This week marked the first week of the new courses, and ironically is not a full week. Every student in my program, rabbinical, cantorial, or education, has to take Modern Hebrew, Biblical Grammar, Bible, Liturgy, 2nd Temple Period History, History of Zionism, and the Israel Seminar. The sections of the first four are determined by my Hebrew placement level. Liturgy also has a group lecture component. With exception of the Israel Seminar, the rest are lecture classes.
The Israel Seminar is a whole category in itself. It is a combination of a lecture, trip, culture stuff, and every other possible thing one can imagine. I'm so overwhelmed and excited by this class. But more on that in a later blog post.
For Hebrew, I have a different teacher: Zohara, who is the head of the Ulpan program here. She's not like my previous teacher, Osnat, but she's also tough on us and has fun with us, too. I have already learned a lot, so she is a good match for our class. I have the same teacher for Grammar and Bible, Yossi Leshem. Before I went to the HUC, I was pre-warned about his amazing-ness, and even after the one class I found it to be true. I have never taken any sort of formal Biblical Grammar or in depth study of the Bible like this, so I'm glad to have such an amazing teacher.
The Liturgy class lecture is run by Dalia Marx, who is quite intelligent and nice, as is the lady who runs our smaller section whose name escapes me. Sorry.
David Levine teaches the 2nd Temple period class. The few times I've met him before this week were very positive so I was looking forward to his class. Now that I've sat through a lecture, my joy is still blooming. He's a brilliant man and I find my perspective on history very similar. I'm looking forward to the future with him!
I have the History of Zionism and the Israel Seminar courses with David Mendelsson, who has been described by others as "a cute, British man." As an individual he is very dynamic, and I am pleased to say he is the same as a teacher. I have such a great feeling about being with him. While I am disappointed that I do not have any courses with the other gentleman who is teaching these classes, I am not going to cry about it. It's the luck of the draw...and I was certainly lucky.
THAT'S just the basic set of courses. Because I'm a Cantorial Student, I also have more classes! Jealous much!? I have a class on Israeli Folk and Pop Music taught by a soft-spoken but very knowledgable Naomi. After that, I also have a Cantorial Workshop taught by Mikhal Shiff Matter, our fearless leader for the year. On Mondays, I have a Musicianship class, which is basically music theory, taught by Naamah. No, not Dean Naamah Kelman, the other Naamah.
JUST when you thought I was done, oh boy. Since I'm in the most advanced Hebrew level, I also get to take an additional course, Advanced Hebrew Texts, which has not met yet. This isn't an additional class per se. The other Hebrew sections have two sections of Grammar while we only have one. So, this class replaces it.
In other words, I come home daily at 6ish, if I'm lucky, and then I get to do lots and lots of homework. To make matters worse, starting tomorrow they are taking us on a tiyul to the North to mark the beginning of our Israeli Seminar to talk about the basis of developing Zionism, Israeli-ness, and so forth. While I am incredibly excited by this opportunity, I basically have no time to do any homework for the upcoming week. So, tonight and Saturday, the day we return, I have to do pretty much everything for Sunday.
This is also just the beginning. There's so much going on, and I have plans to break up the monotony of one massive blog post by taking some time to talk about things as it goes on. Don't worry, friends and loved ones. I'm still that overachiever who is more than excited to tackle these challenges and become the best.
OK, one picture. As you might know, I've been collecting pictures of cats of Israel. Here's one of my personal favorites:
"The Best of All Possible Worlds" comes from Candide. Great novel, great musical/opera. I keep meaning to reread that book.
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