This weekend Jews all over the world recited the Ten Commandments. Synagogues and Temples listened to the famous words directed towards idol worship, guarding the sabbath, and moral social behavior...
Ira wasn't there .*
I took a bus north to a very old (Modern State speaking) town of Nes Tsiyona, where Eric Swartz, an American-born who made aliyah at 18 to serve in the Army, lives with his wife Michal, their two kids Niv and Itai, and their cute little dog Cookie. He took me on a calming walk around the area, with some pretty neat views during the sunset. We had a warm family meal, something I can't say I've had in five weeks , I slept near 12 hours in a 10 yr olds bed, and then we picked up and drove south to the almond tree forests and a small place called Bet Jemal outside of Bet Shemesh, where some think they found the burial place of Raban Gamliel. There was this teeny tiny church of St. Stephen, where I found New Testaments of all different shapes and sized, including one in Yiddish! The site was packed with Israelis who were making a day out of the fantastic weather. Afterward, we drove down to a picnic spot (in Hebrew slang, zula, or chill out), and then the Swartz's drove me home. It was a very different feeling coming back to the student apartments, finding people in skirts and dress pants sitting outside reading, while I had a large backpack and sunglasses and looked like I had just climbed a mountain. Such is the diversity of Israeli culture, and such is awesome! Plus we had a running joke about this funny video we saw of drivers in India .
I must also include here the outcome of the hallowed "Before Rent" performance I attended. Please note, this is only one person's opinion. Yeah:
The show was hysterically off the mark. The musical portions, which were basically karaoke moments of Rent songs, were okay. Some were better done than others, but the songs had no place in the show, which established the characters before the real play. The problem was that some of the characters couldn't know each other to the extent that they did in the real show. That said, most of the play was in the form of long monologues. It provided me an oppertunity to further appreciate the talent of the high school performances I'd seen in the states. What put me off the edge was watching the Israeli rock band on stage. When a monologue was well done, they would watch, and react. When it was bad, and they knew when a bad one was coming, they would count their fingers, waiting for the chance to take hold of their beloved instrument and move the show away from this pothole, or simply drink their beer and Nestea. It was a fun night.
Now I'm left with one more long week of high school Hebrew, five hours a day, and then... only then... I start my semester, and the closest I get to taking real classes this spring, after five weeks...
*take the other two tablets and call me in the morning. I may not have guarded it, but I remembered Shabbat, and had one fantastic dinner!
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