matt & jeannette: School

Well I can hardly believe it but it has already been a month since we left home to come to Israel. It was only a month ago that everything was brand new and foreign; our apartment, the streets, the money, the school, and the people. In four weeks however, the brand new has become routine and the foreign has become the normal. This is a good thing. We have really enjoyed finally getting into a routine which involves school, studying, volunteering, and living a new way of life. Since its been almost three weeks since classes began, I thought I would spend some time writing about the classes I am taking and what I have been learning...

Physical Settings
This is probably one of my favorite classes because we get to spend so much time walking around the land of Israel. This class meets twice a week in the classroom but then we also have a field study every weekend either on Saturday or Sunday. The main idea behind this class is that the land influenced the Bible in so many ways so if we really want to understand some of the context of the Bible, its important to know the land where the stories took place. In the first month of class, we have learned a lot of geographical and geological information. Although learning about rock types may not sound like the most exciting thing, I am starting to see and realize how even rocks played a part in shaping some of the stories of the Old Testament. So far on our field studies we have spent time in the Old City of Jerusalem, the outskirts of the Old City as well as David's City, Bethlehem, and the Old Testament tribal areas of Ephraim and Manasseh (this weekend we go here!). Future field studies include trips to the Old Testament tribal area of Benjamin, Galilee area, the wilderness, as well as a few other places. Jeannette is auditing this class with me which means that we both get the opportunity to spend time in the land on the weekends. It's great to experience all of it together!

History of Ancient Israel
Where did the Israelites come from? How did they come to live in the land that we call Israel today? These are questions that we are trying to answer in my History of Ancient Israel class. This class meets typically once a week on Monday evenings. So far, we have spent some time talking about the origins of language, the rise of the Mesopotamian and Egyptian empires, and we are just now starting to talk about the people that are referred to as the Israelites in the Old Testament. This has been a great class to learn about some of the history of the major empires that surrounded the Israelites when they were living in the promise land.

Biblical Hebrew
To be quite honest, I spend the majority of my time in Hebrew class just trying to figure out what is going on and what we are talking about :) Although I was a little intimated to sign-up for Hebrew at first, we talked to some people that really encouraged me to take the class. So I signed up for Biblical Hebrew and Jeannette signed up for an Ulpan which is a modern Hebrew class that meets in the city (starting in October). This is probably one of my more difficult classes but I am enjoying it a lot. There's not a lot of notes to take and most of the class time is spent learning either new words and repeating them or learning Hebrew grammar. This week we learned about pronouns and verbs - this brought me back to the good old days of grade school and learning about grammar by watching "School House Rock."

Rabbinical Thought and Literature
This is another one of my favorite classes so far. This class is taught by a Jewish Rabbi who is both energetic and quite funny! The class meets twice a week and the majority of our time is spent diving into scripture and reading the stories of the Old Testament. A favorite quote from our Rabbi is, "The Bible forces us to be active readers - so lets be active readers." So far we have read the stories of creation, the journey of Abraham, the binding of Isaac, and the story of Jacob and Esau. While reading, we tend to take a lot of time asking questions about each story. This has been a great challenge for me to learn how to better spend more time reflecting and asking questions when I read the Text.

Archaeology of Ancient Israel
This class can be summarized by the phrase, "lots of notes." The class meets once a week on Friday mornings for 3 hours and yes, we take notes for almost the entire three hours! We spend a lot of time in this class talking about the different archaeological digs that either have taken place in the land of Israel or are currently taking place at this time. Like all of my classes, this class also has some field studies in the land throughout the semester. Although we don't need archaeology to "prove" the Bible, this class does help to shed some light on some of the Old Testament Biblical stories that we read and especially what the cities may have looked liked during this time.

I am really enjoying my classes and feel like I have already learned a lot in just the past three weeks. Spending time walking around and studying in the land has given me a whole new perspective on the Bible and its stories. Although it took a little bit of time to get back into the groove of school and homework (its been a few years since college), its starting to feel normal again. Thanks again for everyone's support and prayers.