I hope everyone is doing well! Please keep me updated on how life is going by you. Here in Beer Sheva, we finally passed through the wonderful holiday season, with bits and pieces of class in between. Last week, I went north with a couple of my friends on a midnight bus to the Golan Heights, hiking in the Banias, traveling around Tiberias (including a visit to the Sea of Galilee, Hammat Tiberias, and some graves of important rabbis), and a night and day in Tel Aviv. What an awesome trip, and much more affordable and relaxing than a trip alone to Europe.
The holiday season was also pleasant because of, well, the holidays! Rosh Hashanah was spent at a friend's in Moshav Otzem. Yom Kippur was here in Beer Sheva, at Kehillat Beerot, a progressive partnership minyan new to the city--I even got to daven minchah from the amud! And Sukkot, of course, was great. I waved the lulav, ate in multiple Sukkot, hosted Shabbat dinner and frantically ran around trying to find a sukkah for kiddush and hamotzi, and a good friend from home came from up north to spend Simchat Torah with me here as well. Hopefully next year will be in Jerusalem.
Most of my recent days have been spent doing one of two things: daf yomi and studying for the GRE. Mostly daf yomi. As stands, I am in the middle of daf samech, with only a couple pages left to go. Tomorrow's a busy day--GRE in the morning, parents coming in in the afternoon, and a siyyum in the evening. Crazy stuff! It's my first tractate to finish, and hopefully far from my last. I can't wait to continue my studies and celebrate with my family and friends.
I hope everyone else had a great chag, and to all of my student friends, chug through it...midterms season is here, but it, too, will pass. You'll do it!
Please get in touch with me--skype, facebook, or even give me a call. I hope to see you all soon!!!
