Testimonials Summer Program for Rabbinical students 2008

 
I really enjoyed working with Rabbinical school students from other movements – it was great to get to know my colleagues. I loved doing the volunteer work and I wish I could have done more. I loved the Talmud study. It was good for me to see someone look at Talmud critically and then relate it to the modern world.
 
This was an extraordinary class. I loved the approach to Talmud and the opportunity to study the famous aggadah tales of the Talmud. I plan to teach an adult education course at my synagogue this year, using what I have learned. I think that my participation will make it possible to teach differently than I would have in the past. Also, gives me a way to connect to the media about was is going on in Israel, with a better understanding of what questions to ask about what I am reading.
 
BINA is a wonderful combination of study, social justice work, and the ability to meet various segments of Israeli society. I would highly recommend it to fellow rabbinical students.
I am grateful for this opportunity to learn about the political situation from the other side. It has helped my understanding of the complexity of things very much. 
The opportunity to visit the Urban Kibbutz was very interesting to me, especially for learning about this next generation of “kibbutzniks”, and their approach to kibbutz living, as well as learning about the ways they are celebrating Judaism.
I had a chance to stand in East Jerusalem and see everything through the eyes of a Paletinian man (on our trip), and then, to see the exact same landscape through the eyes of our Jewish host in the apartment that I was living in, also in East Jerusalem, after the program ended. Though this all made my head spin, it was important and gave me a model for seeing things through different eyes. I learned that there are many stories, many of them contradict each other, and all are true in the eyes of the teller. Probably the best way to get at the “truth” is to listen to all the many “truths”.
 
Excellent experience overall. The combination of Talmud study and the working with a range of social action organizations in South Tel Aviv was rich and challenging. The context of the Secular Yeshiva allowed me to make new kinds of connections between Jewish texts and social justice work.
 
This (Talmud class) was really really excellent. Learning with Ari will stay with me as I continue to study Talmud in school and in my rabbinical career.
 
It was a great experience. I felt that I experienced an aspect of Israel that I wouldn’t have otherwise gotten to see while studying here for the year. I really liked Tel Aviv and got to know the city, and I felt that my learning both in and out of the classroom was great. It was also very useful to get to interact with Rabbinical Students from other schools. Another significant experience was meeting the guys on miluim at the reserve post. It felt like a very honest and passionate discussion, and because the rules were set that we were able to ask anything, it felt like a very deep conversation even though it was quite short. I feel more confidant now, although still not confidant enough, in discussing my perspective on the situation between Israel and the Palestinians. I am still no expert, but I have heard much more and heard the stories of more people than I think I ever could have if I had not done this program. In particularly, being able to speak with Bina staff, who are all intelligent, engaged and caring people and to hear their perspectives, was very helpful.
 
Gaining a deeper understanding of myself.
 
Don’t often get to spend so much time on the aggadic stories when studying Talmud in the traditional way. Found the class stimulating and useful. I’m teaching the stories to 13 year olds in Hebrew school
 
I did not come to Tel Aviv with refined expectations for the program, but I left enriched, impressed and excited about Jewish life in Tel Aviv and about the role of Bina in educating rabbinical students about issues of justice in Israel on many simultaneous levels. I felt hopeful about further collaboration between the Israeli Jewish Renaissance movement and the liberal American Jewish world and felt a strong sense of compatibility and companionship between us. I remain so grateful for the openness and responsiveness of the staff to the American perspectives brought to the conversations, especially around the challenge of Zionism. Mazal tov on this accomplishment!
I definitely will enter the rabbinate with a more nuanced understanding of issues in contemporary Israeli society and will be able to speak about efforts on the part of Israelis to deal with pressing issues of justice through direct service and learning from the tradition.
I want to support your work and your growth. I believe in what you are doing and it feels wonderful to have true colleagues in Israel.
 
It’s hard to put to words such a profound experience. I felt like I was really learning Talmud with a new lens and taking that learning into the work I was doing. Living in South Tel Aviv was challenging, but also had a very laid-back feeling to it. Meeting and living with the other rabbinical students was a great opportunity and it helped form a sense of group cohesion so that I felt supported through all of the newness and risk-taking. I just feel like this was such a great way to spend part of my training to be a rabbi and I learned so much about what kind of work I want to do and how I want to have Israel be a part of it.
I think the most meaningful part of the program was the dialogue that went on between the Israelis and the Americans about Judaism, Jewish practice, Jewish thought and approaches to studying text. It was really fascinating to me to see how differently we experience these things. I thought it was really incredible to get to experience “Secular Judaism” at Tzavta on Tisha B’Av and watch how the American students reacted to that and also to see how our “religiosity” and “spirituality” affected the secular Israelis at Bina—for example the tefilot that we did, the songs we sang, etc.
After spending a year in a congregation where most of my work was counseling around interpersonal conflict, death, and mental illness, it was interesting to notice how those things seemed at once trivial and incredibly important in light of my experience this summer. This summer I worked with people who struggle with the things that my community back home takes for granted: financial security, freedom, and security. I said that the problems of my community back home felt at once trivial and incredibly important, because they felt trivial in comparison to such basic human needs and yet they felt very important in the sense that they are the same problems in some ways—the things that matter most in our lives and affect our ability to get through every day. I felt even more strongly this summer the need for healing in our world and a desire to be a part of that process. I’m not talking about chaplaincy work, but on the ground, one-on-one, or small group efforts to bring about peace, healing and a sense of wholeness in individuals, in their relationships and in the community as a whole.
 
Our teacher, Ari Elon, was outstanding. He was thorough and cited many concrete examples of the points made in the Talmudic stories. These stories and the culture they represented were challenging to read and understand. Our understanding of these stories was significantly enhanced by the exposure of their subtleties and nuances provided by Ari. Further, the connections that Ari made between the Aramaic, the Hebrew translations and the English translations were fascinating…
Additionally, the chavruta method of study and the flexibility of the students and staff proved very beneficial to our understanding of the Talmud stories and greatly increased the pleasure of reading and learning them. The explanations of the machlokot and efforts at tikun which connected these tales, as well as the alienation often depicted, all served to bring a realism to these old stories which allowed them to be connected to modern issues.
Thus, the study of Talmud proved to be not only challenging, but also provided outstanding intellectual and spiritual satisfaction. We are thrilled and grateful to have been able to participate in this wonderful program and for the superb teachers and staff.
 
Outstanding Ari’s approach was very inviting and exciting. I will use his approach and some of his texts for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. I loved his speaking about how the text connects with his personal life. Inspiring!
Moti is brilliant!
This was an incredible summer full of all different kinds of learning about texts, people, places, politics, myself. I have a deep appreciation for all the BINA staff and faculty who work care so much and work so hard to provide a superb, complex, multifaceted experience for rabbinical students.