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Shabbat was interesting. We went to Tsfat for the weekend [we= Yona, Alex (Yona's friend from Conservative Yeshiva) and I]. We stayed at a bed-and-breakfast. Alex didn't come until Friday, so she missed out on the shopping. She also missed out on seeing Josh Shainker [spelling?] then again, she doesn't know him. *edit* Josh is leading a Machach tour group, and he just happened to be in Tsfat. He was like "Rachel?" and it took a second to register. They weren't spending Shabbat in Tsfat, though, so I only got to talk to him for like 5 minutes.
There were a lot of tour groups walking around, and after a while they got on our nerves. No offesnse to people I know on trips [I know this is not you] it's just that they didn't even try to appreciate Israel for what it is, and they wanted a big American bubble. Like they kept on walking around saying "aifo pizza?" And when we were sitting with our fruit shakes, they came up to us and were like "what is that?" Automatically they assumed we spoke English, and they didn't even say "hi. How are you?" Thank God there are no tour groups in Barrington.
We went to the cemetery, and saw the Arizal's grave. It was his Yartzeit on Thursday night, so there were tons of Chassidim there.
Actually, to go back in time, I have a story about the busride.
So we were taking the 982 to Tsfat. It doesn't stop at the central bus station, rather, it stops in the street in front of the central bus station, which we found with minor difficulty.
There were tons of people waiting. Everybody pushed their way on [typical Israel] when the bus came. There wasn't enough room for everyone, so the egged guy (who was a bit sketchy at first until we realized why he was asking who was going to Tsfat, since at first we couldn't tell that he was the egged guy) calls another bus.
The next bus comes, and it's white, and looks pretty full. The egged guy goes on, and then says "there's room for 5 girls" [in Hebrew. I understood!] So Yona and I and the Israeli girl we were talking to got on.
The bus was unusually Haredi, which wasn't surprising since everyone was going to Tsfat. But everyone was giving Yona looks. Yona was wearing a tank top.
We got to our seats [in the back of the bus] and I figured out that this was probably a Haredi bus, judging by the stares and the fact that all the women were sitting in the back. I told this to Yona [who had now put a shirt on over the tank top] and a woman overheard us. She said "I wouldn't call it a Haredi bus, I would call it a modest bus..." and started talking to Yona about how she only had G-d to account to, Reform Judaism wasn't Judaism, etc. We got into this big discussion, and this time I felt like I was on an extreme. Although I would never go back to being Reform, I don't discount their type of Judaism. Sure, it's different, and I disagree with the fact that for the most part they don't follow halacha, and that they don't see Oral Law as being divine, but they have good arguments, and they don't want to be Orthodox. No one should be forced to live in a way that they don't want to.
So then Tsfat was good. Friday night dinner we ate with the family who owns the bed and breakfast. They have 5 kids. The mother seemed really depressed, and embarrassed about her family. Her kids didn't listen at all, and were running amok. And now I'm afraid that will happen to me if I have a lot of kids.
Then again, I don't intend on marrying a guy who wears a Streimel [furry black hat] and a bekisha.
Needless to say, we did lunch ourselves on Saturday. It was a bit ghetto, but no one went hungry. The Rabbi and his disciples who were also staying at the B&B were really nice. They gave us pareve ice cream.
I need this Shabbat to be good, so I don't run away from the idea of having a large family. I need a normal Dati Leumi family to stay with. I'm thinking of asking Nomi Berman this week. Though I've been invited to Rabbi Seif's so I might go there. But I'll see the Seifs at Penn.
See this is what an outsider thinks Orthodoxy is. It's really only a minority. Even normal black hat ultra-Orthodox Jews aren't this extreme. I could never live like this. I'm so glad modern Orthodox Jews are normal. They watch TV and read books and go to work and send their kids to co-ed schools. I want to go to the Shanesons again! They're normal!
There were a lot of tour groups walking around, and after a while they got on our nerves. No offesnse to people I know on trips [I know this is not you] it's just that they didn't even try to appreciate Israel for what it is, and they wanted a big American bubble. Like they kept on walking around saying "aifo pizza?" And when we were sitting with our fruit shakes, they came up to us and were like "what is that?" Automatically they assumed we spoke English, and they didn't even say "hi. How are you?" Thank God there are no tour groups in Barrington.
We went to the cemetery, and saw the Arizal's grave. It was his Yartzeit on Thursday night, so there were tons of Chassidim there.
Actually, to go back in time, I have a story about the busride.
So we were taking the 982 to Tsfat. It doesn't stop at the central bus station, rather, it stops in the street in front of the central bus station, which we found with minor difficulty.
There were tons of people waiting. Everybody pushed their way on [typical Israel] when the bus came. There wasn't enough room for everyone, so the egged guy (who was a bit sketchy at first until we realized why he was asking who was going to Tsfat, since at first we couldn't tell that he was the egged guy) calls another bus.
The next bus comes, and it's white, and looks pretty full. The egged guy goes on, and then says "there's room for 5 girls" [in Hebrew. I understood!] So Yona and I and the Israeli girl we were talking to got on.
The bus was unusually Haredi, which wasn't surprising since everyone was going to Tsfat. But everyone was giving Yona looks. Yona was wearing a tank top.
We got to our seats [in the back of the bus] and I figured out that this was probably a Haredi bus, judging by the stares and the fact that all the women were sitting in the back. I told this to Yona [who had now put a shirt on over the tank top] and a woman overheard us. She said "I wouldn't call it a Haredi bus, I would call it a modest bus..." and started talking to Yona about how she only had G-d to account to, Reform Judaism wasn't Judaism, etc. We got into this big discussion, and this time I felt like I was on an extreme. Although I would never go back to being Reform, I don't discount their type of Judaism. Sure, it's different, and I disagree with the fact that for the most part they don't follow halacha, and that they don't see Oral Law as being divine, but they have good arguments, and they don't want to be Orthodox. No one should be forced to live in a way that they don't want to.
So then Tsfat was good. Friday night dinner we ate with the family who owns the bed and breakfast. They have 5 kids. The mother seemed really depressed, and embarrassed about her family. Her kids didn't listen at all, and were running amok. And now I'm afraid that will happen to me if I have a lot of kids.
Then again, I don't intend on marrying a guy who wears a Streimel [furry black hat] and a bekisha.
Needless to say, we did lunch ourselves on Saturday. It was a bit ghetto, but no one went hungry. The Rabbi and his disciples who were also staying at the B&B were really nice. They gave us pareve ice cream.
I need this Shabbat to be good, so I don't run away from the idea of having a large family. I need a normal Dati Leumi family to stay with. I'm thinking of asking Nomi Berman this week. Though I've been invited to Rabbi Seif's so I might go there. But I'll see the Seifs at Penn.
See this is what an outsider thinks Orthodoxy is. It's really only a minority. Even normal black hat ultra-Orthodox Jews aren't this extreme. I could never live like this. I'm so glad modern Orthodox Jews are normal. They watch TV and read books and go to work and send their kids to co-ed schools. I want to go to the Shanesons again! They're normal!
