Mishnah: Brachot uKlalot

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Im almost at the end of the first week of my Yeshiva Summer Program and have to say its been just great. Ive met some lovely people from the USA, Hungary, Argentina, and London (from the Masorti shuls). There is a such a good buzz amongst people- all eager to learn and taking this great opportunity very seriously. The main class I have really enjoyed the most is the Mishnah and Talmud class in which so far we have been looking at Masechet Sotah Ch 7. Surprisngly (to me) I have understood much more Hebrew than I thought I would have, although prefixes to roots often have me reaching for the Jastrow and BDB dictionaries with sore eyes. Ive started to understand more though about the nature of the Mishnah: the rather opaque nature of the text, the context of the time it was written (about 130 years after the destruction of the temple) and the whole makhloketim (disputes!) in the texts. Its been really surpising to look at how the Rabbis construct the arguments (in this case as to what can/must/should/is said in any language and what is said in Lashon Kodesh and WHY .. I think me and my lovely Chevruta buddy (Laura from Arizona) have come to the conslusion that its public/community vs. private/individual - that sometimes the individual is less important than the historical context of locating oneself in the narrative of the Jewish people (my father was a fugitive aramean). The constant checking of the biblical source material (mostly Joshua, Devarim, Bmidbar at the moment) is so rich and incredibly interesting. We learned about the one offs - the Brachot uKlalot, when the Israelites make the blessings and the curses on the mountains of Gerizim and Aybal on entering the land. We are now at Shechem- and are looking at this as a key to this Mishanh altogether. Its been such a priviledge to be taught by Reb Joel Levy-

I swapped to the Tanach class with Esther Israel, with my pal Hannah and we've been looking at Kings II and the history of Jerusalem - Hezekiah, Rebshakeh, the golden staff and the siege of Jerusalem- the relationship between the Israelites, Assyrinans and Egyptians - and how HaShem deals with it.. This class is also a favourite as it is increasing my exposure to Tanach and biblical analyisis. It was a good swap from Torah Sheb'al peh :)

I also swapped from Leyning to Heschels Zionism today for my last seesion (today was a 12 hour day and Im almost comatose now!).

Being in Jerusalem continues to feel great, although I am of course missing Muratti like mad. I wish he could come out here for a bit. Its so different than any other time Ive been here, Im not a tourist, and have only been down to Ben Yehuda St once so far and havent done any touristy shopping. So thats all for now folks, tomorrow is the end of week one, and Im so much looking forward to the rest that Shabbat will bring. Layla tov chaverim, Rafael xx

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