It’s crazy to think that I came for the year to seminary in
Israel 8 years ago! Livimg here now
still reminds me of some of the good times I had then, but for the most part,
it’s something of the past. What’s
fun for me is that my brother is currently spending his year in Israel, and the
other night I got to taste a night in the life of a seminary boy (or Yeshiva
Bochur, if you will).
Mevaseret Tzion is located a few Kilometers outside of
Jerusalem, and there you will find a Yeshiva full of boys shteiging away at any
given moment. Moshe (the brother)
invited me to come check it out, and so I did.
Not ever having been there before, I needed explicit directions of which
bus to take, where to catch it, and where to get off. I was told that once I get on the bus, I
should just ask the driver to let me off at a specific landmark, and for
certain he would know where it was.
Obviously, the driver responded to me that he had no idea what I was
talking about and he was pretty dismissive.
Luckily, though, someone behind me heard that I was going to the
Yeshiva, and started asking around for anyone that was getting off at that
stop. The elderly gentleman behind me
said that he was, and let me know that he would tell me when it was time. My only other gauge of where I should alight
from the bus was approximately how long the bus ride should take. When it was approaching the given time, I
started looking around for the landmark on my own because the man wasn’t saying
anything to me. When he saw my wandering
eye, he got my attention and gave me the quintessential Israel “wait a second”
look accompanied by the hand gesture (all fingers together, pointed up, shaking
back and forth). In order to best show
what it looked like (because it made me laugh at the time, as this man’s
version was so exaggerated), I later asked Moshe to try and replicate what it
may have looked like – this is what we came up with:
Anyway, we finally reached our stop, and Moshe and his friend
(also a new friend of mine) Jake, came to meet me. Like true Seminary boys, they took me
straight to get something to eat.
Instead of going to the Burger’s Bar joint across the street from their
school, we went to this sketchy convenience store next door and ordered the
most delicious sandwich ever for half the price that it was offered under the
brand name. Of course I was privy to
watching the guy behind the counter (same one who prepared my sandwich and did
everything else in the store) hand out his private cell phone number to my
brother and friend so that whenever they want a sandwich, they can just call in
advance and it will be ready for them when they arrive. Sketchy doesn’t even begin to describe
it.
After dinner and watching an episode of How I Met Your
Mother on the big screen, I got a tour of the Mevaseret campus. It kind of felt like visiting day at camp as
Moshe took me around, showing me all the favorite spots and introducing me to
everyone. I even got to hang out in his
room – a strictly BOYS ONLY spot.
Hanging with the summer camp motif, it kind of felt like I was on a raid
and any second the counselors could catch me and send me to Chana’s office (that’s
a Moshava reference for all you Alumn). It
was funny that I was the object of Moshe’s show-and-tell for the evening as
many of the guys on his floor came by to say hi to the taboo girl in the
dorms.
Yes, the dorms were kind of smelly. Yes, the rooms were pretty messy. Yes, there was an illegal fridge stocked with
stale cake and bottles of beer. But all
of that gave me a real look into the life of a modern day seminary boy. It was great fun hanging out with Moshe and
his friends and getting a peak into his experience – one that seemed as though it
didn’t differ quite so much from my year in Israel. If it follows the same path, maybe in 8 years
from now (or hopefully less) I will find that I can greet Moshe on his incoming
Nefesh B’Nefesh flight into Ben Gurion airport as he makes Aliyah as well.
