Week 3 (July 16-22): Appreciation of the Groin

Week 3 (July 16-22)

Appreciation of the Groin

Apologies for my week of silence – I have been moving into / exploring Jerusalem and Hebrew University’s Mt. Scopus campus, where we will remain through the end of our ulpan. What’s more, thanks to the shaky wireless connections to which I’m presently bound, I have not been able to post this page until now despite a few days of attempts.

Last week’s craziness almost feels like it was part of some insane dream, as Jerusalem has not felt the effects, physically, of Hizbullah’s missiles. UHaifa’s administrators have moved mountains to bring the Hebrew program to Jerusalem on a very short timetable, and I cannot sing enough praises lauding their efforts. While most folks here are missing Haifa at least a little, everyone is glad to be out of range of the missile strikes that have continued all week. About 160 out of Haifa’s 260 original Ulpanists have remained with us through the uncertainty to continue classes, which restarted last Thursday with a mostly new teaching staff.

Before delving too far into the events of this week, I want to say how much I appreciate the thoughtful notes that many of you have sent regarding my safety. Please know that I remain out of range of the rocket strikes, and I do not plan on placing myself in any kind of senseless danger. If you’re wondering about my (brief) take on the conflict up to this point, I think it’s tragic but I support the IDF’s actions.

Here’s a picture of my new roommate, Nick, and me. We all have roommates now (my tiny old Haifa single evokes feelings of nostalgia, to say the least).

Nick is a neat guy.

In lieu of classes, here are some things I have done this week:

-Tour around Jerusalem

-Play (or try to play) soccer… more on this later

-Get lost for an hour on Hebrew University’s campus (while apparently being about 5 min from my dorm the whole time)

-The Jerusalem bar scene

-Enjoy a vegetarian Shabbos dinner at an Israeli home

-Hike Masada, swim under the desert waterfalls in Ein Gedi and chilled out in the dead sea

Jerusalem is amazing. There is so much here, and every square inch is steeped in enough history to fill volumes. Mt. Scopus rises up about a half-mile from the Old City, which means that it’s easy to find scenic views up here on campus…

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Though not quite as wide, I can also get this view from my window… and from the court where we sometimes go to play soccer (yes -- I’m actually getting some use of my favorite toy). Hence the title of this entry…

I’ve had a chance to dabble in the street markets that line the Old City’s walls, and also to see some of the modern city. We have discovered, maybe too frequently, some bars off of Ben Yehuda St, which is a little like Jerusalem’s response to the Downtown Mall in Charlottesville. After doing Shabbos with some Israelis last night, our hosts introduced us to some local bars that aren’t as beleaguered with tourists (i.e., Americans), which was a pleasant – not to mention cost-effective – change of pace. One can only imagine how badly the local vendors rip off American tourists. According to Yakhir, one of my generous Israeli hosts, where shook (marketplace) vendors open negotiations with him at 40 shekels, they would start me at 200. Apparently tourists can bargain down the price to something reasonable; it just takes time. That said, all I’ve bought from the shook has been some rugullah and tea…

Hiking Masada Friday morning was a fun time. We bussed out of town at 2:30AM to arrive at the mountain’s base around 5AM, at which point we proceeded to hike up just in time to watch the sun rise over Jordan, across the Dead Sea. Unfortunately, my pics from the mountain aren’t anywhere near as spectacular the ones I took during first trip here in ’99, but it’s what I got.

A sleepy Ben Israel having made it to the top of Masada in the minutes before sunise.

Looking out from Masada just before dawn… much cooler to see it in real life.

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This is me with my friend Gabriel on a perch overlooking the rapidly shrinking Dead Sea… at this pace, the entire sea will be gone in 10-15 years thanks to mass Israeli pumping out of the Jordan River. In 50 years, the sea level has descended about 35m… what’s really crazy to me is that I actually remember the water being closer during my last visit seven years ago.

Masada has a famous story, as it marks the site of the heroitragic last stand of the Jewish Revolt against the Romans beginning in 66 CE. A band of 976 Jews camped on top of Masada’s “desert island” fortress (King Herod, a Jew and also a close friend of Emperor Augustus, constructed the palace as a safety measure, fearing mass insurrection) for three years while staving off a Roman siege that would inevitably break through. Famously, on the eve of certain defeat, a council of Masada’s leaders chose death over slavery, commencing a mass execution / suicide that would leave only two women and three children surviving to tell the story when the Romans arrived the next morning. Thus, most of modern Jewry descends from the million or so in Jerusalem who survived the revolt and did not flee.

Here we are faffing in a natural pool in Ein Gedi, in the middle of the desert. The water in this spring flows from the Judean mountains, where it seeped into the ground hundreds of years ago, tunneling beneath miles of earth to emerge again today (or Friday).

This is the same region where David hid from King Saul, who in a fit of paranoia had set out to murder him. As the story goes, David passed up an opportunity to ambush and dispatch his would-be assailant and later succeeded him as King of Judea around 1000 BCE.

I forgot to bring my camera to the Dead Sea beach… maybe for the best, since one careless move could have landed it in deadly corrosive salty stuff. Just take my word that floating effortlessly off the beach like a bunch of inflatable shamoos was cool.

Appreciation of the Groin

So you’ve read – or scrolled – this far and might still be wondering about this entry’s title and how far my focus seems to have drifted now that I’m no longer dodging rockets. To explain this, we should go back a few days to a barefoot soccer match outside of Hebrew U’s Reznik dorms. To keep a short story short, I managed to pull three muscles in both legs in my first two minutes, pulling my left groin most severely. One of the pulls was kind of weird, as in addition to the nasty groin injury I also injured a left hip flexor – the muscle opposite the groin. I have no idea how this happened.

So I have spent a few days stumbling around to the tune of my injury, and I hereby testify that the left groin is a majorly important muscle that deserves close and tender care in all situations. For instance, did you ever stop to think about how much you use those muscles when you… turn… bump your knees together when you’re bored… kick things? I have spent half of this week dreading every right turn. Take this as your own personal warning: start caring for your groin before it blindsides you with an injury.

I am hoping to re-emerge onto the soccer scene come Monday.

To conclude: We have relocated successfully from Haifa, as the North remains to dangerous for class. Despite a relatively cramped living situation and higher living expenses, we are moving on with the program, and with life. Classes began again on Thursday – starting Sunday we will be in class 6 hrs/day, 6 days/week – and I am loving my new teacher, who also relocated from Haifa. We’ve been having fun with our loads of free time, but our time here is about to get intense with classes continuing tomorrow.