Flying out in a week!

You heard it here...I fly back to the northeast on July 30th. I leave from Tel Aviv in the morning and from there it is a 12 hour flight. Fun.
I look forward to going back. It's been too long since I've seen my awesome family and friends who I miss and think about everyday.
There is one drawback though. [building suspense] July 30th on the Jewish Calendar is a holiday. Not a joyous holiday, but the day of Tish b'Av, the ninth of Av. In history, this day brings sadness. To list a couple of things that happened this day:
-Both of the Temples were destroyed that day (The Western Wall in Jerusalem is a wall of the second temple destroyed by the Babylonians led by Nebucheddnezzar)
-WWI began
-The cattle cars transporting the Jews began from the ghettos to Treblinka, the worst of the Camps
-(Biblically)The spies that went to scout out Israel brought back incorrect and slanderous reports that the people believe, and thus they were sentenced to wander in the wilderness for forty years until all the people that believed the report were dead (between the ages of 20 and 60)
-Rome seized Jerusalem and razed it in the following year (the Jerusalem today is built on top of those ruins. dig down 30 feet and you'll hit another city!)
-Jews were expelled from England 1290 and Spain in 1492 (check the records, Colombus had trouble getting out of port because of all the Jews fleeing)

So yea, I get to fly on this date. On this day, we fast for 24 hours. I have to now figure out how that's going to work considering I'm flying westward and thus "back in time." Hopefully I won't have a 36 hour fast. Ha. But once the Temple is rebuilt, the Jews will no longer have to continue doing this. The fast also serves as a reminder that the Jews have become to comfortable in the Diaspora (dispersion after the destruction of the 2nd Temple). As long as the Temple is not here, we are reminded that we are not doing our job. We are to be a "light unto the nations" and right now, we are kind of a joke. Assimilation is the greatest killer of the Jews that all the Holocausts and Pogroms combined. The kicker is, Assimilation is our choice. Jews are the fault behind that. So Tish B'Av is an important holiday to observe the situation and do all in our power so that we don't have to fast next year.

Behind every great man is a great woman, and behinder his is his wife.

The beginning of this week was a bit rough. I woke up from a nap and had the feeling that I was dumped. You know that feeling? Like someone had hit you in the chest with a rock and loneliness wells up within. Yea, not so fun. I don't even know what happened. I think it's because the one good friend that I made here, Daniel "Chocolate Chip"riani went back to the states. With him I fought off the Republican-Conservative majority. Now, I'm the only liberal that I know of (or at least one that is brave/stupid enough to admit in public). So I just shy away from political conversations. But Cipriani and I had similar upbringings, both being from CT and partying a lot in college. Which, now that I think of it, is not that rare. But as for the friend thing, I just need to keep plugging away to find my groove. There are lots of great people here from different backgrounds on different levels of life. While I don't necessarilly see any "best friends" like the kind I have back in the US, there's lots of potential.
The beginning of the week, my hebrew teacher lost his mother to what seems like a quick illness. It was the first time I've seen Jewish mourning. The mourning includes not doing anything for a week. You sit in a chair that very low to the ground and people come to visit you. As a visitor, you don't speak until spoken to. I think that's great, because how many times does one need to hear "I'm sorry..." when there's nothing else to be said. The whole process is surprisingly relaxed.
Back in the states in 2 weeks!

Riot on Shabbat, Refuse the Nation

For the past month, Orthodox Jews (the ones dressed in black with the long side-burn thingys I call "boing-a-boings") have been rioting the opening of a parking lot that's intended to be open on Shabbat. They riot on Shabbat. People have been hurt and the parking lot has remained closed as a result of their actions. Shabbat is a day of rest and study. These certain Orthodox Jews ( and I stress certain because I don't want people who read this to generalize to all Orthodox Jews) who do not participate in the army, when there are religious options, feel like they can disturb the peace about a parking lot that is nowhere near their religious area of Mea Sharim. Instead, they should be studing Torah or spending time with their families. I guess they forget that this is a secular country and all they are doing is casting a poor light on the Orthodox and religious Jews in general.
Anyways...I went to a museum for Menachem Begin (pronounced Bay-gen) that was really cool. He was all for the state of Israel and was able to get things done. He wasn't a Hawk and focused on Israel from the inside out. A policy I like. Maybe America could do the same. But who am I to talk, I haven't been back in the states in half a year. But that will change shortly in less than a month.
Life is good though. Tonight I will be having dinner with Rabbi Elbaz, a highly-intelligent man with a great sense of humor. Well time to go for a run in the heat. See a lot of you soon!

Meaning of Life is Pleasure

That's what the Rosh Yeshiva said. That we are here to experience the best that life has to offer and we have everything we could ever need. Beautiful mountains, and flowers, ice cream, wireless internet yadda yadda yadda. So yea, life is pretty amazing. That realization itself is worth the threat of rocket-propelled grenades (kidding mom, in case you read this).

This Shabbat was at the school and was fun. Friday night especially. Lots of wine and whiskey.
I shocked my father when I told him that orthodox jews drink. Haha. Wait, did I write that in a previous post? Hm, don't remember (in literary terms, we call that a stream of consciousness).
RIP Michael Jackson. As screwed up as you were, you made a lot of people happy and gave away lots of money and time for charities.

Oh yea, Republican leaders Nevada Sen. John Ensign's and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford get "caught" having extramarital affairs. Now for those who are unaware, the orthodox community can be generalized as "righties." It's hard to find anyone here, and all of Israel for that matter, that does not want Obama dead. But it's the same righties that vote for these GOP members that keep having affairs, yet Judaism teaches about, well, not doing that. All Republicans should be pissed off right now. You hated Clinton for that remember? If you don't have anything nice to say, let the Republicans say it for you. Sorry, I thought that was funny.

Tomorrow begins another week. I'll be going to Tel Aviv on Tuesday with my friend Daniel Cippriani to visit a friend of his. I haven't spent time there other than a visit to the Mediterranean, enhancing the experience with Jellyfish stings. So I'm pumped. I wish a good week to everyone!

Girls and automatic weapons

What a great day. Sun is out, the sky is blue, and teenage girls walk around with automatic weapons laughing like they haven't a care in the world. Only Israel!
The beginning of the week was a bit rough. I had a case of the Summertime Blues (to quote The Who), after realizing that everyone outside of this world is running around, going to beaches, having BBQ's and what not. One memory I especially miss is driving around Saratoga Springs with the windows down.
But that's all those are--thoughts. What I'm doing here is incredible. Everyday I grow more than I had in the years prior to coming here. I understand myself better as I dissect my personality and look at areas I want to improve (e.g. my arrogance). And I was getting frustrated (the arrogance) with my studies because I feel like I'm falling behind. What a humbling experience! It's like being born all over again in a sense, because I'm learning a new language and a new way of thinking. I'm seeing the world in a new light--and it's awesome. No drugs needed!
But I'm better now. Back on track.

Lovin' it's what I got

(My brother and his family and our tour guide Modi)
I don't know what to write, so I'll ramble...
The weather here...I didn't plan well. It's hot. Real hot.
I miss seeing people at home. Like if I was home in CT, a three hour trip could bring me to so many of my close friends. Jacob, Yolande, Chris, the Great Batzellini, and Amanda to name a couple. I miss my eccentric yet lovable family that probably think I've gone off the deep end (little do they know I did many years ago). I miss the California crew of Kennon and Capital T Smith.
Because of everybody, I've developed into someone I'm proud to be with good room for improvement.
Speaking of home, I will be in CT in 47 days (some time around then).
I will summarize this week in the word "trials." I was aware of the trials with people pushing my buttons or catching myself getting frustrated with my Hebrew or Aramaic lessons. In Israel exists JST--Jewish Standard Time, no one is on time for anything. But every step I have people to laugh with, rant with, mockingly throw off my keepa (that small peice of cloth on my head), have a drink with, and bash Republicans with. Being aware of one thing inevitably increases your sensitivity to its opposite. As I became more aware of what irked me, I became attune to what and who I really enjoyed. I wish everyone the same pleasure.

So it's been a little while

Since I last posted. Things are continuing on as normal.
My brother, his wife Catherine, and daughter Ella (2 years old) were here in Israel last week. I finally got a chance to tour around Israel!
I saw the ancient water port of Caesura on the Mediterranean with waters that I've only seen in photographs, it was that beautiful. Then we continued up the coast to Haifa and saw the B'Hai Temple. That place has money flowing out the waz-oo. Beautiful gardens. Try asking them what their faith believes and it sounds something like, "we believe in everything!" Don't exactly know what that means but they do believe in every prophet and every writing. The only thing is that every prophet outside of each religion says something different (Jewish, Islamic, Christian...) that they must pick and choose what they want to believe. Kudos. Kind of like baloney meat...made from many different parts of many different animals.
Then we spent two days in Tiberius on the Kinneret (known to the world as the Sea of Galilee). Talk about beautiful! Surrounded by mountains and desert, the air was crisp and cool. Tiberius has the spiritual element of water. Israel, which is in the worst drought it ever had, looks like it could use more of that element. I joked that considering how low the water level was, even I could walk across the water. (Tiberius is adjacent to the town where it is told Jesus walked across the water and performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes).
Went up into the wine country of Golan Heights...beautiful.
Went to a utopia with light green waters coming out of a natural spring that made a waterfall where people could swim. Beautiful.
Went to the Dead Sea. People, if you don't go to the Dead Sea and float on the waters, you're missing out on an experience. It is IMPOSSIBLE to sink. I kid you not. You can't sink. You don't float in the water but float ON the water. Supper trippy.
Then we went to the desert fortress of Messada overlooking the Dead Sea. It's hard to believe the magnitude of that place being so high up on top of a mountain where there was a city!
After all was said and done, I came back to school. Apparently my brother wants to buy a house in Israel now :)....who would've thought?
Now I must go do, that voodoo, that Jews do!

Two and a half months and still not used to the water

Thank G-d that's the only thing I haven't gotten used to. Well, maybe the whole white shirt, black pants routine looks a little mundane, but who am I to judge fashion?

This past week went by quickly. The school is still on break so I spent a lot of time in the beis (pronounced bayes) studying. I've taken a liking to the Musar (pronounced Moos-ur) movement. You can wikipedia it, but basically it was a movement that began right before the reform movement in Germany that intended to revive an awe of G-d and development of the self through the use of psychology. So yea, pretty cool stuff. There's one auther called the Ramchal that never wasted a word. Every sentence packs tremendous meaning, it's like nothing I've ever read!! If you're interested, look up "Path of the Just" or "The Way of G-d". Truly amazing things that will tax your brain.

Also, last weeks parsha, section of the Torah dealt with two important messages. The first one involves Aaron's sons being killed by G-d for lighting a "strange fire" upon the altar. While they were correct halachically (halacha or halakah is the Jewish Law) correct, the reason they died was because they did not ask their teacher Moses or their father, Aaron, what to do. This message comes to me at a time when I'm beginning to really learn all this Jewish stuff and able to formulate my own opinions and arguments. This parsha, however, reminds me that no matter how much I know, I must show respect for my teachers and elders in addition to beware of arrogance.

Secondly, the parsha mentioned that we never truly run from our sins. When Aaron approached the alter to begin his duties, he saw the golden calf (the altar formed the appearence of a cow because it had "horns") and recoilled back. Moses had to snap him out of it and said, "Aaron, it's time to do your duties and move past your sins but don't forget." I read today that "Woe to the man who forgets his sins" because he/she will never learn or inevitable make the same mistakes.

Now, I've always been the "I never regret anything" kind-of-guy, but this says otherwise. Regret is indeed important if you did something without thinking or that was foolish. Could be a person you shouldn't have hooked up with "just because you were drunk" or buying that lame-ass Smashmouth album back in the day. Referencing more to my relationship with other people, I did some stupid things like people do. But where I'm changing as a person, is that I don't want to hurt people ever again. Whatever I did to people, I strongly regret hurting them. I publicly apologize to all those I hurt through my actions and ask for their forgiveness as I was always and will always be held accountable for my actions.

But like Moses said, time to move on. I don't want to "live" in my regret, but learn from it to make myself better.

We'll see what this week has to offer and I hope that everyone has a fantastic week. This is Zack signing out from Jerusalem

Peace

Pesach Cleaning

It's currently the Pesach break at the school (Yeshiva) so most of the school left to travel or go back home. I however chose to work for 11 days cleaning houses. Just when I began to think Jews were not so bad, I became their slave (which will bring a new appreciation to Pesach this year when the Jews left the slavery in Egypt). But what a couple of chemical burns and a cough that sounds like the black lung as a result from inhaling oven cleaner? I'm doing it for the good of Jewish families and they appreciate what I do. Plus it means I can stay at the Yeshiva for at least a year.

Speaking of staying at the Yeshiva. My appartment was police raided a couple of days ago. They were looking for drugs 0n a student in my dorm that was fortunately leaving for America that night. However, they found 80 grams of weed on another student in my dorm. He's now fighting for his right to stay in the school. Personally, kick him out. On the other hand, he messed up and deserves a second chance. Thus, I'm torn on the issue.

In a couple of days begins Pesach (Passover). People are buying suits and new things. I need deoderant. The weather is slowly warming up finally. I know in a couple of weeks I'll complain about the heat. There's just no pleasing me I guess. Once I'm no longer working, I can begin planning for my neuroscience class that I will teach at the school. There's so much religion and philosophy, yet no science. So, I guess it's up to me. And no, I don't have a messianic complex because the messiah comes from the family of David whereas I'm a Cohen. Hopefully the class will provide people with a better understanding of just how amazing the brain is so they can appreciate what a gift it is.

Zack's final thoughts:
If the paint on the bench is wet, get off.

While My Laundry Gently Spins

It's post-Purim and it was, eh. I didn't get the spiritual download I was promised but that's ok. I was sick and whatever I "downloaded" wasn't Purim (it was the flu) and in fact was hastily ex-loaded out of my body.

Now I feel better though. I feel a connection with the land and after the pre-Purim fast I'm eating less. For all the food that people eat, there's not a lot of overweight people, which I was curious about. So I inquired and found that it's the low-meat diet. We eat a lot of bread but little meat. Apparently the meat-eaters of America might have been telling a fib. I'll look a little more into it.

Right now the weather is absolutely lovely. Feels like spring. Can't believe that I missed St. Patrick's Day! I was not even aware that the day occurred. Instead I studied the great scholar Rashi and his biblical commentary on this weeks Torah portion. In fact, I've only got drunk once since being here. It's true that you grow out of certain behaviors. For that, my liver is thankful.

Passover (Pesach) is right around the corner and the school goes on break. I will remain in Israel and try to back pack around the country. Need to visit, well, everywhere. I've got to visit Tel Aviv, the Dead Sea, and the Galilee region up North.

Well that's all folks. Peace!

PURIM TIME

First off, I'm still alive and kickin'. I saw the city of David on Thursday and hiked through some underground tunnels. People were not 6 feet 3 thousand years ago. I did have a 3 thousand year old headache the past couple of days.

Well all that aside, Tuesday night begins the 72 hours of heavy drinking for PURIM. A holiday celebrating the time the Jews were supposed to be exterminated...ha like there is only one time. Moving on, we drink out of celebration for this "specific" occurrence where a woman, named Esther, saved the Jews from being completely exterminated. To sum up how drunk you need to be: You can't distinguish bad from good.

This will be my second time drinking since I arrived a month ago. What a month! Mind has grown exponentially and continues doing so everyday. Quite exhausting really. May be the food, though. Take a lot of energy digesting the food here. Enough said.

I'll let you know how Purim goes.

Winter Started a While Ago, but Now it's Getting Cold

Thanks to all those who take the time to read my BLOGALOGALOGA!

The past week has been ultra amazing as usual. For a day I took part in this program called Discovery that made a lovely attempt to prove that G-d gave the Torah to the Jews at Mount Sinai. As I said, it was a lovely attempt as the program itself, while full of incredible speakers, did not tie together in a cogent manner.

What was interesting was the Bible Code speaker. Using trigonometry and rearranging, several statisticians found related words close together in Genesis (the first book). For example, they found the words (when they did a computer search) in close proximity to each other: September 11, Arabs, Towers, and Plane. Of course you ask, "How would the Bible know about all of those things?" Well the theory is that G-d created the world from the Torah, the Torah came before the creation of everything! Another example, they found over 35 famous Rabbi's in Genesis along with their respective birth and death dates! I need to do a little more research into this phenomenon, but one atheist statistician saw the results, put on a Kippah and became observant because he concluded that man could not create such a phenomenon.

As for my life, I started pre-Intermediate today. Now that I have an actual class schedule...
613 Mitzvos (Commandments, yes, there are a lot more than 10)
Jewish History
Spirituality
Ethics
Path of the Just
Philosophy

I only had one day, but so far so goooooood. Since I plan to be here for some time, I have to apply for a student visa. Somehow that requires proof that I'm Jewish (shhhh don't tell anyone), which means I have to prove that my mother is Jewish. This will be very interesting because I'm not sure that we have the paper work. And apparently circumcision is not considered proof. So fun times ahead but not to worry, I have two months to figure it out.

Also, I'm trying to get Skype to work on my computer. It refuses to connect. But once I do maybe there'll be a couple of you out there who might be willing to talk with me.

Again, thanks for the comments. Peace out players!!!

You Scratch My Back, I'll Call You God

Can hardly believe it has been only one week! Feels a lot longer and if you don't believe, come visit. We'll go get some fallafel. Is that even how you spell fallafel?
I realize that a lot of you out there are asking the question: Why the hell are you Israel? Well maybe now is a good time to explain.
The reason I'm in Israel is because of, can you guess, MONEY! Ha, well that's only half of it. (My Gentilian brothers (Gentile=not Jewish) are smiling about that Jewishness of the money comment).
When I went out to California at the end of the summer 08, I had the intentions of carrying out research at UC-San Diego in order to build up a repertoire as a research assistant before applying to UC-Santa Barbara neuroscience program. Hopefully, I'd have a job at night in order to stay alive while I volunteered in the lab. Well I was successful in finding a lab to work at with Professor Jean Townsend and Professor Marissa Westerfield studying the brainwaves of autistic subjects in attention experiments. However, given that I have the WORST TIMING IN THE WORLD, the economy decided to take a turn for the worst. Had I decided to go outside the college bubble and read a newspaper, I might have been able to predict the oncoming collapse of the multi-faceted economic downfall.
Well, I couldn't find a job. I didn't know anyone in California who could've helped me out so I became licensed to repair Windows computers. By word of mouth, I found the occassional client, but people, out of fear, preferred dealing with their broken computers than paying someone to repair them. So I was losing money, but like a small hole in a jug of water, slowly losing. From an economic standpoint, it's amazing I still have money.

So while I was doing research at UC-SD, I met a young rabbi who took me under his wing. At first I was hesitant with meeting him (like I want to hang out with Jews), but slowly I gave into the Jewishness and agreed to learn a little about Judaism. Surprisingly, I know more about Christianity than Judaism and more than most Chrisitans.

Moving on. I met a father and son real estate team that opened my eyes to spirituality. I began reading about the power of G-d and how you can use the energy to serve your desires. Several months ago, I would've rolled my eyes to that comment, but not anymore. The reason I'm here is because I began believing that I'm supposed to do something important and I asked how.

Well the father and son took me under their wing as well and taught me about people, business, and G-d. That was the catalyst for the events that followed.

One weekend I was invited (sorry for the passive action english majors) to a meeting of Jewish minds in LA where I met this incredible individual named Richard Horowitz. He sat me down and said "We NEED to send you to Israel." My immediate response: Ha, no thanks. But I was losing money, no job, nothing tying me down and I didn't take any brain-washing bullshit. In Richard's words, I was the "Perfect candidate."

In a matter of two weeks, I received full scholarship, got rid of my possessions (including a car), my room and closed all business relationships. Before I knew it, I was on a trans-Atlantic flight across the US. But before that, I had an awesome weekend with the boys on Carmelina Ave who really know how to do a send-off.

So here I am. Sitting on a bench in the square, looking at the beautiful Israeli women (apparently they're better in Tel Aviv) and my battery is about to quit on me. In a mere week, my intellect grew exponentially. Love to all those in the US. I will be different when I return, but the best parts of me, the one that brought me to all of you will remain.

Please take care of America for me until I return

First 72 hours

Well, I'm in the Holy Land! Since it's been a couple of days, let me spend some time reviewing...

16 hour flight=!!!!!! Especially if you have gas and don't wish for people to run to the exits on the airplane. Well maybe a few I wouldn't have minded. Seriously, no reason to be blowing a shofar 30,000 feet up in the air. Vicky Christina Barcelona was the best movie I watched out of the three and I have seen better Woody Allen movies. Sorry for the negativity, I didn't sleep well on the flight because I kept laughing at the fact that if the plane crashed in the ocean, I'd probably die from gas poisoning if I had to use my cushion as a personal flotation device.

When I first landed, I was impressed with the view of Tel Aviv, but didn't stick around as I didn't know exactly where I was going and wanted to have plenty of time in case I got lost. It was during my time in the van ride out of hell (Jews do have a Hell apparently, but it's more like purgatory, meaning for only a short time--not an eternity) that I realized (a) how beautiful several thousand year old ruins look, and (b) more people die from Israeli drivers than from military actions.

So as expected, I get lost toting heavy luggage around cobble stone streets, not really appreciating the sites as much as I do now, but as they say, getting lost begets city intimacy.

My housemates aren't too shabby and for the most part are welcoming. Of course there are 13 of us living in a 1.5 bath with 3 rooms upstairs and 1 room and 4 in sleeping quarters created out of the downstairs living room. So yea, living situation kind of tight but we do our best and everyone has a contagious case of optimism about it. Apparently this is better than before. HA! Joking aside, everyone is pretty cool (but there's the occasional jew with a stick up his ass, but that's anywhere).

Here's where the crazyiness begins. So I arrived Wednesday and my first day of class is Thursday. I get up early for morning services and at the following breakfast we received horrible news that the head rabbi, the one who started this school, everything related to it, responsible for the jewish education of thousands of people, had passed away after a year of battling lung cancer. He was 79 when he died and started the school in 1978. Well slap my silly and call me Jenny!

For those of you who don't quite recognize the magnitude of the situation, there were over 2,000 people at his wake and around 5,000 at his funeral. If they had waited one day, that number would've tripled (since Jews like to bury the deceased ASAP). I didn't get to see the funeral because as a Cohanim, I can't go into cemeteries, be 10 feet or closer to a body, go under a tree that also branches or is planted in a cemetery. Feel free to Wikipedia Cohen to understand more as it's all pretty amazing stuff. Back to the story, classes were cancelled that day out of respect. The amazing this is, people are not sad. You're not supposed to be sad during the sabbath (Friday to Saturday night). He was such a respected man of wisdom and touched a countless number of people I'm only sorry I couldn't see him myself.

The following night it hits me where I am. When I first got here, I only felt like I was looking at pictures out of a travel catalog. Well maybe the pictures were prettier (cough *photoshop* cough). But Thursday night I realized where I was and become overpowered by emotion and wept. I'm not afraid to admit because I don't feel like a stranger here anymore. Sure I don't speak hebrew or know where to do my laundry, yet I feel strangely comfortable. Kind of like when you're with someone and you can both be quiet without if feeling awkward (thanks Pulp Fiction for putting it perfectly).

As far as the weekend goes, I can summarize it with lots of food and dancing and prayer. But tomorrow (Sunday) I begin classes and my education. I can't wait and people around me are quite excited for me.

That's all I feel like typing now but I plan to do what I can with no cell phone and having to find a wireless spot in the old city. If you want to know where I am, my school looks upon the Western/Wailing Wall which is less than a quarter of a mile from one side of the school. You stay classy USA.