What I do every day!

Shavua tov! Hopefully, you won't mind that I'm a little neglectful of this blog and this will make up a little for it. It's been a crazy week, but I'm hoping to keep this up a little more. Maybe days 2 and 3 in Tsfat will make it up there.

Last week started with a fast, which is not so fun, just requires lots of sleep and not moving around too much, especially in this heat. That said, it is a great reminder of the blessings we do have. When you can't eat or drink, you remember that there were times (and there are still people today) when there was no food or water. We are blessed to have most of our needs provided for and on these fast days, we realize how lucky we truly are.

What does a day look like? I realize that most people actually have no idea what I do every day. Hopefully this won't be too boring and will help understand what on earth I'm spending these few weeks doing.

So, here goes:
We have an optional morning Chassidus class at 7:45am. It's a great class when I wake up for it, but I usually sleep through. We look into chassidic concepts that look into the depths of our soul and how we look at the world. Whether it's looking at how to find joy in darkness or what's inside of our soul, it's a wonderful way to start the day.

Between 8:30-9:30am, we have both davening time and breakfast. There are little groups where you can daven together or you can just do it on your end. Again, totally dependent on what you wake up! Breakfast is cereal or crackers with cheese. And most importantly: coffee!

9:30am starts the learning. Here it really depends on the day. Mondays for example start with Chumash class which looks into the actual Torah and the commentary associated with it. It's then followed by a class on different Talmudic concepts. Other days have other classes, such as looking at the prophets (e.g. Isaiah, Solomon) or looking at how halacha is derived from the Torah. We also have Hebrew class twice a week. Classes are usually divided into two parts.

Part 1 is Chavrusa time. We spend about 45min-1hour with a partner or 2 looking at the actual Hebrew text. For example, with Chumash class, we'll spend about half of that time looking at the Hebrew for 3-4 sentences (literally) in the actual Torah.

It means a lot of Google Translate from Hebrew to English, especially when 95% of the words are ones you don't know. We sometimes refer back to the English to check our translation, but most is in Hebrew. Then, we get into Rashi commentary. The real challenge with Rashi is that when they codified his writings, they invented a whole new script for it. So it's Hebrew without vowels (which is already hard enough) with the added challenge that your normal letters look completely different. When you do get the hang of it, it can be truly fascinating. Every single letter and word is in the Torah for a purpose. Rashi helps bring this to light.

Once all this is done, comes part 2. We re-focus our attention to our teacher and it becomes more lecture-style. We learn about what we just learnt and usually get some incredible insights. There's something very special with learning in this way. Once you've challenged yourself and spend an hour wondering what something means, it's amazing to get that clarity after you're done.

Every day, we have two classes like this so from 9:30-11:30 and another from 11:30-1:30. 1:30pm is lunch and always very welcomed! It's easy to get hungry when your brain is working so hard. Unless it's Tuesday (which is a free afternoon), we have afternoon class from 2:30-4:00pm. My favourite is our class on Jewish philosophy. The teacher's purpose is usually to leave us unsettled and doubting everything we thought we knew -- whether it's wondering how a rock knows it exists to understanding the depths of our relationship with Gd through Noah, Avraham, and Moses. After the afternoon class, we finally have a break! We finally have time to go wander around, learn some more, or do anything else we like. Dinner is served around 6:30pm.

Finally, we have an evening class every night from 7:30-9pm. We can have guest speakers or other more topic-related teachers. We've had classes on dream interpretation, the mysticism of headcovering, the politics of Israel, the different worlds in which Gd exists through the metaphor of water bottles, and many others. Once evening class is over, you're free! Well, really, most people keep learning or we occasionally have 'journal chevras' (where we basically chill and journal about our day). We also have farbrengens where we stay up very late, sing, and talk about life.

That's basically it! There's lots more to say, but time to sleep to prepare for tomorrow. Day trip to Caesarea!

Glossary
Davening: Prayer
Halacha: Jewish law
Chumash: The 5 books of Moses aka the Old Testament
Chavrusa: Study with a partner
Rashi: A famous commentator on the Torah
Chevra: Group (though more close than a plain group)
Farbrengen: Kind of hard to explain so see this article

Our seminary bunny!

Seminary friends!