Rabbinical School FAQ

I have been receiving many inquisitive emails from family and friends asking about rabbinical school so I though I would post some frequently asked questions (FAQ), along with my answers...

Q: How many rabbinical schools are there?

A: In the Conservative Movement there are two seminaries in the United States. The oldest is the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York and the newest school is the Ziegler School at the University of Judaism (UJ) in Los Angeles. I will be attending the UJ. There were about eight or nine students studying in Jerusalem who applied to rabbinical school; most applied to both but I only applied to UJ.

Q: How long is rabbinical school?

A: That depends. If I am able to improve my Hebrew to a competent level by the summer or fall, I might finish the program in five years; otherwise it might take me six years. Either way, that's A-OK, I'm thrilled to have been accepted and to be starting this amazing journey!

Q: What does competent level mean?

A: While I already have the minimum Hebrew knowledge to start in the fall (beginning the Hebrew 2 class in the fall), I would like to start in Hebrew 3 or even Hebrew 4, if possible at the UJ.

While Hebrew classes in Israel don't exactly follow the same structure as academic courses, I am just in the beginning stages of the likely equivalent to Hebrew 2. I hope to successfully complete this class by the end of March and then continue after Passover with the next level, which is approximately equivalent to Hebrew 3. If I can complete that level and even continue, depending on timing, I might successfully test into (and know enough to take) Hebrew 4 when I arrive at UJ.

I have a 22-page Hebrew and Bible placement test that I need to submit by late February to help determine my future placement but I believe that I can re-take the test again in the summer as I expect to learn much, much, more Hebrew before I start school

Q: When are you leaving Israel?

A: Our lease expires in June. We could return to California earlier or later, depending on a variety of circumstances, including Hebrew abilities. I would like to be settled in Los Angeles somehow by mid-July in order to take summer school Introduction to Biblical Hebrew course offered by the UJ in the late summer in order to be well-prepared for my classes in the fall.

Q: Where will you live?

A: We currently plan to move to the San Fernando Valley. We want to live within walking distance of a Conservative synagogue so that we can walk there on Shabbat. There are many synagogues in the Valley so finding a place shouldn't be a problem.

Q: What courses will you take next fall?

A: A brand-new curriculum has been approved for the upcoming school year and I am excited to be a part of it! (See P. Pod's blog where she mentions how awesome the new curriculum is!) So, I expect to take classes about the Torah, Introduction to Jewish Philosophy, Hebrew (of course!), an Introduction to the Mishna, and an Introduction to Jewish Law (Halakhah). I am so excited!

Q: What happens after rabbinical school?

A: I currently plan to become a pulpit rabbi and will probably start out as the assistant rabbi at a large congregation.

What We Learn in Hebrew Class

Most often, the sentences we use in Hebrew class are pretty boring but yesterday, we were working with future tense verbs and we were working with the verb "to kill." We were also learning new vocabulary at the same time. So, the sentence where we had to conjugate the verb read, "Terrorists killed three Lebanese civilians." Good words to learn - killed, terrorists, and civilians. It sure beat a sentence from this morning that is definitely not Israeli - "I will stand in line for two hours." Not!

Hebrew class is going well; it still takes a lot of energy out of me each morning from 8-12:30 but my comprehension is increasing. I really tend to understand what my teacher is saying, sometimes more than other students, even the Arabic speakers. That feels great but I'm still a complete idiot when it comes to verbs but I'm working on it. As they say here, "L'at, l'at," (slowly, slowly; i.e. have patience, it will come).

Bibi and Me

This morning, Steve and I were having coffee and hot chocolate, respectively, at a local coffee shop; he was teaching me some Hebrew grammar that I have failed to understand. Suddenly, two sunglass- and khaki-clad men walked in and started looking around. They looked intently at us, studying the intricacies of Hebrew grammar and then proceeded to talk into their lapel and then stood guard outside.

About ten minutes later, former Prime Minister (from 1996 to 1999), current leader of the Likud party, and our neighbor Binyamin Netanyahu, flanked by two additional khaki dudes, walked into the coffee shop and sat down at the table next to us. His two bodyguards flanked him as he proceeded to talk on his cell phone and order coffee.

About twenty minutes later, people arrived to meet with Bibi and they had a conversation and then I left. It made a typical Jerusalem Friday morning a very one exciting for me!

Rabbi Matt

After the last three years of dreaming, learning, thinking, discussing, and struggling, I am thrilled to announce that I have been accepted to the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles!

The decision to undertake this new path in life toward the rabbinate was not an easy one and it was a decision that took so much deliberation. Jen was obviously my partner in this decision-making process and to her I owe a debt of gratitude for her support - heck, we moved to Israel! So many others have been part of this process as well, you know who you are, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

So, now what? I start school in the fall and expect it to take me about five to six years of incredibly intensive studies before I am ordained as a Conservative Rabbi. Meanwhile, as I have heard the phrase repeated often, "A rabbi needs to know ten things, nine of them are Hebrew," I am focusing my studies here in Jerusalem on Hebrew and am only attending a few afternoon classes at the yeshiva. The more Hebrew I know by the time I start classes in the fall, the more I will be able to understand and the better I will do in my studies.

Every day of the week, I have several hours of Hebrew homework and I need to keep learning the new vocabulary that is being thrown at us constantly. On the brighter side, I am able to understand the speed at which my Hebrew teacher talks and am understanding almost everything she says. The first week I completed some in-class assignments incorrectly due to a lack of understanding. Four and a half hours of Hebrew a day is a lot like a university week of language classes compressed into a single day so it is quite intense.

So, I'll keep up in Hebrew until summertime, when Jen and I will move back to California in anticipation of my start at Ziegler.

Just a quick note about the formal admissions process...

I asked for a Ziegler application about three years ago and first met with an associate dean to talk about going to rabbinical school about two and a half years ago. I realized then that I didn't nearly have the knowledge I needed to even be considered a candidate so continued to learn but struggled with my decision along the way. Then about a year and a half ago, after many additional hours of classes and many additional books (there is a lengthy recommended reading list for applicants and I have read almost all of the books now), I re-energized the process and spoke frequently by phone and email to the admissions coordinator.

We planned to come to Israel to obtain as much learning as possible to prepare for the admissions process and to be a successful candidate. The application itself consisted of five letters of recommendation, re-taking the GRE exam, writing five essays that amounted to eighteen pages, a photo, and an application form. I had formal interviews here in Jerusalem with the associate dean, the dean, and finally, last Monday, with the admissions committee which consisted of the dean, admissions coordinator (both rabbis), and two additional rabbis.

My final interview last Monday was merely 45 minutes but the fasted 45 minutes of my life. Their questions were outstanding and challenging but I had a wonderful time. Less than three hours later, I found out I had been accepted! Since then, I've been on cloud nine and sharing my news with friends and family.

Fire!

On Thursday morning, I left the apartment on my way to Hebrew school and as soon as I stepped out of the building, I smelt smoke from a house fire. As I walked toward the main drag, the air became hazy and as I turned the corner, I saw smoke billowing out of a first-story apartment. Parked on the sidewalk were a fire engine, a ladder truck, an ambulance, and a police car.

As I got closer, I noticed that there was no traffic control whatsoever and drivers were dangerously trying to out-maneuver each other to get around the emergency apparatus. Then, I saw Israeli firefighters in action, squirting water into the apartment through an exterior window with dark smoke billowing out, without wearing masks. The smoke on the sidewalk where I was, across the street, was hazardous enough to breathe, let alone non-dissipated smoke coming directly from the apartment. Quite unhealthy.

But the most quintessentially Israeli thing about the whole scene was the upstairs apartment residents, a couple, who were leaning out their window, taking in the scene and calmly enjoying the action while their downstairs neighbor's apartment was engulfed in flames. Why bother to evacuate? It's cold outside! We're A-OK right here!

A Full Time Job

One of my fellow students in my new Hebrew class said that taking intensive Hebrew is a full time job. Indeed, I feel that way myself.

My class has 25 students - 17 of whom are native Arabic speakers so they have a great advantage over the others because Arabic is a Semitic language and closer to Hebrew than other languages. These students are really, really good at speaking Hebrew and talk very quickly. I've been told countless time not to compare myself to the Arabs in the class because they're just going to catch on so much quicker than a stupid Anglo. It's true.

The remaining eight students are mostly new immigrants and come from the U.S., U.K., Ireland, France, Czech Republic, Canada, and Sweden. I think I am the only student who has not immigrated to Israel.

I arrived in class as a brand-new student on Sunday, invading a class that had been together since October. I definitely felt like the new kid in town. I've been overwhelmed the past few days because the teacher, who spent her time in the army teaching new immigrant soldiers how to speak Hebrew and has been doing it ever since, speaks very very rapidly and never speaks English. She defines new words by attempting to describe the new word using Hebrew words we (should) already know or through pantomime or even by drawing (today a drawing of a stoplight helped us understand a new word but I think she could've described a light that is red, yellow, and green and we could've gotten it). Nonetheless, I am understanding more and more of what she says every day. As another student said, there isn't time to translate what she's saying in your head so you have to start to think in Hebrew.

Since class is four and a half hours of all Hebrew all the time, it is painful for my brain but highly educational. We also have considerable homework. I had planned on taking an afternoon class today at the yeshiva but I ended up coming home and doing homework for three hours and I haven't even hit the flashcards yet...

(P.S. Jen is still really suffering from jet lag - she was up and working by 3 a.m. today and now, just after 5 p.m., she's barely awake.)

Seriously Messed Up Timing

We didn't experience much jet lag when we were in California. Although we would get up early (around 5 am) and get tired starting around 5:30-6 pm, we quickly figured out that if we took a quick nap we would be good for the whole day.

However, now that we are back in Israel, my body's timing is completely off. For instance, after sleeping for three hours last night, I woke up at 3 am and stayed up until I konked to sleep at 9 am. Then I slept pretty solidly thru the entire day and woke up at 4:30 pm. After grabbing a bite of food out of the fridge, I then promptly fell back asleep until I finally woke up at 8 pm.

It's now 2:30 am and I'm still up. Even though Matt's schedule isn't quite as crazy as mine, he decided to take a sleeping pill because he couldn't fall asleep. For me, I'm worried that I won't get tired until 5 am and then will officially have my day and nights confused.

Although I like the peace and quiet of the middle of the night, it's dark out, no one is up to talk to, and I can't go walk around town or get out of the house. I hope my body will get back on schedule, because this is getting confusing. For instance, when I get hungry, I have no idea what to eat -- should I be craving eggs and toast or chicken and potatoes?

How did my body's timing get so completely out of whack anyway?!

First Day at New School

I am very nervous! On Sunday morning I am showing up at my new Hebrew class in a different part of town. I am joining a class that started in mid-October and I hope they're somewhere near my Hebrew skill level is. Hopefully, they're a bit behind where I ended before the break because I could use the review. I really hope they're not too far ahead of me!

Four and a half hours of Hebrew every day is going to turn my brain to jelly. During the summer, we had three and a half hours and I was brain dead at the end of each class. But - I will be learning a lot of Hebrew very quickly and that's what I need.

Shavua Tov!

"Shavua Tov" or "Good Week" is the traditional greeting at the end of Shabbat and through Sunday morning. It's been quite a week. Flying from California to Israel is quite the trip. We transferred airlines in Las Vegas which meant we had to switch terminals and obtain boarding passes and pass through security again. Fortunately, our luggage was checked through to our final destination. Our layover in Vegas was a mere 90 minutes which really just wasn't enough time to make a relaxing transition between terminals. Our second layover was in Atlanta and that turned out to be a four hour layover because the flight to Tel Aviv was delayed an hour.

At Atlanta, several guys tried to get a minyan of ten men together to pray the evening service but there weren't enough kippah-wearing guys around so everyone davened Maariv alone. And, on the Atlanta to Tel Aviv flight, morning happened so it was time for Shachrit, which includes a tallit and tefillin. No one organized a minyan on the plane as the sun began to quickly rise on the horizon so most people davened in their seats, including myself, and it was my first Shachrit with tallit and tefillin on a plane. The guy sitting on my left was also davening but he was faster than I and the only thing he said to me on the flight was, "Don't forget Mincha!" (the afternoon service) as we are getting closer to our destination. But, I had already davened Mincha but he was asleep. Ha!

When we arrived at Tel Aviv, the taxi driver who took us to the airport in December was waiting for us as he'd promised and that was so very wonderful. Plus, he helped us carry our bags up to our apartment, which was very nice. We took two suitcases to California and came home with three - one new bag we filled with 50 pounds of books in English. Our taxi driver wanted to know why we weren't buying books in Hebrew instead - apparently he is deaf and didn't hear us speaking in the language enough to know that it would take me a month to translate a chapter of Harry Potter. Not what I call reading for pleasure. Anyway, we'll sell or donate many of our English books before we leave - providing additional English reading opportunities for fellow visitors.

So, we arrived at our apartment late on Thursday night and were thrilled to have a message from a friend inviting us to Shabbat dinner last night. It was so awesome to have an invitation and be able to look forward to spending time with great friends immediately upon our arrival. We RSVPed, called family to let them know we were back, and went to the convenience store to buy some food to get us through Shabbat.

We both slept well on Thursday night and woke up early. I went to the synagogue for morning services on Friday and it was so wonderful to have that 15 minute walk. I grew lazy in the States by driving everywhere and I really missed walking. Then, I napped. Then, we went to services and dinner with our friends on Friday night. Then, I only could sleep two hours all night and went to Shabbat morning services this morning and was exhausted at about 10 a.m. and came home after services and slept for five hours and woke up right before Shabbat ended. Now, I'm starting to get tired at about 7:30 p.m. and I really need some sleep because tomorrow is a very big day!