I heart Turkish Coffee

The greatest thing to come from Turkey to Israel since my savta’s ancestors in the 15^th century is of course the black gritty Café Turkit, Turkish Coffee. With equal parts coffee grounds and sugar and filled with hot water this gets me through the day. I usually try to supersaturate the coffee with more grounds than necessary, the excess serves as a crunchy stimulant throughout the day. For a shekel per cup (roughly 22 US cents, 4.6 shekels = $1US), it is very economical. There is another interesting drink called Sachlav, which is this thick milky yet rosy sweet hot drink (okay too many adjectives) no caffeine, but man a lot of sugar.

 

So what is with all this stimulation? Class starts at 8:30 AM and it is a walk to get there. This is not Goldsmith Hall with JTS a block away. No, I don’t have a locker yet, so I am lugging heavy books from above Palmach (at the top of the hill in Old Katamon) to Talpiot, not to mention Shacharit beforehand. We learn pretty much straight through, besides around an hour of lunch from 1:30-2:30, some days I go to 9:30 PM (like tonight) pretty much nonstop.

 

The following are classes that I am taking

Talmud Dalet*

Chumash Dalet*

13 Principles of Rambam

Rambam (Mishnah Torah)

Women and Mitzvot

Chassidut

The Halachic Process

 

*will probably be replaced by Talmud Hey 5 days a week

The issue with the Dalet classes is that if I took Hey Talmud, I would not be able to take Chumash and I haven’t been able to take Chumash, something I really enjoy, for a number of years

 

An update: They’re out of Turkish coffee and sachlav. All there is is regular coffee and tea. How uncouth.

 

Meanwhile, I am still without an apartment. Anyone know of any apartments in south Jerusalem?

 

            Thanks,

                        Mat

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Matthew Rutta

Jerusalem, ISRAEL