Tzfat, Hannaton, and the Mega!

Today we visited the town of Tzfat where we learned about the Temple that we walked through. The temple was very tiny, as are most of the temples in Israel. To mimic the Jews bowing down to the Torah, the arc was bent over at the top to also participate in bowing with respect.
We then went to Kibbutz Hannaton which is the only conservative Kibbutz in the world. We learned what it is like to live in a Kibbutz, and did some group activities to learn about working together and what is important to a group of people. It involved decision making and teamwork to reflect the decision making of a pluralistic society.

On our way to Jerusalem, we passed the first Kosher McDonalds!

We then traveled to Jerusalem and arrived at the Caesar Hotel. Everyone got ready for the birthright mega, which started around 6pm. There were nearly 2,500 jewish people all together from all over the world celebrating the Bat/Bar Mitzvah year of the Birthright program. It was an awesome one-of-a-kind, unique, fun experience. They had food there such as hot dogs, pizza, and falafel and participants were encouraged to mingle with other Taglit groups from around the world. Participants came from the United States (obviously!), Canada, Australia, and India. After several performances from well-known artists in Israel, there was a dance party where participants were able to rock out to dance music with a DJ! Overall, we had another amazing day in Israel.

-Erica & Lisa-