided that it was time to start making lunch and then we would wake everybody else up.  Yifa't and my other friend Evie cut up salad, and then we started warming up the chicken.  We then went to wake everybody up which was lots of fun.  After another hour everyone was finally up and we sat down to eat lunch.  We had a really good lunch and then a few other people came over.  I learned how to play Monopoly Deal and then we started playing Jungle Speed.  Jungle Speed is an amazing game.  If you don't know what it is, go get it and play it because it's awesome! Before we knew it, shabbat was over.  We said Havdalah with a few other Israelis who were also staying in Nishmat and then people started leaving.  Of course it took them forever to decide what they wanted to do tonight and by the time they decided that they wanted to go out to Waffle Bar, I decided that I was too tired so I went home.  So here I am back at home, sitting next to Temima, typing this up, and thinking about my bed.  I like my bed and so should you.  Shalom V'lehitraot!

Eilat!

5:30 AM wake-up to get on the buses for a four and a half hour bus ride to Eilat! We stopped about halfway there for a bathroom break and breakfast.  We got to our first hike at around 11:30.  It wasn't really such a hard hike and it only took us about three hours to get through the whole thing.  Towards the end of the hike we saw something that looked exactly like Pride Rock from the Lion King so we all started singing The Circle of Life.
After that, we went to our hotel to get settled in.  I was in a room with Melissa, Rinat, and Floortje.  We showered and just chilled out until dinner.  Dinner was amazing.  Compared to the food we get at seminary, this was like a little piece of heaven on earth. Now I'm not saying that food in seminary is bad, I'm just saying that they took us to a really, really nice hotel.  Afterwards we went out to go chill on the boardwalk There are all these shops along the boardwalk that we wandered in and around and once we got all the way to the end, we realized that it was getting kinda late and we were really tired so we decided to head back and go to sleep.
The next morning, we woke up, ate an amazing breakfast and got ready for one of the hardest hikes in Israel, Har Shlomo.  We each took our lunch and three liters of water and set out for the hike.  When they first pointed out the mountain to us, our jaws dropped as we all wondered how we were going to climb it.  The mountain was almost a mile high! We began by climbing up a nearby mountain.  Some of my friends said that they did this hike once before during the summer and the heat was horrible.  After about a half hour, we were no longer walking on a path, we were literally climbing up the side of the mountain.  There was one really steep part that we had to hold on to a railing to keep from falling down.  It was pretty hard but we all encouraged each other and helped each other up if someone fell, and eventually we made it to the top.  At the top we were able to see Eilat to the east and Jordan just beyond it, Saudi Arabia to the south, and the Sinai desert of Egypt to the west.
The climb down was much harder than the climb up.  There were so many pebbles and so much sand that I felt like I was skiing down parts of the mountain.  I think everybody fell or almost fell at least once but we all just laughed it off. Almost the entire way down, we were stuck behind this slow moving group of high school girls who were so annoying and we kept having to stop and wait for them.  Then, about halfway down a big group of guys got stuck behind us and they were even more annoyed because they're guys and they wanted to run down the mountain.  Eventually all three groups made it down the mountain.  We got cookies from the bus and we were all really proud of ourselves for doing the hike.
We went back to the hotel, showered, had dinner, and then we went for a night boat ride.  I wasn't too happy about it, just because I don't like boats, but everybody else seemed to have a really good time dancing and playing games.  My friend Gila and I just stood on the side chilling and looking out at the scenery.  I was exhausted when I got back to the hotel so I went right to sleep.
The next morning we woke up for a third and final hike, which turned out not to be much of a hike at all.  We did get to climb up to the Pillars of Amram and we got to climb into an old copper mine.  After that, we had an afternoon off at the beach.  The first thing I did was banana boating.  It was so much fun and I was laughing so hard.  I laughed even harder when my friend Samara fell off.  Afterwards, I decided to go swimming with Dalia and Meira.  We swam from the dock all the way out to the rocks.  They were really tired so they walked back but I decided to swim back.  Then Melissa and I decided to try out the kayaks.  Melissa never did any kind of boating before so I had to teach her how to use the paddle, but after a few minutes we were moving right along.
After a great time at the beach, it was time to go back home.  Now I am exhausted, my shoulders hurt, my thighs hurt, and a bunch of other muscles hurt, but I can say that I had an amazing time in Eilat during my year in Israel.  Shalom V'lehitraot!

Shabbat in Tzfat

The four holiest cities in Israel are Jerusalem, Chevron, Teveria, and Tzfat.  We left at 6:45 in the morning  to take the three hour drive up to Tzfat.  We made a random pit stop at a gas station where we ate breakfast and had a cake for my friend Alona (pronounced Alana) whose birthday was the next day. We got back on the bus and arrived in Tzfat a little while later.  Our first stop was at a mikveh.  The two woman who gave tours there showed us around and explained to us what happened.  They were very kabbalistic and spiritual and very much into meditation.  One of the coolest parts was that it was handicap accessible.  Next we went to the famous Tzfat cemetary where we saw the grave of Rav Yosef Cairo, the author of the Shulchan Aruch. It was pouring outside and we had to walk down a set of stairs.  It was raining so hard that there was a waterfall coming down the stairs.
We got to our hotel rooms at around 2:00 in the afternoon where we got ready for Shabbat.  We had our own minyan and then went to dinner.  It was a pretty good dinner and then afterwards we all sat together singing and listening to stories.
The next morning we woke up very early to pray with the sunrise.  As we were walking to the shul, an orange cat began to follow us.  We finally found the shul after quite a few minutes of walking around.  We all sat down and in walks the cat.  Some girls are really afraid of cats so they kind of ran away as I just sat there.  The cat eventually jumped onto the chair next to me and climbed on my lap.  I calmly picked it up, brought it outside and then went back inside and I made sure the door was closed this time.
Afterwards, we walked back to the hotel and just hung out.  For a while, I was helping my roommate, Hadassa, with her Hebrew.  Then we had a speaker come talk to us about... something.  It's not my fault, I was sitting in a really comfy chair snuggled up in my jacket...so I kinda fell asleep for the whole thing. After that we had lunch and then went out for a tour of the old city of Tzfat.  It was really cool to learn about all the famous people who lived there and how the city became the spiritual city it is today.
Tzfat is also famous for its art galleries.  We went to meet one of the artists who is a cousin of one of our teachers.  He paints using kabbalist ideas that have to do with colors and letters and the things he comes up with are really cool and a bit creepy at the same time.  After that we had a bit of chill time at the hotel and then we went back home.  The bus ride home was pretty chill, except for when we made a pit stop and one of the girls started going crazy about how she wanted to go back already to meet up with her friend.  I sat next to my friend Sarah (one of the six at Harova) and we listened to these really cool songs that the choir she was in had sung.

A lot of my friends from America have been coming to visit Israel because they have a month long break, so tonight I spent the whole night with Yvette and Sabina.  I was so happy to see them and it made me miss everybody else in New York.  Come visit me! Shalom V'lehitraot!