Public Service Announcement Times Two

Two things, because they've been on my mind a lot lately.

One: Starbucks Frappuccinos are not kosher, period. At all. If you are shomer kashrut, there are a million other drinks you can get at Starbucks that are fine, but Starbucks changed from its coffee base to a creme base last year, and that base no longer is certified kosher. Mmk? Mmk.

Two: The Kotel, aka the Western Wall, is not -- I REPEAT -- not a part of the Second Temple, which was destroyed in 70 C.E. The wall is part of the remnants of the Temple courtyard wall. That is all.

That second one really grates my cheese. We mislead Jewish children in school and on trips to make them think it's a remnant of the Temple, when it isn't. Yes, it may be all we have left, and it's a place of historical value and definitely a place where one can become close with HaShem, but ... well, we've turned it into something it isn't.

Is that good? Is that bad? I don't know. All I do know is that I wish more people knew what it really is.

Shavua tov!

Israel Adventures: Take One

Kotel tunnels ... yummy. 

Greetings from Eretz Yisrael, which, by the way, is known as Medinat Yisrael when you're in the country (Eretz = land and Medinat = state, and thus it makes sense).

I have a million things to blog about, which I'll aggregate for you here (and hopefully expand on -- when necessary -- when I return in a week). Among these things are:

• The lack of self-awareness of a certain couple of super frum guys in front of us on the plane. I think there should be a rule about getting up from your seat for extended periods of time to daven and putting your SEATBACK in the upright position. You leave for an hour. I should get a break, right? 
• There was some big macher rebbe on the plane. No clue who he was or what his chassidus was, but he was really important. Really. First-class and first-on-the-plane important.
• My Hebrew sucks. My accent sucks. I'm angry at myself. I'll expand later. 
• I don't care who you are, or where you come from, or where you're going, or what you're doing ... bringing a box cutter in your backpack through security to the Kotel is ... sigh ... the most idiotic thing. EVER. 
• There was this kid that chased us down in the cardo (the market/shuk in the old Jewish quarter in Jerusalem) because he was haggling with us obnoxiously and we turned him down. I gave in, in the end, but for my price. I regret this. 
• We had the same tour guide for the Kotel Tunnels and the Hurva Synagogue. He was awesome. You want a charismatic leader? I've got one for you. Oh, and the sites were amazing, too.
• Why is it that when you ride a plane with some people or go on a tour with some people, you end up seeing them EVERYWHERE the entire time you're on vacation? Is Israel really that small? 

And, for now, lastly, Tuvia and I just returned home from the #BStweetup. For those of you not completely immersed in the Twitterverse (aka www.twitter.com), this was an event for Twitterers who follow one another and like to get together and geek out and actually meet one another in real life (IRL). I've met some of my best friends this way, so it was the perfect way to meet my Israeli mishpacha (family) during our stay. It was really nice to sit down to a huge meal in Bet Shemesh (hence the BS in #BSTweetup) with a bunch of Americans who've made their way to Israel for one reason or another. If anything, it's made the desire to move to Israel stronger. Knowing we have friends and a mishpacha here? It's a confidence booster. So, I give you, the Israeli Twitter Mishpacha: A Sampling. 

Vespasian and the Western Wall

I've spent the past week and a half stressing out, intensely, about this semester. My stress has largely been in regards to my Talmud class, a subject which I'm well informed on the outer limits of, but of which I have spent little time in the middle. I arrived home today exhausted after spending five hours looking at archives and compiling information on various states and their populations. I ate dinner, and took a nap. I woke up, still tired, stressed out, grumpy, frustrated. I purchased a coffee, came back to my room, and dove in to papers by scholars about reading rabbinics as history, whether the Talmuds contain hardcore, one-place and one-time history, or whether people read them wrong. Perhaps, as it says, the stories tell us more about the people than about the events. Who knows. The papers were sort of dry, sort of uninteresting, very much of the ego-stroking quality. In other words, very dense materials. I decided to put aside some of the academic papers for a packet on Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai and the episode involving his interactions with Vespasian (or Titus?) and the inevitable arrival of the rabbi in Yavneh, which became the hotbed of rabbinic activity in a post-Destruction of the Temple period, where the Oral Torah became what we know of it today.

But, I'll blog about the episode -- and the four different accounts from BT Gittin 56b, Lamentations Rabbah 1:31, and two versions from The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan -- at another time, because it's incredibly fascinating the subtle and obvious differences between the accounts and how the rabbi approached Vespasian, how Jerusalem fell, how the rabbi and his followers ended up in Yavneh, and the tales therein. But what I wanted to blog about quickly, before I throw myself into bed, is a take on why the Western Wall still stands to this day. It's pretty interesting. This portion comes from Lamentations Rabbah after Vespasian had subdued the city. At this time, he

assigned the destruction of the four ramparts to the four generals, and the western gate was allotted to Pangar. Now it had been decreed by Heaven that this should never be destroyed because the Shechina abode in the west. The others demolished their sections but he did not demolish his. Vespasian sent for him and asked, "Why did you not destroy your section?" He replied, "By your life, I acted so for the honour of the kingdom; for if I had demolished it, nobody would [in time come] know what it was you destroyed; but when people look [at the western wall], they exclaim, "Perceive the might of Vespasian from what he destroyed!" He said to him, "Enough, you have spoken well, but since you disobeyed my command, you shall ascend to the roof and throw yourself down. If you live, you will live; and if you die, you will die." He ascended, threw himself down and died.

An interesting take on why we still have HaKotel HaMa'aravi today, no? There are a few other morsels worth noting, which you can find at this Kotel website. Oh, and for good measure, the photo credit goes to me!

On that note, I'm heading to bed. Midrash will float about my head as I hopefully fall fast asleep. Tomorrow? I get the chance to delve into the topic in class.

Bon voyage!

Okay. I'm about 95 percent positive I'm going to leave my computer with Tuvia and not take it with me to Israel. I was gifted a notebook for journaling, and I think most assuredly that this is a sign (since I have another, as well) that I should be WRITING, not TYPING, my Israel experience. It'll be therapy for me -- someone so plugged in 24/7. But, you know, if there happens to be a computer there for my use? I'll whittle away at my likely ever-growing inbox, never fear. 

Catch you all on the other side of the trip! L'hitraot!