Going to Poland

This is my last post before Poland and I don't know if it will be 100 words. I still need to finish packing but I promised one more post before I leave. I don't think I mentioned that I am doing yam l'yam which is a hike form the Kinneret in the north to the Mediterranean sea. I am soooo excited! I am thinking about doing the north to south Israel hike and if is this is fun then I definitely will. Israel is so pretty, especially the North. My ipod was broken but now it works. One of my friends here has a brother who works at an apple store and I called him up. I still haven't found the word to describe how I feel about going to Poland. Excited/scared/prepared. I feel like we often dance around the Holocaust and now I will confront it. I didn't think this before but The Holocaust and this trip has been looming around everyone for a couple days now and I am ready to go. Its hard to explain. The Holocaust is hard to comprehend itself so its hard to explain feeling and thinking about it. I also go to my friend Jordy friend's house for Pesach. They sound like totally cool people. I can't wait to meet them. 

Thats all I have time for! This was actually longer than I expected. Everyone be good and safe and have fun while I'm gone. This post might have some errors because I typed it in about 15 minutes. 

Love y'all!

Joey Blatt =)

Shabbat!

Hey Y'all!

A couple quick updates. First, I believe I just hit the halfway point in EIE. Thats scary and really depressing. Its amazing here. Second, I leave for Poland at 3:30 AM on Monday. I've heard its Monday night and just Monday and Tuesday morning. So I think it is 3:30 Tuesday morning. Like midnight starts Tuesday, I leave a couple hours after. And its Saturday right now so I will hopefully get this post done today and get a quick goodbye post before I leave. 

This week was midterms and everybody was freaking out about them. I had a math test, a couple of English assignments that will count as a midterm, a physics midterm, a Jewish History quiz, a Hebrew midterm, and I have my APUSH test that will count as a midterm on Monday. That sounded like a lot when I just typed it but it really wasn't. School at home is a lot more rigorous but school here is harder because we have no time. My physics and Hebrew midterm weren't that hard. I studied a little bit for both and we reviewed in class for them. My math test was fine. I made a couple dumb mistakes which was all I got points off for. Jewish history was fine. I looked over my notes for about 10 minutes and it was all good. Everything together, school this week wasn't bad because of exams. It was just bad because we had so much class. 5 days with only one half day tiyul. 

The half day tiyul was about ultra-orthodox Judaism. Another word for ultra-orthodox is charadei so I'm going to refer to it as charedei instead. A charadei rabbi named Yeshua Weinberger came and talked to us first. We asked him questions about his lifestyle, and how he views the world and Reform Judaism. It was really interesting. The only thing I have against the charadei world is that they don't serve in the Israeli army. I believe if you are a Jew in Israel or make aliyah then you must serve in the army. No exceptions. And if something like your religion, or you are a Pacifist makes you unable to do certain jobs than you can do something else. Rabbi Weinberger explained that he is fighting the Arabs because they have a birthrate of about 6 kids per woman. Israel as a whole has a 2.5 or something birthrate. The charadei community has a birthrate of about 10. This may seem like it doesn't matter to some but Israel struggles with being a Jewish and a Democratic state. It is undemocratic for a minority to govern a majority and if this birthrate continues it won't be long until the Arabs outnumber the Jews. So by having lots of kids, the charadei community does more service to the country than most soldiers, is their argument. This may be true or not true but part of Israel is the army and everyone join.  We then went to a neighborhood in Jerusalem and learned about the development of chasidism, a type of charadei Judaism. The speaker was really interesting and the trip to Jerusalem was pretty boring. 

Since thats about everything thats happened this past week I'll talk about the trip to Poland and Czech Republic. We're gonna be learning about the Holocaust and Judaism in Eastern Europe.  I'm not really excited because excited isn't the right word about going to Poland and learning about the Holocaust. I'm definitely thinking about it a lot and thinking about the concentration camps and walking in there and seeing everything. The Jews who read this blog know this but I'm not sure if the non-Jews know. Everyone knows that the Holocaust was catastrophic and one of the most horrible events in human history. But it also resulted in the complete destruction of a civilization. Jews have been in Europe for over a thousand year dating back to the Romans. Western European Jews assimilated more than the Eastern European Jews because of persecution and the enlightenment. So Judaism was existed in Eastern Europe for hundreds of years. And Judaism there was different than ancient Judaism in Israel. It was life on the shtetl and in the cities, and every Jew spoke Yiddish. The Jews in Eastern Europe didn't identify with Poland or Russia or whatever country they lived in because they were Jewish. This Yiddish culture was destroyed in the Holocaust. The Jews that survived the Holocaust came to the US or Israel and only a few stayed. There was nothing left after the Holocaust.  I can't really be excited to learn or see that, so I'm just going to have to keep on looking for a better word.

Logistical stuff about Poland. I have one roommate the whole time, Rob. He's from New Jersey and he's one of my best friends on the trip. My two friends who I roomed with first, Aaron and David roomed together in the second room and are rooming together in Poland. If they have the same room again after Poland, then they will have been together for the entire trip. On the bus we watch Holocaust movies and shtetl movies. Fiddler on the Roof, The Pianist, Schindler's List. We went to Yad v'shem the Holocaust museum in Israel yesterday and I saw the actual pieces of paper Schindler's List. They were pretty crazy. Yad v'shem is pretty intense. We also go to Prague. Prague is supposed to be really pretty. I found my jacket that I lost that I got for Poland. We stay in youth hostels when we go around. 

I gotta go. My computer is running out of battery and dies often. And the plug isn't working. So I'll see yall later.

The Wedding and the weekend

Hey Everyone!

I hope everyone is doing good around the world and everyone did good who had exams or NFTY elections and had a good spring break. 

I promised more about the wedding. But let me start with the beginning of the day. I woke up at 8:45 (latest I've slept for a couple weeks). It was very strange because I was the only person on the kibbutz because everyone was on a tiyul to Sfat to learn about kabalah, mystic Judaism. So I got up and showered and me and my parents and Jake went to Jerusalem to meet up with my Uncle David, Aunt Seri, my baby cousin Tova, and my cousin Mordechai. We waited in the lobby of the hotel for them. We then all went out into Jerusalem.

First we walked to the old city. We stopped in a cigar shop and my dad got some cigars. It was funny seeing my cousin with tzitzi and a white shirt and black pants walk into a cigar shop, but thats Israel. In the old city we walked through the Armenian quarter. That was pretty cool. I saw a man wearing a black robe with a staff with a gold emblem on the top. I figured he was somehting important in the Armenian Church. For those who don't know the old city of Jerusalem is broken into 4 quarters: the Jewish, Muslim, Armenian, and Christian quarters. I always thought that it was kind of random that the Armenians got their own quarter. And the Muslim quarter isn't always safe for Jews and Americans. But the Arab shook is in there so Americans try to go and buy stuff. We aren't allowed to and since I don't speak Hebrew very well I don't think it would be advisable for me to go. The Jewish quarter has the Kotel. I think the Christian quarter has the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  Anyways, we got falafel and shwarma in the old city. It was delicious. My and my brother each had a laffa and a pita, which is a lot of food. We saw the Kotel and my aunt Seri and Uncle David stopped to pray for a little. We were going to go to the City of David but decided not too. We were all kind of tired from walking around and the City of David is a big activity. So while my Uncle David and Aunt Seri were praying, my family and Mordechai went to the Israeli shook. 

The Israeli shook was really cool. It wasn't like Ben Yehudah street where its all Americans and tourists. There were Israelis and people sold all sorts of fruit and cheeses and fish. One kippah dude had this really nice kippah that I really like. It was like a city on the kippah and it was amazing but it was 85 shekel so I didn't get it. Maybe next time I'll spoil myself and get it. I did get a really nice green one for 8 shekel. Its 4 shekel to a dollar about. My brother got a KU kippah. And then I got gifts for people back home. But it was just a lot of fun to spend time with my family who I hadn't seen in a while and with my cousin. Mordechai was good in the shook. Someone tried to sell my mom a broken bag and he saw it. I also got a bowl and spatula for my refried beans.  When we were walking back to the hotel from the shook we saw these "religious" Jews dancing and freaking out. Mordechai explained that they're religion was based on not being depressed so they go around with a van blasting techno music and dancing in the street with their peyas bouncing around all over the place. It was really funny. Mordechai explained that it was BS and they use the name of a very special and important sect of Jews and it doesn't delegitimize the real group's Judaism but it makes them look bad and gives them a bad name. 

So we left the shook and walked to Ben Yehuda street for a little because it was on the way back to the hotel. We stopped and walked around for a little while. I don't think we bought anything. I got money from the cash machine. Then we caught a cab back to the hotel. Driving in Jerusalem is difficult. I could never do it. I barely stay alive driving in Dallas. 

Now we start the main attraction: the wedding. We all got dressed and went to the wedding. The father of the groom is my Grandpa's first cousin. So the groom was my mom's second cousin. My family kind of knew Nathan, the father of the groom, and none of us had ever met the groom, Suchi. (The "ch" in there is the same sound in "baruCH" or the sound they talk about in Meet the Fockers.) The boys were on one side and the girls were on the other and a barrier separated us. Judaism doesn't do this to be sexist. They do it to show morality. People get drunk and dance at weddings and we must stay moral so we separate. We mingled and ate the food. I mostly talked with Jake, Mordechai, my dad, Uncle David, and some of the younger guys who are there just studying for a year or two.  My brother, my dad and I were the only people not wearing black hats. In fact, Jake wore his new KU kippah, and I wore my Dallas Cowboys kippah that I bought with Mordechai a couple weeks ago on Ben Yehuda. 

The chuppah ceremony I didn't see too much of. It was really crowded and everyone was standing and it was in Hebrew. This was my first wedding of any sort, much less an Orthodox Jewish wedding in Israel. My brother, Mordechai, and a couple other people stood in the back talking. We were explaining the ceremony to each other. After the ceremony they go in a room and sign the ketuba and that is the first time they can touch each other. We talked about the bride walking around 7 times. Judaism is a religion of laws and everything has an exact way of being done, even if it always isn't. I'm pretty sure everything was done correctly in this wedding though.

After the chuppah ceremony we all started to funnel back into the main room and ate for a little bit and then we started dancing. The guys dance with the guys and the girls dance with the girls. I don''t think the bride and the groom ever dance with each other. It might be weird to some people that guys and girls don't dance together but it was a lot of fun. My bus group on EIE has the closest guys so it wasn't that weird to dance with about 150 other guys as it could have. Me and my dad even got to dance with the Suchi and Nathan for a little bit. Its not like guys are grinding on each other. You dance in circle and jump around and all sorts of crazy stuff. Its fun, not sexual like dancing at a club is or something. I danced with Mordechai, Jake, some of my cousin whom I just met, Yecheil who is Mordechai's brother, and a bunch of other people. It was so fun and different than anything else I had ever done. Not the dancing with guys, just the whole experience. 

The wedding also had beggars trying to collect money. At first I thought it was weird that they would just walk up and ask for money inside like that but no one else thought it was weird and I gave some money to some beggars. Many beg for an organization, like their Yeshiva, and others just for themselves. My Uncle David did business with one. He gave him a twenty shekel bill and took back some coins. I thought it was pretty funny.  All together the wedding was a lot of fun and I was really looking forward to it. I had a pretty good idea of what to expect and I think I was accurate. I really like seeing my family and it was a nice break from EIE and spending every moment with the same people, even though I love all of them to death.

Fast forward a couple days now. My parents left on Sunday. Its Tuesday. The wedding was on Thursday. It was really nice seeing my parents. I missed them and they missed me and we had a lot of fun together on Thursday and going out to eat and on the Islam tiyul, which I don't think I even mentioned. But its going to be nice to have things back to normal now. I don't want to say they messed up the balance of stuff because they didn't but having all the parents here was much different. I'll miss them and my brother and will be looking forward to seeing them when I come home. 

I'm done with the big events. I want to give my opinion on Hebrew. To many Hebrew might just be the language that people speak in Israel, like it was for me before I got here. But now I see it differently. It is the language of my people and of my heritage, even if I spoke Yiddish back on the shtetl. I believe all Jews have a responsibility to learn some Hebrew at some point in there life. Not to become fluent but simply to know about the language and appreciate it. The Jews have been remarkable in reviving the language. It was like Latin or Aramaic is where people can learn it and speak it if they want to but it is the only language to undergo a full revival into a spoken language. Tel Aviv was founded as the first Hebrew speaking city 100 years ago. They were pretty successful. But I plan to keep on learning Hebrew after EIE and I think every Jew should make an effort to learn Hebrew. Jews for most generations were united under a common language and it helped to create and reinforce a Jewish identity and today we have the privilege of learning Hebrew, the holy language of the Torah and of our ancestors. Jews should take advantage of this because Hebrew is more than just a language. 

I'm done now. I wish I started this post earlier but whatever. I hope you enjoyed it and it was kind of long but a lot happened. I will try to get another post before I go to Poland because I won't bring my computer there on on Yam l'Yam. I will probably have a computer at Passover but I don't know if I will get a post in. Its all good though. I like to keep you on your toes. 

Until next time,

Joey B. 

Hey!

Hey Everyone,

It's been a while since my last post and this past week or so has gone by pretty fast. 

EIE has a parents pilgramage trip in March so the families of the students can come and visit in Israel. My parents got here on Thursday the 12th and spent a couple days in the North called Zichron Yaakov. Its in the hills and the North at this time of year is gorgeous. Then they on Sunday they picked my brother up from the airport and came to Tzuba they're gonna stay here for another week! It's pretty exciting, pretty crazy, and pretty wierd having all the parents here. I don't konw exactly how to explain it. I'm definitely happy to see my family but its wierd (not bad or good) to have them at Tzuba. They don't know exactly what to do, where to go. They aren't used to our lingo or how we wear blankets outside when its cold out because we lost our jackets. But its definitley a lot of fun. Tonight my parents took me, my brother, my two friends-Aaron and David- our family friend who's here for the year-Micah- and my brother's friend-Zach- all out to dinner in Jerusalem and then we all walked around and met up with other families who were out. It was really cool. We're going to be doing a lot of other stuff together later this week that I'll be sure to write about.

My brother, Jake, got here Sunday. He went on EIE three years and the first time and only other time I came to Israel was to visit him on EIE during parents pilgramage with my parents, and this is his first time back to Israel. It's really funny to watch him be here because he thinks he can speak Hebrew, and tries to act like an Israeli even though he isn't. But he has a lot of friends here on gap year programs and from random Jewish stuff that we all do.  Its crazy that were all here together though.

All the parents brought thier kids food from back home that we can't get here. Number one food brought: girl scout cookies. Number two: easy mac. I got both of those plus the one food that I actually miss from home and will never get here: refried beans. All my friends laughed at me when they saw that my mom brought 4 cans that you can make in microwave. But it's true and I'm not milking the Texas thing at all with the beans. They are probably my favorite food that I can''t find here. The pizza and burgers aren't as good. The candy and sweet stuff is better. The Italian food is decent when someone takes you out for it. But the Mexican food isn't here.  And all my friends back home know that I love Mexican food. Heres a small story. When my brother was here three years ago, his friends said the only things he talked about was the gas station with the greasy tacos and his little brother. Its funny because I was talking about my brother for about a week before he came and everyone knows about my obsession with Mexican food. My roommate, Max, whose mom came brought him beef jerky and some candy. 

Last paragraph because its almost 1 AM. I still listen to country music all the time, usually just using the speaker on my iPhone. I have a crush on my Hebrew teacher, Sima. She has grand children. I see my cousins in a couple days because they are coming for my other cousin's wedding. I'm really excited about that and there will be much more on that after the wedding. All the Lerers are in Thailand together and I freaked when I found that out. It's spring break in Dallas so call me anytime. I miss all of you. My laundry wasn't too expensive this last time. Gilad Shalit talks have halted for now. It looks like Netanyahu will be the next prime minister with a narrow right wing government. We started the middle ages and Islam in Jewish history. 

I love all of you and stay good.

Joey B. 

Hi!

This is going to be a quick post.

Firstly, I just had a Jewish History test and it was pretty good. There were 10 short answer, an essay, a timeline, and 15 fill in the black type. It was really long. I used almost 4 pages front and back of notebook paper. It was on the second Temple period. You could of figured that out because I've been talking about that time period a lot in my other posts.

Purim in tonight and tomorrow and Israelis love Purim. People dress up and act goofy and its a really fun holiday. One custom is to get so drunk that you can't tell the difference between Mordechai, the good guy, and Haman, the bad guy. We're gonna have to skip that one this year. One Purim song says that those who enter the month of Adar, the month that Purim is in, will multiply their happiness. We're having a dance tonight and tomorrow we go to a parade. Today I'm a cowboy (original, I know. I barely dressed up.) and tomorrow I'm doing to borrow some clothes from one of the hippies and its gonna be funny. I do miss my mom's hamantashen. They are delicious and I've only got store bought hamantashen here that aren't as good as the homemade ones. 

Anyways, other quick updates. I stocked up on apple juice today, I'm planning on going with some friends to my friend's friend's house this weekend, and my Jewish history teacher got marriend so we had Baruch (my hero), Rueben (the smartest man alive), and Josh Wienberg (my brother's idol)  as subs. All of them were amazing but its good to have David back.

I love you guys!

Joey Blatt

Back From 12 Days

Long Time No See Everyone.....

I just got back today from a tiyul in Jerusalem about the second temple period, Masada, the Dead Sea, 4 days in the army, two nights in Eilat, and a night in a Bedouin tent. A lot for a week and a half. This is going to be a long post so brace yourself.

I think it was Thursday that we left for Jerusalem to start our trip. We had a full day tiyul about the Roman period, the second temple, King Herod, and all that. It was all really interesting. My teacher believes that the destruction of the second temple in 70 is the central event in Jewish history. It is the turning point because at that point Jews were exiled from Israel for about 2000 years. I don't think you can call one event the most central part of history that spans thousands of years but it certainly is very important. The Western Wall, Kotel, is the remains of the walls that held up the Temple and the Dome of the Rock is believed to be where the Holy of Holies was. We also learned about the different sects of Judaism. There were the underground freedom fighters, the rabbis who were content because they knew rebelling would end bad, the crazy purification freaks who ran to the desert, and the priests who were corrupt and buddies with the Romans. We saw the dead sea scrolls which is the oldest found TaNaK from about two thousand years ago. Almost every letter is the exact same and the previously oldest was from one thousand years ago. It was pretty sick. The best part of the tiyul was when David, my teacher, was explaining how people were called to prayer and I called everyone to prayer with my kazoo. The video should be on facebook soon. 

Then we made our way to Masada. We went to the hostel the night before and had an early curfew because we woke up at 3 45 so we could watch the sunrise on top of Masada. For those of you that don't know, Masada is the place where the Jews who escaped Jerusalem during the Roman period and kept Judaism alive for a couple years while holding out against the Romans. Its located atop a mountain in the Judean Desert in the east of Israel. After three years, the Romans broke through to find that the Jews of Masada committed a mass suicide instead of being taken into slavery They also burnt down everything they built except for the the food storage to show that they were perfectly capable of living there. Here is an interesting tidbit. When they excavated Masada a while ago they found the food storage and inside was an ancient Judean date palm seed. They did some crazy Jurassic Park stuff and now they have a Judean date palm tree growing . But they won't know if its will bear fruit because it takes a while for them to grow and they don't know if its a boy or girl tree. But the Judean date palm was supposed to be the most delicious succulent date in all of Israel and was thought to be extinct till now. Crazy. I like dates. I am very happy about this. You could make some symbolic metaphorical connection about it to Judaism like the people of Masada thought they were the last Jews and they weren't and the date palm was supposed to be gone and it wasn't. But Masada was really pretty and really cool. I liked it.

After Masada we went to the Dead Sea. I don't think I've ever been as miserable as I was in the Dead Sea. The water was freezing. My hands were dry so the water made them burn to the point I couldn't move them. And the water burned any cut or scrape of anything. It tasted terrible. Like if a drop got in your mouth it was disgusting. And after you got out you were covered in salt. And it was cloudy so tanning wasn't an option.  The only remotely cool thing was that since the Dead Sea is so salty anything floats. So we floated. But it was terrible. I never have to go in the Dead Sea again. But it was fun chilling with my friends for a couple days after climbing Masada and before Gadna. I also didn't pack enough so I bought two t shirts, both with camels on them. Thats all they sold there: camel shirts. I also took an epically good nap with my bud Jordy. We were exhausted after waking up so early to climb Masada. As terrible as actually being in the Dead Sea was, the trip itself was a lot of fun just chilling. 

From the Dead Sea we went to Gadnah. That was interesting. First we got broken up into our sevets which had a commander and 12 kids. There were only 4 people from my bus group so I got to meet a lot more people which was good because I really like the guys from the other groups. And the day we spent in field learning to crawl and the different kind of walks was really cool except that I still have cuts and bruises on my knees from it. We also had discussions about being in the army and being Jewish and making aliyah and the state of Israel. On Wednesday we got to fire M-16s. I missed the target with most of my bullets but it was a lot of fun and really exciting firing an M-16. That was all the good stuff. The bad stuff was we spent the entire time in one uniform which was gross after having kitchen duty the first night. It only got dirtier and smellier after that. I only showered once in 5 days. The worst part though wasn't not showering or anything like that. It was that someone told us what to do every second and we had to be in this spot in this formation in exactly this amount of time. I felt like a prisoner. The base we were out was in the desert and it was so beautiful and I could see the roads and the cars going and I felt trapped in a cage. It was pretty bad. I think I'm the only person who felt like a prisoner to this extent but its ok. It was only a couple days and its over now.  I now know that I have no interest in joining the army. Other kids liked it a lot and want to join the army or the air force.  I think that if you're able to do it for three years and enjoy yourself and make that commitment than thats great but I couldn't.

After Gadnah we went to Eilat. The bus ride there was long just because I was so anxious to shower and change clothes. I walked into my room taking off my belt getting ready to shower. It felt so good to get clean and put on cleanish clothes for the first time in a while.  All my jeans had been worn at least once but I did have a clean T-shirt from the Dead Sea where I ran out and had to buy two new ones. They both have camels on them; one with 4 Andy Warhol style camels and one with dancing camels. They are both pretty touristy but they were really funny. Eilat and the Red Sea was a lot cooler than the Dead Sea. The two best parts was that I snorkeled for the first time. There is a coral reef in Eilat and its was really cool. I saw a lot of fish and the water was really clear. They also explained that the Red Sea is the split between two tectonic plates and some other stuff and that its growing and it will eventually become a big ocean. The water was really cold and it wasn't perfect beach weather but anything was awesome after Gadnah (except for the Dead Sea). The other really cool was a hike though some of the mountains in the South. Israel is a beautiful country with lots of terrains and the South is very rocky and has the desert. It was really pretty and I saw a wild ibex. There will be pictures on facebook coming soon. 

After Eilat we went to the Bedouin tent thing for the night. We got there and it was drizzling and kind of cold. But the tents were the coolest thing I have ever seen. I freaked out. They were huge tents with rugs on the ground and a heater in the middle. So cool. We put our stuff down and then went to get tea and baklava because apparently thats what Bedouins do. The tea was almost good. I don't drink tea or coffee so it must have been amazing and the baklava was good. Then David Solomon, one of the administrators, led a little meditation thing before we went to bed. I was all ready to meditate and all that and I put my mattress down and I fell asleep immediately. It was the best sleep I got all night because the tent was pretty cold and I still had funny sleep patterns from Gadnah. I woke up before we were supposed to every time and went to sleep really early and was falling asleep in everything.  We ate breakfast in another massive tent thing and since it was raining and we couldn't ride camels yet one of the Bedouins came and talked to us about the lifestyle. They are sunni Muslims and people today are becoming more assimilated. It was interesting and afterwards we were supposed to ride camels but we weren't able to because of the rain. they were smellier and dirtier than usual. I was so ready to get back to Tzuba that I didn't care. And I've ridden a camel before. I don't remember when or where but in the back of my ming I've ridden one. Maybe at one of those carnivals at the JCC when I was little? I don't know. 

Last thing. I saw my old rabbi, Mark Kaiserman, yesterday. It was really good to see him because I think its only the fourth time I've seen him since he left Dallas a couple years ago. We talked about the Mets and Alex Rodriguez, and Israel and EIE and walked around Jerusalem. I also ate unkosher food for the first time in over a month. Seafood Linguini Alefredo something. Delicious. 

Anyways, now I'm back at Tzuba and I recently heard a good random fact. If everyone wanted to play the character Hamlet at the same time, it would be impossible because there aren't enough skeletal skulls in the world to do do. This post took me a while to write and I made a real effort to write it and I wrote it pieces of it at different times. I try to just sit down and get it done but I didn't have that kind of time and I really wanted to post. Anyways, I love everyone for reading this and if you made it through the whole thing then good job.

=)

Joey Blatt