SO EXCITED!!!

MAYA IS COMING!!! I can't wait for her to come and see this place! She's going to stay at the kibbutz with me, but we're going to bounce around the country a little too, just us two gals! Life on the kibbutz is wonderful, beautiful, and refreshing...but busy! Gotta go feed the chickens, gotta go clean the kitchen, gotta go gotta go gotta go gotta go gotta go

Applications in!

Wow today has been a great day! I spent all day in the Kibbutz's library, writing and sending applications to all of the rabbinical schools I could drums up in Israel. Also! I had a short email correspondence with Maya and she seemed interested in coming to see the Land of Canaan, but she assured me that "it will be for travel and adventure, not to seek a religious experience."

Oh well.

I am starting to learn, here, that there is always a religious experience in travel and adventure. Some people just have different names for it.

Well, I'm off to the post box. And by the way, you would not believe the beauty of the walk from the Kibbutz's library down the road to our post box!

Life in Israel

Holy cow, it's been a long time since my last update. Sorry about that, friends! Life in Israel has been great and I have a lot to tell. I started my journey in Jerusalem and spent a few days seeing the city. I went to the Western Wall on Sabbath and the whole day was a great inspiration. The bobbing heads of praying Jews, the notes in the wall, and the warmth of humanity spreading out from the Jewish Quarters all made me feel like I had found my home. This beautiful culture and people... every waking moment I have had in Israel has felt like a dream. When I was leaving the Western Wall, I heard that familiar Chicago accent coming from a small group of Americans. I stopped by the group and they invited me to spend some time on their Kibbutz! So that is where I have been all this time. The Kibbutz is a small one, for American ex-patriots and it is in the middle of nowhere. We do have a computer here, but I have just been so busy helping with the cooking, taking care of children, and I even sat in on a few Torah readings. Israel really is the place for a Jewish grandmother, though. I mean, everywhere I turn I see reminders of what I love about my faith and my people. If only Maya could see this place...

That's it! I'll bring Maya here! Maybe then she'll get a little understanding about her history, and this could become my first job as a rabbi (even though I haven't even started classes yet, but a young man named Avi who lives on the kibbutz told me that he has a cousin who is enrolled in a wonder, small rabbinical school just outside of Jerusalem).

Well, I am going to sign off now so that I can close this blog window and look at the American Airlines website for a little to see if I can manage to hold off on the return flight without crazy fees!