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For my final cultural artifact post I have chosen another world heritage site that my language instructor visited while he taught me this semester. This site is known as the Incense route in the Negev Desert in Israel. Incense route is the name because the route started from the massive demand around the Middle East for incense that were being sold in modern day Egypt. Many traders would use the route all the time riding camels back and forth from each different kingdom. The site that Michael visited is actually a string of structures in the Negev known to be a trade route in the past. In this area there are many structures that were left over from when the route was used for trade. The history behind the route is extremely intriguing because it was one of the main routes the Judeau kingdom used to trade with the Byzantine empire located right across the present-day border in Petra, Jordan. The site of Petra is one that I have wanted to visit ever since I was a kid and saw the incredible back drop in movies. Nabeatan people, (the individuals apart of the Byzantine empire) routinely traveled this route selling all sorts of unique goods. The photo below taken by Michael is of one of the four fortresses located on the route. The fortresses are known as Kazra, Nekarot, Makhmal, as well as Grafon. It is remarkable to think that this route and the structures located there still exist today. Throughout Israel’s history and all the empires that have come through the territory, the site remains very intact. A nick name for the road is elephant road because supposedly a general brought his army through the rate and an elephant was apart of his battalion. I find this site particularly unique because of how crazy it is to think that trade was conducted this way when today there are massive planes that bring goods all around the world. Michael said this is also what stood out to him, how many people would routinely travel the route to make money for themselves and their families. I think it really speaks to progression and how far humans have come. Routes like these where there was likely so much death and war from traders crossing the area with their goods do not exist today. It is also remarkable to think that traders were able to traverse the route without maps or any way to navigate. Now when hiking people have phones and applications that can simply direct them to wherever they would like with the press of a button. Traders would wander through the scorching hot desert likely not entirely sure where they would end up to sell and buy goods in other empires, that were often hostile. Michael said he drove the stretch and could not imagine what it would be like walking through the desert. When I visit Israel I would like to visit this area but I will surely be driving as well.

Citations: Incense Route - Desert Cities in the Negev - UNESCO World Heritage Centre

Photo Credit: Michael Hibner

https://www.bing.com/search?q=incense+route&cvid=2aa71a32d09e40cdbccd7c5194dec32d&aqs=edge.0.69i59l2j0l4j69i60l2j69i61.3857j0j4&FORM=ANAB01&DAF0=1&PC=U531

For my third cultural artifact I have chosen Masada because my language partner visited there during our time working together. Masada is a very significant site for the people of Israel and the Jewish community as a whole. Current day Masada is a fortress located in the Judean Desert near the Dead Sea. It is apart of the remains of Israel when it was an empire back in the AD period. Current Masada is only remains of the much larger fortress that was there before the Roman Empire invaded. Masada was the last defense position for the Jewish people against the Roman Empire. The site was originally a complex created by the king of the Judeo kingdom. Even the remaining architecture is incredible according to my instructor. It is seen to represent the strong response of the Jewish people in the face of adversity as they fought until the last defender that was alive. Its location in the desert is extremely advantageous from a defensive perspective but there were so many Romans in comparison to those fighting for the Jewish empire that the group was still over run. It is a very unique site in the sense that most places the Romans invaded were completely destroyed. My instructor said that the tour felt very surreal because of how many individuals on both sides perished in the fighting. After the Romans prevailed, the new ruler of the area renovated the site and added many Roman aspects such as barracks as well as armories for Roman soldiers. There is talk of the possibility of a mass suicide of all the Jewish people who remained at the site when the Romans invaded. This can not be confirmed however, so the validity of this claim is heavily put up to debate. After the Romans prevailed, capturing this last stronghold, life for Jewish people who lived in the kingdom was not the same. Jewish people rebelled against the new governing power and this resulted in countless inhumane events like mass crucifixions. Today many young Jewish boys and girls opt to have barmitzvahs or batmitzvahs at the site’s synagogue. Special forces and military units of the IDF also routinely march there and are known to take oaths to the State of Israel at the site. It seems that Masada has significance in Israel as a place that will not be allowed to be controlled by a foreign power again. Israeli’s even sometimes use masada as a term to criticize Israel foreign policy. Obviously, this is a highly contested subject as people have differing opinions on the foreign policy of Israel. Excavations during modern times have also revealed even more remaining roman military sites like defense walls and camps that would house Roman soldiers. To my language partner as well as many Israelis, Mosada is a site meant to symbolize the history of the Jewish state and serves as a reminder that an invasion of Israel in the present day would be devastating to Israel. When I do eventually visit Israel I will be sure to visit this incredible site.

Masada - UNESCO World Heritage Centre

masada photos - Bing images

For my second cultural post I will explore Hasidic Judaism because even though I am reform, my Dad’s side of his family was Hasidic before my Grandfather. I think it is very interesting to explore a different strict interpretation of the religion that a lot of Jewish people follow. The idea behind Hasidic beliefs is to not change your lifestyle and keep practicing life like the ancestors of Hasidics in Eastern Europe. This means that the language that Hasidic Jews use is actually Yiddish most of the time not Hebrew. Yiddish is based off German then has aspects of polish, Hebrew, Russian, and English. Growing up I would say some short phrases in Yiddish so it is interesting to see how this language connects to Hasidism. Gender roles are also kept how they were in Eastern Europe which is not the same as how the Reform community tends to operate. Marriage happens much earlier than in the general population. The clothing style is also very strict in the Hasidic community. Hasidic Jews tend to wear black coats and hats year-round. This is something that stuck out to me because it shows the dedication that Hasidic Jews have to their religion. To dress like this year-round is true dedication. That means even when it is very warm in the Summer months Hasidic Jews are dressed the same. Hasidic women also dress very conservatively. There are also many cultural differences between the Hasidic community and the regular population. Hasidic Jews tend to have many more kids than on average because they view it as god’s order for them to do so. Holidays are also taken much more seriously in the Hasidic community. Every Saturday is Sabbath where Hasidic Jews are supposed to relax and there are strict rules to make sure this happens. Activities that are prohibited are cooking, shopping, and operating any electric device. This is why so many Hasidic Jewish people can be seen walking around and not operating vehicles. I am very impressed by this amount of dedication even more so than the clothing rules. I think most reform Jewish people and Americans in general would not be able to live this type of lifestyle. There are also even more holidays that Hasidics celebrate than the average reform Jewish person. This includes Sukkos, a 7 day holiday meant to celebrate the redemption of ancient Israelite Jews. During this holiday a Sukkah is built which is basically a small hut. Then meals are eaten in the hut. It is very interesting how new of a sect of Judaism Hasidism is. I think most people think of Judaism originating a very long time ago in its entirety. This is not the case with Hasidism and is really what makes it a unique part of Judaism. For the artifact I chose related to Hasidism I picked a man playing an art piece which shows a man in traditional Hasidic clothing playing a flute of some sort. I think this piece depicts Hasidism well because it shows commitment and tradition.

Citations: Hasidic Jewish Rules - Ultra Orthodox Beliefs & Practices | Brooklyn Unplugged Tours

hasidic art artifcat - Bing images

For my first cultural post I will explore the origins of a song that I have sang every year while lighting Channukah candles since I was very young. Every year my Dad, Brother, sister and I light Channukah candles using the same menorah that has been passed down through generations on my Dad’s side of the family. With the new skills I have learned from my time learning Hebrew I can now recite this song and actually understand the words that I am saying. Growing up I always heard a description of the holiday and that it is essentially significant because Channukah is also known as the festival of lights. The vague story that I have heard is that a group of Israelites were looking to light candles in order to stay warm for a period of nights and the candles lasted longer than they had anticipated. The holiday has always been a great time for my family and I so it will be cool to explore its origins in greater depth. From what I have read online, a Syrian king sent soldiers to Jerusalem in order to destroy the Jewish temple there. This action was unsurprisingly terrifying to the Jewish inhabitants there because aggression like this was scary to see in the Jewish homeland. The Syrian king named Antiochus Epiphanes then made Judaism and said anyone who practiced the religion would need to convert or die. In response a Jewish resistance movement was created to rebel against this oppression. The resistance rebelled and even though they were outnumbered, defeated the much bigger Syrian force. Channukah means dedication and is meant to commemorate this resistance in the face of great adversity. The significance of the eight days of Channukah comes from the story that when the Jewish group entered the temple, they found a jar of oil that would be able to burn for one day. They used the oil to light the ner tamid, which is a large hanging torch in Synagogues. The Ner Tamid, to the Jews surprise burnt for eight nights. Hence the great 8 night celebration every year. It is awesome to know the in depth significance of the holiday that I practice each year. The actual meaning of the channukah prayers are slightly different for all three of them. The translation of the first one means essentially that we thank god for commanding us to light these candles. For the second prayer observers thank god for performing helpful actions for Jewish people in the past such as during the Syrian invasion. The next is thanking god for preserving the Jewish people throughout any hardships they have faced. Knowing all these meanings behind the prayer I have sang for so long feels very cool because of how united the holiday is meant to make Jews feel. Now after knowing the whole meaning behind the holiday I will be able to tell my relatives this story that is so significant in the history of Judaism.

Citations:

History: The Hanukkah Story | Reform Judaism

I moved on to questions and words that I would be able to use in conversation commonly at the final stretch of my learning. We also touched on more cultural parts of Israel than before because I became curious with my Cultural Presentation coming up. The questions that I learned would ideally help me in real world situations in basic communication when I do end up visiting Israel which is great because it is always great to see real world applicability to what I learn. I find that seeing this real-world connection further motivates me so I was very enticed to learn a lot of questions that I could use. We learned words like ma which means what and Apho which means where. To do so I would read these questions in sentences which really helped me learn in real time. We then tried to piece these questions together with common objects. These included basic words like Talmid or student or Yelda which means girl for example. This was the first time I was using real conversation back and forth with my instructor which was awesome to see because I could feel my progression throughout the course. Like I had mentioned prior, we started to delve more into the cultural aspect of Hebrew, more specifically pertaining to Israel. I was very curious about the IDF because I had always heard about it growing up and really wanted to learn about how the fact that most individuals are conscripted into the army affected the overall culture in Israel. My instructor informed me on how this system does affect the culture in Israel and what his experience was like. He also shared cool anecdotes about the military specifically which were fascinating to me because I have always been intrigued by history since I was young. We also got into how many of the holidays celebrated by Jews all over the world are so much more emphasized in Israel. This was of course not unobvious when you consider that Israel is the Jewish homeland and is home to the most Jewish people per country only behind the US. The story that stuck out to me most is how Passover is a hectic, awesome holiday in Israel. The way he described it reminds me of 4^th of July in the US with people celebrating all over in different cities. It really seems like one big communal holiday which would be cool to be a part of one day. I also took note of an interesting cultural observation from discussions like these. Religion is much more emphasized in Israel because so many people are Jewish. I thoroughly enjoyed this part of the course because I think there is no better way to learn about culture than to discuss with someone who has lived in a particular culture. Overall, I was ecstatic to where I have gotten to thus far. The whole learning experience and especially my awesome instructor has really motivated me to want to keep on learning Hebrew and has further sparked my interest with Israel as a whole.

Next, we moved on to more applicable learning which I was really excited for because one of my goals for learning Hebrew was learning info that I could use in the real world. We once again focused on reading short sentences and becoming more fluid in my interpretation of Hebrew words and listening.  We began by learning basic numbers so I would be able to count in Hebrew. We focused on learning 1-10,000 because the way Hebrew numbers work is that once 1-10 is mastered the rest are much easier to learn as well. 1-10, echad, shtaim, shalosh, arba, etc. were very easy because it was simple memorization. The 10’s were harder because it required more thinking and this made saying bigger numbers much more challenging but nevertheless I eventually was able to say numbers well through consistent practice. Next to help my reading and greater interpretation of Hebrew as a whole we decided it would be good to move onto male and female pronouns. I was also excited for this part off my learning because I would be adding additional functionality to my arsenal of Hebrew. Now I would be able to address people and better describe situations when speaking in Hebrew. It was really cool to see this progression real time in such a short amount of time. I went from learning the alphabet to being able to describe a situation like someone who fluently speaks the language and that was really cool to see. We first discussed common indicators at the end of a word that would make the word feminine. These were ah, eet, oot, et, ot, and at. At first it was kind of hard because it was tough to actually apply these endings to words that I had just learned. Through practice and continuous exposure however, I was able to really start applying this knowledge quickly. We would use exercises like looking at a group of words and deciding whether they were masculine or feminine using the endings that were assigned. This whole experience was pretty gratifying overall because I understood these concepts much better and quicker than the past content we had studied. It seemed like as I became more settled in to what I was learning I was picking up and retaining information much quicker. I also noticed some interesting differences between Hebrew and English that my instructor pointed out. There is a different use of applying masculinity and femininity to words in Hebrew than English. Some words have a masculine ending even though they are not affiliated with the male gender and this applied vice versa as well which is something I had to be aware of when learning. I was pretty excited where I got up to as far as my overall proficiency with the language at this point. I was one step closer to being more fluent and being able to use Hebrew like a native speaker even though I obviously had and have a long way to go until I am objectively fluent. This part of my language learning endeavor was fun and interesting.

In the second month we were mainly focused on the vowel system or niqqud. I was excited to move onto this part of the language because with this knowledge is how Hebrew can actually be used in the real world. We first went over what vowels in Hebrew are and how they are used. We went over how the vowels differ from English in the sense that they are not distinct letters. Instead, vowels for a beginner are added to a letter and they make that letter have a distinct sound. Once someone becomes proficient enough for speakers who are more advanced then there is no need for the vowels because they are simply anticipated and someone can interpret how a given word sounds based on reading it. For my level of Hebrew I would be using the vowels to assist in my interpretation of the language. We went over some strategies of memorization that would help me memorize the vowels and how to identify each. I watched a video and played a hand game that uses hand motions to help me learn each vowel and what they would look like when attached to a given letter. I practiced the making the sounds of AH, EH, EE, OH, OOH, AY which were distinct from aeiou for English vowels. This really helped me because I became familiar with the differences and made me fluid with pronouncing the vowels. Repetition really helped me in this case because it is a lot easier for me to memorize content when I am exposed to it over and over. Next, we moved on to actually reading letters and short words with the letters and vowels attached. Initially, this was very challenging for me because it is hard not to be eager to read quickly. A lot of the time I would be sitting there and trying to come up with what sound the letter made while attaching the vowel sound. Some rules also really tripped me up like when reading words with a vowel on one letter, the next letter would be silent in some cases. This made it so a lot of the time I would use a vowel at the end of the letter when I did not need to. This really does not sound like a big deal at first glance but the issue with Hebrew is that these mistakes can make a word completely interpretable or even change the word to a different word. This also really inhibited my speed of utilizing the vowels because I was worried that I would forget these rules. Nevertheless, with practice and time I became able to recognize these aspects and became more confident in my ability in the long run. Eventually, I was reading short sentences while using vowels as well as speaking simpler words quite well. As far as my emotions during this part of learning was concerned I was pretty optimistic. I felt like as long as I practiced I would be able to move on and start reading more advanced sentences on my own. Overall, learning vowels to eventually be able to speak and read well was a successful endeavor.

During the beginning of my learning endeavors my Language Partner and I primarily focused on gaining more knowledge about the Hebrew alphabet. His goal for me was to understand how to read, write, and pronounce each letter of the language so that I could eventually be able to form sentences of my own. We started off extremely basic, simply trying to sing the alef bet Het song that he introduced me to. This song was very helpful because it was essentially the abcs for English. It was very catchy and he even referred me to an app that would help me memorize the song in a fun way. My language partner was hoping that a few sessions in I would be fully familiar with the alphabet and would be able to move on to actually practice the language. I am happy that I was actually able to reach this goal through practice on my own that primarily revolved around repetition and writing the letters over and over. I also took on the alphabet from a speaking perspective. I focused on saying the sounds of each letter over and over so that I was going to be able to properly pronounce words when I got there. This strategy was very successful because while speaking the letters out loud I was able to become more familiar to identifying which letter was which when they were spoken out loud for me to listen to. One part of learning the alphabet that was quite frustrating was how close some of the letters look to each other. For example, the letters He and Chet are nearly identical except for a small gap in how they are written. These subtle differences were extremely frustrating a lot of the time because it is hard having to be aware of such minute differences in a language when you are first starting out. For example, in English when I was learning the alphabet as a child there was no way to mix any of the letters up because they all look distinct. Learning the Hebrew alphabet was much more challenging because it felt not only was I memorizing a foreign alphabet but I was also simultaneously having to stay focused on these small details. Nevertheless, the fact that it is a harder alphabet to read and write, it made it more satisfying to actually learn and become familiar with. I was not so successful in writing the alphabet for the first time given these minute differences. This being said, my instructor really was incredibly assistive. Whenever I would mess up he say good job and then nicely correct me. This was a great way to help me learn because even though I did not get it exactly right, I was still motivated to keep on learning. When it came to saying the letters I also was often times not successful. I had a tendency to add a bit of an American accent, to the point where it changed the whole sounding of the letter. This was not good because later when I would be forming words, this kind of accent would make it hard for other Hebrew speakers to interpret what I was saying. Overall, I had a great time learning and applying the alphabet.

Language Plan

Overall Structure of Course:

• Reading, Writing, and Listening, each week (Speaking comes later)
• Each week I will watch a movie or documentary in Hebrew and write a written summary pointing out things I notice about how characters speak Hebrew. (To encompass Listening and Culture)
• Utilize Tools Online (Italkie, etc.)

Learning plan will be tentative and only out to week 3 to give the possibility of revision:

Week 1 (basics):

• Alphabet
• Learn each letter, how it sounds, how to write, Spelling of words in English, etc.
• Basic Verb structure

Week 2:

• Alphabet continued (practice writing and speaking *Repetition*)
• Aleph Bet song memorization
• More verb Structure
• Watch movie in Hebrew (One Day in September)

Week 3:

• Recite Aleph Bet Het Song
• Be able to write alphabet
• Begin researching prayers to learn
• Basic Words and phrases
• Watch Movie in Hebrew related to Jewish culture (Possibly the Pianist)

Organization of self directed learning plan and exchanges with community partners:

Each week I look to have goals and tasks in the four categories of learning Hebrew: Writing, Reading, Listening, and Speaking. Consequently, I will practice those skills in each category with a language partner. I will focus on repetition and hands on learning to try and solidify those skills and help with memorization. Each week I will also attempt to assess the skills I learned prior with my Language Learning Partner.

Individuals and organizations who could advance from my endeavors in learning Hebrew:

-Interfaith center, congregation beth ahabah, I Will eventually reach out to these synagogues and maybe even attend a service to try and conversate and use Hebrew in real time with people that speak it.

How I have been learning so far:

So far I have been trying to learn the Hebrew alphabet, which is harder than I had imagined. I have been doing this using repetition and the four components that I had mentioned earlier.

I have been Writing the letters over and over, practicing the differences in writing the letters like He and chet. Some of the differences are very minute so it is has been taking me awhile to learn.

I have been Speaking the letters, making the sounds of them over and over, reciting the aleph bet het song, and listening to them being said over and being able to read and identify which letter is which.

I attempted to learn verb structure because I had been told it was confusing and quickly saw it was really confusing. The structure is different than every language other than arameyic. I am putting verb structure on hold temporarily.

How I will investigate Hebrew and jewish culture more deeply:

I want to be able to understand prayers that I heard growing up. I also want to be able to conversate with people in Hebrew while at synagogue if I want to. I even hope to go to Israel one day because that is something I have always wanted to do. Overall, I want to have the option to be more involved in Judaism.

What first prompted me:

I Grew up going to Sunday school mainly learning about history and always wanted to learn more about the language. I have family ties to Hebrew through being jewish on my dad’s side. My great grandpa was also a Jewish composer.