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Ramparts Walk
Looking out towards to the Dome of the Rock from the Damascus Gate Jerusalem is generally not one of those cities about which it is said, "If you don't like the weather, just wait a minute." Yet the past few weeks have been bizarre! The temperature soared up into the 90's for a couple of days, hot and clear, and then dropped down into the 60's with chilly nights. Today is a
sharav, a hot, heavy day with the air so filled with exceedingly fine dust or sand that I can't see the other side of the valley from my windows. It is disgusting, but if the full moon emerges through the dust tonight, I imagine the light will be glittery magic. Here's hoping...
Living Last week was the holiday Shavuot. Shavuot literally means "weeks" and it is a week's worth of weeks (ie 49 days) after Passover. It is a late harvest festival, featuring dairy products due to the large number of nursing animals in the spring. The grocery stores displays were filled with big cheese cakes and soft cheeses and creams for making your own, as well as
shoko besakit (rich chocolate milk in a little plastic bag - you bite off the corner of the bag and drink the
Ramparts Walk
Looking down on El Wad street in the Old City milk.), fresh apricots and cherries. Shavuot is also the holiday that celebrates the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai. One of the traditions is to study all night and there were gatherings called
tikunim all over the city. Study sessions were generally slotted at 10:30 pm, midnight and 2:30 am. Some people in Jerusalem then make it a tradition to go to the Western Wall in the Old City for early morning prayers around 5:30 am.
My friend Jessi was visiting on her way back to the US after a year and a half in Rwanda. Together with my friend Avi, we decided to host our own tikun at my house. About ten people came by over the course of the night. A couple of people prepared teachings to share with the group and we ate homemade cheese cake and potato salad, drank wine and learned together until about 3:00. Alas, we didn't make it to the Wall in the morning, but nevertheless, it was a lovely holiday!
During Jessi's visit, I managed to do two touristy things that I hadn't had the opportunity to do yet. We walked up along the ramparts of the walls of
the Old City from the Jaffa Gate in the west around the northern side all the way over to the Lion's Gate in the east. It is a spectacular view of rooftops, spires and domes and we also peered down into people's gardens and into the markets. When I am in the Old City, it often feels like a barely navigable jumble of stone steps, alleys and overhangs but from atop the walls, you can see the topography of the hills and valleys and the buzz of life below.
We also went to the Israel Museum which is undergoing massive renovations (which will be finished in July). We looked at the famous model of Second Temple era Jerusalem (ie 2000 years ago) and at the facsimiles of the Dead Sea Scrolls which are on display at the Shrine of the Book.
Learning One of the highlights of the learning this month has been a three-week seminar with Jonathan Sarna, Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University, who has been on sabbatical this year at Mandel. He gave us a fascinating overview of American Jewish history which began with the surprising claim that instead of thinking of
Anyone know what this is?
These are blooming in all the vacant lots around the neighborhood. the Jewish community in steady decline over the generations in the US, it makes a lot of sense to consider a regular cycle of revival and decline. Sarna's research shows that a decline is followed by creative responses and renewed commitment dating all the way back to shortly after the Revolution. His lessons for us as leaders in the American Jewish community were that continuity may in fact depend on discontinuity, that there is no single magic formula for keeping the Jewish community strong, and that most vitalization comes from the bottom up and not from the top down. He specifically pointed to the young and the marginalized who consistently stepped up and provided much-needed leadership that transformed times of decline into times of vitality. Sarna's book, American Judaism, is fascinating and very readable - I really enjoyed delving into it. I am also delighted that Professor Sarna will also be one of two respondents to my final project presentation in mid-June.
Which brings me to my project. It is rapidly taking shape! The program combines hands-on local justice work with educational sessions that focus on group building, contemplative practice, Jewish sources, and other learning that gives the participants the opportunity to deepen their Jewish identities, pursue the necessary knowledge to inform their justice work and develop awareness of how the internal world and the external world are interconnected. I have finished the theoretical paper that describes the thinking behind the program and am currently working on a staff training manual so that we can pilot the program on three campuses in the fall (SDSU, UCSD and CSU San Marcos). Stay tuned...
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Lynn Neu
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Big hugs to you from San Diego
I always love reading your blog...and seldom tell you. Enough of that! Your zest for life and learning is infectious. I love all the ways you are taking in everything you see and experience. And...that little flower? It's "beautiful!" When do you come home? Miss you! =)