Shabbat Shalom from Kibbutz Afik
I would be remiss if I did not open this blog entry by talking extensively about coffee and cake. You see, all of us here in Israel have had two things uniting us over the past few days. The first is coffee. The second: cake. On the itinerary, there are many exciting activities listed, many things to look forward to. However, I believe all of us on this trip can agree that the most exciting event is the breaking of cake, and the embibing of coffee. We got to sleep in a bit, getting up in time for this hearty shabbat breakfast at 10:30am. It's sad that it's over, but at the same time, there's hope. In our shabbat discussion, we spoke of how the regularity of Shabbat enables its trancendancy; no matter what, we can count on the fact that it will come again the following week, whether we observe or not. In this same way, we can count the days (7) until our next coffee and cake.
Also, I've been told by my busmates that I should not move on without listing the types of cake. The first: chocolate. Second: chocolate chip. Third: lemon. Fourth: marbled. Gamarnu. Done.
We proceeded with a torah study. We broke off into groups and read the weekly torah section. I was in a group with Sharon, one of our Israeli friends. Because she had the excuse that her English was not very good, she stuck me with reading the entire thing to her. Then she made fun of my pronunciation. Afterward, we came back together and had a brief discussion. The Torah section was the story of Pesach (Passover)- one of the few Bible stories I actually know.
We had some time to rest, during which many of us played a game called "mafia". It's an elaborate game where a few people anonymously act as the mafia, killing off group members. The group then accuses people, who are ostricized and killed off. A great bonding activity.
We then went on a tour of the kibbutz where we're staying. Much of our sightseeing has been from a bus, so it was nice to walk around. It was cold, but at least it stopped raining for a bit. We saw some moo-cows on the farm, some great scenery, and learned quite a bit about life on a kibbutz. I'd never really understood that so much of Israel is still impacted by the socialist influence of Russian immigrants.
We had a bit of a lecture afterward from our tour guide, who educated us a bit more extensively on the basic geography and politics of Israel. The subject divided many members of the group, with regard to the issue of Palestine, but sparked some great discussions later in the night. Havdallah came next. I have no clue what the correct accompanying verb is- "participating in" Havdallah, "celebrating" havdallah... One of the Israelis, Omri, just informed me the verb is "do". We "did" Havdallah. We ended Shabbat together as a group.
We ended the day with a trip to Tiberius, a small local city in the Golan Heights. It's the most urban place we've been since we left the airport in Tel Aviv. We had a nice dinner on our own, and my group got to see an exciting "show of light and sound". It was like a mini version of the Belaggio fountains. We got some nice pictures, ate some good food, and overall had a nice time just exporing.
Also, I feel the need to mention that Daniel Moraff suffered a crushing defeat in the cardgame "hearts", a true tale for the ages.
Love,
Bart Johnsen-Harris
XOXO
#39
