Emunah Shlemah: Moving over

Jan 21, 2008

Moving over

BS"D

It's time to admit defeat for Emunah Shlemah (the blog, not the project of self discovery!). Due largely to my own technical incompetence, I am abandoning this blog for the easier and more intuitive livejournal, which I update regularly. Sorry to any faithful readers. From now on my only blog presence will be at http://eitanhalevy.livejournal.com/. I look forward to hearing your comments there.
---
B'ahavat Yisrael,
-Eitan

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Name: Eitan

Location: Bat Ayin, Northern Judea, Israel

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A short auto-biography, written pretentiously in the third person:

Eitan Levy was born in Topeka, KS. That's in America, but oddly still thousands of miles from both New York City and California respectively. At the age of three he moved back to the original hometown of his parents and grandparents in Denver where he grew up in a Conservative-ish Jewish home with his loving parents, two sisters (one older and one younger) and an assortment of pets that changed with the seasons. He was sick a lot of the time growing up, especially in middle school and high school but, thank G!d, is now perfectly healthy.

After high school, Eitan went to Sarah Lawrence College, which surprisingly has been coed for over 30 years! He wanted to learn creative writing, but soon became much more interested in classical (Greek) philosophy, which he majored in. During those years Eitan became very involved in pro-Israel politics and also made teshuvah (returning to the faith/Judaism). It's all a pretty interesting story. You should ask him about it some time, but only if you're looking to get an ear-full. His sophomore year he organized a Birthright trip to Israel, which he went on, and fell in love (with the country, not a person). Then he came back in 2004 for his Junior year as a 'year abroad' student at Hebrew University. He has only been back to the US for about 5 months since then to finish his degree, and made Aliyah in January 2006.

From January 2006 Eitan was learning Hebrew in an Ulpan in Jerusalem and living on a very loud street in the center of the city. He learned a lot of Hebrew, made and kept some amazingly wonderful friends, and wore ear-plugs every night. Then he started looking for yeshivot, and he found one that was in a settlement, English speaking, and with a baal-teshuvah program in Bat Ayin. He loves Bat Ayin because the people are nice and outdoorsy and serve G!d with all their hearts and souls, with an incredible intensity. The Yeshivah gives the water to grow and only prunes the thorns, letting your healthy branches grow in any direction.

Eitan used to play classical piano, then jazz improvisation, and then he stopped having a piano/keyboard around and stopped playing. He is equally partial to Beethoven concertos, Dave Brubeck and American Country music like Toby Keith. He keeps a copy of the Iliad (the Richmond Lattimore translation) in the bathroom, because it's his favorite book which is not a sefer kodesh (holy book, which cannot be brought into the bathroom). He's proud to be from America, even though he has chosen to live elsewhere, and uses words like "y'all" and "darlin'" when the mood strikes him. He loves to ski, hike, backpack, bike, and otherwise move through G!d's creation to appreciate its wonders. He's also a very religious, Orthodox Jew, though he doesn't quite fit into one community (Hasidic/litvish/dati-leumi/etc). He likes to stop for a moment and think before reciting a brachah (blessing), and studies Shmirat ha-Loshon (laws of proper speech) every morning, but he doesn't manage to go more than a day without saying something he shouldn't.

For the time being Eitan is living day to day, learning Torah and trying to be a decent human being, Jew, Israeli-Zionist, Settler, American and any other title he bears with pride.

Emunah Shlemah

Jan 21, 2008

Moving over

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