A New Friend

So. This past month I was at the Hebrew University taking an intensive Hebrew class. It was the best Hebrew instruction I have had. I don't mind the intensity - 5 hours in the morning and then doing somewhere between 2-4 hours in the evening of homework/studying. My Hebrew got loads better.

And, I made a new friend:).

As usual, with such new additions, I feel tremendously grateful to have him in my life now. Every time I make a connection, develop a friendship, with someone new who I immediately fall head over heels for - i feel as though my cup simply overfloweth. I mean, common, I have so much going for me already, so many blessings....now i get ANOTHER. Well...ok....I ACCEPT!!!

So. Why am I so fond of this new bloke? Well, you see, he simply shook things up for me. And if you know me at all you know how I like to shake things up:).

Now, what did he shake up? He brought me to a much more meaningful evaluation of my relationship with this holy/unholy land than anyone (including myself) has been able to do in a long time. Do yall remember last year I went to a place called Tekoa for a Shabbat? It is in the middle of the West Bank. It is in the middle of Palestinian territory. That excursion was a perfect example of me trying to figure this place out.

I made a promise to myself that I would do a lot more listening and “trying” than talking this past year. I never made the assumption that I would ever have a full understanding of the political, economic or social situation here. I knew I would lack clarity at the end as to my feelings, beliefs, etc. about the place, but I knew that was a better place to be than ignorance.

I knew that it would behoove me to sit back and listen up. Really, I did that in more than just my exploration of this place. Religiously I tried to be open to anything too. In the end I feel I have benefited from my attempts at observing rather than acting. But, problem was, I didn’t know how to get out of it.

I was looking forward to going back to America largely because of all my beloved ones over there. But I had another reason – I wanted a fresh look. I wanted to be able to come back here and have another go at it– outside of the bubble in which I live. What is this bubble I speak of?

I exist in a world in which we study Torah. We have Shabbat. We pray. We read. We go meet other Jews in pubs. At concerts. At festivals. We discuss Jewish communities. We discuss Jewish education. Etcetera. It is a VERY common thing here to run into sentiments like “Oh, you haven’t immigrated to Israel yet, you just live here? You really should move here permanently.” “build the homeland of the Jews, we need to put our efforts here” “I want to live here because it is a thriving Jewish community where I can be Jewish like nowhere else in the world” “I know that things aren’t great for the Palestinians, but I want to be safe HERE.”

The problem is that I don’t like the pressure to move here. And I don’t like self-inflicted ignorance. I don’t want to move here, most of the time. I once stood up in one of our community lectures last year and began my comment by explaining, like I was introducing myself at an AA meeting, “Hi, my name is…, I love galus [the diaspora].” I love living in the diaspora. Sure I understand that parts of my Jewish life can be expressed with greater ease here, but other parts of me can’t. But it isn’t only the pressure from people to move here (btw, I am not referring to my immediate community at my school – I really don’t feel pressure from my teachers in regards to this issue). It is that they seem to be overlooking the problems with Israel existing as it does. They seem to be willing to gloss over loss of human rights, democracy, and religious freedom that are part of this society. So this is my problem with the bubble – it is easy to fall into that and forget about the critique, to forget about others suffering when my life is so removed from it. This is where my new buddy comes in.

He allowed me to exit the bubble. He is critical and striving for honesty in intellect and in evaluation of the situation, and I was able to join him in that. It felt really good to hear someone talking a different talk than I have grown accostumed to hearing. It was relieving to be around someone who was willing to challenge himself and this place in a way that most are not willing to and often do not.

He also gave me many a laugh. That was a plus.