Friday, August 25, 2006
One more day until Barcelona!
Anna and I wanted to catch you up on the last few weeks, which was pretty action-packed. Two weeks ago, I planned a progressive Shabbat dinner for my class. We had about 45 participants and six houses, each hosting a different course of one meal. We all went to services at HUC, then met on the steps outside together. We sang songs and niggunim (wordless melodies) from house to house. My favorite part was that at each house we said a kiddush, a blessing over wine and for Shabbat. At each house, one person was in charge of creating a unique and creative interpretation. For example, at the first house, we sang a less common but still traditional melody, at the second we said the kiddush with feminine pronouns and conjugations. For a bunch of students studying Hebrew, it was remarkably hard! And it really drove home the point that we take for granted all the masculine-oriented God-talk in Judaism.
Stuffing 45 people into small Israeli apartments was a little tricky, but lots of fun. Even better, almost every apartment was on the third floor or higher. You had to earn your food. =)
Last week, I participated in the Beit Cafe (literally, "coffee house"), a long-running HUC tradition. It's essentially a talent show/silent auction, and all the proceeds went to charity. We raised almost $1000 that night! I ended up in a few different numbers: I debuted a new song I wrote a few weeks ago, participated in a few improv sketches, and then sang a parody of "Don't Worry Be Happy" I wrote all about Jerusalem and living in Israel with a bunch of the cantors. It was lots of fun.
We had our finals for the summer term and ended it all with a little party. No one told us until the day before that we (as a class) were supposed to perform a skit or song at the party. Naturally, every other class had been working on their skits for a few days. I got drafted into writing another parody for my class, this one to "Piano Man" all about Hebrew and our professors. It came out great and writing verses in Hebrew helped me practice for the final. =) Bonus!
Anna and I wanted to catch you up on the last few weeks, which was pretty action-packed. Two weeks ago, I planned a progressive Shabbat dinner for my class. We had about 45 participants and six houses, each hosting a different course of one meal. We all went to services at HUC, then met on the steps outside together. We sang songs and niggunim (wordless melodies) from house to house. My favorite part was that at each house we said a kiddush, a blessing over wine and for Shabbat. At each house, one person was in charge of creating a unique and creative interpretation. For example, at the first house, we sang a less common but still traditional melody, at the second we said the kiddush with feminine pronouns and conjugations. For a bunch of students studying Hebrew, it was remarkably hard! And it really drove home the point that we take for granted all the masculine-oriented God-talk in Judaism.
Stuffing 45 people into small Israeli apartments was a little tricky, but lots of fun. Even better, almost every apartment was on the third floor or higher. You had to earn your food. =)
Last week, I participated in the Beit Cafe (literally, "coffee house"), a long-running HUC tradition. It's essentially a talent show/silent auction, and all the proceeds went to charity. We raised almost $1000 that night! I ended up in a few different numbers: I debuted a new song I wrote a few weeks ago, participated in a few improv sketches, and then sang a parody of "Don't Worry Be Happy" I wrote all about Jerusalem and living in Israel with a bunch of the cantors. It was lots of fun.
We had our finals for the summer term and ended it all with a little party. No one told us until the day before that we (as a class) were supposed to perform a skit or song at the party. Naturally, every other class had been working on their skits for a few days. I got drafted into writing another parody for my class, this one to "Piano Man" all about Hebrew and our professors. It came out great and writing verses in Hebrew helped me practice for the final. =) Bonus!
