Tzipiyah.com

Let me start out by explaining why “shalom” is the absolute, most incredibly apropos word with which to start you out on the magical journey (yeah right) that will be my blog. Firstly, we all know it as the Hebrew equivalent to “hello”. Digging a little deeper, we see that the word “shalom” means “peace”-could there possibly be a better way to greet people than giving them a brocha that they should have peace? The reason why I have recently taken to saying shalom to just about every single person I see is, unfortunately, not nearly as virtuous…for some reason, my friends and I decided a little while ago that it would be REALLY funny to walk around saying it to people. We were in the rova, surrounded by tons of tourists in their groups from all over the world, following their tour guide who lead them with a gigantic flower (or something equally ridiculous and non-obstructive to the other people squeezing their way down the narrow stone streets) like children and their pied piper. So we walked around to every single Russian/Chinese/French/*insert any nationality in the world here* group, holding up the peace sign, saying “shalom, welcome to Jerusalem” (except it came out more like “sha-lome, welcome to juuu-ru-salem”, since we had a hard time properly pronouncing the words while simultaneously making disturbingly weird faces). Good old tourists. They thought it was cute.
Some of them even took pictures.

Now here’s what I love about Israel…that’s what people are like! Even though we find it funny to go around acting dumb, we really ARE happy to welcome people to Jerusalem, to welcome them home. Because no matter how old they are, no matter where they come from, THIS is their home. We are their family. That’s why it’s so cool to be Jewish, and it’s something my non-Jewish friends could never possibly understand. Not that I blame them..how could they possibly even ATTEMPT to comprehend the network we have all over the world? I could go to just about any country in the world with no place to stay, no food to eat, and somehow manage to find food and lodging with some awesome family who don’t even realise their own generosity-by us, it just seems to be a way of life.

There is no other place in the world where you could possibly feel that connection more than here, in the holy land of our fathers, the land of milk and honey, the promised land, the….ok I’m drawing a blank for more cliche descriptors, if you can think of any others please feel free to send them to me. Most creative answerer gets cookies. (Alright, you caught me there are no cookies, so sue me). ANYWAYS, what I was trying to get at is that, basically, Israel is the bomb. For real. Even the air you breathe here is holy. You walk the streets, and you are connected to almost every person you see. (and I’m not just talking in terms of Jewish geography connections) These people speak your language. They eat the food you eat, they dress the way you dress, they face the same hardships that you do..I could go on and on, but the bottom line is: they GET you. And in a secular world, that can be a pretty hard thing to find.

Over Chanukah, I was staying with two friends at one of my friend’s family’s apartment the night before we all headed off for a trip the next day. At around 2 in the morning, my friend and I realised that we had forgotten our mishnayot back at our place. We freaked out because we had to finish our mesechet before our trip would be over (we were learning for someone’s zchus and we were told we had to finish what we had taken on before the shloshim were over). We decided to grab a cab off the road, go back and pick it up, even though we had to get up to leave in a few hours. We hailed a taxi and got in. Our driver was kind enough to make us a good deal for the round trip, especially after he heard where we were going (also, we drive a pretty hard bargain) On the way there, he started talking about Chanukah. Hearing that we spoke English, he told us it was time for HIM to give US an English lesson. He asked us: “what do we celebrate on Chanukah?” We started to explain the miracle of the oil, the miracle of the battle. He answered “Ok, so basically, we celebrate the fact that Hashem made MIRACLES for us, right?” He then told us to “think in Hebrew”, and broke it down: “miracle:mi-rak Kel! Who else but G-d?” (The words mi rak kel literally translate to “who, only G-d”)

Moments like that one define the concepts of Israel and Judaism for me, which is why I decided to start off my blog with them. I’m all about achdus. I believe in loving every Jew, no matter what their affiliation, ethnicity or level of religiousness, in Eretz Yisrael as our homeland, and I believe these are intrinsically Jewish concepts. I believe that every ben-adam is my brother, a child of Hashem created b’tzelem Elokim, and that my “family” welcomes everyone with such open arms because of this belief. I believe in balancing life as a human being and life as a Jew, and that it IS possible to walk the tightrope between the secular and Jewish worlds. And I’d be really, really happy if you stick around and bare with me as I try to explore this concept! (also really flattered. I don’t really see why anyone in their right mind would want to spend their time reading things I’ve written, so PROPS to you if you held out this long!) (Just kidding. Please read my blog. I promise I’ll try to be funny.)