Chanukkah week and Pardes Khana weekend

For the last week of Chanukah we had special classes and activities pertaining to Chanukah, for instance shiurim about the importance of the Chanukah story and the significance of the holiday. It was also cool to go on an hike Tuesday that tracked the important places in Israel that were important to the Chanukah story, as well as a visit to Ammunition Hill, a place that shines light on a dark but valorous time for the IDF and showed the bravery of the army back during the 1967 war. The next day we had a scavenger hunt to find different important facts in Israel's history from a specific neighborhood which was quite clever and interesting. The rest of the day was spent hanging out in Jerusalem at shops, cafes and ice cream shops waiting until our volunteering stint at a nursery home for Chanukah which was really sweet to help elders light their chanukiot and sing Chanukah songs to them during the holiday, it was a really big mitzvah. On Thursday morning I woke up late to go to the bus stop in Jerusalem to get the train with my boyfriend to Binyamina to visit my dad's kibbutz friends. When I got to the bus stop in Efrat to find myself getting passed by three buses after an hour and a half of waiting for the bus finally one stopped, so I got to Jerusalem with not as much time as I wanted but I still got my dad's friends a thank-you-for-letting-us-stay gift and catch the train at 5:40pm to get to Binyamina at around 8pm. It always nice to stay with dad's friends, they're very authentic people as well as eccentric and its always great. We had a great shabbat dinner on Friday night and indian food on Thursday night which was nice too. Their son came with his family on Saturday for his birthday and we watched a couple of movies to have a nice relaxing day. A fairly uneventful week and weekend but was still relaxing and nice I really enjoyed it and now I'm enjoying getting back into our normal seminary schedule for this last weeks of midrasha. For the weather: right now there's a storm going on here on the kibbutz, it snowed last night and has been raining nonstop, did I mention its so cold here I'd rather be in Canada.

Chanukkah week

This past week we had a bit of a special schedule: Monday held a special trip to the Kotel with hundreds of other Jews to pray for rain, Israel at the present is suffering a drought and terrible dryspell. It has become a true crisis, that the religious community has tried to counteract by having a fast day for rain, and by the huge gathering of people to pray for rain. On Tuesday we had a special trip to Rachel's tomb, it was a moving trip to be there, but the atmosphere seemed wrong with people davening there were pretty pushy and rude, elbowing people to move and looking on to visitors with disapproval. I probably would've enjoyed the trip significantly more, of we hadn't gone during Mincha, if it was less busy and with less people it would've been nicer. After the tiyul on Tuesday to Rachel's tomb, we had a heated discussion that night at Tea & Torah about the issues of homosexuality in Judaism, it was interesting to see that most of our group was okay with homosexuality but still wouldn't want their children to be homosexual. After the discussion I headed to the bus stop in Alon Shevut to make my way to Jerusalem to stay the night. The next afternoon, after having some lunch at Ben Yehuda St., I went on the bus to Rishon Le-Ziyyon to visit my cousins for a Chanukah party on the first night Chanukah, she made her speciality of milk meals, with lasagna, quiches and strawberry cheesecake on the menu. After spending the night there and a lovely visit with my family which is always a pleasure on a holiday, I made my way back to Jerusalem to stay with my boyfriend's family friends, for Jerusalem we went to the shuk to buy our hosts some doughnuts in spirit of Chanukah and picked up a package from the Bnei Akiva offices from my mom with some great things inside. After going to do errands we had another chill afternoon and dinner out on the town. The next morning we headed to the train station to go on a train to Nahariyya for our group Shabbat up north, on the train ride we saw the clouds of smoke around Haifa and Carmel mountains, that showed evidence of these wildfires being one the worst national disasters of Israel. The Shabbat was really nice being near the beach and had lovely weather for the weekend, in the package my mom sent me included a game called Munchkin which became a great time passer on Shabbat, the game is basically the card version of dungeon and dragons, it's a great game and very entertaining. On Sunday, we had a Bnei Akiva youth movement resolution voting day, with all Hachsharot meeting together to make resolutions for the youth movement, it was a very boring day overall. On Monday, we had an interesting day including a morning class about olive oil making which was cool, because the teacher brought an actual olive press so we could actually make some olive oil, which we did and light an oil menorah with the oil we made that night. In addition to lighting candles we were honored to go to a wedding on the kibbutz of two converts to judaism, living on the kibbutz, it was a really beautiful wedding just to see two people truly in love, but it upset me to see the bride's family unhappy at the wedding, when her parents should be happy for their daughter on one of the happiest days of her life, but it was still very interesting to see an orthodox Israeli wedding; after we had a Chanukah party with all the girls, with secret Santa gift exchange, games and food, a lovely night and day without a doubt.

Third week of Seminary

So in our third week of seminary we continued with our adventures with Chumash, philosophy, Halacha and the usual suspects of a religious education. What changes is the further continuation and advancement of crocheting kippot as well as our adapting to our kibbutz environment. It's been continually interesting to learn new things about Judaism that I previously was unaware of, such as specific Halachot that I previously was unaware of. During the week we continue to go out Mondays, learn during the days, going to shiurim and studying Chumash. During the weekend, we were with just the girls and we travelled to Allon Shevut to stay with host families. I stayed with the Dutch girls and a British girl, we stayed at a Dutch family there. They were really interesting and spoke three languages which was really cool, especially listening to a Dvar Torah where the father spoke in english, argued with his wife in Hebrew and randomly to talk to our Dutch girls in Dutch, very entertaining. I really enjoyed the Shabbat because it was a lot of relaxation as well as shiurim with our Rabbi and midrasha couple. I really enjoyed catching up on sleep and meeting new people, I really love the hospitality of Israel in general it's truly an amazing place.

Start of Seminary

The start of seminary was marked by lots of complaining about our accommodations the first week, our life of luxury was lost with our new home being the kibbutz Migdal Oz. Our accommodations in the kibbutz guest houses were basic: bed, bathroom, shower, food, it still seemed spoiled because of our additional clubhouse equipped with wifi, fridge, TV...not too shabby. It seems as though that in the coming 6 weeks left (not that I'm counting) of seminary I believe, that either everyone will start fighting or will become the best of friends, I'm hoping for the latter. On another note, the classes that we are taking at seminary are quite interesting and I'm enjoying them greatly, from Chumash to Jewish Philosophy we are really never short of something to fill our day with. But truthfully, there are classes that can bore me a lot which makes me a little bitter about the no crocheting in class rule, which truly inhibits my new favorite hobby of crocheting kippot. But it truly comes down to respect for your teachers, they come from different places so they can teach us these subjects, so I'm giving them my undivided attention, from now on. Another thing which is typical of many places in Israel including Migdal Oz, is a truly large population of stray cats, but the stray cats on the kibbutz are not afraid of people, which the girls in the group are a little bit bewildered by this because it is unusual for Israeli stray cats; as an example of the bewilderment as well as fear of the hoard of strays is the hyper vigilance of the clubhouse and classroom doors being closed at all times, specifically because the cats tend to sneak into our clubhouse and get into our food that we keep in there, there have been a few times in which an errant cat has shocked a girl or two just wanting a hot drink. It is rather entertaining to hear the symphony of girls screaming when discovering a cat in the moadon (clubhouse). As well as the onset of stray cats, there has also been a upset regarding bugs in our personal space especially in my room specifically, earwigs next to pillows, beetles in toiletry bags, flies in our faces, ants and spiders everywhere, it is an average assumption that we probably would have a bug issue in a rural area, but apparently with a group with a majority of urban dwellers they probably aren't the most forgiving folk to the Migdal Oz bug population. This week specifically to classes in the Chaggim class we looked at Hanukkah and Rosh Chodesh; in our Film and Torah class we looked at Escape from Sobibor and the themes of Torah that apply to it, in Chumash we continued with the study of Bereishit and in Jewish philosophy we looked at free choice, quite a good but very busy two first weeks but everyone is getting settled into the kibbutz and into Midrasha schedule, sorry for the blog delay but I truly have been busy this week.

Keshet seminar

So over the weekend along with being our last weekend with the boys before Yeshiva and Midrasha, we had what is called a Keshet Seminar. A Keshet seminar is something that the organizers of the Zionist youth movements create so that different movements can meet and learn about different ideologies and movements, Bnei Akiva was the only religious youth movement among many reform movements that have all come to Israel for a gap year program. While it was really interesting to socialize with different movements, it was mostly the British youth movements so the Americans were pretty much the minority and knew no one from other movements; a majority of the Americans on Lehava, except for three of us left for the weekend, but three of us stuck it out and had a pretty nice time. It was interesting to have discussions about Israeli politics and different ideologies, and the way that the different movements had difference opinions from each other as well as when different movements that would usually disagree, ended having the same views of some things. My peulot were on the theme of Jewish music and film, so we really could discuss different traditions and orthodox practice with reference to music and film, it was really quite interesting and enjoyable. Otherwise we had the usual Shabbat, with singing, eating and rest. After a closing peulah we came home to Beit Yehudah for the last night for Machon.

Last week of Machon

This week was the last week of Machon or Leadership Institute for our group before we split to go to Yeshiva and Midrasha. We had the last classes of most of our tracks, as well as a seminar about the Kibbutz Movement. All in all a pretty average week except coming up to Tuesday when, me and three other people from Lehava were invited by our program leaders to represent Bnei Akiva at the Knesset, in a afternoon listening to the Knesset speaker and Education minister about the importance of youth movements in the future of Israel. I was really honored to be chosen amongst the four to represent the movement. On Wednesday, we had a fun day that including ATVing in Jerusalem and of coursing packing up at Beit Yehuda for the last time. After that we spent a couple of hours volunteering at an absorption center for Ethiopian immigrants to Israel where they learn about society and how to live in a more developed place, using money, learning Hebrew and other things such as that. I found it very heartwarming to see the appreciation of all the children for our visit and the gifts we made for their families as well, I now understand what my stepmom was referring to, what it truly means to appreciate everything that's given to you. After volunteering, we had a closing seminar from our Rosh Machon about the importance of what we learned on Machon and really how it applies to our leadership in the future. We then went to a restaurant for a special last night of Machon dinner that included speeches from some avid Machon students and some impressions of the memorable characters in Machon.

Aliyahs,Midrasha and Yitzhak Rabin

This week was themed around the mitzvah of Aliyah as well as the minorities of Israeli society that were caused by this mitzvah. On this week's Israeli film night we watched a fantastic movie called Live and become which told an amazing story about an Ethiopian boy who gets passed off by his Christian mother as a Jew by giving him to a Jewish woman who lost her son that morning, his mother did this during the time of Operation Moses to save him. The movie tells the story of his life and how he deals with racism and keeping his big secret in Israel, as well as his adoption, bar mitzvah and marriage. I highly recommend it but I warn that it has a very strange ending which was quite unnerving. Besides the interesting movie we learnt about minorities in Israel and met people who made Aliyah and how the process was and what their challenges/regrets have been since their Aliyah. We had our normal tracks in the week as well, sometimes a waste of time otherwise can be interesting. Wednesday was special because of Yitzhak Rabin's memorial service at Har Herzl, where we heard the Prime Minister and Simon Peres speak about Rabin's memory. On Thursday, we went to the Yitzhak Rabin Museum in Tel Aviv which was very interesting but I definitely would've liked it more if it had been earlier in the day. As well as the man activities and many opportunities pertaining to Yitzhak Rabin's memory, we also had some light shed onto the next section of our program, Midrasha. I have new found excitement with the information about our schedule and activities in Midrasha that have made it more appealing to me, I'm now kind of excited more so than I was before.

Shabbat in Ein Gedi

The Shabbat this week was very special in its location, in one of my favorite places in Israel, Ein Gedi. It began on Friday with another session of Ulpan and packing in a hurry. Then we were on our way, the journey from Jerusalem to Ein Gedi isn't long around an hour and a half, but we made a bathroom/water stop, at the same spot on my last trip to Israel that I rode a camel, it was a deja vu moment for me. When we arrived to Ein Gedi we had lunch and then went on a hike to the waterfalls, its always so lovely to walk in Ein Gedi it really is amazing. During Shabbat we stayed in the Ein Gedi field school right above the park which was quite amazing because of the ibex that just wander around the bunks and dining hall and well trafficked areas of the field school. I really enjoyed the desert environment that we were in that Shabbat it was a very unique weekend. We had seminars about brotherhood, trust and responsibility, as well as drama skits about scenes from the Torah. After lots of card games on Saturday and Havdallah that evening we came back to the Jerusalem, after a really great weekend in Ein Gedi.

Sderot, the Gaza border and East Jerusalem

Today was an especially fascinating day for our group,Lehava. We learnt more about the conflicts that face Israel regarding the two state agreement and settlements. We started the day in East Jerusalem learning about the settlements and that considerations that the municipalities and government needs to consider in the agreement of a united city of Jerusalem. I really found this to be an interesting thought, whether Jerusalem should become a united city and take down the ever controversial security fence, facing dangers that the fence reduced; or they can keep the status quo, what seems to be the safer option. After this we went to lunch and then continued our journey to the once unknown city of Sderot back in 2000, it has now become what some call the bomb shelter capital of the world. Sderot is a city about a kilometer from the Gaza border making it very vulnerable to terrorist agendas in the Gaza strip. Since the beginning of rocket fire from the Gaza strip towards the city in 2000, bomb shelters have become essential to the lifestyle of people living in Sderot. Since the Second Intifada, thousands of Qassam, mortar and Grad rockets have been shot at the city, since then the rocket fire has decreased significantly to around every other to every two days, which is unbelievable to think of as a reduction. These attacks has caused lifetime psychological and physical trauma and shock for the people living in Sderot, especially the children growing up in such an environment. It was very interesting to listen to the stories of people living in Sderot and their families and how they have been affected by the rockets, for instance one of our guides worries constantly about his grandfather who has a lack of mobility in his age and his grandson worries about him when a siren goes and whether his grandfather will make it to the bomb shelter in the allotted time. The radar based alert system, gives citizens 15 seconds to get to a safe place such as a bomb shelter before the rocket hits, this is an unbelievable life to think about, to only have a 15 seconds to live, to come out of the safe place to find the rocket hit right where you were standing 15 seconds prior. I can't even imagine what it's like to live that daily. We went to the overview towards and actually saw a live rocket shot within the Gaza borders which was unbelievable to see, also quite frightening. After that we went to the security fence at a military compound near the Gaza border, near to where Gilad Shalit was abducted and has since been in captivity for around 4 years since 2006. I was really amazed by this day, it really opened my eyes to the truth behind what we see on the news. After our day in Sderot we went back to Beit Yehuda to pack for our free weekend.

Sukkot break and Simchat Torah

The first day began in Jerusalem with another great journey to the shuk to buy lulavs and etrogs, dates for me, in preparation for the holiday in the coming week. We then were bused to the central bus station in Jerusalem, where everyone went all over Israel to their different Sukkot locations, I headed on the bus to Rishon where I met with my cousins for lunch at an Italian restaurant for some beef carpaccio and other delicious food. Later that night, for the first night of Sukkot we went to my 2nd cousin's in-laws for dinner, where his mother made the most delicious molasses chicken. The next day was pretty chill, we pretty much just slept and hung out at home, that night my 2nd cousin had a birthday party to go to at a really cool pub, where the inside looks like a wooden ship and had a really delicious beer that tasted like cherries called Creek. Friday was spent relaxing at home again, and then Shabbat dinner was at my 1st cousin's house where I met her husband's family. Saturday was spent the way Shabbat should be spent, doing absolutely nothing. Sunday was a stressful but rewarding day, after trying to find my way to Tel Aviv after four buses and plenty of language barriers, let me explain something when most tourists go to a information booth in Israel, they usually expect the person in the booth to speak some English but just my luck the girl doesn't speak a word of English. On top of that, just my luck,I'm on the bus apparently lost and so I ask the bus driver where to go, no he doesn't speak English, I ask a person on the bus doesn't speak English, I ask the bus of 45 people if anyone speaks english. No. Just my luck, in a country where 8 out of 10 people speak English there's is only one person on the bus who does, just my luck. But after all of that, I found my way to sunshine at the beach, where the water was warm but refreshing, after washing the sand off and getting back into my clothes from my swimsuit. My boyfriend and I went to lunch at a kosher restaurant that had a sukkah for their patio seating, it was nice food, always so many options for food places in Israel. We continued walking around Tel Aviv until finding a comfy bench to chill out and people watch, always an entertaining hobby. When I had to go back to Rishon, I got lost yet again, because of the misunderstanding or confusing bus route, but thankfully my cousin came to my rescue and came to get me. I've decided I can't be left alone without someone who speaks Hebrew, trying to figure out the buses with a language barrier, doesn't end well. With a few more days of hanging out it became Wednesday pretty quickly, so I had to bid my cousins farewell and head back to Jerusalem for Simchat Torah. When everyone got back to Beit Yehuda, we were back on the road to an ultra-orthodox community where we stayed in midrasha and yeshiva high school, the festivities began Wednesday night with our exploration of different synagogues in this community and their different ways of celebrating the holiday. First to a synagogue where the girls aren't allowed to even dance with the Torah, so the girls spent a lot of time watching the boys dance, enviously. We then went to another synagogue that had the same routine, girls had to be separated as usual but even allowed in the courtyard of the synagogue. So I found what was more comfortable to me, the Chabad was down the street, so I went and had a great chat with the women at the Chabad synagogue in this Jerusalem, I didn't realize how much I missed the welcoming atmosphere of the Chabad until I had to go to other synagogues as a guest. I was so happy to be there and to talk to the women, they invited me for Shabbat so I plan on going back someday in the near future. The next day after more davening and dancing, without the Torah for the girls (I've realized that Simchat Torah is not the best holiday for women), we went to the hospital to sing and dance in the halls of a hospital, which I personally didn't participate for one reason. I don't believe that it's a good deed to deprive someone who is ill and recovering in the hospital, I wish they would have asked who specifically wanted to be sung to, as opposed to bursting into rooms and being loud and disturbing these patients. After we got back from the hospital early, we found my friend with something kind of interesting. They caught a kitten in Jerusalem, there is quite the stray cat problem in the city so it was crazy that they caught this little 9 week (approximately) kitten, we took care of it the whole day and there was a split in the group of people who were happy to have the kitten,named Yochanan, as our group mascot and others who didn't agree with taking a stray from the street and keeping. So the kitten got vetoed by popular vote, but he was the cutest little thing with blue eyes, black coat and white socks. The kitten definitely made me miss my cats at home, so my family at home its your task to make up for my absence and give my cats a extra kiss and snuggle for me.

Eilat

On our way from jerusalem, we expected to just drive to Eilat, straight 4 hours, give or take a few bathroom stops, but since we are obligated to do hikes and adventurous things, we followed through halfway through our bus journey we stopped near Dead Sea we stopped for an hour hike through the mountains and springs, getting our shoes very waterlogged, after we continued our journey to Eilat. On the second leg of the journey we stopped at some sand dunes where we frolicked and jumped off, slid down and ran and skipped and all sorts of entertaining nonsense that could be pertaining to the descent of a sand dune. After our frolicking adventure at the sand dunes we arrived in Eilat a couple of hours later at the hotel, got settled in and then headed to our night activity, beach bonfire. It was pretty great, reminded me a little bit of the beaches at home and my friends played the saxophone, he was definitely one of the evening's highlights. After the bonfire we went out to check out Eilat's night scene, checked out a beach bar and then almost got lost trying to find the hotel. The next day started early with a trip to the red canyon for a hike, I wasn't allowed to go because I was ill-prepared, but I got to hang out with the bus drivers and watch israeli standup comedy, and play solitaire. Later that day the girls and boys separated for water-sports, the girls started with snorkeling at the beach, where the water is unbelievably clear and the reefs are quite beautiful, second activity was kayaking, paddle boarding and my favorite tubing. Tubing always brings back memories of lake vacations with family, but Israel made it even more special, it was a totally great adrenaline rush, me and my madrich got knocked off the tube and it flipped so we got chucked off pretty far but it was a total blast. We were free that evening to go explore Eilat some more, we went to check out a crazy bungee ride called the Slingshot and went back to the hotel to play cards and hang out before sleeping. On our last day before we travelled back to Jerusalem, we went to the Eilat aquarium where we saw awesome animals, like an anaconda and huge sea turtles, also they have a really cool underwater observatory where they have plexiglass windows and you can look at fish in the ocean underwater, it was really cool to look at the fish that I didn't realize were common in the coral reefs of Israel. After we went to an agricultural kibbutz that works on many ecological and green projects that build houses from inorganic materials, straw bales and mud plaster, it was very interesting. We continued back to jerusalem with only one bathroom break and lots of napping on my seat buddy.

Old city archaeological tour

Today we went on a tour of the old city archaeology style, it was hotter than hades. When I say that I was hot it was because I apparently didn't pack nearly enough short sleeve shirts, you know because most of my clothes are from living in Canada (hint: it's considered a particularly a nation with a warm climate) I might need to improvise some of my long sleeve shirts and cut the sleeves off, haha just kidding. But the tour, I thought was a very interesting tour of Jerusalem because of the deeper history in the artifacts and buildings that under the Israelis' feet daily. We started with a lecture from a rabbi about Yom Kippur and the story of Jonah, after we went to a look out that had an amazing view of the old city, not like any I've ever seen. We had lunch and then continued our tour with a special archaeological historian who showed us around the davidson center and through different ruins that are in the old city, after davening mincha at the Mount of Olives hearing more about it's history. We continued on the bus to the town Shilo to see the site of the mishkan which was quite amazing to see at sunset, after davening maariv we went to dinner and came back to Beit Yehuda to a free evening. I probably won't be posting until Saturday night about my trip because of the rules of shabbat, so after shabbat I will enlighten on my first Yom Kippur experience in Israel.

Jerusalem Zoo

Today we went to the Jerusalem Zoo or the Biblical Zoo, where we discovered many different kinds of animals that are mentioned in the Tanach. Of course, being a San Diegan I have high standards of zoos, the SD Zoo is world famous, and they have pandas, but the Jerusalem Zoo does have a red panda (my favorite animal) to their credit. I'd like to point out that some of the birds at the Jerusalem Zoo seem less than happy, they had rather sparse feathers around their necks and bald spots, this makes me upset to see beautiful conures and macaws in that state. After about an hour and a half of looking at animals at the zoo and learning more about native Israeli animals that I didn't know about, we headed back to Beit Yehuda for our communication class, mine being "Communication through Comedy" which I in fact despise immensely, because of the lack of legitimate learning that takes place in the class. After we had mincha and lunch as usual, and then a special public speaking expert came to talk to us and give us a public speaking seminar which was amazing. After a meeting with our organizers we went to ma'ariv and supper, our evening activity consisted of going to old city and listen to one of the yeshiva rabbis talk to us about Yom Kippur for a couple hours and then after we just went home.

Rosh Hashanah at Migdal Oz

This is a long post because of the Shabbat and rules pertaining to electricity/iPad use on holidays. It starts on Wednesday with our bus trip and packing drama with everyone having to pack up their things from their rooms and put it in storage in preparation for the holiday in Migdal Oz. In the late morning on our way to the kibbutz we stopped on Ben Yehuda St. for us to get gifts for our host families in Efrat, who had Lehava participants over for dinner for Rosh Hashanah. After buying a bottle of wine for my host family, the group and I continued the journey to the kibbutz for Rosh Hashanah. When we arrived to the kibbutz we saw our accommodations and instantly my Dad's "Mexico City" at his kibbutz, a little bit better but still a little sketchy, I really enjoyed being on an agricultural kibbutz as I'd never been before, it was a great place to be to bring in the new year. The food on the kibbutz was consistent daily, challah rolls, chicken soup and milk lunches/breakfasts. On Thursday night we went to Efrat to dinner with a host family that are part of Bnei Akiva, we went for Rosh Hashanah and partaked in all of the symbolic foods that are associated with the Jewish new year celebration. The family that me and my roommate went to, were from New Jersey and made aliyah about 24 years ago, three daughters and two sons, a bigger family than I'm used to seeing. The next day after a delicious dinner at the host family, Friday, preparation for Shabbat began on the kibbutz, on top of the Rosh Hashanah celebration, Shabbat came in with davening as usual and many songs and games. During Rosh Hashanah, my madrich and I talked about why Rosh Hashanah is special and meaningful. I thought about it and came to the conclusion that the symbols of honey and pomegranates are most important to me and here's why:
- Honey is what symbolizes a sweet new year, but I think that it might go a little deeper just in reference to the lives of modern population. Honey is made by bees in a hive, and they work tirelessly to make the sweet golden honey that we eat every year at Rosh Hashanah. I thought about the bees work and how that correlates to us, and it does. The work the bees does makes life literally sweeter while humans work hard to have vacations to make our lives sweeter as well.
- Pomegranates are important because of their numerical significance in Judaism, a pomegranate has the same number of seeds as there are mitzvot. I look at a pomegranate and see a round fruit with a crown; what do crowns symbolize? Royalty? Importance? The king of something? So looking at a pomegranate I see a crown on top of mitzvot, which I translate as mitzvot being the king or most important part of Jewish life.
I thought about those being important in Rosh Hashanah and having a sweet new year. Besides our new year celebrations we had a couple of birthdays to celebrate during this weekend, including one of our madrichot, who turned 19, you know my age. Anyways, we went to her family's house for Havdallah and birthday cake, also this was when I delivered her the huge card I made and got the whole group to sign with birthday messages. It was another beautiful Shabbat in Israel. After the birthday party and evening davening we headed back to Migdal Oz so that we could pack and then head back to Beit Yehudah to our beautiful rooms, that we longed for during our stay in Migdal Oz. Once arrived chaos began with bags taken out of storage, our room with five people always have quite the space issues when unpacking our things, we went out that night to Ben Yehuda St. in the party/club scene of Jerusalem, the details of this night are not at my liberty to share but I can tell you this, it was nothing short of an episode from a reality show.

Soup Kitchen, Pomegranates, Leadership Institute

In the morning, yet again, many people were late for morning davening but made it to breakfast in just enough time to eat and catch the bus for the soup kitchen. Although I had never volunteered at a soup kitchen before, it was quite interesting and amazing to see the programs run by this particular soup kitchen that has locations in many Israeli cities. The programs included hot lunches for school children, free dental clinics, meals and groceries for holocaust survivors and vocational training so that people who are in the poverty cycle can go out and have the proper training and opportunity to be employed. Our volunteer work were in two different shifts, both like assembly lines and both help hundreds of people daily. The first shift I was on was for Rosh Hashanah groceries, we lined up the items that were meant to be in the grocery bags and from the first people with the bags put their item into the plastic bags as they passed; in total we made about 240 grocery bags for people who may otherwise might not be able to afford the groceries needed for the upcoming holiday. The second shift I worked was for the more daily part of the soup kitchens work, the hot meals passed out to the people in need, our volunteer work consisted of the assembly of the tray meals that were served to the people at the soup kitchen, we also were in a sense quality control, making sure that each tray consisted of each different component of the meal, making sure each had fruit, soup, meat and rice, cutlery and pita. It was a very proud mitzvah to experience today and I would be happy to volunteer there again. On our return to Beit Yehuda we went to lunch and then went our first Jewish history course for Leadership, my course choice is "The Holocaust: Remember, Reflect, React", that means that instead of learning just historical facts and figures about the Holocaust, we discuss accounts and different media and how we think about them in general; only after one class I'm already excited about the rest of the classes. We continued learning with an "Israel Update" that is a continuing fixture of the leadership institute where we learn about current events that affect Israeli life, economy, culture etc. After supper and evening davening, while the boys had a free evening the girls had an art workshop inspired by Rosh Hashanah, making paper covered pomegranates stuck to a board with a small jar of honey for a kind of gift for our families.

Soup Kitchen, Pomegranates, Leadership Institute

In the morning, yet again, many people were late for morning davening but made it to breakfast in just enough time to eat and catch the bus for the soup kitchen. Although I had never volunteered at a soup kitchen before, it was quite interesting and amazing to see the programs run by this particular soup kitchen that has locations in many Israeli cities. The programs included hot lunches for school children, free dental clinics, meals and groceries for holocaust survivors and vocational training so that people who are in the poverty cycle can go out and have the proper training and opportunity to be employed. Our volunteer work were in two different shifts, both like assembly lines and both help hundreds of people daily. The first shift I was on was for Rosh Hashanah groceries, we lined up the items that were meant to be in the grocery bags and from the first people with the bags put their item into the plastic bags as they passed; in total we made about 240 grocery bags for people who may otherwise might not be able to afford the groceries needed for the upcoming holiday. The second shift I worked was for the more daily part of the soup kitchens work, the hot meals passed out to the people in need, our volunteer work consisted of the assembly of the tray meals that were served to the people at the soup kitchen, we also were in a sense quality control, making sure that each tray consisted of each different component of the meal, making sure each had fruit, soup, meat and rice, cutlery and pita. It was a very proud mitzvah to experience today and I would be happy to volunteer there again. On our return to Beit Yehuda we went to lunch and then went our first Jewish history course for Leadership, my course choice is "The Holocaust: Remember, Reflect, React", that means that instead of learning just historical facts and figures about the Holocaust, we discuss accounts and different media and how we think about them in general; only after one class I'm already excited about the rest of the classes. We continued learning with an "Israel Update" that is a continuing fixture of the leadership institute where we learn about current events that affect Israeli life, economy, culture etc. After supper and evening davening, while the boys had a free evening the girls had an art workshop inspired by Rosh Hashanah, making paper covered pomegranates stuck to a board with a small jar of honey for a kind of gift for our families.

Planting trees & leadership institute

The day began again with majority of our group sleeping through morning davening, the madrichim I think are getting sick of trying to wake us up in the morning. After breakfast, we loaded onto the coach headed to Jerusalem forest to plant a tree, a mitzvah in itself, done by all 43 of us. After returning to Beit Yehuda, after getting our hands a little dirty at the forest we returned for lunch, followed by the beginning of the Leadership Institute portion of our year on Lehava. We chose a course to take and went from there, I chose the "Being a leader on Hach" and learned many leadership qualities and played games reminiscing about past leaders that have touched our lives. It made me think about whether or not I had potential to be a leader and maybe what traits I was missing to be a good one. The program didn't end there we continued with a group development course that consisted of dramatic aspects as well as the roles that people assume in a group situation; it was interesting to see the way that people divided themselves into different roles that the instructor defined. The leadership institute portion of the day was finished there and after evening prayers the girls had a free evening to have a night on the town which I used as an opportunity to begin reading my book "The Art of Racing in the Rain".

Shuk in Jerusalem, Friday/Saturday shabbos

Today was a true lesson in Israeli culture, from a meeting updating the group on the goings-on in the country to a singing lesson and character builder with the head of World Bnei Akiva from Johannesburg. Our meeting was to teach about the way of life in Israel concerning the chuggim in September and how to make a mark in the world. The day continued with a trip to a shuk in Jerusalem where we indulged in spearmint leaves, honey and majool dates; tasting and experiencing Friday afternoon in Jerusalem. Where hundreds of people were frantically weaving through crowds to prepare for shabbat in the evening. A true taste of the country is also found in the bargaining shoppers and furious hand gestures. It also was a perfect opportunity for me to practice conversation in Hebrew, one of the primary reasons for my decision to come to Israel for the year. Shabbos was spent the usual way with ma'ariv in the evening and kiddush, candle lighting and roast chicken. It was a great pleasure to be able to spend shabbos last week and say "the next shabbos will be spent in Jerusalem" it was actually achieved and I spent shabbos in the holy city, in the nighttime after dinner we had a song session of which I've never heard any of the songs before. On Saturday we continued the shabbos festivities with Torah reading in the morning, kiddush lunch and havdallah in the evening. We continued in the evening with selichot because of the oncoming high holidays, selichot for those who don't know they are prayers that are said to repent for sins in preparation for Yom Kippur. This prayer session was held at the Kotel (Western Wall), where many people gathered at the kotel for prayer, really showing the dedication of the jewish people to the faith as a whole.

First Day of Lehava/Opening Seminar

Although apprehensive about the entire thought of a religious year abroad in Israel, I soon found that I wasn't the only one. There ended up being quite a few people like myself that aren't quite as orthodox as we expected back in San Diego, I'm comforted by this not being the only one who doesn't daven as well as many others on this tour. On the past day, Lehava opening seminar started I've been attempting to learn 42 names of the British, Dutch and the Americans. The day began with morning davening followed by a traditional Israeli breakfast with my favorite cottage cheese and fruit. After a meeting with the madrichim and more games to learn each others names, we headed to Ne'et Kiddumim, a nature reserve outside of Jerusalem and within reach of Tel Aviv. The day at the nature reserve included an exercise in shepherding, leadership, and cisterns. It helped to see a new side of us and of Israel, it seems this is only a page in a wonderful book about to be written.

3 nights of New York

The beginning of my adventure on my journey to Israel began in the city of NYC. I've had a busy 3 nights and have the sorest muscles and a mean limp to prove it. When I arrived at JFK and met up with my cousin it was straight to Brooklyn to drop off my luggage followed by Times Square at night. Already overwhelmed by the skyscrapers and urban culture in the city suddenly I'm hit with dozens of billboards advertising broadway shows to m&ms. It was very hectic with thousands of tourists like myself standing in this light show taking pictures and so on and so forth. For dinner Zach and I headed to Katz's deli in the Lower East Side. Mind this is just Saturday night the same day I had arrived from LA. The next day I continued with the New York tour beginning with a bike ride through Central Park where I spotted the famous Balto statue, the Guggenheim museum, and plenty of bike riders and fitness enthusiasts. After the bike ride we headed to the Strand, the 18 mile store, but its not an 18 mile long store; it's 3 floors with hundreds of very narrow bookshelves where awkward situations can happen easily just by trying to look into an aisle for a book, I have a hunch that it's called an 18 book store just by the sum of every bookshelf in the place. After that we continued to Chinatown where we got lunch at the Great NY Noodle Town, where I got a killer roast duck and noodles in soup and baby bok choy, we continued walking through Chinatown and then walked through Little Italy, continued through to SoHo and then back to Brooklyn to drop off our stuff to go to an apartment party in Prospect Heights where Zach lived to visit he old roommate, my camp counselor from 11 years ago we didn't get home that night till about 12-1am, it was a very busy day. One thing I found cool about Manhattan is that almost everywhere you are the Empire State building is peeking out somewhere. On Monday I continued my quest starting with a trip to the Met only to discover that its closed on Mondays, a little heartbroken I went on a wild goose chase for a camera cord that included two Best Buys and a Radio Shack at Union Square. Where I then met Zach after he was done work and we walked to SoHo to a store he needed to go to to exchange some things. We then went to Washington Square Park where I surprised two of my friends at their dorms at NYU, a friend I haven't seen all year and a guy from my grad class he was shocked to see me, I think he was pleasantly surprised though. After I parted ways with my friend while she went to dinner with her Mom. I met with Zach after he went to get a camera lens at B&H. We went to dinner at a pizzeria under the Brooklyn bridge, called Grimaldi's; now I've never seen such a long line for a pizza about an hour we stood with another 50-75 hungry people for this pizza, the classic older Italian host where to stand what path is wanted for the empty table in the restaurant. I thought up a game called Grimaldi's says, a play off of Simon says, it would be entertaining for the people in line but could cause some fist fights, the prize for the winner if the game would win getting pushed to the front of the line to get the next available table; it would be pretty funny to see about 100 people on a Brooklyn sidewalk playing a game like Simon says just to get some pizza. But that pizza was definitely worth the wait it had fresh mozzarella, crushed tomatoes and basil, crispy crust, delicious parmesan on the table, an Olde Brooklyn Coney Island cream soda is hand I was set, Zach and I knocked off those 8 slices of the large in no time, we ate like we had just trekked hundreds of miles for food as opposed to riding the subway and waiting in a long line. We went back to the apartment aka Home Sweet Brooklyn and hit the hay. I'm using this day to recover I have a long night ahead on my continued journey to Israel. I have a red-eye flight to Tel Aviv and plenty of books and apps to keep me entertained on the 10 hour flight ahead.