Rabbi Bloom's Sabbatical Blog

  View of the Mediterranean Sea from our Tel Aviv Apt. It's hard to describe what the two days of Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha'atzmaut are like here in Israel. It's the heaviness and the excitement in the air, the Israeli flags waving everywhere, the siren of silence, the revelry, the barbecues, the general mood. In some ways, these are their biggest holidays.  Yom Hazikaron is Israel's Memorial Day, and it's for and about the many soldiers who have died in battle. So many families are directly affected by this, and if you didn't lose a relative in your own family, plenty of your friends did. There are no appliance sales on this day, but there are a whole lot of programs (tekes, it is called in Hebrew) that honor these people. There is also a moment of silence at 11 AM, and, just like with Yom Hashoa, everyone stops what they are doing, gets out of their cars or homes or offices, and stands at attention. However, as soon as that day ends, the evening changes to Yom

Coq D'or Marselan Wine, Kosher from France What exactly will I be doing on my sabbatical , I have been asked multiple times. I am often tempted to answer "as little as possible" as I attempt to recharge, rejuvenate, and rest after 3 years of Covid Rabbi-ing. However, not only is that flippant, it's not really accurate. I at least plan to eat lots of amazing Kosher foo, drink lots of amazing Kosher wine, and buy lots of things, thus doing my part to stimulate the Israeli economy. But I jest. I am not just taking an extended vacation. The goal is actually to use my brain in ways I don't always get to in daily life. Traditionally, sabbaticals were often utilized by professors and clergy to do some sort of project or to study something in depth. But what I want to do is what we call Torah Lishma , learning for its own sake. And I now have a schedule of sorts to accomplish that. Ulpan . I will be doing a two day a week Ulpan (conversational Hebrew intensive) at the Com

I said to another TBA member who is in Israel right now, if you didn't read the news, you wouldn't feel any of the tension that you are reading about in America. Mostly you'd just feel the peace of Jerusalem and the rhythm of the Passover holiday. I got into that a little bit last week, but a little more now. The Longest Seder . We attended the longest and latest Seder we have ever been to at the home of the Swidlers, a family who lives in the Nachlaot neighborhood of Jerusalem who we met when they hosted us 12 years ago through shabbat.com (it's a real thing), and we have become good friends with ever since. Since they are constantly hosting us (our apartment could never really meet their Kashrut standards) we took them out for a pre Pesach Pizza Hut dinner. Then, the next night, their Seder went from about 8:45 PM to 2 AM. But it was not just an all Hebrew/mumbling type of Seder. It was filled with questions and discussions and beautiful, beautiful singing. The entire

  Contrasting Images . The holy and the wholly unbelievable? The very sacred and the very profane? That's what life is always like in Israel, but it has never been more true than today. The protests dominate the headlines here, as well as most Saturday nights. The Sacred and Spiritual . The first photo will be explained later. The second photo contains a whole lot of sacred. The Western Wall is in the background, where we Jews put our special prayers at this retaining wall (not the wall itself) of the 2nd Temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. It's always one of my very first stops in Israel. After a long day of running around shopping, getting things to set up our beautiful apartment, looking for a whole bunch of other things we needed to acquire or do, Karen went back to the apartment we are renting in Rehavia or Kiryat Shmuel or Katamon (we are at the intersection of all 3 neighborhoods), I decided I needed one more walk to touch the Wall, as exhausted as I was from my nea