Is this one going to get as big as the previous one? Somehow I think so...
Note from afterward: Yup, it did. And it's finally done! Rose, you can stop pestering!
Anyway...I'm not sure at exactly what point it was, but I started helping out with the computer side of the rabbinical college (known as a yeshiva). On a paid basis, starting during one of the holidays when I was at a loose end, I started compiling a database of donors. From there it went on to alumni.
As I've already mentioned in passing, my single year here stretched out into a second, and then a third. I started to pick up Hebrew (the official language of the country is actually called Ivrit, but it's based on the same Biblical Hebrew we learn in), but that was more from my studies and casual conversation than any actual intent (Or classes, G-d forbid!! ::grin::) to learn it.
At some point in my third year here me and another total nut took the library here (One of the biggest libraries of Jewish books in English in Israel, possibly, but still not all that many after all was counted. About three thousand books, I think.) completely to pieces and reorganized it. Then we fed it all into a computer so we could actually keep track of who had what and what we actually had. More DB work.
In the meantime I was progressing in my studies. I ran out of class for a bit at the top end (in Talmud studies, anyway) and moved into the Hebrew-speaking program for about three weeks.
Ever tried to listen to a class in one language while taking notes in a completely different one? (I do mean completely different--Hebrew and English don't even run the same way!) It's not at all easy. So when a couple of advanced students arrived, I gave up the struggle without a fight and moved back to the English program where a new class was being formed. On a higher level, of course.
That persisted for a while, and then the other two left again. This time, instead of moving sideways into the Hebrew program again, the yeshiva started up a Semicha (rabbinical ordination) program.
Very small. Just four of us really, to begin with. Oh, there were a few who came and went, but the core group was only ever four.
I'm not sure, exactly, at what point this next even occurred. I believe, thinking about it hard, that it was before I began my rabbinical studies. But it could even have been a full year after they'd started; as I say, I'm not sure. I know for certain that it was three years ago.
My teacher in Talmud, for the three years I'd been in the yeshiva, was a man by name of Rabbi Chaim Zev Steinbach, A"H. (That's not entirely accurate, because as far as we--the students--were ever able to tell, Rabbi Steinbach did not have any form of rabbinical ordination. Did we care a whit for that? Nope. The man knew enough to put any twelve ordained rabbis in his spare pocket. The 'Rabbi' was for respect.)
At first glance he'd just seem like one more middle-aged man over a volume of the Talmud. To a new student, he'd seem like any regular teacher, perhaps one better-versed in his material than most. But to one who'd been around long enough to really get to know him...
He was...quiet, mostly. Very modest, very exacting on himself. A fun teacher with his own peculiar sense of humor once you got to know him. A collector of books (Jewish books of learning, mostly) like nothing you've ever seen.
You know how you have the very visible movers-and-shakers in an organization and then you have the quiet people who just do the work and get it done? Rabbi Steinbach was one of the second kind, in a big way. Quiet, unassuming, and quite happy to stay in his place, teach his classes, and learn on his own while he wasn't teaching (this despite a fairly meager wage, too). You could always count on him being there when we came out of prayers an hour before class, and could always count on him leaving at one to pray minchah (the midday prayer) with the early groups. And he'd be back for the first hour of the afternoon revision session too, sitting quietly in a corner and learning on his own but yet ready to answer any questions the boys might have.
His own personal collection of sefarim (Jewish books of learning) was incredible. Not only did he have an entire wall of his own house, floor to ceiling shelves, entirely covered. Not only did he have a large portion of his mother's apartment full of them. And not only did he have three large cabinets at the yeshiva full of them, but he also had them piled to the roof atop those cabinets. Besides all this, he also managed the buying for the English library of the yeshiva. If there was a book out in the world in his area of interest--Jewish books of pretty much any sort--then he knew about it and, despite his low salary, he usually managed to get a hold of a copy.
So...three years ago, he passed on to the world of truth. And it took me all this mess in my life for it to come out just how much that really hurt me. He'd been my teacher for three years, occasionally stepping over that to the role of mentor.
Heck, I didn't cry as much over the last six years as I had during those three days before I managed to get it all under control again. Certainly much more than I'd done on the day he passed away and was buried...
But that's more a recent developement. ::closes door firmly::
I started learning for Semicha with the small class, and completed the first two sections without much trouble. (There's four in standard rabbinical ordination, usually, although it's not uncommon for there to be more or less. The areas usually covered are the laws of meat & milk (mixing them is a pretty big no-no), the laws of (ritually) salting meat, the laws of forbidden mixtures and the laws of the Sabbath.) My study partner wasn't among the brightest of people and the class wasn't exactly hurtling along, so what I'd usually do is learn the material from the class, then re-teach it to him. Towards the end of the second section a married friend of mine wanted to join us for the final test, so I taught him the material in the evenings.
Now, that particular section took us four or five months (including a month off for revision in the middle) to learn, and the first section we'd just completed had a fair bit in common with this one. This guy came in a month and a half before the test and he came in cold. I won't pretend he did a good job of passing it, but he did manage to just barely scrape in under the bar.
Then the class fell apart, after the test on the second section.
Looking back at that with a gentle nudge (general, not specifically about this) from my parents, I note that I probably should have felt something like deja vu. This wasn't the first time I'd been left halfway to a goal when a class collapsed around me.
Nor was it to be the first time I found a way to finish it regardless. My study partner and I pushed on and began the third section on our own. It was one of the harder sections (and acknowledged generally as such), but there wasn't really all that much we could do about it.
Halfway through that was when I began my part-time job. So I was working in the morning and then returning to the yeshiva to study with my partner. And I was still picking things up faster than him! Got to be mildly frustrating at times, when I'd have gotten it the first time and he'd still not understand the third time I was explaining it.
The married friend and I were also learning about three times a week, in the evenings. I'd teach him what I'd learned during the afternoons. I had a pretty packed day, I would say.
So things went through the third and then the final section of Semicha. There were other things that happened around the edges, but that was the core of things. I helped out with arranging some functions at the yeshiva on occasion, but mostly I was busy working and learning.
The job fell through around about the time I passed the last test in Semicha and got my ordination. Actually part me getting fired and part me quitting...a bit of a long story. The job had never really been anything challenging and the boss...! Well...don't let me get started. So when I thought, at that point in time, that I would be heading home, I gave them notice. Things changed afterwards and I asked if I could stay...and got the answer when a guy with three or four times my age and experience walked into the office. He's now in charge of the department, so I got something out of it all... ::mutters a bit anyway::
Since then, I've pretty much been at a loose end. Nothing much to do in any serious way, really. The classes here are no longer high enough to give me a challenge and I can sit down with any of the current Semicha students (They restarted the class shortly before we completed our ordination--figures, doesn't it?) without trouble. Nothing on the job front either, really, although a friend of mine wants me to pinch-hit for him (9-5, three days a week) while he's abroad. I'm still trying to decide if I will or not--it'll mean that my last month in the country will likely be very busy.
So...at the moment the plan is for me to head on home in about a month and a half.
That's all I can think of for my brief (Ha!) life history--at the moment, anyway! :)
Posted by adam at January 27, 2004 07:33 PM