From Ithaca to Tzfat

I realize that this post occurs chronologically before the previous post.  However, my journey is, I think, important and interesting to understanding where I am right now, and what I am doing.

I got out of bed at 3:15 last Wednesday afternoon; my Mother and I drove and picked up Rabbi Eli at his house, and the three of us drove together to the Syracuse airport.  We easily made our 6:00 flight to JFK, and I slept for the whole hour we were in the sky.  We had several hours before our flight for Israel left, and Rabbi Eli wanted to daven Shacharit, so we took a taxi to the closest Chabad House, which happened to be the Ohel.  We fulfilled our obligation, I read a little bit of the book that Rav Ami and Eliana had recommended to me, and we met a couple of Israelis who were also driving to JFK, and so they drove us.

Back in JFK, we met up with Adam (the only other student whom I already knew), and passed through the tightest security I have ever encountered, for El-Al airlines.  Because I can't speak Hebrew, the guards didn't trust me, and asked me a series of questions that only a Jewish person would know, such as "what was the most recent holiday, and how did you celebrate it?" and "what is your Hebrew name?"  At least half of the other passengers were Charedi.  On the plane flight, I met Ben (another Cornell student) and Alex (an Ithaca College graduate), finished Josephus's Jewish War (which I had begun on Birthright), read most of The Thirteen-Petaled Rose, and slept about an hour or two.  We touched down at what must have been four or five o'clock in the morning, local time, in Tel-Aviv.  We stumbled outside, and all of us hopped into the car of the elderly Chabad driver, Eli, from Tzfat, who tells me that he lived for a couple of years in Monsey, New York.  He played a CD of Chabad tunes very loudly on our three-hour journey to Tzfat.  I read as much as I could without

On the way, we decided to make a detour to Tiberias, to Rambam's gravesite.  You can't miss the curving metal monument from the road, and Avishai had pointed it out to us when my Birthright trip drove through Tiberias.  There were groups of people standing around and reciting the book of psalms around his grave, and around other nearby stone tombs, which bore the names of other famous Jewish sages, including some Tannaim, such as Yochanan ben Zakai.  Rabbi Eli was kind (and passionate enough) to translate some of the signboards describing Rambam's life and works.  (Today's quote is in his honor.)  Still awake, we arrived at Tzfat before noon, and met the Rabbis at the Tzemach Tzedek Yeshiva where we'll be staying.  I began to meet the other students, and we luckily had arrived in time to attend the last couple of classes for the day, Rabbi Pasternack and Rabbi Gorenstein both teaching classes, and Rabbi Eli sitting down with me, and trying to prompt my Hebrew, which is quite feeble.  I'm sorry to say that I began to fall asleep in front of Rabbi Gorenstein, but previous conversations with him make me think that he didn't take it to hard.  I refused to take a nap all day long, and eventually went to bed at 9:30 at night, local time.  I was very happy when I finally got into bed!

OK, more adventures next time.  You are all great people!  Also, please e-mail me or send me private message on FB for details, questions, or anything else.

~JD

"[Jewish men] are commanded to acquire a wife before marrying her: either by giving her something [of sufficient value]; by giving her a document [of marriage]; or by having marital relations... only marriage by means of relations has the validity of a Torah commandment" (Rambam, Sefer HaMitzvot, Positive Commandment 213).