In the meantime, I am trying to make the most of my time where I am. I am attacking this problem on three fronts. First, I have been bringing my Hebrew textbooks to work with me and trying to do at least an hour of grammar work. I have also been reading my way through alot of Jewish philosophy/thought books and trying to learn in all the spare time I have.
Secondly, I have been making an effort to hang out and chat with more people. Chen, a girl I met on one of the other bases has just been switched to mine, so I have been eating lunch with her and meeting alot of the people that she works with as well. I also made friends with Motti who takes the same bus as me every day. Motti is 24 and married with a kid. He lives in Beitar, and is ex-chareidi (ultra-orthodox). His parents are both American so he speaks excellent english which makes it much easier to become friends with him. We talk alot about being older than everyone else and not quite fitting into other people's definition of "religious". Which brings me to number three.
My experiences with being religious in the army have been somewhat varied. The Israeli Army amazingly functions in a way that all observant Jews can be a part of it quite easily. The food is all kosher, they do not require you to do anything that will break Shabbat (unless you are in a fighting unit, in which case it is okay anyway), the uniforms are designed in accordance with the laws of modesty, and they are required by law to give you time to pray. All of these arrangements were made for the religious men that wanted to serve. There are many units of all religious men, even some ultra-orthodox units. Every base has a synagogue and a Rabbi and they hold services three times a day as well as various classes/shiurim throughout the day. This all makes it very easy to be a religious man in the army.
It is a little different for religious women. We can, of course, request a skirt if we want one, and all the synagogues have some sort of women's section for us to pray. But most religious women in Israel elect to do national service (work in schools and hospitals etc) instead of joining the army. Those that do join the army are in varying levels of observance and few, if not none of them pray in the synagogue every day. Because of this, on pretty much every base I have been in, the women's section of the synagogue tends to be small, unkempt, and frequently filled with men.
In Haifa they merely used the women's section to sleep, but on my base here, the visiting Rabbi's use it to hold shiurim (Torah or Talmud classes). The first two times I went to pray there I had to ask men to leave and the third time I went, they told me they were in the middle and I would have to talk to the Rabbi and find somewhere else to pray. Well this kind of pissed me off. I understand the importance of learning Torah, and I even get that there were more of them that needed to use that room then women that wanted to pray. And Im relatively sure I was the first woman to show up in synagogue in years, given the looks I was given when I walked in. But every synagogue should be open to anyone that comes in and wants to pray, regardless of gender.
Well this week, I finally managed to show up in time for Mincha, the afternoon prayer. (My office is on the other side of base, and I had just been praying on my own in one of the empty offices). When I showed up on Sunday, there was a shiur in session and they asked me to wait. They came out after the men had already started the service and I had to hurry to catch up with them. This also meant that I was left standing outside the woman's section (and incidentally in the men's section) while the men were praying. Well this was still going on by Tuesday, and I was getting kind of annoyed as I figured they should have gotten used to me showing up by now. But, in defense of the Orthodox men, apparently I wasnt the only one that thought this situation was less than okay. I had four or five different men tell me that they had spoken to the Rabbi about it and by Wednesday, the men were clearing out on time.
I started the week annoyed with men for not understanding that women also have an obligation to pray. And, to be honest, I was annoyed with everyone for thinking Im not religious just because I wear pants. But by the end of the week, I was really impressed with how so many of the men went out of their way to try to make me comfortable there, and, well congratulated me (for lack of a better word) for showing up to pray. So then I started to get annoyed at religious women for their absence from synagogue and what that says about us. I understand that the synagogue is a very male-oriented place, but that is never going to change unless those of us strong enough to brave the looks show up and make it our place too.
By the end of the week, I not only had the men used to my presence, but my friend Chen was coming to Mincha with me, despite the fact that she is not religious.
All in all, it made me feel quite accomplished this week. While I may not be making a clear and definable difference, I feel like the time I am spending here is having a positive effect, on myself and others.
As a final note. I am cold. No, we dont have the like 3 feet of snow forecasted for all you east-coasters, but I have fully acclimated to living in the Middle East and these almost freezing temperatures are too low for me.
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