Coming Soon

“You can ask me for anything, but you can’t ask me for time” -Itzik Yanai

     There’s so much to say and only so much bandwidth to do it. The trip began for many at CBO, went on to JFK and 10 hours later, we landed in the Holy Land. With much fanfare and plenty of waiting on lines, we made it to the bus. We took a beautiful bus ride to our hotel for freshening up.
     We gathered as a group for Kabbalat Shabbat in a beautiful square. We were surrounded by stores, stones and a beautiful fountain in the shape of King David’s harp. We prayed together as one and welcomed a Lone Soldier to our prayer space. It was deeply moving, emotional, and quite a bit cold. We walked back to the hotel for dinner where we shared a meal with 6 Lone Soldiers, 3 of which grew up in the tri-state area.
     Shabbat morning, we walked to the Western Wall where the men and women separated and had their own schacharit service. We learned a bit about the history of the wall and some of the politics around it. After a beautiful Shabbat lunch at the hotel, a handful of us went on a scavenger hunt around Yemin Moshe, a sleepy little town with a giant windmill.
     We were all on our own for dinner and wandering town. Many shopped, many ate, many did both!
     Sunday morning we took part in a glorious ceremony to donate a Torah to the Masorti Movement in Israel. This Torah will be used at the Wall for egalitarian services for many generations. There was a band, a parade, lots of dancing, and Eleanor, the youngest member of the trip, reading the first line of the Torah.
     From the highest point in our day, we began to travel to our lowest point. We had lunch in the Old City and went on to Yad VaShem. Due to age restrictions, my family could not go into the museum, but we had a private tour from Itzik of various exhibits and sculptures instead. This was equally powerful and insightful and I think my family was lucky to experience it.
Sunday night ended with many of us going on a fascinating underground tour of the tunnels under the Wall. It was informative, and just a bit cramped.
The first 3 days were jam packed physically and emotionally. Can’t wait to see what the rest of the week is like!