Pesach came to a nice ending yesterday (it's 7 days in Israel, 8 in the Galut), and the final seder, the night prior, was in this rabbi's apartment in the Old City. There was a conglomeration of people from all over, although the English speakers were the best represented, about 25 people in all. The rabbi is Chabad-affiliated, although I am not sure how his funding works. But he definitely hooks up young people with a meaningful religious experience on Shabbat or holidays. I liked it and I am coming back. It's getting much easier to read the Hebrew texts, and I am actually understanding the prayers, partially, without looking at the translation. So, progress is being made. There were quite a few young men there who gave me advice on the next stage of my "Israel experience." It's always encouraging to hear the stories of those whose life path is similar to mine. It also suggests that I am not crazy. Or if I am, there sure are a lot of people who are just as insane as me.

Aside from these quality types, there are also a lot of people in Jerusalem who treat this city as a vacation spot. I hate the tourist mentality, especially when it's applied to this city, and particularly because the economic behavior of our guests includes the buying of property, which raises prices on housing and everything else. You can tell a tourist from a mile away in Jerusalem, even though they technically look exactly like your typical Ashkenazi Jerusalemite. There is a foreign energy that emanates from the tourists, and it's clear they don't belong. I can feel the emptiness in their souls, it's palpable. We will take your money however, thank you, now go back to Cedarhurst.

I urge all of you to find meaning in your lives, even if it means doing something that you may have always thought was a bit crazy. The drudgery of corporate life and the spiritual emptiness it forces on its employees is made bearable by the opportunities to "relax" and "wind-down" and to "vacation." The "vacation" especially is an interesting concept in the Western cosmopolitan system. Just like people buy products to make their lives happier and more enjoyable, people also buy vacations to make them feel good about themselves. The vacation is the ultimate consumer product. The ideal way to get to that peak before you go right back down to the valley. It's a depressing, unstable way to live. By "live" I mean to truly live, not just to not die.