Let me begin by thanking my parents for beginning my Hebrew education at such a young age and enouraging my Hebrew studies all these years. I have entered my most challenging year of rabbinical school yet and it is ALL IN HEBREW! I think my Hebrew is pretty good but it is really being tested here at Schechter. I guess I should also thank Sarah Woldoff and Dr Baruch Link at the UJ and my Ulpan for bumping my Hebrew up enough that I tested into the highest Hebrew class and enabling me to take the highest Midrash class also. Ack!!!
Anyway, enough of that. My first day was a long and intense one. We started early with minyan which was very nice on account of Hallel for Rosh Hodesh. How I enjoy Hallel! Then Talmud. Strangely enough, my Talmud class is filled with rabbinic students with Type A personalities and had already paired off into study pairs before the first class. So I ended up sitting with an Israeli student. While that might sound good from the Hebrew perspective, it was not ok from the learning perspective. He basically sat there and sped through the assigned texts with me in tow, while I tried to stop him with comments and questions. I don't think I'll be studying with him again. I'll have to attach myself to another pair and just keep moving until I find the right match. An hour and a half of prep time followed by another 1.5 hours of Talmud class, yes, all is Hebrew. It was intense and a little overwhelming at times but I think it will be very good for me.
Lunch break and then my afternoon class began. Again, all in Hebrew on the topic of the legal decisors throughout the ages. Prep and then class. At least here, there are no Israelis to throw us off and confuse us. After about 8 hours in Hebrew, I sat in on the Israeli Society class which I am exempted from because of my year at Hebrew U. I thought it might be good to have a refresher. True dat, but it makes Sunday a pretty long day.
Also, the Conservative Yeshiva is offering a class on Women and Jewish Law taught by (Orthodox rabbi) Haviva Ner-David who is also the sister of a friend of mine in LA. That class started at 7 so a couple of us took a cab over there and bought a light dinner at the supermarket. Her class is very text based, though it is mostly in English due to the variety of levels in the class. I really liked it but after an entire day of school, it was not the easiest class to sit through. I walked home and arrived there around 9:30. A pretty hectic 14 hour day....
On another topic altogether, I have been in negotiation with my landlady about my move in date. Turns out I can move in sooner, but then I need to arrange for a cleaning person, pay her the money, sign the contract and send her a deposit. Oy! But, the good news is, I am going to move in on Thursday, the first day of my weekend! Yay!
The thing that may make Sunday more tolerable is that I have no class on Monday until 1 p.m. so I can do as I am doing now, enjoying a leasurely breakfast in my neighborhood cafe. Ah......
More later this week....
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