SPELLING BEE!

Let's do some spelling, shall we?

D-O-N-E. Thats what I am today!

R. Thats the letter I gained after this very long year.

T-W-E-N-T-Y P-E-R-C-E-N-T. How much of my Rabbinic Education I've completed.

K-A-T-H-A-R-I-N-E M-A-C-P-H-E-E. Who I want to win American Idol.

B-E-E-R A-N-D H-O-O-K-A-H. What I'm going to be enjoying tonight.

S-H-O-P-P-I-N-G. What I am going to do tomorrow.

S-H-A-B-B-A-T. My last one tomorrow.

P-A-C-K-I-N-G. What I MUST start doing ASAP.

B-I-T-T-E-R-S-W-E-E-T. What these past few days have been.

T-E-L A-V-I-V--F-R-A-N-K-F-U-R-T-- P-H-I-L-A-D-E-L-P-H-I-A. My route home.

L-E-H-I-T-R-A-O-T. Don't worry, we'll see each other again soon.

More End of the Year Pics

Tonight my class, kitah gimmel traveled out of Jerusalem to eat dinner at the home of our [amazing] Hebrew teacher, Zohara. She lives in a *beautiful* house with her husband and three kids. Here is my class with Zohara [from R->L: Micol, Lauren, Zohara, Me, Luisa, Claire, Rollin, Josh, Elana, Shira (Zohara's daughter), Sarah, Heather).

Here I am with Zohara, the master [mistress?] of all things Hebrew.
Today: saw Mindy, did last-minute shopping, studied, dinner at Zohara's
Tomorrow: lunch with Mindy, studying with Julia
Tuesday: Biblical Grammar exam, studying/packing
Wednesday: Bible Exam, Liturgy Exam, studying/packing
Thursday: Hazal Exam, celebrating [on being done with my first year and having my R!]
Friday: clean and pack, pack and clean, goodbyes, last Shabbat...get on a plane...

Let the procrastination begin! Love to everyone still reading!

End-Of-The-Year

The First Year class in Jerusalem 2005-6. I'm on the bottom right, second from the end.


The entire First year, Fourth year, Israeli Students, Staff and Faculty of HUC Jerusalem. Again, I'm on the bottom right.

End of the year pictures...end of the year picnics, end of the year Shabbat...must be the end of the year.

Finally. Finally?

Today is the last day of school. The last day of my first year of rabbinical school. woah.

1 paper. 4 finals. 8 days.

Time to go party it up in Tel Aviv before the busy weekend of studying/socializing.

Love to all...feel free to leave encouragement/love/support.

I'm really excited to see these people

Here they are at a Family Fraternity Event (I'm not sure what that means, beer pong and bagels?)

12 days...

To do before then:
Hebrew final, Part II (May 16)
Israel Seminar Paper (May 23)
Biblical Grammar Final (May 23)
Bible Final (May 24)
Liturgy Final (May 24)
Rabbinic Literature Final (May 25)

Pack boxes to be shipped (May 19)
Pack suitcases (everyday)

Today is Founder's Day (again, I don't know what that means) and we're having a closing ceremony and mandatory BBQ [Q: what kind of school has mandatory meals? A: A jewish one]

Friday night is our last Kabbalat Shabbat and dinner as a first year class. After that, people will be leaving as soon as their finals are over, some as early as Tuesday of next week, some are staying all summer, and still others leaving somewhere in the middle. I leave on May 27th and will be returning to the East Coast around 2pm that day.

At home I'll be celebrating all the holidays and birthdays I've missed and also my brother's graduation from Towson [yay dave!] I'll also be attempting to see most of my friends in the area and family before going to camp on June 11.

Hopefully before this experience is over I'll make some time to reflect on this year, this blog and other random things I like to talk about here. Topics may include: how many mulletts I've worn this year, obsessive internet tv watching, why i love the color pink and the hebrew root kuf, resh, nun. Stay tuned.

You look good for 58

Yesterday was Israel's 58th Birthday. Starting Tuesday night, this country was CRAAAZY complete with Israeli flags EVERYWHERE, kids in the streets with cans of silly string and shaving cream, the LOUDEST music I've ever heard and tons of Jews from all over the world partying it up in J-town.

This is Ben Yehudah Street at the begining of the night- you can see that there are lots of people in the distance- the ENTIRE street was full of people singing and dancing and drinking, of course.



This is on Yom Haazmaut at the softball game/BBQ that we had at Kraft Family Field. From L-R: Lev, Mel, Shayna, Me, Rena and Sandi. I "womaned" the grills with Rachael and cooked lots of meat...most of which I don't think I'll ever eat again. The BBQ was quite possibly the most fun I've had in a while- good food, great friends, sunshine, Israel etc.

I am SO happy that today is Thursday aka last day of the week aka two more weeks and then finals and then I'm outta here! No really, it's bittersweet.

But between then and now I have about a hundred social events and a hundred things to do including: [actually copied from my real "to-do" list]: finish writing my Bible paper, start packing my shipping boxes, buying lots of stuff that I have wanted all year, and start packing one of these days.

But like the weeks before I came here...I'll leave the packing and saying goodbyes for later- I'm too busy enjoying my sof ha'shavua. Let the weekend begin- love to all who are still reading!

Life Catch Up

Go ahead. Vote me worst blogger ever. It's ok. I never update, and when I do, I give general updates without pictures. No wonder you're reading Pink Is The New Blog instead.

I actually have lots of say about lots of things here so I'm going to break up the thoughts into some sections. Can you tell I've been writing a lot of papers lately?

School: 12 days to go. 2 papers written, 2 more to write. 5 finals to study for a take. I really can't believe that I'm about to be 1/5 of a Rabbi. Give me an R!

Professional Life: I was chosen as #22 out of 23 students for our New York High Holy Day pulpit lottery (yes, we actually have one of those.) Sad news for Karen. I'm working on finding a myself a HHD pulpit- any ideas?

I have gotten myself a teaching job on the Upper West Side teaching 4th grade 2 afternoons a week. I'm hoping to add another afternoon/evening and some tutoring/songleading to help with the income. Anyone know of a good place to get buisness cards printed? I already looked at vistaprints.

Apparently people think I can play guitar since on Saturday night at our Artists4Darfur benefit, I led Havdallah, accompianied a cantorial student and performed. Dar Williams, I hope I made you proud. Play the greed, dar, play the greed.

Not at the March, but we still did something to support Darfur relief. We had a program at school, Artists4Darfur planned by Jill, Owen and Julia- we raised $1000 and had activism-themed performances and watched two films put out by the SaveDarfur Coalition. Despite the small turnout, I was really proud of us--

In the last two days, I have received seven social invitations- every Shabbat between now and going home is booked. Good to know I have friends. I can't believe everyone isn't coming back to New York. Gulp.

And finally...some pictures to prove to you that I'm not dead, chas v'shalom. They're both from our pre-Pesach tiyul to the desert. I'm playing guitar and hanging out with my roomies-Rena, Mel and Shayna. update: yeah, blogger isn't behaving right now. we'll try pictures again tomorrow.

More to come on the Israel High Holy Days, wrapping up here, and how you can find me once I stop writing on this [gassssssssssssp!] Sorry to say it, but I'm not sure the blogging will continue after Israel. We'll see. More to come...check back later.