under space and matter

[starfrosting]

1) I'm really tired. Today I came home from work with a peacock eye bobbing emerald and cobalt above my crown-- no, really-- and a lady outside the adventist church said, "Only one!? Where's the other one?" I told her I was working on my collection; really it's an offering/gift for T.

2) Sometimes I think I could make myself a Butchies mixtape and be happy any time of year.

3) I think I want to do Birthright before it's too late but I'm also kind of terrified at the prospect (of going to Israel, under those auspices, etc). On the other hand if my only real plan B is the rabbinate then I should really at least get over there and see/hear Hebrew. And it would be a great jumping off point to *Greece which I've been missing terribly and Turkey too. It would be awesome to be able to go through ALEPH (the Jewish Renewal organization).

Comments

[magnolienbaum.livejournal.com]

no, but i know people who have, and they've said really good things. it's a great way to get plugged into international solidarity work with palestinians. the thing is, you have to pay - it's notion is taking issue with the very idea of "birthright" and its zionist framework. how can jews in the diaspora have a birthright when palestinians are cut out from their own land?

[starfrosting.livejournal.com]

right. I actually researched it and it seems like a great program, but of course there's the financial aspect. of course birthright is crazy in the way you mentioned, but without those zionist funds I don't know that a trip over there would be feasible. (and yes, only the weird zionist idea that i'm somehow 'entitled' to go to israel has even planted the possibility of going in my head, I know. ugh. that's why I'd love to find a progressive group to go with that still has access to the taglit-birthright funds, if that exists.)

[magnolienbaum.livejournal.com]

yeah, i get the money thing, but i don't think you're going to find something that uses birthright funds *and* does palestinian solidarity work, if that's part of what you mean by progressive. i hope you find some way to make a trip that makes sense to you. i mean, if you go to rabbinic school you'll have to go for a year anyway, which is a different thing all together.

[starfrosting.livejournal.com]

I think you're totally right-- I don't think I'll be able to find a group doing the exact same kind of work the Unplugged group is doing, but my hope is to find something which at least has aspects oriented toward those kinds of commitments (hence my interest in Aleph)...

And of course the rabbinic school thing is such a farflung "if and only if, and then I'd have to learn Hebrew, and..."--- Anyway, thanks for giving me some perspective on all of this.

[magnolienbaum.livejournal.com]

good luck! and, totally.
oh hebrew learning. i'm doing it on-and-off on my own right now, and oy.