Life Stories

I want to take this time to describe perhaps the most fascinating experience on my trip: life stories.

But before I do just that I want to describe a friend of mine on this trip. A girl named Samara has a very interesting mannerism: she loves of the odd facts of life. Since the airport Samara has interviewed me on various matters such as my favorite breakfast cereal, what my parents do, which clubs in high school I joined, and numerous others esoteric tid-bits of knowledge. Although they may seem like odd-job facts, each kernel is insight into who I am and what I'm like. 

You can immediately get a feel for a person within five minutes of talking to them. Are they sarcastic? Shy? Eccentric interests etc. But this snippits give just a little bit more than your personality, they give the questioner a window into what ingredients make up the final product that is the person. I'll get back to that analogy later.

The story begins with Elie telling, one of my closest friends on the trip, Ben to tell his 'life story'. Ben reacting just as you might, with a little shock, some confusion and then a whole lot of thought. Ben and I have since discussed this idea throughly since. After Ben told Elie his 'life story', and he mentioned what he had done to me, he asked me to do the same. Later, we sat down and I began to talk. As I began to speak, people sat around and started to listen. What's going on? What are they doing and what does it mean? That night many life stories were told. And with each one, the group learned something about that person that they may never know without this given context. 

One cannot possibly ever tell  someone your entire life story. Not in five minutes, not in forty, not in a day or a week. Therefore, when you do have the chance to attempt to do just that, you have to pick and choose what it is you want to say. Do you choose profound experiences? Ideologies that shape your lifestyle? Habits? Each one of these is an ingredient that makes up your life. After telling your life story, or even while listening, you are constantly thinking: Why did I just say that? What does that say about me that of all the other components of my life I chose to say that? The idea by the end is to reflect and then ultimately, tell your story again. Will you choose different ingredients this time around? To further the analogy, lets take bread. In describing what bread is, you could talk about the wheat and the water. But you could also spend time talking about the baking process. Or maybe the time spent coating with eggs. All of those parts, hugely impact the final product of the bread. Yet each time you describe bread you might choose to pick one of those steps as opposed to another. At the end of the day, life stories are more about personal reflection than the actual process of story telling.

Samara wrote was asked a question in her college application process that she shared with me, and it has truly affected my thoughts on both life stories and in the end how I view myself. The question was "write about something you do everyday that most other people find mundane that you find particular significance in". That everyday activity for me is riding the subway twice-a-day. Partially because that time is time for me to listen to music that I don't get at other times in the day. But more importantly because I get to 'people-watch'. When I sit across from a 30-something-looking woman with a ring on her finger I spend my subway ride thinking about what's going through her head, what her husband may be like, does she have kids, what is her favorite breakfast cereal (or another such Samara question). I spend my subway rides trying to get inside another persons head.

When I talk to a person, anyone from my mother to my best friend to a stranger, I always wonder what they're thoughts are. What is causing them to talk the way they do? I don't necessarily mean they're temperament and tonality, but more importantly, why did they choose those words? What is so profound about 'life stories' is that it gives you just enough ingredients to understand a few of the nuances that go into understanding why they chose those words and why they have the temperament and tonality they do. Why they have the opinions they do, why they are passionate about the things they are etc. 

In conclusion, I wish I could possibly articulate how I feel about my fellow Kivunimers. I wrote in a speech I gave at a graduation dinner that I believe that a person must be both an achiever and a thinker and that Heschel encouraged both. There were only a few at Heschel that I felt really fit that category. This trip is composed entirely of those people. Each person on this trip thinks passionately, eloquently, deeply, and intellectually. Each person has their own idiosyncrasies, their own quirks and habits. And each person is genuinely interesting. As I articulated about myself in an interview with Peter Geffen for this trip, everyone on this trip is passionate about their interests and active about their passions. 

I can't begin to explain how excited I am to learn, grow, study and explore with these 50 brilliant friends of mine.

until next time...

for those with a personal knack for knowing their bibliographys, this next post was written by Ben Perlstein.

After Kivunim left Kibbutz Ketura, we went to the southern-most Israeli city of Eilat for a day of transition. We were supposed to go to Petra in Jordan, for the beginning of the day, but due to pre-election security precautions we stayed in Eilat for the remainder of our orientation, before heading up to our home base in Jerusalem.

Our day in Eilat was pretty un-programmed and relaxed. We hung out on the beach and went out for a fantastic dinner, bracing ourselves for a new lifestyle. Soon school would start, and the summer-program-esque portion of our program would be over.

The four-hour bus ride up to Jerusalem was another peak of our anticipation. Kivunim would finally settle down (for a month at least!). Once we were in the city limits, Naomi Shemer’s “Yerushalayim Shel Zahav” (Jerusalem of Gold) and Matisyahu’s “Jerusalem” blasted in the bus’ stereo. We all sat up straight in our seats, letting the city pour into us. We descended into a tunnel, and the Matisyahu’s song came to its climax as we shot out onto the highway, overlooking the Old City with the Dome of the Rock blazing in the window. The energy on the bus took on a life of its own as we all reacted in our own individual ways to our almost theatrical entrance into the heart of the city.

Soon the world outside, the streets, the signs, the restaurants and clubs, became potential pieces of home. I looked freshly on everything, anticipating how familiar it would all be to me by the end of the year. We arrived at our home at Beit Shmuel (an appendage of Hebrew Union College and the World Union for Progressive Judaism), explored our rooms, and the common areas. We were reunited with our possessions, which had waited here while we were in the desert. Soon we ventured out into the city.

We are about as close as anyone to the center of Jerusalem. Our building overlooks the Old City and downtown. The legendary Ben-Yehudah Street is less than ten minutes away by foot. The other gap-year program students seem to be everywhere. In the first few days I met up with a number of friends from Young Judaea Year Course, and met many others on different programs through friends on Kivunim. The life on foot is fantastic, after eighteen years of using vehicular transportation for nearly every activity. I am really enjoying soaking in the new map of this city, exploring its many villages on morning jogs. It’s no American grid city, but somehow its organization feels intuitively logical, based on its rolling hills and development as an outgrowth of the Old City.

On the first Shabbat we all made a pilgrimage (eh, more like fifteen minute walk) to the Kotel of Western Wall. Again I looked on Israel in a new light. Every time I have visited the Kotel in the past, I feel this incredible pressure to have a transformational experience. I often feel compelled to recite prayers and observe certain rituals that aren’t central to my daily life.

The idea of having a personal experience at the Kotel is popular, but perhaps more importantly, there’s no one way to do it, we decided. That’s an important idea to put into words at the Kotel of all places.

The popular Jewish-American reggae artist Matisyahu paraphrases the psalms when he sings “Jerusalem, if I forget you, let my right hand forget what it’s supposed to do.” The day before yesterday I gave somebody directions to the Central Bus Station in Hebrew for the first time. Everyday I feel more connected to this city as my neighborhood. When we first arrived I was struck by how stimulating the smell of it is, clear and cultured at the same time. Jerusalem is an icon of Jewish history, in joy and peril. It is a staple of our present reality, the seat of Israel’s government, and the home of countless year-programs. It is a place that presents many questions, and countless opportunities to learn.

Now that I’m here, I’m sure I’ll never forget Jerusalem; I just hope I never take it for granted.

Sunday, October 19th 2008

Hello all,

I’m ashamed to say that I have now been in Israel one week and this is my first time journaling. I will do my very best to recap everything I’ve done so far and will try to be more consistent with my updates.
Monday morning, the 12th, we landed at Ben Gurion and among the hectic-ness of meeting the other fifty participants, we picked up our cellphones, dropped our bags off at the Jerusalem-bound and Ein Gedi-bound busses respectively. After dropping our luggage off, we jumped on the Ein-Gedi buss and headed south to our first location, the Ein Gedi Youth Hostel. The hostel is located on the coast of the Dead Sea and is absolutely beautiful. The activities of the day were some simple icebreakers and services overlooking the view for Sukkot.
Tuesday the 12th started with an early morning and a bad Israeli breakfast of Israeli salad, hummus and cabbage – delish. That day we had two sessions (the Kivunim term for lectures). The first with our menahel, Peter Geffen. Every moment that I hear him speak I find him more and more intriguing. He is an enormously intellectual, a powerful speaker, and I’ll finish this commentary at the end. The second was with a man named Shlomi, whom I regret to say I forget his position. He spoke for two hours, which was nice for us because we were still jet-lagged. The night ended with a failed attempt to play an Israeli movie (the subtitles didn’t work).
Wednesday. Early morning wake up and a hike through the mountains of Ein Gedi and Nahal David- an absolutely beautiful hike. Nahal David, for those who don’t know is an incredible waterfall and series of pools in what is seemingly otherwise the middle of the desert. Everyday that passes I begin to realize that everyone on the trip is both enormously smart and genuinely interesting. One week into the trip and I have yet to find someone with whom I have not shared an interesting conversation – these conversations have ranged from their views on hummus for breakfast, whether raising the minimum wage in the U. S. qualifies as an act of Hesed and Tzedakah, and what clubs we were in in high school and how they affected us. After the hikes through the oases of Ein Gedi, we hopped back on the bus and drove to the Dead Sea Spa and indulged in the mud baths, floating in the water, and sulfer baths. I just sniffed my arm to make sure, there is still a slight stench of sulfer on my skin. After the spa, we went back to the hostel and napped for three or so hours. This next piece will be an interesting blip in the list of activities. We awoke at 930pm, packed our bags and drove out to the middle of the desert. We then hiked in the middle of the Midbar from 11pm until 6am. The only way this was possible was the full moon that amazingly acted as a spotlight on our path. This adventure was both extremely exciting, and beautiful. The only downside was the fact that we were still not set on Israeli time and still very much so tired. We arrived back at 7 am for some nap time before starting another day.

Thursday – awake at 11 after a tiring night. We traveled via bus to an ancient synagogue near Ein Gedi at least two thousand years old- mamash yafa. We then went to the botanical gardens of Ein gedi- mamash yafa. That night we had the first of two sessions with Peter Geffen’s son, Jonah Geffen. Jonah has a masters degree in conflict resolution, therefore it was no surprise that his topic of choice was coexistence. He began his talk with an anecdote about his own time on Young Judea’s Yearcourse fourteen years ago when he was “a mere 100 yards” from where two Palestinian men had opened fire on a busy Jerusalem street. Jonah, just like his father is eloquent, intelligent and has the remarkable ability to convince you that you are the perfect candidate for change in the world.
Friday morning we journeyed to Machtesh Ramon, which is an enormous crater created from what used to be a large body of water. Another truly beautiful hike, after which we bussed to our second location: Kibbutz Sede Boker.
Saturday October the 18th, was a much needed relaxing day at the kibbutz. With optional services, and optional breakfast, the majority of the trip took the opportunity to sleep in and take the deep breath that we needed after Wednesday-Thursday left us gasping for air. We had a second session with Jonah Geffen and then split into groups for further discussion on our own conceptions of what we deemed broad terms like Zionism and how one defines their own love for Israel. Again, I was amazed by the collective intelligence, eloquence and creativity of the group. That night, Daniel Bush, the leader of the social responsibility component of our trip, introduced himself and spoke to us. Just like the rest of the staff members of the trip, Daniel comes from an intriguing combination of a complex religious, intellectual, academic and social background. One very interesting piece of his talk was his seemingly random question to the group to show, by a show of hands, how many of us were artists and how many were athletic. Interestingly enough, though hardly surprising from the self-selective group, artists vastly outnumbered athletes. Oh, it was also my birthday.
Sunday, today, was one half very fun and one half very, very boring. We had the leader of the scholarly world on Bedouins speak to us and lead us around Ben Gurion’s house and tomb at Sede Boker. Clinton Bailey, was an intellectual, that was for sure. He also happened to be the most dry, uninteresting, unenthusiastic speaker the group collectively agreed had ever heard speak. Although we later were rebuked for our behavior, a significant chunk of the group had a nice nap during his so-called lecture. During the afternoon we visited a Bedouin school and sat in on a short class. Although we could hardly communicate with the children due to a thick language barrier, the visit was amazing. I felt as though I had been placed on a foreign planet. Houses were made out of tin and cinder blocks. In the past I had visited ‘Bedouin’ tents, but both times were tourist attractions, this was ‘the real deal’.
Well…. It was a rather frustrating discovery to see that Peter Geffen just sent an email to all the parents explaining our trip thus far, in far more eloquent language.
So.

I now turn to the “adin’s head” portion of this story. This trip has turned out to be a absolutely fantastic. As I said before, this trip is composed of really smart, funny, interesting people. Everyone here is passionate about learning and exploring. Learning about the world, the ‘other’, about themselves, about other countries, learning Hebrew and Arabic, among countless other topics. The counselors are not too old that they cant connect to us as high school graduates but not too young that they lose any sense of authority. They, as well, are smart and interesting people.

That’s it for now. But I am eager to share my experiences as I come to them. Keep posted for any updates.

-adin