The Beauty of Being Created in God's Image

Hi Everyone!

Before I start, I just want to thank you all for actually reading my blog. I really appreciate that you take time out of your week to do so!

Anyway...this week I read an article about the fashion of Jewish women throughout the 18th-20th century. There is a new exhibit being featured in the Israel Museum (which I highly recommend visiting) that focuses on the dress code of Jewish women.

Looking at trends in "fashion history" through various religions, I find it very interesting that, especially in Judaism, a religion which praises God for making us in his image, we hide our bodies. Through veils and burkahs both Jewish and Muslim women cover their faces, bodies, and figure. We see this progress throughout history.

Zooming in on this topic of beauty, I learned that Muslim women actually cover their bodies because they are so beautiful. From what I understand, please feel free to correct me, other men aren't worthy of the beauty the women radiate. A radiance that God gave to them. I think that this is simply wonderful.

For thousands of years Jews have been modest. When the Greeks came strolling in with their "beauty is holy" Hellenism, we recognized that it went against Jewish morals. I disagree, respectfully, of course.

One of our daily blessings is thanking God for creating us in his image. Therefore, even if you don't love your body because of the way it compares to others, shouldn't you love it because God gave it you?

As Jews, we appreciate God's creations. I have always thought of his creations beautiful, thus, the human body is beautiful. I'm not saying we should walk around naked all the time...it would be very cold...but we also don't need to cover our literal God-given beauty.

Growing up, through literature or history, we often saw hiding as shame or cowardliness.To me, hiding your body coincides with ashamed of your body. Your body is not only beautiful in a 21st century sense, but in the sense that it was created in the image of God! Be proud of that! Own your beauty! And really appreciate what God gave you, never be ashamed.

Just something that's been on my mind recently.

Shabbat Shalom! Have a great weekend!
Shoshana :)

Keeping the Faith

Hi Everyone!

This past weekend, while staying with my incredible friends in Misgav, we decided not to sleep. Joking...sort of. Instead, one night, we watched a Keeping the Faith, featuring Ben Stiller.

I was so shocked that I had never even heard of it. Its truly a great romantic comedy. It had a good romance, predictable, though, of course. It also made me laugh out loud, something that very few movies and TV shows are actually capable of. But lastly, it really made me think.

A discussion that we had recently in Jewish history, and one that I had with my Rabbi back home, was interfaith marriage.

Surprise, that's what the movie focuses on...I'll try not to ruin it for you all, even though you can guess the ending 5 minutes in, but one of the main characters, Ben Stiller, is a Rabbi. He begins seeing a non-Jewish woman, secretly. She isn't particularly religious at all, but she is in no way a Jew.

Looking at interfaith marriage, I'm always stuck. I want to say that it's ok if one of the parties is non-Jew if they aren't otherwise religious, and as long as they raise their kids Jewish. But at the same time, I've always loved a good love story. Therefore, it's hard for me to restrict someone else's marriage if it really is true love. Quite a dilemma.

Watching this movie, though, the audience really sees a wonderful and happy love begin to bloom. If he was any other Jew, I would say, "go for it!" (I am a little bias though, she's one of my favorite actresses.) But he's a Rabbi. He's a role model to his congregation and an example. I'm not sure how comfortable I would be if my Rabbi was married to a non-Jew.

Personally, my congregation in Pittsburgh has a beautiful, home-y feel to it. Not only in the sense that I'm comfortable there, but in that everyone's family is yours. When I went to dinner with the Rabbi, we had a nice discussion with his wife and sons, over a lovey home-cooked, Jewish-styled meal that his wife prepared.

I honestly don't know if I would want to belong to a congregation where I couldn't enjoy that same luxury with my Rabbi's family.

It just really made me think...and I'm still thinking. I highly recommend Keeping the Faith for a great comedy, romance, and good intellectual debate. Like really, watch it. It's so good.

Have a great week everyone!
Shoshana :)

PS. Shout-out to Rabbi Gibson, Rabbi Symons, Sara and your families :)

Purim, Fur, and More

Hope everyone had a great and happy Purim!

Mine consisted of another amazing weekend in Misgav, seeing my Diller friends. The highlight of my weekend was definitely cancelling my lost credit card, then finding it 10 minutes later.

I was also a proud daughter this weekend, when learning that my father won the Temple Sinai adult Purim costume contest...as a minion. My 6'3'' bald-ish father painted himself yellow, bought goggles, and, of course, already owned the overalls. I still don't know if I'm embarrassed or proud.

Anyway, earlier this week I read an interesting article on the Jewish take on fur. Marjorie Ingall writes about her feelings about wearing her fur coat in public, and how she as a Jew feels about. it. http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/164717/fur-coats

Ms. Ingall made many excuses in wearing her vintage fur coat, trying to convince herself that it's ok to wear coat that was made by hurting innocent animals. Wow, that sounds very stereotypical anti-fur.

But I can completely relate to Ms. Ingall. I didn't know that there was real fur in my Uggs for about a half year.Once I learned, I continued to wear them saying, "Oh, well I didn't know, and I'm already wearing them so..." and "well they were a gift so it's ok". I attempted to justify them. But I didn't have any excuses for buying the second pair. All I can think now is that I honestly forgot, which is true.

I'm not going to get into the ethics of fur coats or even the Jewish perspective on fur coats. I have been anti-fur since the That's So Raven episode where Chelsea protests furs. But it had nothing to do with my Jewish morals.

Something, though, that I've been trying to do for some time now is draw lines for myself. What I do and don't agree with. I must stop crossing those lines because what I want is cute, or easier, or what everyone else is doing. When drawing those lines, say for alcohol, or fur, or being Kosher, etc., I look at a number of things: what my parents taught me, how it feels to me, is it stereo-typically ethically right or wrong, would I be disappointed in myself afterwards, and would my parents be disappointed.

Often in Jewish programming, we're asked how our Jewish morals affect us. To me, they never really have unless it's a straight up Jewish question such as keeping Kosher. But I like to think that my parents raised me with fairly Jewish ethics. Thus, by taking in account what my parents taught me, I'm also basing my decisions on Jewish ethics. No pressure.

I'm still figuring out my lines, and working on never crossing them. But staying true to your own morals in harder than I would have ever thought.

That's all for now,
Have a good week!

Shoshana :)

Toilet Paper

Hey everyone!

I hope you all had a great weekend!

I learned something new this weekend: on Kibbutz Tzuba, where I'm currently residing, the toilet paper is thin, small sheets. It's not a roll, but rather rectangular sheets of a very inadequate size. The reason for this is so that no one staying at the Kibbutz would have to tear or rip toilet paper on Shabbat. Ripping and tearing on Shabbat is prohibited. Can we just let that sink in for a second? I'm staying at a place that makes sure that their utilities don't break Jewish Law. Cause I'm in a Jewish State! THE Jewish State!!!

My mind was a little blown. I always knew that Israel was a Jewish State, but I never really grasped it until today. Just to clarify, not every hotel or facility offers "no-rip TP" but many do. I'm not a super huge fan of it, but that's just because I am an avid nose blower and these sheets aren't super soft. BUT on the bright side, it's one more commandment that I'll be following on Shabbat!

It's just so amazing to me that a state bases its supplies and resources around a religion, my religion. Obviously this brings up many problems, especially because Israel is supposed to be democratic. But I'm sure I'll get to that topic another time.

That's all for today, I was just really psyched about it and wanted to share.

Have a good week!
Shoshana Kaplan

Be Your Own Jew

Shabbat Shalom!

I recently read an article written by Rabbi Amitai Adler. In this article he outlines where his certain religious practices and beliefs lie on the "Jewish spectrum". He makes the strong point that he doesn't feel comfortable and homey in any of the defined Jewish sects. He grew up Orthodox, then transitioned throughout his life. He is currently a Conservative Rabbi but doesn't feel like he truly belongs in that movement. But I won't give you a full summary, you'll have to read it for yourself, http://shma.com/2014/02/motion-without-movement/

As I read this article, I completely understood where Rabbi Adler was coming from. We definitely have different beliefs and observances, but we both agree that we don't completely belong in one movement. The article made me reflect on where I lie on the spectrum.

The last few years, if someone asked me what kind of Jew I am, I would have easily responded, "A good, Reform Jew". I always took pride in the fact that I was Reform. I was one of two Reform Jews in my Jewish day school class of 28. I felt a responsibility to support and defend the movement. I was repeatedly accused of not being "a real Jew". I aligned myself even more with the movement, feeling like it needed to be protected.

Going to an AMAZING URJ (Union for Reform Judaism) camp, OSRUI, I connected even more with my Reform Judaism. I love singing prayers and learning about the Mitzvot (commandments) and then choosing whether or not I felt the need to follow them. It encouraged me to go to Temple more. When my family goes, I don't even complain anymore, I enjoy going...it's weird.

I really grew to love Reform Judaism.

However, as time goes on, I worry for the movement. Spending time with 70 Reform Jews, many of whom are leading services every week, I preview the future of the Reform movement. And the future includes a lot more English, a lot less understanding, and a lot less observance. We've begun singing random songs at the end of services. Once and a while they have a connection to the service, but most of the time its simply a song with a nice melody. I can't fully explain why that bothers me, but it really, really does. It just seems inappropriate.

I use my phone on Shabbat. I always have. But I refrain from using it inside the sanctuary. So it really bothers me when, not only the congregants are on their phone, but the leaders and rabbis are! It's disrespectful! I understand that technology is efficient, but it's not that hard to write down a quick outline on paper.

My Conservative day school is finally catching up to me. I can't sit during certain prayers, skip certain passages, or sing an English version of every damn prayer. Understanding the prayer is important, but the Hebrew is a part of our culture, our history, and our religion. We can't ignore it. I also personally believe that the Hebrew makes it so much more poetic.

If someone were to ask me now what kind of Jew I am, I might respond with a cheesy, "My own Jew. Sort of Reform, sort of everything else."

I'm still figuring out where I belong. But throughout this trip, I'm learning that my religion and spirituality mean so much more to me than I thought. I'm learning that I'm not as liberal as I thought. I'm learning that I really hate English in services unless it's call and response. But I haven't figured everything out. A common phrase in Israel is slowly, slowly, and that's just how I'm going.

Hope everyone has a great Shabbat/weekend!
Shoshana :)

Fun in the Very Very Hot Sun

Hey Guys!

Today, everyone on EIE is taking the day to relax and catch up on our work. I thought that I would take the opportunity to write another blog!

To end our 10 day trip that I mentioned in my previous post, we visited Kibbutz Lotan. A Kibbutz, according to Wikipedia, is a collective community based on agriculture. Lotan is based in the Negev (desert) right across from Kibbutz Yahel, where my parents happened to meet. So that was sort of awesome.

Anyway, a major aspect of Kibbutz Lotan is their focus on the environment. They are a huge center for ecotourism, and, as well, have started up the Center for Creative Ecology. Part of this center is Green Apprenticeships that have they throughout the year. Their programs last anywhere from 4-7 weeks. However, many people come to live at Lotan just to learn and understand how to sustain the environment in the desert.

This is definitely not an ad for Kibbutz Lotan, but I wanted to share, what I think, is something really amazing. Everything on the Kibbutz is incredibly sustainable. I believe that most, if not all, of their energy is solar powered. All of their buildings and houses are made out of clay, straw, cement, and a few other natural materials that insulate the rooms. Everyone who stays for the Green Apprenticeship makes their own huts.

However, my favorite part of the Kibbutz was it's playground. Anyone who knows me knows that I coulk still spend hours at a playground. Theirs was special, though. Instead of creating more waste, they reuse materials such as old tired to create new things. Their entire playground, pictured below, is made out of old tires, clay, mud, and straw. Not only was it a waste-eliminating playground, but it was fun and colorful!

I'm aware that playgrounds in America need to be safe and have special flooring but I think that we could all definitely take something from Lotan's playground and begin recycling old materials to create a fun space. While there are places like this in the US, there could always be more.

 This last picture is a big turtle.

Until next time,
Shoshana :)

10 Day Break :)

Hi everyone!

So these last ten days I haven't blogged...I've been sort of busy...hiking Masada, repelling down mountains (ish), Bedouin tents, camels, being a soldier for 1 week, seeing four countries from one mountain top, snorkeling in Eilat. So just a little busy.

My favorite part of the week was definitely being a soldier for 1 week. We partook in a program called "Gadna". It's a week to give students a taste of basic training. The highlights of the week included learning how to shoot, and actually shooting a long M16, learning a smidgen of Krav Maga (a form of self defense), and getting to know more people in my program.

Before Gadna I had thought about joining the IDF (Israeli Defense Force). I was fairly sure I wanted to but didn't really have any idea when I would actually be able to do it. After one long, hard week of (sort of) being a soldier, I realized just how much I wanted to join the IDF.

The army will be hard. I'm very aware. But it will help my grow as a person, a friend, a leader, and a Jew. I want to take the future hardships and challenges and convert them into oppurtunities to grow and learn about myself. 

As well, all of my camp counselors, my dad, and my commander at Gadna have shared stories about how close they each became with their unit. Their bonds have  and will last years. My dad still sees his “army buddies” about every other year. It’s unfortunate that I have to risk my life to find these bonds, but I have always been envious of those relationships. These reasons seem slightly selfish, but oh well. 

However, I also do want to sacrifice my time and life for Israel. Israel isn't where I live forever but it is one of my homes. My history, my heritage, my friends, my family, and my religion live here. I know that I, as a Jew, will always have a place here.

This past summer, in Diller, we discussed the IDF as well. It was interesting because we got both the American and Israeli perspectives on it. One point that came up often was that the Americans felt like the IDF was protecting Israel for them, sort of as a safety net. But I don’t think that it’s fair that we just sit here while other people are protecting our home for us. If you want something done, do it yourself. Therefore if you want something protected, protect it yourself. 

Lastly, 

Here are a few pictures...one right after I shot the M16, one repelling down a mountain side near Masada, and one of me and a couple friends leading morning services on top of Masada (an amazing opportunity)

Thanks for reading!

Shoshana :)