First Day at Pardes

Today was my first day at Pardes. I arrived at 8:45 and filled out paperwork and then waited around a bit. By 9:30 or so we gathered into an opening meeting and introduced ourselves, learned about the different course options, and generally got oriented. Of course, there were several connections with folks--first, with a former student, Lauren. I taught her at Beth Tfiloh six years ago--in fact, I wrote a college recommendation for her, and she just graduated. There are also a couple of alums of my current school in the program. Again, it's a small world.

So far, the program seems great. Tonight I started one of my elective sort of classes, Jewish papercutting. We started on a project right away, and it is pretty easy but also requires lots of patience and focus--very good for my obsessive tendencies! Tomorrow morning I start my Talmud and Torah yoga classes, which will meet four and five times a week, and I will also start Uplan (Hebrew language class). I'm really looking forward to it.

Everyone here is extremely engaged and excited to be studying; there's a great energy. Many people are in transition, either graduating college or post-graduate work, switching careers, considering aliyah, or something like that. It was actually odd to introduce myself and realize that I'm one of the few people actually "settled"--here for my three weeks but then going right back to where I came from. Matthew pointed out to me recently that I have always been a "what iffer"--agonizing over choices made and choices foregone. So it was interesting to realize that although I was happy for all the people in transition or still figuring out their paths, I was also pretty grateful to be a little further along the path. I certainly don't have as many options as I once did--every choice means many others are precluded, but I guess I've come to some sort of peace with that. Living in Israel for a month is ceratinly an adventure I wouldn't have necessarily predicted, so it isn't as if everything is all decided and all choices made. In any case, as I introduced myself today, I felt pretty satisfied with my lot.

Today was very social, and it has been a bit of a transition from having many days completely on my own, with lots of introspection and a bit of lonliness to meeting one hundred very enthusiastic new friends. I already have a Shabbat lunch invitiation and dinner plans for tomorrow evening.

Another advantage of Pardes is that the wireless connection is excellent. I've been skyping with Matthew and Miri every day, but today was the best connection by far. I also got to skype with my office back in NJ--unfortunately, though I have been able to limit my time on email, etc, I haven't been able to completely check out from work.

The other nice thing that happened today is that I surfed to Elie's camp's website and found a great picture of her--smiling and having a great time. I was so thrilled to see her face! So, that's all I have to report for now. Tomorrow or the next day I hope I'll be able to give you a sense of what my Talmud class is like.