Real Classes

My first week of school is complete and in a little bit I’m heading off to spend Shabbat and the weekend with some family. Here’s a breakdown of the classes I’m taking this semester:

Modern Hebrew: I’m continuing with Hebrew classes, but not with the same class I was in for the Ulpan. After our Ulpan final exam my teacher e-mailed me suggesting I bump up to the next level, because she thought it was a more appropriate place for me. The problem was, my class had just finished chapter 7 in the book and the other class was getting ready to start chapter 14! So I had/have a lot of catching up to do to get on the same level as the other class but in the grand scheme of things I think this is much better for me because I was a little bored and frustrated that we were moving kind of slowly in my other class. This new class is a challenge, but certainly one I’m looking forward to working on. I like the teachers very much (there’s two teachers because we meet 8 hours/week) and I know a good number of people in class, so it should be good.

Orthodox Judaism in Modern Times: This class is a seminar so there are only 11 students, which feels very familiar, coming from W&L. The first day was not so great, just because the professor lectured for most of it, dropping names I had never heard and referencing a lot of Jewish History I have never learned. But the second day was much better, and I think the rest of the semester will be the same. We read an excerpt from the Maimonides Mishneh Torah and analyzed it, looking at the importance of knowledge in Orthodox Judaism as well as the debates between emphasis on halakha vs kabbalah (law vs. more philosophical mystic study). Throughout the course we’ll look at how orthodoxy has responded to developments within Judaism such as the Jewish Enlightenment, Hasidic movement, Reform movement, and Zionism as well as modernization in the world in general. I think it sounds really interesting!

Foreign Policy of Israel: This class is very different from anything at W&L, because it’s a lecture of about 60 people (which is not huge at all, but it feels that way). Typically I cannot sit through an hour and a half of one person talking to me with no “audience participation”, but my professor Dr. Meron Medzini has a way of taking complicated and complex events and laying them out so they’re understandable. He’s not the most captivating or exciting speaker, but he has a fascinating history and has first hand experience with a lot of the political events of the past 30 years or so. Yesterday he talked about Israeli history pre-1948 and although he covered a lot of the material I know already it was great to have a refresher that really pulled all the pieces together in a coherent, chronological fashion. So though the professor and format are not incredibly engaging, the subject matter is so fascinating to me that I know I’m going to love it.

Radical Coexistence in Judaism: A New Approach to Conflict Resolution: I saved this mouthful of a class for last because I’m certain it’s going to be my favorite. The premise of the class is that the basic concept and definition of peace and what it takes to create peace that has been dominating international politics during the modern age is fundamentally flawed and dangerous. Throughout the course we are going to reexamine this idea from the perspective of Jewish thought as well as contemporary political philosophy. Basically the first two classes blew my mind and I have no idea if I even agree with or understand what was said but all I know is that it was captivating and fascinating. The professor is unbelievable and though I generally have a hard time with philosophy, I seem to follow most of what he says, and even find myself able to contribute to the discussion. The 90 minutes fly by and I hang on his every word. It’s incredible. AND he has a wonderful Scottish/british accent, made several references to “football” and the TV show The West Wing, and gave me brownie points for having read Said’s Orientalism (thanks, Professor Haskett). So basically I love the man, love the class, and am so excited for the rest of it.

One other sidenote about University life here in general. Until now campus has been very deserted because it was break, and only Ulpan kids plus some other random people were around. Now that classes are in session again though campus is bustling. I was walking through the main building with my friend Brittany the other day and I said something how it’s so strange adjusting to the “real University” that Hebrew U is, since it is so different from school at home. She agreed, and I added “It’s just so big, there are so many people.” And her response was “Oh, I was going to say it’s so small” (She goes to University of Minnesota). So I guess it’s all relative.