Final day of Magen David Adom Training

Hey everyone,

Yesterday, Wednesday, I took the final for my 60 hour MDA course.

MDA in a nutshell is the Israeli version of the American Red Cross. I've learned so much about medical studies. For example, I have learned what is, what the signs are and how to treat the most common non-traumatic situations/conditions such as strokes, concussions, diabetes, etc. I also learned the same things about traumatic situations such as head/abdominal/chest/spinal injuries and the five different types of shock. I learned how to administer CPR to adults, children and babies. I also learned PHTLS (pre hospital trauma life support) which entails keeping the patient alive until we transport him to the hospital.

I took the exam yesterday, and passed everything on my first try except for PHTLS, which I took today and passed! I am now officially a MDA first respondent! Today we went to the MDA central station and learned all about the inside of the ambulance. We saw where all the bandages were, the IV's, the collapasable beds and chairs, etc. It was really cool. I'm really looking forward to actually volunteering for MDA in the near future.

Tonight I'm going to the MDA barbeque for our class and instructors. It should be a good time. After I'm meeting up with one of my friends on Young Judea Yearcourse and Kevonim. That should be fun too.

Here's some pictures from MDA class:

From Left top- Seffi, David, Me, Noah Seth
From left bottom- Kay, John, Sophie, Steja, Seri (the teacher)



This is my roommate Seffi with the thumbs up, David in the backboard, Me and Noah my staff member.



John, Sophie and I backboarded David all by ourselves in under 3 minutes!



_______________________________________________

This upcoming Shabbat, I will be traveling to Ashkelon to camp out with about 10 other Nativers. I just got back from the Shuk, where I bought a ton of food with my friend Judah, and we only spent about 35 NIS per person (roughly 9 dollars) for pita, apples, tangerines, grapes, marzapan (rugalach, the best sweet food in Israel), Pringles, peanut butter Bamba, 2 different kinds of nuts and a bag of dried apricots. And that will be our food from Friday afternoon until Saturday night. As my dad says, "food fit for a king."

Shabbat Shalom, have a good and restful one. I'll be sure to give a good update when I get back from Ashkelon!

Josh

I love my room

right now i am sitting in my room watching lost with the most amazing crew ever-

rachel, adina, seffi and debbie!!! and sometimes gabe comes too.

i love lost

-for the record that was Adina who posted that while watching season 1 of LOST.

I just took my MDA final. The test part was pretty easy but the Hebrew part was really hard. I hope I do OK, I'll let you know after I do the practical this afternoon. Then I'll give a good summary of what MDA really is.

Talk soon,

Josh

Simchat Torah!

Good evening,

As I mentioned before, it was just chag season here, and chag season ends with the last day of sukkot: simchas Torah! Simchas Torah is a very unique holiday in which everyone basically just parties at shul for 4 hours at night, and 6 hours the next morning with the Torah. There are seven Hakafot (torah blessings) that we say, and after each one there is about 20 minutes of dancing and singing. As we get closer to the 7th blessing the dancing and singing get longer and longer. We sang all kinds of songs, many of them I didn't know but some of them I did.

On Friday night, Aaron, David, Tyler, Seth, Max, Brian, Asaf and some others went to Kol Rina. If you remember, Kol Rina was the shul that we went to the first weekend but couldn't find for almost an hour. This time we knew where we were going and it only took 15 minutes. It was a good service, and after Ma'ariv the leader of the shul (I don't know if he's the rabbi, or just the Chazzan, he's American and speaks both English and Hebrew perfectly) stood up on a chair inbetween the Machitzah and basically asked people if they wanted to pay over 1000 Shekalim for the honor of reading one of the Hakafot out loud during the upcoming dancing/song session. After about 40 minutes of 3 takers, some of the people pledged over 2000 Shekels, he got fed up with waiting and started the dancing.

They took out 4 Torahs from the bomb sheltered and locked ark. We danced with them for about 2 hours before we had to leave and get back to base for dinner. I actually ended up having the honor of reading one of them out loud. It just so happened to be the longest one and I definitely made up my own tune that made no sense because I didn't really know what I was doing.

I just got my ulpan grade. 83. not bad, not great but in Israel that's a B+. So, I'll think B+, and since I got a 87 on my Jerusalem final as well, that's a A-. OK sorry for getting distracted.

It was a really great night. We danced and sang and ended up getting back in time for dinner and the Nativ Tish. That's just a sweet song session.

The next morning, I went to Shira Chadasha with Seffi and a bunch of other people. I was there for about 5 hours, dancing with the torah and whatnot. It's a tradition in Israel that everyone in every shul in Israel on Simchat Torah morning gets an Alyehia (blessing over the torah). So I had one of course and it was great.

OK I really got to go to sleep. It's after midnight and I'm tired. Sorry... :( but by the way our mini fridge broke again and I lost 18 shekel on Shock chocolate milk, aka "shoko". that was lame

OK time go to, talk soon. Unfourtunately there's no pics from simchat torah, sorry :(

Talk soon,

-Josh

Desert Survival

Hey everyone,

So I havn't written in over 10 days, and I think I have some explaining to do. Here in Israel, from Rosh Hashana to yesterday is considered "Chag Season," where there is a new chag every few days. I have decided that, at least for my time in israel, not to break shabbat and that would limit my writing to 6 days a week. Between rosh hashana and now there was 2 days of rosh hashana, yom kippur, sukkot and simchas torah. but that's no excuse. i owe you guys a huge update. so here we go:

October 4th (Sunday): I wake up at 545 in the morning and board a bus with my track (Yerucham) heading due south to "the negev" aka the desert. after an hour and a half of riding the bus, we arrived at a synagogue in Be'er Sheva, the 'capital' of the negev. we daveded schacrit there, with our lulav's and everything, and had some pretty decent breakfast. i had a bagel, the first time (and last so far) since I left america. Sad :(. we then got back on the bus and headed more south. after another hour and a half, we found ourselves on a really random highway literally in the middle of nowhere, in the bus that was driving off of the road and into the desert. it then stopped after about 10 minutes of driving into the desert and dropped us off. thus begins the 3 day DESERT SURVIVAL ADVENTURE

DAY ONE: We started the hike around noon, but we started it off with a huge uphill climb. Our tour guides name is Michal, and our security guide's name is Tamir. they were both really cool, like 21 years old. the first day we hiked 5 kilometers (3ish miles?) up and down mountains. I was with my friend Adam for most of the first day. Adam and I were getting a little frustated with the slow pace of the group and the numerous amount of stops, so during most of the breaks we decided to hike up our own mountains. Some of the pictures posted are from that intense climb. while everyone was playing some stupid game with a stick, Adam, Seth Miri and I climbed up one huge mountain, then at the top we found another one, and got halfway up that one before Noah yelled at us to come down. It was right around sunset time, and it was absolutely beautiful. We kept hiking until we made it to the campsite. Night came and it quickly got dark and COLDDDD. We were expecting to have even worse food than we usually do back at beit Nativ, but it actually was unbelievable. We then made a campfire, and I played guitar for like two hours. it was amazing. once it was over, we were all absolutely exhusted. it was about 930 when we decided to call it a night. That night, the moon was unbelievably bright. We started calling it the nightlight because it really wasn't that much darker than it was during the day.

DAY TWO: Wake up at 530 AM. Davened schacrit in the desert as the sun was coming up with lulav's and all. We hiked 14 Kilometers that day, and went up one absolutely enormous mountain. We hiked up, and we ended up overlooking the biggest crater in Israel. It's a naturally formed crater, but its still really cool. We passed the Kibbutz group about halfway through the day. they told us the hardest part was still to come. We passed them and finished the final 8 KM pretty quickly, because it was all downhill. I guess they didn't realize that uphill for them was downhill for us! We arrived at the campsite and similarly to the night before, we made a campfire and I sang some songs for it. It was a really good time.

DAY THREE: Yea i realize that my summary's aren't the best, but I'll show you guys a lot of pictures in a second to make up for it. Sorry :/ It was a desert survival hike, walking over a lot of mountains, very hot sun beating down on my crispy body all day, very sweaty and dehydrated all the time. the usual. Day three ended with us reaching our final destination and getting into jeeps! the jeeps drove us for 30 minutes out of the desert and into a rest stop where we got cold cuts and juice for lunch. We made it back to base around 530, I had the best shower EVER and got to sleep around 10. I was gearing up for what was bound to be a very excited few days ahead of me: MDA TRAINING. That will be the next post, but until that goes up here's some pictures from the desert survival adventure!

Sept 30- Oct 3rd

Hey everyone,

Its currently 430 on Friday afternoon. I'm sitting in the Pirates Cove, aka room 611 with LeeAnn, Gabe and Seffi. In about 45 minutes I'm going to start the hike the Linda Gradstein's house in Arnona. I'm excited for Shabbas/Sukkot dinner!

Let's start on Tuesday night. Every Tuesday we have a mandatory evening program called erev Nativ. This time, we had a guest speaker. Some of you may know him, some may not. Rabbi Joel Roth spoke to us on Tuesday night. Rabbi Roth is one of the most well known and influential Rabbi's in the entire conservative movement. It was truly an inspiring speech. He talked to us about the failings of the conservative movement in israel and in america. he talked all about what the conservative movement actually is and why it is "Most authentic Jewish religious movement in the world today." He talked about the why orthodox and reform Judaism are the way they are, but why, in his opinion, they are wrong and the conservative movement is right.

He says there in the reform and orthodox movement, there isn't a big religious gaps between the rabbi's and his members. Orthodox people aren't any more religious than their rabbi's are, and same with the reform movement. but the conservative movement has a huge gap of religious observance between the rabbi's and his people. rabbi roth told us that the conservative movement is a movement dedicated to halacha, such as keeping shabbat and keeping kosher, but for some reason conservative jews don't understand that.

Let's start on Wednesday. Wednesday I took an ulpan test and ended up getting a 98. but it totally wasnt my fault i didnt get 100 because the font the teacher used was really confusing so i confused a kof and a final tzdik so it wrote the wrong letter. unfair.

OK so they turned off the internet as I was writing, so sorry I didn't get to you guys before shabbas. now i need to update about shabbas as well. ill make that a new post. until then let's cover thursday

Thursday was the ulpan final. it was ok, i'm pretty sure i passed, not sure about having an A but for sure in the B range, which is fine because that should get me to ulpan aleph plus plus which was the goal.

after the test, we had the first week of the NBA, the nativ basketball association at liberty bell park. we got the good court, i brought my speakers and we went. asaf, aaron and i organized the league, there's 5 teams of 4 guys on a team. my team is me, brian, tyler and ethan. we went 2-2, as in 2 wins and 2 losses. i played pretty well, getting better as the night went on, which is pretty normal. after intense basketball, we showered up and got ready for a good thursday night.

after the test we all went out on thursday night, it was pretty fun. what's lame is that all the nativ people don't congregate together in downtown jerusalem, we tend to spread out a little bit which is lame because i would rather spend time with nativ people than random americans/brit's that are roaming around ben yahudia street. that was fine, nothing special, lots of random israeli's playing music and lots of people. pretty standard thursday night.

Friday! friday was free, i woke up at 1145, the latest i've woken up since i've been in the holy land, it felt greattttt waking up that late. we just hung around before shabbas, and then i started to type this blog. then the internet got turned off.

last night, i went to a family friends house, Linda Gradstein, for Shabbat/Sukkot dinner. It was about a 45 minute walk to her house from beit nativ, but since i got lost about 4 times it took around an hour. there were a ton of little kids there, which was super fun. they were all around 8 years old. some were a little younger, some were a little older. after a nice shabbat dinner i walked back to base with two families that i met there and that was pleasant. i got back to base around 1130, hung out with some people for an hour and ended up getting to sleep around 130. i set a mental alarm clock because seffi and i both forgot to set alarm clocks.

i ended up waking up at 750, perfect timing. seffi i went to shira chadasha, a nice service. got back to base, hung out, did some work on my ankle, did mincha, maariv and sutff

going to burgers bar now

talk soon,

josh

KIRYAT GAT!!

Shalom,

So this past shabbat, before yom kippur, I was in Kiryat Gat. Let's talk about that.

SO FIRSTTT the summer before my senior year of high school i went to CHUSY's encampment, and each year CHUSY, Chicago Region USY, has 12 Israeli's from the Kiryat Gat area attend camp with us. They are juniors, so one year younger than me. I met a kid named Roi, a really great guy while at camp and we decided that if i ended up going on nativ i would come stay with him on free weekend. Seth also happened to host Roi for the week before camp started.

Thursday night, a bunch of us decide to go play basketball at the park, get back around 1030 and was asleep by like 1130. All good. Seth and I wake up the next morning at 9, pack and head to Eged central bus station. We caught a 1030 bus to Kiryat Gat which arrived around noon. Roi picked us up from the bus station. We went to the Kiryat Gat mall, a pretty cool mall not very big but obviously not a tourist attraction at all. There were only israelis there, very different from the Americanized Jerusalem. Roi seth and i got lunch at Aroma Cafe, the only thing that slightly resembles it in America would be corner bakery, but corner isn't nearly as fresh. its like fresh food but really healthy and yummy. mmmmmm.

After eating we walked around the mall and Roi knew sooooooo many people. They were all from his "Moshav." for everyone that isn't too up to date with israeli terminology, a moshav is similar to a kibbutz in many senses, but, as Roi explained it to me, in a kibbutz everything is shared; economy, social scenes, families. moshav is where everyone has their own jobs, some work in the moshav but it's not required, there are a ton of community things such as parks, security, etc. but it's not nearly as extreme as a kibbutz. his moshav is moshav shekef. shekef is a moshav that produces grapes. it also happens to be, literally, on the border with the west bank. but i'll get to that story later. ok back to what we're doing.

so roi's mom picks us up after about an hour an a half walking around and seeing people. its about 25 minutes to the moshav from kiryat gat. fyi kiryat gat is in the south of israel, a little bit south west from Be'er Sheva, which is south of Jerusalem. OK cool. we get to the moshav and our other friend from camp CHUSY comes by. His name is miki. miki, roi, seth miki's friend and i get into miki's car and miki takes us to what he calls is "the most beautiful place on earth." i was pretty excited. I'll post some pictures of what we saw as well so you can see.

We drive about 5 minutes outside the moshav, unlock some gates, drive on some dirt roads and up a mountain. on top of this mountain we could see soooooooooooo far! looking out, we could see from the Mediterranean Sea to the Gaza Strip, across the entire country. with that, we could also see the West Bank obviously and Tel-Aviv off in the distance, as well as some other smaller cities such as Ashkelon and S'dereot. We're chillen on top of the mountain and all of a sudden we see black smoke start to come out of the west bank. I start to freak out and say "ROI THE WEST BANK IS ON FIRE!!" Miki quickly comes over, puts his arm around me and says, "Josh, don't worry, the west bank is always on fire." That was.... comforting I guess. It wasn't a big deal, don't worry.

After about an hour of hanging out on the mountain, we get back in the car and return back to Shekef. We get back, its around 630, and we have an amazing home cooked meal by Roi's mom. Their whole family spoke English and that made things easier. After dinner, we met up with some of Roi's friends. We hung out that night with Ron, Shir, Shir, Na'ama, Jon and Gafen. We got to the park and three Israeli Soldiers that were stationed at the Moshav, because its on the border, were on break. So we hung out with them. None of Roi's friends really spoke English that well, so I ended up speaking more Hebrew than English that weekend. It was really cool, not just the hanging with three random Israeli soldiers part but my Hebrew got muchhhh better that weekend. Around 2 we went back to Roi's house and hung out. I woke up and the first thing I thought was actually in Hebrew, not English. Strange right?

The next we we just hung out with everyone again at the park the next day. Seth and I returned to our home in Jerusalem on Saturday, went out for ice cream for David's birthday, and called it a weekend. It was a great shabbat.

Enjoy the pics

Currently I'm sitting on the porch with Jesse chillen, he's studying for some test and I already studied for my ulpan test, but I should probably study again soon. maybe, there's erev Nativ tonight so that takes up time from 7-10, maybe i will after its over.

I didn't get my Jerusalem final back yet, lame i know right?

I'm still trying to get this formatting of picture thing down, I'll figure it out soon though don't worry! If worst comes to worst I'll just ask David.

Talk soon,

Josh

Yom Kippurrrrr

Gmar Hativah Tova!!!

This was a longgggggggg day. Luckily its all over, don't think I would wanna do it again anytime soon but glad I did. Here's what happened:

Last night we had dinner 330, ended at 4 and fast started 4:53. So I actally ended up fasting an hour longer than I needed to.

No biggie. I went to Kol Rina for Kol Nidre and Maariv. I went there before for Shabbas Morning services and it was amazinggggg, lots of singing and very modern orthodox. There's a front/back Machitzah, the Chazzan prays in the middle though and its not very high so its pretty fair I would say, if you were wondering. I was there with Tyler, Seth, David, Gabe and some other people. It was ok, nothin too fancy, a lot of independent davening so good to an extent.

This morning me tyler seth gabe michael and some other went to yamin moshe. It was more orthodox than the last one, but I got to parade the second torah and sit with it when they read from the first one! Mitzvah!! it was great. that service was also ok.

After 6 hours of services we came back to beit nativ and slept for like 3 hours. at 4, jesse jonny and I went to kedem, the conservative shul off of emek refiem, right near burgers bar. i went there for rosh hashanna and it was greatttt then. so we went there for the second halfish of maariv and Nehilia. It was muchhhh better than the orthodox servies. I thought that I liked the orthodox services better, maybe not. i dont know, ill figure it out this year. they then had an amazinggggggggg break fast, not as good as the Maxwells break fast of course, but it was filled with Rugalach and a ton of juices. So it was great.

Came back to beit nativ, had some bad dinner like always but I was already full from the break fast at Kedem. We went out for Ice Cream and now I'm here on the porch updating my blog. yay!

OK guys, I'll let you know how i do on my j-lem test tomorrow when i hopefully get it back. and for the record i'm sick of using proper spelling and grammer, i dont know if you could tell but halfway through the post i just realized that its kind of overrated. so sorry if it offends. :)

Talk soon,

Joshua