EEEK!

Forty-hours until departure - but - who's counting!!

My surprise package arrived today - a digital camera from the kids. (Thanks to you all.)

Eeeek!! More new technology to master. I've just been loading my video iPod (thanks folks for your gifts, some of which, combined, made this possible) for the past several weeks. It's now full of Israeli music of all kinds and lots of tracks of Hebrew lessons. I think about adding other things that I have listened to (opera, jazz, Frank Sinatra, pop, Enya, some country, Lucy Kaplansky, Uppity Blues Women, Dave Matthews, Louis Armstrong - and tons of American Jewish music, etc.)- that are sitting on my shelf of CD's and it somehow seems like polluting the Hebrew/Israeli music purity of the iPod. (I know there's therapy for this kind of stuff!)

The to-do list is getting shorter, things are falling off, needing to wait for the August list. An author of a time-management book suggested that we treat each day as if it were the last work day before a vacation and then we would accomplish enormous amounts of work. Well, that's great, but, oh, the tension that can be aroused!

As someone wrote me yesterday (and I quote) . . . . RELAX!

So, I will do just like the little train . . . I think I can, I think I can, I think I can . . . and then - like the Nike folks . . . Just do it!

Until next time - Adonai oz l'amo yitein - May God grant strength unto His people - Adonai yivareich et amo - May God grant His people peace.

Rabbi Heath

P.S. I hope the exclamation point on my keyboard doesn't break. What ever would I do?!?@!

Oh, The Guilt!

Shalom - So, I read my blog online (such narcissism) and, of course, found typos and 'there' instead of 'their.' What can I say? Sure, I spell-checked it. Sure, I read it through. Duh!!

I guess it's the nature of blogs. . . but, I hate it nevertheless (perfectionist that I can be - or, truthfully - am). Please put your critical judge to sleep and just read along ignoring what I've missed. Or, if it makes you feel better (as it does me sometimes), count all of them and just smile at the inaccuracies with your own certain perfection!! :)

Oh - I noticed that I posted my first blog at 3:25 a.m. Not!!! This must be Greenwich Mean Time or something such technological feature. I was fast asleep then, not knowing that Mike had even fixed up such technology for me/us.

Useful fact - Israel is currently 7 hours further along in their day than EDT. Adjust accordingly for your own time zone.

Be well, cheers, hugs and be sure to thank the Creator of All that you're alive and have time to read the almost useless - in the grand scheme of things - musings herein.

Rabbi Heath

Getting Out of Town

Chaverim yekarim / Dear Friends

As you might imagine - it takes as much to "get" out of town as it does to "be" out of town. For those of you organizing travel this summer for families - I know that I have it easy. There is no one to please except myself! If you read to the bottom (or skip ahead), you'll find out about the picture at the left. I'm not experienced at placing photos, yet.

The "cliche" - be careful what you pray/ask for, you might get it - has come true. When my family asked what I wanted for an ordination gift, I told them that a trip to Israel to study more Hebrew would be ideal. You added to my ability to travel with your wonderful gift at consecration. Thanks to all!!

I'll be at the University of Haifa Intensive Hebrew Ulpan for the month of July - living in the dorms. I have a single room/bath as part of a suite of six single rooms/baths that share a living room, dining room and kitchen. I'm "on my own" for eating/dining/cooking. There are opportunities in the student cafeteria or restaurants or shopping and cooking "at home."

Each floor of the dorms has a laundry room and computer room, plus there are other computer rooms on campus. Thus, I'll be able to keep up with this blog (making no promises on frequency) and with crucial emails. Rabbi Steve Arnold is "covering" for me. Call Jon with anything vital and he can take it from there.

Classes run 5 days a week - Sunday through Thursday - from 8:30 to 13:30 (better brush up on your international time!!). This is a mixture of lecture, discussion, small group work, language lab, etc. We've been told to expect 2-3 hours per day of homework. Do you know - this is actually my "vacation"! Leave it to me to go to school on my vacation :)

I've signed up for three side trips: Acco, Nazareth, and Tel Aviv. More about those later.

I've found a local synagogue - Or Hadash - and made contact with their rabbi - Rabbi Edgar Nof. The first weekend in July I'll be their cantor on Shabbat! They have 6 sister congregations in eastern Massachusetts, one of which - Temple Beth Elohim in Wellesley - will be at the services the weekend I'm cantor. Boston and Haifa are sister cities - so the connection is natural.

In exploring the web I found on the Israeli Weight Watchers website local meetings in Haifa. One of them meets Monday's at 18:00 - - (drum roll here) - - at Or Hadash!! When I explained to Rabbi Nof that this would be a great way for me to work on my Hebrew, he invited me to their summer camp program - anytime - to hang out with the kids and work on my Hebrew that way as well.

Here's the link to Or Hadash - they really are quite a remarkable congregation.

http://www.or-hadash.org.il/index.html

A friend from school comes from Haifa, her mother still lives there, and she will be in Haifa almost the same times I am. Looks like some home cooking! Another friend has a long-time friend who made aliyah 25 years ago and lives in Haifa. That's the second home cooking! Then, my good friend Peggy - Rabbi de Prophetis - whom you may have met at consecration in May - has friends in Jerusalem and this is looking like not only home cooking, but a homestay for Shabbat weekend!

Mike Peckman (thanks loads!!) our webmaster has set up this blog which is accessible from our website. We're really becoming part of the 21st century. Before you know it I'll have podcasts on our website for you to download! What won't be so long in coming is a section on our website devoted to resources for learning - especially MP3 files of yours truly davenning core sections of our services so that you can listen online, make your own CD's or download to an iPod.

In case you want a closer look at Israel - here is a YouTube entry - maybe someone's trip photos (nicely done) set to music. You will, of course, have to put up with stupid comments posted in the commentary section - by whomever, but that's the price for free expression.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxgywtGKcaU

And, here's my Zionist, pro-Israel YouTube entry - from a well-known Israeli artist with a long career in many musical genres - Shlomi Shabat. I know that the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) are by no means a perfect group (what military is?). I do believe that a country the size of New Jersey surrounded by neighbors who are - at best - neutral to her, that finds it necessary to have every young person serve in the military after high school - needs to have exposed for others the fact that the general nature of the country is to deal with hard realities and still long to "let us grow up in piece and quiet" - the title of this song.

I think that most of us the U.S. have absolutely no clue about the everyday concerns for danger and how they affect the physical and psychological nature of life in Israel. We would do well to tread cautiously before making judgments.

And, I do believe that almost every person on earth wants to live in peace and security - the biblical promise for everyone tending his own fig tree in peace (Micah 4:4). I just don't think they are led to act as if this desire preceded others. But, whoops, this is starting to sound a little political and I'm going to leave all of that alone for now (maybe forever - but you'll pick up your own clues along the way, I'm sure!)

Now - I could be displaying massive lack of knowledge about the Israeli music scene and someone could point out that this song is a left-wing peace protest - BUT, I don't think so (and if it is, so what?). I know - I think I know - just how much I don't know about Israel. The possibility for my being naive looms large - but, ignorance is curable any my time in Israel is a beginning remedy. Therefore, brickbats cheerfully accepted, but deflected somewhat with my Teflon caveat!

Finally, here's the link and then a translation follows:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io3iRBe3z-Q


LET US GROW UP IN PEACE & QUIET

And when will come upon us some graceful morning
that will shout for joy in front of us, just a cheerful, smiling morning
when joy will suddenly daze (us) without an early notice
(for military action/awareness., of death)?
It will fill, once again fill, our hearts as it will come upon us.

Until when (for how much longer) will the wind carry cloud and worry?
And when will it return to offering
just a day of delights, a day without sadness, day without fear?
The whole Land sobs, like a small girl crying out
"let live in silence!"

She cries out: "Love me!
Of war do not teach me
show me your love.
Let me grow up in stillness!"

What happened to our youth,
the beautiful and naive?
Who will bring peace upon us
and onto the earth?
The flowers will return to bloom
and we will return to shout in joy,
with the light and the clear blue sky.

Let one live like a child.

Translation (slightly modified by me) is from a GREAT website - www.hebrewsongs.com Just search under the "T's" for the song with the transliterated name shown on the top of the YouTube display. There are links to the Hebrew words to the song, a transliteration, info about the composer etc.

In closing:
I'll have a cell phone in Israel - though I'm not expecting calls. All kinds of folks know my itinerary etc. I've registered with the State Department. I have health insurance. It's going to be OK!! I know people are worried. I'm worried (at least in my subconscious/dreams) - but, I'm not! Millions of people live there everyday lives in Israel and die of ripe old age. Yes, there is danger. Our lives here are dangerous as well. We are just used to our kind of danger and don't think about it.

With that cheery note :) I'll end this missive. Mike can check to be sure the links work from the website and you can have your first chance to read me (at length) rather than listen (you've been warned!!) As I've told folks - when I come home I'll be able to talk and talk and talk - in two languages!! Aren't you lucky!!

Rabbi Heath

P.S. I'm spending the first four nights on my own (can't check into the dorms until July 5th - program starts July 8th) and will be staying at the Dan Gardens Haifa. The online reviews are excellent (not that I checked them before I booked my rooms!! - I went for price, from a hotel chain I had stayed in last summer and thus had some confidence in). The photo at the top is of the Dan Gardens Haifa - and, savvy traveler that I'm becoming - I'm in their Rewards Club - joined last year when I was in Tel Aviv at the Dan Panaorama and the staff person in the Business Computing Center received employee "points" for signing people up.