SH-24-161's blog

Celebrating Shabbat on the Kibbutz was an amazing experience that seemed to have even more meaning. As the time of sunset approached, the atmosphere changed. People hurried home to their families and prepared for services. Streets were calm and quiet while local stores and shops began to close early. Many of us, not super religious, do not regularly celebrate Shabbat, but it was nice to experience this time with our birthright family. Shabbat dinner was beautiful along with the deep discussions, funny stories, and services.

Jerusalem is an overwhelming city. Waking up early in the morning after a late night in Tel Aviv, we boarded the bus and headed on Route 1 towards Jerusalem. On the bus ride, we were thinking about the Western Wall. If we didn’t already have prepared notes, several questions came to mind. Who were we going to be writing to? What were we going to be writing about? You can write anything whether it be a question, simple conversation, or a prayer towards the one and only G-d. This was something that required deep concentration.

So we woke up pretty early this morning and had our last breakfast in the Ohalo Manor. It was our last breakfast here and I will miss this place. We moved our stuff into the bus and then drove towards Tel Aviv. Many people were listening to music on the bus, talking, reading, and some were sleeping. A few devoted photographers were taking pictures of the scenery as well. The “bkak” morning traffic towards Tel Aviv made the drive a bit longer than it was supposed to be. Arriving in Tel Aviv, we looked out the windows and saw the beautiful Mediterranean Sea.

Today breakfast was even earlier, 7 a.m. We got breakfast like usual and were on the bus by 7:45 heading to Mt. Arbel (on the west side of the Sea of Galilee). The mountain was beautiful overlooking the entire Galilee region. We were able to see across the entire sea of Galilee into the Golan Heights (even though it was a bit foggy). At the peak of Mt. Arbel there was a memorial plaque commemorating a special forces soldier with a special song about his legendary charisma and persona as he died a hero fighting for Israel.

Our breakfast this morning was incredibly delicious with many options, buffet style. There were omelets, eggs (all types), pastries (all types), salads with lots of options and much much more. The main attraction of the day was our hike in the Golan Heights. It is virtually impossible to explain how incredible it was without showing you videos and pictures. We all had balloons attached to our backpacks as we hiked and told embarrassing stories if our balloons popped.

Few people got real rest and we landed at 3:25 pm Israeli time (we lost 7 hours due to the time zone difference). The airport was complete craziness with Jews and others scrambling to get through customs to the baggage claim. There were probably 50+ long lines of people waiting to get through customs where they asked us why we were in Israel, etc. After being greeted by a Shorashim representative on the other side we grabbed our luggage and met up in front of the “Welcome to Israel” sign. But someone was missing.

Our journey began in the Philadelphia airport where we all gathered for the first time. Many of us knew each other prior to the trip but some did not. We quickly made friends, which was easy because everyone was so excited and friendly. After waiting for everyone to show up and paying our $60 “tip” which actually goes to the bus driver Jobee, our security guard and medic Tal, and our two Israeli guides, and meeting our staff members (Ariel & Evan) we headed to security.