We Have Come Home!
After so many hours of travel, followed by so many hours of waiting, followed by so many hours of travel, it's hard to believe, but we are really here. We had a wonderful time getting to know one another in the airport, taught EL AL security a thing or two and owned the back section of our flight (with apologies to the few other travelers, who were really quite patient). At the airport in the States, our travelers met up with our American based staff (Darin Argentar, Group Coordinator; Emily Kieval, Tali Cohen, Dave Weiss and Rabbi Elyse Winick). Additional volunteers joined us to help make the meeting of passengers and the long hours waiting go smoothly, and for that we are grateful to Gila Drazen, Abe Fried-Tanzer and Arielle Feit, who will all also be on hand on our return on January 8.
A bumpy start across the Atlantic led into smooth sailing. EL AL, as always, served two meals and most of us got a fairly good night's sleep. We sped through passport control and luggage collection, met on arrival by Yaniv and Michal of the Shorashim ground staff in Israel, three of our four Israel participants, Ziv Ronel (a grateful repeat customer from last year), Chaim Brod and Lihi Sayachy and our wonderful tour guide, Ori Bar-Yosef. Our staff is rounded out by Idon, our medic and Gadir, our bus driver (and tomorrow Maayan Ziv, our fourth Israeli and a participant from last year, will join us as well). We are well equipped for a terrific experience.
Our home for the next five nights is the beautiful Neve Ilan hotel http://hotels-of-israel.com/kibbutz/kibbutzhotels/neveilan.htm (we haven't seen it in daylight yet!). We've settled into our rooms and had an excellent dinner -- meals at Neve Ilan are always buffet and filled with many, many options and lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. OK, they could probably offer less dessert.
We met after dinner to look ahead to tomorrow and plan for the day and how to build the wonderful community we will share over these ten days. It's hard for a group of perfect strangers to come together and behave like family on a moment's notice, but if you could have seen them playing card games on one hand and laughing hysterically over some of our getting to know you games on the other, you'd know that they were doing beautifully.
These blog posts will appear just about daily -- Fridays will be difficult because Shabbat begins so early, but we'll try. We'll also aim to include some photos, assuming we can get the technology to cooperate. Please be patient! We're delighted to give you a virtual opportunity to share our journey.
Before we boarded the flight, we paused for a moment to give some focus to the power of our journey together. We referenced the Joseph series of stories read over the past few weeks, taking note of the unnamed man who first directs Joseph to find his brothers. Without him, the course of history would have been irrevocably shifted. (my thanks to my teacher Rich Moline for bringing this brief anecdote into far clearer focus). Each and every one of us, and even Israel herself, has the potential to make that powerful and transformative impact on others in the group, in ways we can't even imagine. It makes our travels more than just a trip, but a journey of self discovery, of holiness and of community. We couldn't be more grateful.
Lailah Tov (Good Night) from Jerusalem.
Rabbi Elyse Winick
