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.

G-d's intended Weekend

So, as my internet is very sporadic, I cannot post as often as I'd like to - I'm still writing every night, but I can only post when my upstairs neighbor's internet is working. Such is life!

Thursday is the last day of the work week for Israelis, and even though we are a school run by Americans, we follow the Israeli schedule. Friday is the only real weekend for religious Israelis (Dati), but most of the day is devoted to cooking for shabbos. Many people go out on Thursday night, knowing that they don't have to be up early for work on Friday. For secular Israelis, they get Friday and Saturday as their weekend, but for the Dati, it's just Friday day. And, Shabbat in Jerusalem starts 40 minutes earlier than anywhere else in Israel. Saturday night is treated like a Sunday night everywhere else - you have to go to sleep at a normal time so you can get up and go to work on Sunday. It's a hard concept to deal with for people who aren't used to it; for me, I'm losing a day of my weekend. For me, Shabbos is the only day off.
Classes were good, we had almost the same schedule as our Sunday, and the day went by quickly.
First class was about Rachel and Leah, and we did a chevruta (paired learning) and then a shiur/discussion on what we learned. I found out that Leah and Rachel were twins - and that Leah was an incredibly great person. She overcame all her hardships in life, for which Hashem rewarded her. She was supposed to marry Esau, who was a horribly wicked person, and so Leah cried day in and day out while she prayed to G-d. For this, G-d rewarded her with marry Yakov first. Leah had to endure a marriage to a man who didn't love her as much as she loved him. Yakov loved Rachel first, but Leah gave up her entire happiness because she knew she was the builder of the Jewish people. She was rewarded with giving birth to 6 children, which was twice as many as any of the other wives. Since Yakov had 4 wives, and he was to have 12 children, each wife was supposed to have 3, but Leah had 6 because she endured the hardship of a less than perfect marriage. Also, Rachel died much earlier, so Leah not only got to spend the rest of her life with Yakov, but she is also buried next to him in the Cave at Machpelach. (This is the place in Chevron where all our founding fathers and mothers are buried - except for Rachel, she's buried on the road because she sinned.)
The second class of the day is the only class I have not taught by a Rebbitzen or Rabbi. She's a former student of She'arim, and she's very ...enthusiastic. She teaches a great class on Prayer - we're learning about the 3 different shabbat amidahs (the amidah is the silent prayer). She's great, but she's very ...loud. Like I said, she's enthusiastic.
After lunch, we had another parsha (chapter of Torah) class, another halacha (Jewish law) class on muktsa, and the last class is called "Finding Light in Darkness." This one was about the holocaust. I didn't go to this class because I decided to spend some time with a tutor so that I could learn Rashi. If you remember from my post about Sunday, Rashi isn't exactly the easiest thing to read. I didn't realize the level of classes I was in would do Rashi - but in the Rachel and Leah class we were told to read the Rashi and translate it. As I had no idea what was going on, I decided to sit down with a tutor and learn. So, I did! It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, and now I gained a useful skill that will help me in every class.

After class, most people decided to go out to town or the Old City. As I had gone out every night for the past three days, I decided to stay in. It was time to do laundry, and I just wanted to chill out.
Now it's Friday and I'm just doing a lot of relaxing before Shabbat. I'm going to two different people's houses for meals - She'arim set it up, so I have to be on my best behavior.
Shabbat Shalom!