Hillel Goes to Yeshiva

The weekend wasn’t too bad. Aside from enduring stomach pains from my bullet-proof windowless-box trip to Be’er Sheva, it was fine. Friday night there was the periodic “ask the rabbis” event, and I was impressed by the truly profound, questioning nature of most of the questions. You’d think that kids who grew up in the Jewish day school system and opted to spend a year or two learning in Israel would have unwavering faith, and yet these kids were asking questions like what is the purpose of learning Torah when we could be helping people, how can God have commanded Jews to kill, and others that showed that these kids were actively struggling with various elements of traditional Judaism. I still don’t think it would have been a good fit for me, but it clearly shows that yeshiva is also for thinking, introspective people still searching for a workable worldview.

Also, at some point between me taking photos in the square around 2pm and leaving for Shabbat services around 4pm, my fleece sweatshirt disappeared. My guess is it’s in my brother’s place, but we didn’t find it, and a search of the square yielded three other sweatshirts/shirts, two pairs of shoes, and a baby stroller, leading me to think that had I left it there it would still be there, among the litter and filth covering most of the area. Six years, two continents and countless adventures were possible because of that fleece. RIP Black EMS Sweatshirt. Now off to Tel Aviv for dinner and the Israel Railways website is down. Figures.