2nd Day of Classes (May 8)

Last night we had free time in Jerusalem, but I opted to stay in and go to sleep. I crashed at about 7 30 PM, and the bus from Jerusalem did not return until nearly 3 AM; it was a good thing for me that I chose to sleep or I would have been miserable.

This morning we had two classes, the first entitled “Mystical Perspective of Israel” and was given by Rabbi Gershenfeld. I honestly felt the lecture was a bit farfetched, but very interesting nonetheless. He started by demonstrating how every piece of land on the world has a unique function; Columbia can grow coffee, Nebraska can grow corn, and France can grow wine. Israel, he argued can grow one’s spirituality. Israel is usually referred to as “Aretz Yisrael,” (Aleph Raysh Tzadi, Yud Sin Raysh Aleph Lamed) especially in the bible. When broken down, Rahtz (Raysh Tzadi) means “run”, and the alpeh before it means “I”. Yud Sin Raysh (from Yisr) means straight, and Alpeh Lamed means to God. So Aretz Yisrael can roughly translate to “I run straight to God.” Far fetched like I said, but still interesting. As a result, he argues, that when one studies torah in Israel, he is pushed forward faster than usual by the land itself; that is a person is more capable of being spiritual in Israel. He used an analogy of someone paddling up a current against someone paddling with the current. In Israel, you are studying with the current. I am not sure if I buy his argument, as it could easily be a coincidence, but it is something to think about.

The second class was called “Good Things are Worth Fighting for” and was given by Rabbi Avigdor Silver. His speech was an autobiography of his life, traveling from Europe to Australia to Israel, being chased by the Nazis and fighting for Israel in the 1967 and 1973 wars. He had a very cool story that included losing and then getting back control over his left arm, watching a Nazi submarine chase his boat to Australia, and fighting for his life in a hospital. However, nothing about the class was controversial, or even really based in Judaism. The point, at least that I got, was that Israel is something that is worth fighting for and something that we must fight for.