Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur were amazing, thanks to the thousand or so people that packed my yeshiva for services. There were t'filot (prayers), ruach (atmosphere), and ruchaniut (spirituality). Everyone wore white, everyone was on a level above normal, it was quite an experience. My yeshiva is an almost entirely national-religious neighborhood, so there were continually young people, kids and families outside, walking around, going in and out of the numerous synagogues and just hanging out. It was special, and not in a corny sense of the word. On Yom Kippur, there were no cars on the streets, which filled with walkers and bikers. I didn't hurt during the fast. It's much easier to fast when, according to polls, 93% of Israeli Jews fasted yesterday. That's what I call national solidarity. I'll admit that I wasn't praying the entire day like the more committed types. I spent some of the holiest day of the year, wondering about the holiest city in the world. I also entertained a fellow Dartmouth graduate, who also had the cajones to make aliyah and currently resides on a kibbutz up north. He is planning on volunteering for a longer army service, very cool.

We now are about to enter into 7 days of Succot, a holiday based on G-d's plentiful natural bounty. Not the harvest, rather the succor and protection he provides us with, specifically that which kept us alive and safe during the 40 years we wandered in the desert following the harrowing escape from Egypt. Succas, wood-and-straw huts, are going up in people's balconies and yards all over Jerusalem. It is a big mitzva during Succot to eat all one's meals in the succa, and, if possible, to sleep in it as well. After Succot, we have Simchat Torah, when we celebrate the completion of the final Torah portion of the year. The Torah is read in weekly portions, and thus takes a full year to read from beginning to end. I am referring here to the Chumash, the Five Books of Moses, known to my Christian friends as the "Old Testament."

The Chumash covers the period from Creation (take that as you will), through the early peoples, Noah and the flood, to Abraham, the first monotheist and Jew, and the first Jew to make aliyah to Israel, heeding G-d's call. The Chumash continues describing the generations of Isaac and Jacob, Abraham's son and grandson, and Jacob's twelve sons. These twelve sons are the foundation of the 12 Tribes of Israel, and it is they who descend to Egypt and suffer 200 years worth of enslavement there, from about 1500 B.C. to 1300 B.C. Then, Moses takes the Jews out of Egypt and leads them back to Israel. On the way, the Jews get the written and the oral Torah at Mt. Sinai, become a religious nation with a legal code, and are about to enter into Israel when they commit a terrible sin. Of the 12 spies that the Jews send to reconnoiter Eretz Israel, 10 come back with reports that Israel is unconquerable due to the strength of its Caananite inhabitants. The two dissenting opinions are by spies Joshua and Caleb, but the Jews accept the story of the 10. For this, the Jews suffer 40 years in the desert.

When everyone who thus sinned dies, including Moses, the Chumash ends and the Prophets and Writings begin. These works describe the history of the Jews from the crossing of the River Jordan into Eretz Israel, close to where Jericho is located, in about 1250 B.C. At that point they are led by Joshua and Caleb, the only ones spared from the sentence to die in the desert, and commence the conquest of the Land of Israel. Prophets+Writings covers early period of conquest, King David's final conquest of Jerusalem and the outlying areas of Israel, King Solomon's building of the First Temple, and the subsequent history of the Jews in Israel until the destruction of said Temple by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. While Chumash is read over the course of the year, and is considered G-d given, Prophets and Writings are written by contemporary scholars/rabbis and are studied concurrently with the Chumash over the course of the year. The Oral Torah, known as the Mishna, includes detailed explanations of Halacha, Jewish law, and is a staple in yeshiva learning. Talmud, both the Jerusalem and the Babylonian, record 100's of years worth of arguing over points in the Mishna, by the top scholars of the 6th-4th centuries B.C. Talmud is studied by more advanced students and is not necessary for the normal practicing Jew. Easier, and more relevant, is the study of scholarship of the past 2,000 years, which discusses both Jewish law and Jewish philosophy.

I have had a total of 2.5 months of yeshiva at this point and have another month left. I am far from considering myself truly knowledgable, but I hope to have some fundamentals down. Maybe in the future, I will study some more.

Next week, I will go up North with a few friends, if all goes as planned. We will spend time in Tzfat, and will attend a hippy-type festival on the shores of the Kinneret. Israeli love enormous festivals with music and games and general collective goofiness. Having them in open spaces in nature is amazing. Sleeping will occur outside and the weather now is amazing.

And now, a note on economics. Last week the World Economic Forum published its 2006 Economic Competitiveness Index. Israel is now ranked 15th, an improvement on its 23rd spot last year. The USA has dropped from 1st place to 6th, edged out by Switzerland and the Scandinavians. The USA is steadily holding 10th place in the UN's index of living standards, a list in which Israel is in respectable 22nd place. The average monthly salary in Israel is currently 7,633 shekels per month, which is approximately $21,000 per year. On the cost-of-living side of the equation, the average basket of consumer goods and services, including housing, averages to 80% of the cost of that same basket in the US. So life in Israel is cheaper, but seemingly not that much cheaper. But this basket includes fancy-schmancy clothing, regular restaurant outings, supermarket food prices and apartments in urban areas. If you buy cheaper Israeli clothing brands, or lower-end Spanish brands no one ever heard of, and if you chill out on the restaurants and get your food in a shuk (open-air market), the economics tilt much more in your favor. All statistics are by the Central Bureau of Statistics of Israel, and I can confirm from life experience that they aren't lying.

Hence, the only real item of concern is buying a home. Well, I intend to buy "far" from an urban area, because I want space for my money. "Far" in Israel means 30 minutes by car. For some reason most Israelis like to be within 10 minutes of urban activities, which drives up city apartment prices. In Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv and Tel-Aviv's trendy suburbs, a 1000 square foot apartment (that's the average living space in Israel) can run for $200,000-250,000. Such apartments are tend to be 4-room arrangements, with balconies (the average Israeli living space set-up). And yet, that's seems to be OK with homebuyers. I agree these apartments are in nice, new buildings with the right "specs," but it's just not my thing. I would rather pay $120,000-150,000 for a 1,500 square foot, detached house in a rural area in the North, with a garden and little lawn. Coming up with a sizable downpayment, in my opinion, is best done by robbery, chicanery and good old swindling.

There's always the option of living in Judea, Samaria or the Golan Heights, where a 1,500 square foot house can go for $60,000-80,000. You may need slightly larger cajones for that. But the quality of housing for less money is such a draw, that virtually all the children of Jewish residents of Judea, Samaria and the Golan choose to stay in those areas. And there are always new people moving in. On an $80,000 property, $10,000 is a good enough downpayment and the house is yours. This is why the growth of these areas is 5.6% yearly. Way to go Jews. By the time the next left-wing government is voted in, they'll have to plan to evacuate 300,000 Jews in Judea and Samaria and 200,000 Jews in East Jerusalem. Read - task impossible. I spent last Shabbat in a mostly Arab village on the slopes of Mt. of Olives, that has a few Jewish apartment complexes. I can attest to the fact that Jewish property buying in East Jerusalem is proceeding at a decent rate, and the housing cost is very, very reasonable.

Back to salaries. Most people I know here in Israel who have Bachelors degrees or higher, are getting an above average salary. In some fields, way above average. These juicier jobs are in engineering, programming, and anything relating to the technical sciences. Either way, if you have a degree, perseverence and some cajones, the issue of parnassa (making a living) doesn't seem to be a problem. However, well-paying jobs in the government, security and finance fields are totally controlled by an old-boys network from the army, so immigrants who don't have the right IDF background are advised to focus on high-tech, marketing and sales. High-tech is always growing fast, so they'll take anyone who can write a program or whatever those math geeks do. Marketing and sales value flawless English over anything else. Other good options for your IDF-dodging immigrant include the medical field and any one of the plethora of Israel-Diaspora organizations. The latter is not the best salary, but still decent. Finally, there are immigrants who simply have a lot of money and so getting a job is not an issue. Usually, these are people aged 50 plus. I don't envy them. They totally miss out on anything that can remotely be called an Israeli experience and are, in fact, perma-tourists. B'ezrat HaShem, their kids will make worthwhile Israelis.

Anyhow, there are many ways to live in Israel and not die of starvation. Generally, the best thing for most people is to get used to the concepts of one-car-one-family and a-child-doesn't-deserve-his-own-room. It's called BUNK BEDS. That's how Israeli kids are raised and it's good preperation for the army. It also makes them socially more normal. Having your own room your entire childhood is probably why many Americans are depressed and egotistical.

I need to go for a run now. This is Ron Burgundy signing off, and you stay classy, San Diego.