Learning the value of a drain

As it's only my second Sunday in Israel, I haven't gotten used to the fact that Sunday is a normal day here. Well, I'll use normal as a relative term here.
Class went on as usual; some more interesting information about Rachel and Leah - it turns out that whole wife switch was a lot more complicated than it seems in the Torah. Lavan told the whole town that he was going to give Yakov Leah as a wife instead of Rachel, so that Yakov would work for them for another 7 years. Rachel knew he was probably going to do this, and so before they had to separate, she told Yakov that Lavan would try and trick him. They came up with special signs, Yakov told Lavan specifically that he was requesting to marry Rachel - not Leah - his daughter - meaning not some random girl named Rachel, and the younger one - so as to not give Leah to him but calling her Rachel.

It turns out Lavan gives him Leah anyway, and when he finds out in the morning (he couldn't see her at night) that he married Leah, he was really mad at Leah and Lavan - even though Rachel had plenty to do with it. She gave Leah the special signs between her and Yakov, Rachel stayed in the marriage tent with Yakov and Leah, so that when Yakov would talk to his wife, Rachel would answer. It was very devious on Rachel's part, yet he wasn't mad at her - the reason he wasn't mad at Rachel, was because he knew where her actions were coming from, and he knew that in the end he had to marry both sisters (even though in Torah law that's forbidden nowadays). Very interesting and convoluting story. The reason at weddings they have the bedeken, where the groom comes out and puts the veil on the bride, is from Rachel and Leah. Had Yakov looked under her veil at the wedding, he would have known he was being tricked. Now, the groom checks at his wedding to make sure he's not being duped with the wrong sister. :)

The other interesting class was "Finding Light in Darkness." This class is about hard times in Jewish history, and we talked about the cosmic struggle between Israel and Amalek. Amalek is the nation that was the first to go against Israel. Amalek is actually a grandson of Esau, the wicked brother of Yakov. So Amalek has a mindset of being against Jews because they are Jews - so too do the Nazis. The Nazis wanted to destroy the Jews, but they couldn't. We survived the holocaust by keeping our Jewish faith strong.

After classes, I went back to relax - a bunch of us made dinner, a very modest dinner of tuna and cheese in a pita, and then we just hung out until about 9 pm, when a bunch of us went to a wedding. This wedding was between an American girl and boy, which is not unique in Jerusalem. What was unique about this wedding is that the girl is an orphan - or at least she was until she married the guy. It's a very touching story, and we went so that she would have lots of friends and family dancing on her side. It turns out a whole class of seminary girls came to dance at her wedding. It was really nice and I felt good watching her dance and be happy. The bunch of us that went from She'arim had our picture taken by the wedding photographer - I wonder if she's going to look at that photo and go, "Who the heck are these people?" Either way, it was nice to see so many people come out to someone in need.

When we got back to the apartment, I went to take a shower - and as soon as I came out - the warning flags went up. There was a HUGE flood in the kitchen and the living room. It was everywhere. We spent the last half an hour trying to squeegee the water back in to the kitchen and back into the drain, but to no avail - it just wasn't draining. We called the head rabbi of the school, and he's actually here right now trying to sort it out. I've had enough drama with this apartment for one two-week session, that's for sure. First it was the fact that we had no hot water, then it was no pressure, now it's a flood. One girl in the apartment was joking around about how G-d is punishing us for something we did. I'm not entirely sure she's joking, but either way, the floors in our apartment are not only cold, but now they're wet too. I'm looking forward to my nice, warm, working, Long Island shower.