Tag Archives: sunrise

Homemade Pop-Tarts for Davening on the Tayelet!

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I made homemade pop-tarts for tomorrow’s Community Davening on the Tayelet!

 

click here for info about tomorrow's davening

We will begin at 5:05am. Sunrise is at 5:36.

Our schedule for the morning is:

  1. Birkot HaShahar and Psukei led by Mike Nash and Laura Marder with simultaneous yoga led by Emly (Yoga mats will be provided. Bring your own if you have).
  2. Traditional shacharit led by Adam Masser, with added chanting of Yotzer Ohr led by Laurie
  3. Extended Shmoneh Esrei, leaving time for meditation, breath awareness,* etc.
  4. After concluding prayers, Gabby will lead us in a musical Oseh Shalom

*A non-coercive suggestion: James suggests one breath per word of the Amidah.

The plan is to have all davening done by 6:30, followed by singing (bring musical instruments if you have them!).

We will provide a light breakfast and encourage everyone to bring coffee to drink and snacks to share, all to be enjoyed while listening to a shiur from our own Rav Meir.

Directions to the Tayelet:
The tayelet is on Daniel Yanovsky (which is a continuation of Yehuda) just after it crosses Beitar. Go down the stairs from the Daniel Yanovsky entrance (next to the bathrooms) to the tayelet to the big canopy overlooking the old city.

Homemade dulche de leche + chocolate pop-tarts (gluten free not pictured)

Homemade dulche de leche + chocolate pop-tarts (gluten free not pictured)

Pastry
2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks or 8 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into pats
1 large egg
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) milk
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7-Day Silent Meditation Retreat

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From my blog:

Imagine spending seven days without your phone, television, or computer. Okay, now add on the incentive of no listening to music, reading, or writing. And now try doing that without speaking or communicating at all. Not just verbal communication; you can’t even look at anyone else. Oh, and one final, small thing – you’re not really supposed to think either. Sounds appealing, doesn’t it?

Well, yesterday, I returned from a 7-day silent meditation retreat in which I joined about 40 other people just as crazy as me in seeing what exactly that experience would be like. The retreat took place at an absolutely beautiful kibbutz in northern Israel called Hannaton, about halfway between Haifa and Tiberias. From this small kibbutz you could see tree-filled mountains and mountain ranges on all sides with tiny, mostly Arab villages here and there, and with the Sea of Galilee right outside the kibbutz’s borders. Continue reading →

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Beautiful Jerusalem

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Originally posted on my blog:

Since I’ve mostly been settling into a normal routine of class, class, eat, class, class, eat, shabbat (eat, pray, eat, pray), class… etc, I thought I would do a different kind of post.

By the time I get home at night, I’m usually completely wiped out and ready to relax or go to bed. But I’ve been wanting to exercise, so I wake up early in the morning and run/jog/walk for a few miles. The first time I did this, I was amazed at how empty the city seemed. The only people around were the ones cleaning the stores and restaurants on Emek Refaim, or a few other joggers and dog-walkers. I got to the end of my route and realized the infamous windmill was just another block or so, and there was a beautiful view from the promenade next to it. I got to the top as the sun was just rising above the Judean hills surrounding Jerusalem. The color of the sunrise itself was beautiful, but the way the sun reflected off of the Jerusalem stone was absolutely breathtaking. I snapped a photo of the sunrise and the windmill. It was really incredible, and I personally believe a Jerusalem sunrise is something everyone should experience at least once in their lifetime.

On my way back home, I was thinking how nice it was to be able to jog and not yell “slicha” (excuse me) at the hoardes of slow-moving, fast-talking Israelis, and how grateful I was to be able to appreciate the beauty of Jerusalem at my own pace. Then as I reflected more, I wondered what it is that makes Jerusalem so beautiful and special. Is Jerusalem inherently beautiful on its own with the Jerusalem stone, the pomegranate, olive, and fig trees, the hills and the sunrises/sunsets? Or is it the people that make up this crazy, frustrating, insane, illogical, yet somehow magical city, that makes it something amazing?

I think it’s the people. True, they have no concept of waiting in a line or opening a bank at normal hours. But when you say “Shabbat Shalom” to the owner of the makolet (mini-grocery store) and he says “AMEN AMEN u’l'kol am yisrael” (and to all the people of Israel) with a giant grin on his face, as he looks up from the page of Talmud he studies when he has no customers, its hard to see this city, and the people in it, as anything but beautiful. I am so incredibly thankful to be here and having all of these wonderful experiences.

Another brief “Beautiful Jerusalem” experience: on Friday, one of my classes took a walking tour around parts of Jerusalem, and while we were stopped in a courtyard, an elderly man (at least 95!) came up to us and said he would open the Museum of Psalms especially for us for 5 minutes so we could look around. It turns out the man was a Holocaust survivor from Hungary who began painting upon arrival to Israel. He does incredible, vivid paintings of the various Psalms from the Bible – they are really truly amazing to see.

On a final note, since it is Movember (men grow moustaches, raise awareness and funds to fight cancer affecting men), I’m helping to raise money in honor of all the amazing men in my life. If you’d like to donate or learn more, click HERE :-)

Love and miss y’all… if anyone wants to send me a care package full of reduced-fat white cheddar cheez-its, hershey candy cane kisses, blue trident gum, ziplock bags of varying sizes, febreeze, lysol wipes, and a swiffer wet-jet… I wouldn’t complain. Just sayin…

XOXO

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Tuesday!

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From my blog:

After months of putting it off, I finally made it down to Ein Gedi last Friday. I went with some friends from college park, and we left at 4:30 am to drive down to the hike. As we were passing the dead sea on the drive down, I looked out the car window and watched the sun rise over the mountains of Jordan with the rays reflecting in the water; definitely one of my better sunrises. The hike itself was great…we went for about 7 hours and climbed 600 meters, from the 200 meters below sea level to 400 above, and got to see some incredible views. We then made it back to Jerusalem just in time for Shabbat, with about 20 minutes to spare. Definitely a great way to spend a Friday.

Then this week, last night I attended the MASA opening event with thousands of post-high school and post-college Jews from all over the world, here on over a hundred different programs. It was really an amazing sight to see all of these people just like me who had made the decision, for any of a zillion reasons, to come here for an extended period of time, and being in the same room with all of them was definitely special. And another highlight was that the Idan Raichel Project performed, and they were aaamazing. So good live and such great music. And tonight, I went to the auditions of a local showing of Hairspray. I should clarify…I didn’t actually audition, but for my community service project for Pardes, I will be working 1:1 with an 18-year old Ethiopian fellow, Rafael, in order to help him learn the songs (in english) for Hairspray, and the auditions were tonight so I came to help him fill out forms and provide moral support. Definitely a nice break from learning all day, and also a good way to rep my Baltimore pride (Since I think Hairspray is based there?).

And then to the learning – in my meditation class this week, we are focusing on seeing the Divine in everything, and one way to do this is through the experience of eating, since it contains a lot of our pleasures and desires, and we all have feelings on the matter. So the key to meditating on food is essentially to become very present and aware of every single step of the process, and go very slowly. More practically, this involves really honing in on the texture, feel, smell, and appearance of the food/bite, and then eventually putting it in your mouth and just letting it sit on your tongue without chewing, just feeling its texture with your mouth, and then eventually starting to very slowly chew, possibly with taking breaths in between, and then eventually swallowing. Needless to say, I had the most dramatic peanut butter banana experience of my life earlier tonight, which turned into a 30 minute sensory bonanza.

And one more thing, an idea I picked up on from a teacher recently and I’m still working on, is taking an hour (ideally, less if you can’t) every day that is dedicated to being unplanned, and then seeing what you decide to do during that time and analyzing it afterwards. My unplanned hour today became cleaning out/exploring a cabinet in my apartment that hadn’t been touched since we moved in 3 months ago and had a lot of stuff left over from the former residents…including a guitar case, a bag of coals, and a bunch of pretty intriguing recipes on index cards. Ima head out now but hope all is well and if you’re reading from the northeast, stay inside! It’s hurricaning out there!

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Morning Revelation

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Among the other brachot offered during the shacharit (morning t’fillah) we find one that is about the creation of light and darkness. The text reads “Blessed are You God Master [king] of the universe, who forms light and creates darkness, makes peace, and creates all.”

I have long been confused as to the placement of this blessing. I know there is a blessing later on about God as the fashioner of light, however this blessing seems to be about creation itself, while the other is more about messianic redemption. As part of birkot hashachar, we thank God for a number of aspects of our lives, and it would seem that this blessing might fit better if it was located earlier in the t’fillot. According to Sefer Abudraham, the bracha fits perfectly given what follows. Furthermore, the Abudraham locates a verse in Isaiah (45:7), where a similar formulation is found (although the siddur edits the verse). Given both the scriptural reference, and its place between the Barchu and shma, and the Abudraham’s explanation, I can begin to understand the bracha’s placement. We have just declared that God will be praised forever, it is followed with a blessing touting the universal accomplishments of creation, before the siddur leads us to the Judeo-centric declaration of Shma.

Even after taking this closer look, I was still slightly unsatisfied…until this morning. The day began in Jerusalem with a thick cover of clouds and fog. Although there was light, there was very little direct sunlight to be found. After saying Barchu, I glanced out the window while reciting yotzeir or (the name of this blessing), and the sun broke through. I am sure many of us have witnessed sunrises in dramatic locations, but none of my sunrise experiences were directly tied to the recitation of this bracha. With the reading of the verse in Isaiah, internal siddur geography, this morning’s experience, and Abudraham’s help, that I am not only comfortable with this bracha and its placement, but also confident enough to say that I experienced a morning revelation vis a vis yotzeir or.

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Cold

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Several weeks ago, I decided that it was high time for me to visit the Tayelet in J’lem, and I woke myself up at an early hour to daven (pray) the shacharit (morning) service with my tefilin (phylacteries) at sunrise, facing the Old City of J’lem.

It was a chilly morning, and I felt it. According to my tradition, I wrapped my tefilin around my left bicep, down my forearm, and around my middle finger. The morning davening is the longest of the three daily services, and I prefer to daven at a comfortable pace, pronouncing every syllable carefully… so I stood, davening with my tefilin on in the chilly morning air for some time (perhaps 45 minutes – I’m not quite sure).

A friend of mine once explained to me that she tends to have poor circulation in her fingers so her hands are often cold. She prefers mittens to gloves because she finds that her fingers warm one another when they’re clasped together. I remembered her explanation that morning because my tefilin prevented the fingers of my left hand from clasping together, and the chilly air nipped at them, stinging. The stinging felt grounding, human, as did the comforting warmth once I completed my davening and removed my tefilin.

View from Tayelet

 

The Old City of Jerusalem glowed in the rising sun before me, and I stood with my hands in my pockets, taking in the ancient view.

—–

Later that Friday, I visited Yad Vashem with a friend for the first time since I was on a Birthright trip more than three years ago. It was particularly liberating to walk through the museum without a large group or tour guide, navigating ourselves through the displays and taking the time to discuss our impressions and ideas.

I recall once visiting The Har Herzl National Cemetery with my mother as a youth, watching her cry for the deaths of the many young soldiers that had given their lives in defense of Israel, wondering why I felt… nothing.

The older I get, the more emotional I become. As a seventh grader, learning about the Shoah (the Holocaust) in Hebrew school, I was barely emotionally affected by lessons and stories of hatred, tragedy and death… and then I taught the very same class (I took over for my Hebrew school teacher) for two years as an adult, and I cried over and over again at the videos and lesson plans. For me, adulthood brought with it heightened sensitivity.

It now feels as though I’ve integrated much of the tragedy of the Shoah. Some of the exhibits at Yad Vashem brought tears to my eyes and caused my heart to beat more heavily, but I generally felt a constant, soft ache for the great loss… I’ve had, after all, a lot of exposure to Shoah material. Still, I learned some new information about the specifics of the Holocaust in particular countries across Europe, and one exhibit in particular happened to give me pause.

Towards the end of WWII, the Nazis forced the emaciated, sick Jewish prisoners out of concentration camps in ‘Death Marches’, on foot, across hundreds of kilometers of frozen terrain, bringing many to their deaths through forced, inhuman overexertion and starvation. Yad Vashem’s description of these frigid, torturous journeys struck me, and it took me a moment to realize why. It was only that morning that I’d wanted to protect my fingers from the slight chill of the Jerusalem morning, conscious of my 45 minute discomfort, appreciating life and sensation, wincing slightly from the air’s sharp, chilly sting…

It struck me at the ‘Death Marches’ exhibit at Yad Vashem that day that I will never be able to comprehend the Shoah. Would that nobody ever experience such terrible Evil again.

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The one where the family comes to visit

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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:

Sunrise at the Tayelet

Tel Aviv and the Mediterranean

Jake at Yad Vashem

Dead Sea

Dead Sea Newspaper

B’shalom,

Lauren

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