B'ruchim Ha'Baim - Welcome to Israel! | Shorashim - Israel with Israelis

B'ruchim Ha'Baim - Welcome to Israel!

Blog & Photos by Alina S.

After a long day of traveling across the world, our crew arrived in Tel-Aviv and to our surprise were welcomed by our new Israeli friends in uniform singing, clapping and cheering us on. What a welcome! We grabbed our luggage with anticiption and found out that these same Israeli soldiers now clad in their regular everyday clothes would be our Shorashim Bus 873 family for the next ten days. Not only do we get to see Israel through our eyes, but we are lucky enough to learn and see it through an Israeli perspective too.
We met our Israeli group leader Moose, who has us get in a circle and dance and sing "Achim, Simcha" as a welcome tradition for Shorashim - we found ourselves dancing, singing and jumping in one giant circle arm in arm making our first moments in Israel tie us together like a new family.

Our group met Apollo, our bus driver for the next 11 days and with that and far too much luggage we began our journey. With a pit stop at a beautiful park in Jerusalem, we drank grape wine and had our first lesson as we had our first intimate gathering called an Oneg. Our crew arrived at the beautiful Crowne Plaza Hotel in Jerusalem just in time to bring in our first Shabbat. Given just enough time to meet our day one roomies before changing and making our way downstairs, the excitement and adrenaline definitely kicked in. Our first day in Israel gifted us with a beautiful sunset followed by our first Kabbalat Shabbat and intimate dinner together as a group. We got to experience the beauty of Shabbat and truly enjoy the peace and serenity that is the meaning of an Israeli Shabbos.

With heavy eyes we enjoyed Kiddush, our first dinner and finally an overwhelming dessert assortment to mark the end of our peaceful first day in the Holy land. To instill new traditions we ended our evening in group prayer before turning in for a night of good rest.

Can anyone say pinch me?