It’s wonderful when our parents visit us during our years abroad in Israel…
Lauren shares her happiness at seeing her Mom & Dad (and some photos) here!
Lauren’s Family Visit
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Tag Archives: Masada
[Student Profile] Amy Kaldor
“All of my grandparents were holocaust survivors, and they all grew up in traditional Jewish families in Hungary… I want to be a part of the tradition that they grew up with… and at Pardes, I can begin to reclaim it.”
Amy arranged her arrival to Israel to overlap with the final weeks of her brother’s Israeli army service. After all, she had to ensure that her homemade batch of hamentashen reached its intended recipient before Purim! Her semester-long WUJS Jerusalem Program began in March, allowing her to spend time with her family after college graduation before flying off for a semester of Torah study in Israel.
She’d first heard of Pardes during her 2010 AJWS summer volunteer mission to Peru; volunteering had long been a significant part of Amy’s life, and she ultimately received the ‘Tzedek and Social Justice Award’ from the Hillel of Greater Toronto for running the York Hillel’s “Bathtub Project”, which collected toiletries from students on campus, and donated them to women’s shelters in the city. She was also involved in other Hillel volunteer projects, such as “sandwich-making for the homeless”, and “packaging Chanukah gifts for children”.
As a certified personal trainer and dancer of many, many years, Amy continued volunteering in Israel through WUJS, working at a Jerusalem community center for the elderly, even as she studied at Pardes in the Spring. The pluralistic community at the Pardes Institute was very comfortable for Amy – very similar to her AJWS volunteer group – and she eagerly enrolled as a full-time Pardes Summer student. In Leah Rosenthal’s Gemara class, the young woman was excited to hone her text skills, marking the first time she had ever studied the Talmud.
“It’s nice to know that when you get older, you don’t lose your sense of humor!”
Her Bat Mitzvah had been in Israel (at Masada), and Amy had been to Israel several times as a college student on Hillel trips, but her time at Pardes was particularly special for her- and it allowed her the flexibility of studying Torah during the summer before she began graduate school 
Negev Tiyul
This is a cross-post from my personal blog.
The Hebrew word tiyul has no exact translation in English. A tiyul could be a long walk in a city park, a week-long guided bus tour of Israel, or a multi-week backing trip through South America.
Last week, I went on Pardes’ annual tiyul to the Negev region of Southern Israel. We spent three days hiking through various desert nahals. As our guides, Dan and Jamie told us more than once, the English word for nahal is “wadi”, which is actually Arabic (having heard this line multiple times from different guides on different tiyulim, I’m begining to wonder if it’s part of the required curriculum in the Israeli tour guide licensing course).
Between my guides, personal observation and Wikipedia, I’ve learned that a wadi is a dry riverbed, or a valley or canyon formed by intermittent water flow, the Middle-Eastern equivalent of the North American arroyo. Did I mention how much Southern Israel looks like the American Southwest?
The other fun geography fact I learned on this trip is that geologically speaking, Israel is in Africa. The Syrian-Africa rift, which divides the African plate from the Arabian plate, runs on along the Jordan river valley. Israel lies on the Western side of that valley, placing it solidly on the continent of Africa.
We stayed at Boaz Oz’s bedouin-themed hostel in the moshav of Ein Hatzevah, where the ruggedness of sleeping on on the floor of a big common room contrasts with luxury amenities like a jacuzzi, big pots of hot turkish coffee and bedouin tea, and baskets of dried dates available for guests to eat ad libidum, creating a memorable experience of desert hospitality.
Aside from the hospitality, and hikes with gorgeous views, the highlight of the trip was our visit to a family of Danish Christians living illegally in the desert in antique circus caravans without access to municipal water or electricity, while they wait for the messiah to come over the mountains of Moab (a.k.a. Jordan). In the meantime, the father of the family has written a musical about Masada, which is now performed annually at the archeological park. I couldn’t find any images of the musical on the internet (although I found plenty of images of a RIVAL Masada musical), but here’s a view of Masada itself, as seen from the ruins of a Roman fortification dating back to the famous siege, which we hiked to on the last day of the tiyul.
If the whole situation with the Danish Christians wasn’t surreal enough, their nearest neighbors, just a few yards down the road, run a crocodile farm, where hundreds of the animals are raised for skin and meat.
The one where the family comes to visit
My family’s visiting Israel this week for the very first time. Not only is it their first time in Israel – it’s also their first time traveling abroad, if you don’t count Caribbean cruises.
I’ve been excited about this week since I first arrived in September, especially the opportunity to show them my “turf” and introduce them to my friends. I’ve become very comfortable in my lifestyle here in Jerusalem, and I wanted to be able to share that with them beyond just pictures and phone calls. I especially wanted them to be able to sit in on some of my classes and come to minyan with me, so when planning the itinerary, I made sure to fit those experiences into the schedule.
I also wanted to give my family the full Israel tour experience – that is to say, a lot of the first time experiences that many people experience on a Birthright trip, like going to Masada, visiting the Kotel, Independence Hall, and experiencing Shabbat in Jerusalem. For me, that has meant switching mentalities from being a full-time student to being a tourist for the week. It hasn’t always been easy. Being at Pardes definitely means that I’ve gotten into a regular weekday routine, and having to change that up for constant traveling is exhausting. I’ve missed my classes and my teachers, seeing my friends throughout the day, and having a simple meal when I get home at night.
BUT – I wouldn’t trade this week for anything.
I’ve gotten to see my brothers float in the Dead Sea and cover themselves with mud… my dad learn more about the depth of Jewish history than he’s ever experienced before… my mom engaging with the same struggles that I encounter on a daily basis, being a progressive egalitarian-minded Jew in Jerusalem. I was able to study Jewish text (Shmot 4:24-26) together with my dad and my brother Drew for the very first time, hearing their insights on the Tanakh and the commentaries and their voices joining a conversation thousands of years old. My entire family came to minyan with me one morning, and there wouldn’t have been a minyan if they hadn’t been present. How beautiful is that?
And Shabbat in Jerusalem, with my family, was an incredible and powerful experience. We spent Friday rushing around, shopping at the shuk, cleaning and cooking. That night, we davened at Shira Hadasha, experiencing the beauty of their melodies and the sense of community. We hosted a Shabbat dinner for family and friends, reveling in the memories of the week gone by, resting up for the week again. When my brother Drew told me that it was one of the highlights of his week, I beamed.
And now, for your viewing pleasure, more highlights from the week:
Tel Aviv and the Mediterranean
B’shalom,
Lauren
Negev Tiyul
Our Chanukah break is coming up soon, and I’ve been considering what sites in Israel I’d like to visit in my precious free time. Traveling to Rosh HaNikra and Haifa during our last holiday break whetted my appetite for adventuring throughout Israel. Perhaps I’ll take a bus up to Tzfat (I love its gentle atmosphere), or travel to Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee, which I’ve only had the opportunity to visit once. The ancient ruins at Caesarea also call to me – I’ve not seen them as an adult, and I’d love to walk along the aqueduct! Israel abounds in historic and natural landmarks, and I am excited to discover them. I’ve been to Israel many times because my (mother’s) family lives here, but there is so much to see that I haven’t seen, and there’s so much I’ve seen that I’d like to see again! The landscapes of Israel truly excite my heart and imagination in a very intimate way.
At Pardes, we students spend most of our time studying in the Beit Midrash so our recent mid-November Negev Desert hiking tiyul was a very special treat for us. Further, in contemplating potential adventure destinations for myself in Israel, I’d never once considered hiking through the Negev – I’d never heard anybody speak of this as a possibility! I’d been to Masada, and I’d been to the Dead Sea, and I’d been to Ein Gedi… but I’d never hiked along Israel’s rough desert paths until Pardes granted me this unique opportunity.
Do you know what a makhtesh is? It’s a geological land formation, unique to the Negev Desert, which looks like a crater… but isn’t actually a crater. Makhteshim occur naturally, as soft sandstone within mountains erodes away, drained by wadis. On the second day of our tiyul, some of us hiked around the Makhtesh Katan, scrambling to maintain our footing on the loose pebbles along the hiking path, jagged rocks on either side of us. Who knew that Israel was home to such a harsh, breathtaking landscape? It was stunning!!
Our tour guide Dan Ofri is one of the premier Negev Desert guides, and we were tremendously lucky to have him guiding us. His insights and expertise brought colors and nuances to the Negev desert that would otherwise have passed by our untrained eyes. Before leaving us after our third and final day of hiking, Dan shared a heartfelt, parting insight with our group, which hit upon the ikar (essence) of Pardes:
Nowadays, Dan no longer guides Desert hikes to make his living; he has become selective about the people he guides, and he rarely works with large groups. In this context, he told us, Pardes is a special exception to his rule. Dan reflected that he was most strict with his children when he reacted out of fear, and that open acceptance of others is a particularly challenging ideal to live by. In Pardes, Dan sees a community of people who approach one another with open hearts, seeking common underlying values and passions, accepting differences in political and religious preferences, as well as differences in lifestyles. After years of leading Negev tiyulim for the Pardes community, Dan remains inspired by Machon Pardes and takes pleasure in being a small part of our unique institution.
Our fantastic adventure was capped beautifully by Dan’s thoughts, and I continue to reflect today upon how wonderful it was to share this special, challenging experience with the other members of my Pardes community. I’m very thankful to have had this opportunity