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.