Back in Israel, back in blogging

I am back, and boy does it feel good. The same rules apply here; namely, i don't really care about spelling, or grammar, or even capitalization. i hope you enjoy, and please leave comments or email me (talinuxactly@gmail.com). you can call me if you want at 011-972-52-450-8455.

I am taking two courses at Hebrew University in j-lem. i now have much more freedom and independence than last time. its amazing. i am really enjoying myself.

as i said, i am taking two courses. the first is simply an introduction to the books of the bible. this includes authorship, accuracy, peculiarity, and general learning of those books. it is taught by Dr. Sean Aster. A kippah wearing jew. and he is very good. he really knows his stuff and is a pretty good teacher. we have already had two guest lecturers in that class- Rabbi Robbie Harris, and Dr. Baruch Schwartz. Harris spoke to us about what are called type-scenes- a scene that has certain conventions that are expected and the author of a story keeps that in mind but tries to introduce different elements to further his story. an example of this would be the betrothal at the well. Harris really knows how to direct a discussion...absolute genius. he would lead us perfectly like a conductor would an orchestra. Schwartz spoke to us about sources of the bible and documentary hypothesis. While i've heard this lecture before, he presented it stupendously, and also lead brilliantly. he pushed us to ask the right questions and to find the answers ourselves. again, it was a amazing.

the other class is about the impact of the ancient near east on the writing of the bible and vice versa. we've learned about the history and religion and geography of mesopotamia so far. the teacher for that class is Professor Wayne Horowitz. He is so organized that it seems he rehearses his lessons. He takes one glance at his notes and can run for another ten minutes or so without looking again. there are no umms or "where was i"'s. even if someone asks a question or he takes a tangent (very short ones) he can be back on task nearly instantly. basically, i have very good teachers.

i've been into town a few times, and i am pretty good at convincing people that i speak hebrew. sometimes, i think too long about obvious things or try to say an idiomatic english phrase but in hebrew. then they say, "say it in english.." most of the time is hebrew for me. at the same time, it is strange for me to be in an atmosphere where a lot of the people around me (who are non-native) speak better hebrew than i do... which brings me to another point, almost everyone is older than me. never before in my life have i been the youngest, and never before have i been not among the best in some language. very new experience for me.

i've been to visit kibbutz tzuba (where i studied the semester before last) and its current residents. there are 32 kids on the summer semester of that program. there were only 31 for my semester, and its the first year they are running the summer one. i actually knew 8 of the kids. i also went to visit walter zanger for shabbat dinner. i installed his printer :)

i dont know what else to tell you. i am having fun. and all is well. and im not yet behind in school-work.