Sigel Hebrew Academy 8th Grade Israel Trip

    Well, we woke up and did things a bit differently this morning. FIRST we woke-up, THEN we took a bite to eat, THEN we waited for the bus, THEN we LOADED up the bus… and FINALLY we disembarked to head to…. THE KOTEL!!!  It was Rosh Chodesh this Sunday!!! And the Kotel Plaza was PACKED!! We scouted out a table for us to pray at on the men’s side, and made sure it was close to the women’s side so that we could all pray together. After finishing Shacharit with Rabbi Weiss and Rabbi Akiva giving the priestly blessing, we geared ourselves up for Hallel! Hallel was sung a little Hebrew-Academy style!! With Rabbi leading and Chaim and Rabbi Akiva with a little bit of backup, but the main part of the singing was our 8th Graders, and boy did we attract a crowd!! Our songs were so good and our davening so special that people started to join us who were looking for a minyan to pray in!! It was pretty cool!! There were many Bar Mitzvahs happening that day and many photographers, but if you look on line you’ll be able to catch a video of our Hallel section at the Kotel, posted in the gallery section of the website! (Enjoy!)

    After finishing davening (it took a while, what with Hallel, and reading the Torah (great job Yonatan!), and then Mussaf - which Eliel led) we headed out to the bus and drove off to the Palmach Museum which was in Tel Aviv… we were leaving Yerushalayim, our holy, golden, beautiful city, for the last time this trip. We said our goodbyes, took notice of the BIG “Tzeitchem L’Shalom” (”Go in Peace”) sign on the way out, and we were off. We arrived at our destination and disembarked. We hung out for a bit but finally were admitted into the museum. It was very interactive, just like in the Herzl Museum, but a bit longer. But that certainly didn’t bother anyone… the museum was AWESOME!! Learning about the fighting of the pioneers of the Palmach Brigade before 1948 was amazing!! These guys were true heroes and it was amazing to go on a journey with them as they pursued their course and helped us win the war, and our Independence!

     After we came out, we ate some yummy boxed lunches outside the museum, and then boarded the bus to go to a mystery site that Yoni was taking us to. Arriving at some small kibbutz near Rechovot, we saw some army tents pitched outside, but still, Yoni wouldn’t say anything. After using the facilities, we took seats on some benches as Yoni spoke to us from the heart all about Israel and her many wars and how we, as the Jewish People have always found, with our utmost dedication to our Torah and way of life, and our perseverance and resilience (and a bit of our ingenuity as well!), a way to press on and endure, but most of all, our faith in Hashem. When the discussion was over, he took us in to see a movie when we learned that the kibbutz we were visiting was actually the center of the illegal production of over 2 and a half MILLION bullets for our fighters during the war of Independence!!!! We were actually at the site of a Haganah underground Bullet-Production factory!! It was AMAZING!! We watched the movie as we were told of the building of this factory. Yoni then led us on a tour of the grounds and explained how they kept the factory hidden underground and what they did to ensure the secrecy of those who worked there. It was some pretty amazing stuff! He took us down into the actual factory where we could see the makeshift machines and we heard the story of how this place was kept secret and what they did to keep it secret and, well, what can I say? It was REALLY COOL!!

     When we were finally finished, we boarded the bus and headed towards our last stop before the airport, the Azrielli Mall. There we ate dinner (BURGER’S BAR!! YES!!) and had some free time to do some last minute shopping (supporting our Israeli brothers and sisters!) and even play a bit in the game room (Too bad you couldn’t hit that jackpot Elisha… oh well, you got a cool game out of it anyways, right? Thanks to… hmmmm?) Finally, as the time got a bit later, we realized we had to leave. We boarded the bus and spent the last half hour together reminiscing on the trip and singing songs, and playing games, and having a blast! (The Puma!! The BEAR!! Hunkawhat?? Oh, The KILLER WHALE and Dodah yemimah?? Someone’s a little sheitel crazy… BAH!)

     Finally, Yoni told us a powerful and special story as we listened quietly in the dark, almost at the airport. We arrived and got our things off the bus, following Rabbi through check in (and waiting a LONG time… that dumb x-ray machine!) and through passport control… (well, those of us who made it through check-in without any problems that is!! Don’t worry, we all got on the plane… FINALLY!) and had some time to grab some last minute Kosher McDonalds and some drinks before heading onto the plane.  We were EXHAUSTED!! And most of us slept almost the entire way! We arrived about twenty minutes ahead of schedule, but a glitch in the conveyor belt in the luggage claim department made up for it!! We left customs (MATTI!!!) and boarded the bus for our way home, exhausted, and barely aware that we had actually come back. Arriving at the school you threw us a party. It was amazing to see everyone, as you all know,

and though we have tried to tell you a bit about what it was like to experience this trip, it’s a funny thing… but you’ll never be able to know, unless you’ve been there and experienced it for yourself.

Thank you Sigel Academy, thank you Parents. Thank you friends, loved ones, staff, teachers, EVERYBODY!! (Students too!) And thank you most of all Rabbi Weiss, for taking us on a trip that in our lifetime, we will never forget!! Where else could we have experienced such an incredible and meaningful religious and educational experience?? Bess and Paul Sigel Hebrew Academy of Greater Hartford - you’re the best Hebrew Day School in the world, and you know it. This is Rabbi Akiva Weiss, signing off for this year’s 2008 Bess and Paul Sigel Hebrew Academy of Greater Hartford 8th Grade Trip to Israel. With all our love,

Rabbi Weiss
Mrs. Weiss
Mrs. Loew
Rabbi Akiva

Arieh
Eliel
Matti
Yonatan
Noam
Yoni
Ben
Elisha
David

Amy
Arielle
Sandy
Mimi
Maayan
Miriam
Sandy
Hannah
Serena
Chani
Michal

So Friday night we decided to daven at the esteemed Yeshurun Synagogue that is located close to the famous Great Synagogue. The walk was less than 15 minutes and the weather was beautiful. We filed into the shul and davened mincha, but nothing could prepare us for the show we were about to witness! Six men, each wearing a tallis, ascended the bima, followed by a Chazzan of tremendous presence, complete with robe and cantor hat. And the fun began from there!! It was a Carlebach davening, meaning that the tunes and melodies used were written by Shlomo Carlebach, and not only was the Chazzan and his choir powerful and tremendous, but the congregation seemed to love it!! Our 8th Grade boys were a little squeamish at first, but slowly but surely, they seemed to be getting into it. A few even followed Rabbi Akiva and Chaim up to the bima to get a better seat with which to see and hear the music!! (You guys know who you are! The others kind of wimped out… LOL!) At one point the entire shul was up and dancing and it was pretty amazing. Though it seemed endless, the davening from start to finish only took a little over an hour, which was probably the most surprising element of the whole thing!

     We left after davening and walked back to our hotel, excited to have our Shabbat meal. We sang, we ate, the meal was pretty awesome. We even had a surprise appearance by a real Hassidic Rebbe who came in and gave blessings and taught us all a song!! The Rebbe of the Geligena Chassidim, with one of his devoted followers came in and taught us all a special niggun - a song melody without any words. (only this one kind of had some…) We sang with him, laughed with him, and then, for the craziest part, even took turns trying on his STREIMEL!! Indeed, practically every 8th grader received semicha - ordination - from the rebbe and we all laughed and cheered and sung and ate and told divrei torah and enjoyed our Friday Night in Yerushalayim together! It was awesome.

     We went to bed soon after the meal, but not before relishing in the yummy rugalach that Yoni Berg so graciously provided for us as a gift going into Shabbat. Marzipan Rugalach - the best rugalach in the world!
     We woke up the next morning a little late (8:20!) and headed downstairs for a little cake, coffee, and tea, and then struck out for a synagogue also about 15 minutes away, known as the Beit Knesset HaNasi - the President’s Synagogue. Known as such because a certain Israeli Prime Minister used to pray there on a regular basis about 40 years ago. The shul is now under the auspices of Rabbi Berel Wein who is the Rabbi of the synagogue, a renowned author and speaker. After davening, we received a special mention and welcome by the shul president. Rabbi Wein then addressed the congregation and even offered a blessing to our students as well, after which we headed downstairs to partake of the celebratory kiddush sponsored by Rabbi Wein in honor of his grandson’s Bar Mitzvah and son’s wedding. The kiddush was REALLY good and after we ate our fill we headed back to the hotel to have lunch. We got a 2 hour break after lunch and then joined Yoni Berg, Rabbi Weiss, Mrs. Loew, Chaim, and Rabbi Akiva for a walking tour to the Old City (and THROUGH the Old City!), and finally davening Mincha at the Kotel. 

    We headed back to the hotel after that and ate our third meal, with some intense and very moving singing and storytelling. Mrs. Weiss told us a powerful story and with it, we concluded and davened Maariv, followed by Havdala. After singing and a bit of dancing and saying farewell to Shabbat, we headed up to our rooms to change, for our Sat. night activity included going to Malkha Mall, one of the largest malls in the Middle East, right here in Jerusalem, and doing a bit of shopping and eating!

    We arrived at Malkha and split up into two immediate groups: those who went to eat at Kosher PIZZA HUT!!! and those who went to eat at Kosher KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN!!!! WHOOOO HOOOO!!! (I ate at KFC, and BOY WAS IT GOOD!!!) After eating, we broke up into groups, did some shopping, and finally headed back to our hotel to pack up and get ready for tomorrow. We were finally going to be coming back… but something was telling me that not everyone was happy to be leaving…

     So our trip has finally wound down to a close this year, or almost, anyhow. But it’s hard to think of that when we are thinking of Shabbos coming and spending it in Yerushalayim. The holy glow of Shabbos in the City of Gold… Heaven on Earth!! But this Friday was no different than the other mornings on our trip, with the usual wake-up, davening, and breakfast, only this morning we had to load the bus with all our stuff!! That’s right… we were moving hotels this morning!!

     So we started our day loading the bus. The bus was a few minutes late but we were on time in terms of the schedule and we arrived promptly at our scheduled time at Yad VaShem Holocaust Museum. Yad VaShem is the largest Holocaust Museum in the world and is so large and elaborate and important that groups are not permitted to conduct their own tours, rather they must use one of the guides that has been trained by Yad VaShem itself. Our guide had twenty hours of training and after he handed out the earpieces that would allow us the freedom to walk at our own relative pace as well as listen to him, he first took us to the Children’s Memorial, which is dedicated to the memory of the lives of over 1 and a half MILLION children who were brutally murdered during the Holocaust by the Germans. The memorial was something else but cannot simply be described here. Nor can the immensity of the new museum that was constructed in 2005. So large and elaborate is the museum in fact, that with ease one could spend well over 4 hours there. In fact, there are over 17,000 photographs and 5 hours worth of film footage, including interviews and documentary footage that are on display. It was hard to work our way through, but with our Yad VaShem guide, and Yoni Berg helping out now and again throughout the tour, we slowly but methodically paced our way through the museum and felt the enormity of what had happened to our people and the importance and necessity to remember.

     Most memorable perhaps though, was when the group reached the hall of righteous gentiles, those, who at the risk of their own lives, worked to save Jews from the fate of the Nazi war machine. Rabbi called attention to one of the names listed there who Serena then explained to us was the very man who had saved her relatives during the Shoah. It was quite powerful to be able to appreciate how closely we could come to relating to where we were. That the Shoah was not some far away, distant part of our history, but here, right in front of us, one of our own members of the 8th Grade was directly impacted by the righteous actions of a person from this part of our history, who wasn’t even Jewish. We took our time there for a moment while Serena described in detail her family’s connection and how they were saved. It was incredible. Just indredible.

     We completed our tour of the museum and our guide said his farewell and taking stock of the time and the intenseness of the experience, we regrouped and headed back to the bus to head up to the second part of the area which was Har Herzl. Har Herzl is a military cemetery but is also the place where most important and influential political and Zionistic Israeli leaders are buried. It also hosts the most amazing Herzl Museum, a museum dedicated to the life of Theodore Herzl who introduced the vision and dream of Zionism - returning to the Land of Israel, and creating a Jewish State. We were excited to see this museum as it is hailed as one of the coolest museums in Israel, but lo and behold! When we arrived, they were locking up the museum!!! They apparently decided to close early today and our reservation for 12:30 was in jeopardy of not being honored!!! Well!!! Rabbi Akiva and Yoni Berg were going to have none of that!! At once they began to work on the staff and the workers at the attraction and after much debate and some running after personnel and asking them to come back… (oh, it was fun alright!!) they re-opened the museum and admitted us. We were excited to have it opened just for our group and we quickly filed into the entrance, stuffing the remains of our ice-creams into our mouths (so that we wouldn’t have to throw them out! They were in hurry to get home apparently! “EREV SHABBAT!! Nu? Yaalah!!”) and in we went!! And what an awesome museum it was!! interactive and very cool indeed! And we all enjoyed it.

     From there, we ate some lunch and then Yoni Berg took our 8th graders into the actual cemetery grounds of Har Herzl (where unfortunately Rabbi Weiss and Rabbi Akiva could not go because they are Kohanim) where they could see the resting places of such personas such as Theodore Herzl and Yitzchak Rabin and Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Yoni also took them to area reserved specifically for soldiers - chayalim - who have fallen in battle or who have been killed by terrorism. In fact, anyone killed in an act of Arab terrorism has the right to be buried on Har Herzl with the same kavod, the same honors, that a soldier would receive were they killed in battle, if the family wishes them to buried there. Yoni specifically mentioned those who were victims of terror and even specifically told a powerfully sad and moving story of one particular woman, Sara Blaustein, who was killed in an act of Arab Terror when she was driving along the road from Efrat to Jerusalem, a mere five minutes from her home in Efrat, on her way to the Kotel. She had stopped to pick up 4 Jewish teens who were waiting for a bus and she offered them a lift into Jerusalem, but was killed when Arabs opened fire on her car. She never made it to the Kotel. One of the passengers in the car, a girl named Esther who was only 19 years old, was also killed.  Yoni spoke very sincerely, and very passionately. Yet with simplicity. And then explained the last detail to the story that he had not shared with us in the beginning: Sara Blaustein was Yoni Berg’s mother. And it dawned on us that Yoni’s very own mother was among the many who had been a victim of this war of terrorists and we were standing by her graveside, the woman whose son we loved so dearly and who was the most amazing tour guide any of us had ever known, never realizing how close we could come, how close the land could touch us so. And the connection… the deep, deep connections of how this land, this most holy and amazing and most treasured and beautiful of all lands, our heritage and namesake, our homeland and bayit; how it touched us all so deeply and passionately, and how we as Jews are ALL, without exception, intricately bound up and connected one with the other, sister and brother, mother and father, generation to generation… and all intricately connected to our homeland, the Land of Eretz Yisrael. And here we were, Erev Shabbat Kodesh, realizing once more, how each of us is another world, and yet we are intimately connected.

     And with that realization, there were those among us with tears in our eyes. 

We said some tehillim, passed through the remainder of the mountain making our way down to the bus. We arrived at the bus and then embarked into the center of town to do some shopping in the acclaimed outdoor central Jewish marketplace of Jerusalem, Machaneh Yehuda. We split up into groups and went shopping for food and treats, drinks and fruit, marvelling at the clamour and hectic fervor of the market place. Every now and again hearing a shopkeeper yelling about how the food or fruit that he was selling he is now selling for less in order to get rid of it before Shabbat. We saw the fish market area, and the meat market area, and the baked goods area, and the nuts and fruit… it was amazing.

     We made our purchases and after about an hour and a half headed back to our bus which took us to the hotel which was last on our trip, from where we would depart to the airport on Sunday, the Lev Yerushalayim. We unloaded our stuff, got a little backed up by the elevator, practiced our Australian accents (*wink**wink*) and made our way onto our floors and into our rooms and prepared for Shabbos which was swiftly and fast approaching… the siren in the distance calling in the Shabbat throughout all of Jerusalem… and as we meet downstairs… dressed a bit warmly for the wind blows refreshingly and strongly in the cool spring air. Through the streets, there is calm… no cars are driving… the traffic lights are all blinkers… a peace and serenity fill the streets… and the girls light candles and make the brachot… and the boys put their hats away and take out their kippot… and we walk out of the hotel… on our way to shul…

          Shabbat has come to Yerushalayim. And we are ready…

WHOAH! We actually got to sleep IN today! We only had to get up at SEVEN in the morning! What a TREAT!!

     We woke up, went to davening (this morning we davened with the Hotel, which has a daily minyan, and Chaim led the birchot hashachar, and Rabbi lained from the Torah for the entire minyan. Rabbi Akiva got Kohein and Ben got the Levi Aliyah! Eliel was called up for Shlishi. And the Sigel Academy strutted its stuff in front of all the cool chasidim of the hotel, who watched us take part in the davening - take OVER you might say! - and were impressed by how much we knew and how well we all did… even by the girls who were davening with us and representing the school amazingly by not only not talking AT ALL during the whole of davening, but also by being there ON TIME, even earlier than some of the men who showed up!) headed to breakfast, and were out by 9 to get to the Southern Wall Excavations on time for our awesome, awesome tour.

     We drove around the Old City of Jerusalem once again (can’t ever get tired of that, can we?) and made the walk down to the excavation site and Yoni took us on what was really a continuation of last night’s tour through the Kotel Tunnels. We saw the archeological digs and movies of the area and then walked to the corner where the Southern Wall meets the Western Wall (did you know that all four walls of Har Habayit are still standing? Some people think that the Western Wall is so special because it’s the last remaining wall. But it’s not!! We have all four of them! The real reason the Western Wall is so special is because it is the closest to the area where the Holy of Holies on the Temple Mount once stood… don’t worry, it’s not a secret… you can spread the word. ;o)  Though it was pretty hot this morning, the excavation site was wild and pretty cool! (Okay fine, lame joke. I admit it…) We actually saw the sidewalk and street level that was existent during the second temple period where actual Tannaim - our holy Sages - actually WALKED and did business!! and even saw the stones that were cast down during the destruction of our holy and precious temple. They were so massive and huge and heavy that they actually impacted into the sidewalk, denting and smashing the walkway and the ground underneath it, leaving a crater-like shape.

     We walked along the excavation site as Yoni took us back in time and then through time, explaining all of the additions and newer constructions that were made and added onto the Kotel-Era stones. We walked through ruins of ancient houses and finally found ourselves along the Southern Wall, where we were able to view the bricked up Southern Gates - Shaarei Hulda, named after the Prophetess - which would have led us up onto the Temple Mount in Herod’s day, but are now the southern wall of a Arab Mosque that was built there, facing Mecca, where they turn to pray. We took note of the uneven steps that led up to the gates. Some of the steps are the originals from the time of the Beit Hamikdash and are structured so as to force one to slow down and take stock of where they were and where they were headed into. Try as some of us did, it was quite difficult to run up those steps.

     We saw mikvaot and other incredible ancient remains, and finally headed out, after feeling like we touched a little piece of our history and came that much more closer to our heritage and roots than ever before. We boarded the bus that then drove us a short distance into the ultra-orthodox neighborhood of Meah Shearim, where we had our next activity planned. We arrived at the back of a house and received a nice warm welcome from the staff at this place of enormous and incredible tzeddakah! There, before our eyes, were MOUNTAINS of vegetables and fruit, waiting to be assembled into baskets which would then be distributed to over FOUR HUNDRED needy FAMILIES and victims of Arab Terror for Shabbat!! It was AMAZING!! We listened as our host showed us a film and spoke about how this organization was formed and how it had blossomed into an incredible display of kindness and charity and hope for the destitute of Klal Yisrael. We asked questions, marvelled at the answers, and finally decided to get our hands a little dirty (at least for those who chose to sort the onions and forgot to put on gloves, Rabbi Akiva!!) and get to work doing incredible Chessed!!

     Atop each pile of boxes filled to the brim with vegetables and fruit, and challahs, we took specially color-coated bags and began to fill them as instructed (only half way!!) with the proper foods we were sorting and make piles of filled bags and then to distribute them evenly among the pre-set delivery baskets that were lined up opposite the vegetables. It was amazing work (and even a little tough at times!) but the rewards were amazing, and just knowing that we were actively helping families in need have food for Shabbos was an amazing thing. Our hostess, after seeing how hard we were all working (and indeed, we were working pretty hard! We easily had filled well over 300-400 bags in the time we were there!) took out what looked to be an over-sized grapefruit and asked if anyone wanted to have any Pamela. “Pamela??! Who’s Pamela?!?!” Not Pamela… POMELLA!! A special and delicious Israeli fruit that is sweeter than a grapefruit and about 10 times its size!!  The skin is incredibly thick, and if you can peel it just right, you can actually make something funny to wear. (Matti had the privilege of wearing the Pomella crown this morning… :o) So while we worked, we were able to taste and savor this delicious fruit which was being handed out to us by the fistful!

     After completing a major portion of the work that needed to be done (and that is carried out by dedicated volunteers and workers EVERY SINGLE WEEK!!) we were given the opportunity to rest… and have our AWESOME, AWESOME LUNCH!!! Which came from BURGER’S BAR!!!! The most amazing Israeli Burger Joint in the whole Middle East!! We chowed down on our burgers and onion rings and french fries and chicken salads and health salads and grape drinks… (well, some of us enjoyed the grape drinks anyways… and some enjoyed it, on their shirts… Yoni!!) and it was very, very delicious and filling. We said the birkat, and instead of getting up and right away heading to do our shopping in Meah Shearim and Ben Yehuda as was on the schedule, the group as a whole decided to take an EXTRA TWENTY MINUTES of their own time and help out more to do Chessed. It was amazing!! (We all received extra special brachot and blessings from our host for our dedication!) Finally, we boarded the bus, drove into the heart of Meah Shearim and disembarked in groups and did some shopping in some amazing stores, like the Olive Wood factory, a silversmith who specializes in original personalized rings and necklaces, and of course the outdoor mall of Ben Yehuda. After about two hours of shopping, we regrouped and boarded the bus again which took us to Sacher Park. Yoni Berg and Rabbi Weiss distributed maps and we read aloud the pirate song that would lead us to our buried and highly coveted treasure, the TIME CAPSULE!!! It was a race from there as we bounded off the bus, each of us trying to seek out and find the hiding place of last year’s time capsule!! Hoping to avenge the treasure-seekers of old, who placed said time-piece in yonder ground…

     Aye!! ’twas a treasure-hunting-finding day it was, thes ahfter-nooon, eh, my maytees??! Yeh could just FEEL th’ treasure in th’air, I tell yehz!! AVAST!! THAY SEHRCHED! But lo and long before, th’ treasure  seekinz up! Mister David Anavim, I tellz yeh, He up and found the Capsule!!! AARGGGHH!!! It was a fast and noble sieze, it was, I tellz yeh… He up and hoisted that ther treasure frum the grownd, and hoist it, he did, RIGHT o’er his own ‘Ead!! AHOY!! Thar be TREASURE in th’Air!!! No PUHN INTENDED THAR, MAYTEES!!!!

*AHEM!!*
Anyways, as I was saying, David found the Time Capsule and we happily opened it up and distributed the fuzzies and had a blast reading some of its contents that we placed in it from last year… some of us wrote letters to ourselves. Some of us read letters that you all wrote to us!! It was so cool!!!

     We packed it all up again though and headed onto the bus, eager to head back to the Hotel because tonight was the night our families in Israel had the opportunity to come and visit us. And so they did, those who wished, and it was a nice night, and with that I’ll end. Asleep yeh go, West Hartford citeee…
And May Treasure may ye find… where the gold lies layin’ pretteeeee!!!
A-HAAAARRRRGHGHHHH!!!!

Lye-Lahh TOOOOVVVV, HeBru Acahdermy!! We aims tar be up EHRLEEEE tah-mahrrow… packin th’bus fer ahr nhew des-ti-NAY-shun… and gettan’ reahday fer yonder Holy Sabbath… ARRRRRRGGGGG!!!!

L’Hitraot! Ad Machar!!!
<And….. we’re out! That’s a wrap!>

The clock is ticking down and we’re slowly becoming aware of the fact that our time here in Israel is soon coming to a close. It’s a bit sad, when we think about it (so we try not to!) but this morning we could begin to feel it as we knew that the Old City of Jerusalem is one of the last areas we would focus on on this trip and today we began that process, but first we took a little stop at a very inspiring and amazing museum that is pretty new on the scene, the Menachem Begin Heritage Museum.

So we started our day much like any other (you know the routine!) and headed onto the bus. After our driver dropped us off, we headed on foot for a minute or so into the museum that focuses on one of Israel’s most cherished Prime Ministers, Menachem Begin. Taking us through his entire life-story, from the time he was a child in the early 1900s, through when he was incarcerated by Russia, to when he came to Israel before its independence and led the Irgun fighters in a war against the British and then again against the Arabs, and then following his political career from the time of his achieving a position in the Knesset until his ultimate achievement of becoming Prime Minister, the museum’s entire focus is on Israel’s past prime minister and his accomplishments and achievements leading the country during his short term.

From this interactive museum, (where we walked through with headsets and watched films and speeches and movies) we then followed Yoni as he led us on a walking tour to the Old City, explaining to us various points of interest concerning how it was captured and finally liberated, and ended by entering in through the Jaffa Gate and ascending the stone steps up to the ramparts of the Old City where Yoni conducted a walking tour LITERALLY around the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem!! It was amazing! And from up there, boy what a view did we have! It was fascinating to see the entire new city and learn about how the walls of the city were really not that old in fact (and how “David’s Citadel” is really not David’s Citadel at ALL!) and to learn about all of Jerusalem’s surrounding area.

We finished up the tour ending at the Cardo, the ancient main thoroughfare of the city, and had a treat waiting for us there: PIZZA!! We enjoyed our lunch break and then afternoon were given the opportunity to do some shopping at the nearby stores in the Jewish Quarter (which was really nice). We shopped a bit (for about 45 minutes before we headed back to our bus waiting for us at Shaar Tzion (Zion Gate, one of the Seven Gates into the Old City) and headed off on our way to a military memorial site known as Givat HaTachmoshet - Ammunition Hill.

The site was quite large with a pretty noticeable hill, but the thing that stood out the most was the intricate network of trenches that were running through the dirt ground. The first place we headed though was into the theatre where we watched a movie about the 6 Day War and the importance of the battle that was fought on the grounds we were now walking through freely. But right after the movie and learning about the fierce fighting that took place here between our own Tzanchanim Paratroopers and the Jordanian soldiers who were holed up in defensive positions, we formed our own pretend unit that would try and recapture the hill! The chaperones at once became Jordanian snipers taking up positions within the trenches and your very own 8th Graders were the Israeli Paratroopers Unit coming to liberate this hill from our rule!

Led by Captain Yonatan Bousbib (referred to as, Eh… Yonatan!), the courageous 8th Graders tried to weave in and out of the trenches and positions, trying to make their way up the hill to capture it. The difficulty was ENORMOUS, as we had seen during the film, that the trenches were narrow and did not allow for much maneuverability, especially if you were holding an M-16 rifle that was close to 3 feet in length. Quick turning was difficult, and if you stood up to run forward, you were an easy mark for a possible lurking Jordanian sniper!! The worst feat to overcome though, was that if by some terrible chance a Jordanian was successful in hitting one of our soldiers (Ben!!) the rest of the group had to try and get around the fallen soldier - which was nearly impossible! (Especially when it was Yoni! And then also Yonatan himself! The leader!) In the end, when all the dust had cleared (and the fake and pretend bullets (which were invisible) stopped flying), it seemed as though the 8th Grade could appreciate what kind of sacrifice it was to recapture this very important Jordanian installation, and we had a pretty cool time in the process. Eli, our Shomer, also was able to give us some insight into the battle that took place, since he was a Tzanchan in the actual Israeli Army and his graduation ceremony took place right where we were standing!! It was pretty cool to learn that and we could envision what that looked like… (only some of us had to because Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Weiss actually were AT that tekes - ceremony - when Eli received his Red Beret that the paratroopers wear. And it WAS very cool!)

From Ammunition Hill we boarded the bus for what would be a really special activity and treat for us. We rode the bus until we reached our destination at the Machal Memorial: a memorial on the Burma Road dedicated to the volunteers who came to Israel to fight and defend her boarders during the wars (and even during times of peace.) We BURIED THE TIME CAPSULE right around there (sorry guys, no other hints than that!) and then chose our BIKES for an AWESOME BIKE RIDE ON THE BURMA ROAD!!!

We rode pretty steady, enjoying the most amazing views and literally re-living history as we travelled on this slightly rocky and dirt road all the way to the Latrun Junction - a journey of over 5 miles!! (and for all those wondering, YES, Rabbi Weiss was also on one of the bikes and did a pretty good job as a mountain-biker! Not too bad, Rabbi! Next will be surfing!!) The views were incredible and not too many accidents (although Chaim took a NICE little spill coming down an incline when he swerved so as not to hit Rabbi! But don’t worry, he made it look cool…) The ride was amazing and everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, had an awesome time.

As if it couldn’t get any better after that, we then headed to the Har-El Mall (Kenyon Har-El) and received vouchers for meals there, and were excited to learn that one of the restaurants we could eat at was none other than the Kosher McDonalds!! The food was awesome (some of us enjoyed Big Macs! Others ate elsewhere, even getting Kosher Chinese Food) and we packed up what was left and headed to the bus to go back to the hotel… but the night didn’t end there…

Our last attraction for the evening was probably the most meaningful (for some that is!) as we boarded the bus one last time that evening to head to our final activity for the day. We circled the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, making our way to the kotel, the Western Wall, as if we were going to pray. But we had a different appointment that night. And it was called for 10:30 and we couldn’t be late.

We crossed the Kotel Plaza floor and made our way towards the drinking fountains and entered into the amazing Kotel Tunnels, the tour that takes you all the length of the Western wall in its entirety. Yoni Berg led us through and explained to us the significance and helped peel back the layers of time until we were finally walking along the bedrock of the holiest mountain and place on earth and could actually touch the mountain that Avraham Avinu came to when he was asked to sacrifice his only son Yitzchak. We saw a model of Har Habayit that moved and shifted and saw a rock that weighed close to 600 TONS (no one knows HOW they moved it!) and got a chance to pray opposite the holiest place for Jews in the world today, the Kodesh HaKadashim.

The experience was sobering and quite powerful. The prayers we said that night were long and full of meaning. When we finally exited, after passing the other groups on our way out and seeing those who came to this holy place to pray at even 12 at night to say Tehillim, we realized that we had been inside for over an hour and then headed out into the Kotel Plaza and right up to the Kotel to Daven Maariv, the evening prayers. The kotel had new meaning for us and even though it was close to one o’clock in the morning by the time we had finished, we were wide awake with fire and flare after this mesmerizing and spiritual experience.

We headed back to the bus after posing for another one of Rabbi Akiva’s group photo shots (and Rabbi Weiss’s of course) and sang our way back to the hotel, delighting in the fact that Rabbi told us that we would be getting up at 7 am the next morning, and that we could actually sleep in a little. LOL!!

We had to be aware though that our trip was almost over. Here we had done so much and seen  so much history and felt and prayed and lived through this experience together, but it was almost over and we would be leaving the Land of Israel, the land of our forefather and mothers, the land of our sisters and brothers, the ones who stand on our borders protecting us and our families, and keeping our connection and presence alive in the place of our national homeland and identity and in a place that has and still is fought over by the thousands who try to lay claim to our heritage and birthright. Soon Shabbat would be here, and with its close, a flight back to the states would lay waiting for us, to take us home, but not to our homeland. To our families and loved ones, but not our only family. The Jewish People, our brothers and sisters living here in the Land of Israel, we will miss them and carry them in our hearts and lives from this time on. For how can we forget Yerushalayim? And how can we ever forget this trip - the trip of our lives?

Thank You Hebrew Academy. Thank you our Parents. Thank you our sponsors. Thank you the students and teachers and amazing staff at the Bess and Paul Sigel Hebrew Academy of Greater Hartford. And thank You Rabbi Weiss, for taking us on the most unforgettable and amazing trip of our lives. We will never forget it. Ever.

We’re almost home, but not yet… a few more days in heaven… a few more days in Yerushalayim, Ir HaKodesh… a few more breaths of the sweet, Holy air of Eretz Yisrael…

Laylah Tov Sigel Academy. We’ll be seeing you soon.

With love,

Amy, Serena, Yonatan, Dov, Mimi, Michal, Sandy, Eliel, Ben, Miriam, Sandy, Yoni, Matti, Noam, Elisha, Hannah, Maayan, David, Arieh, Chani, and Arielle (with Rabbi Weiss, Mrs. Weiss, Mrs. Loew, Rabbi Akiva, Chaim, and Yoni Berg.) Have a good night!!

I feel the need… the need… for SPEEEED!!!!!

     To the Lowest Place on Earth we Go!!!

Setting out this morning at the nice and RIPE hour of 8:30 am, your very own 8th Graders (led by fearless tourguide Yoni Berg, and the other staff members on board) headed SOUTH this morning (not West) down to the lowest place on Earth - the Dead Sea.

On the way, (and the drive was WHHOOOAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!! 2 hours long) we took note of the fast-changing environment surrounding Jerusalem… that in fact, Jerusalem is an oasis city located in the middle of a desert known as the Judean Desert. We weren’t more than 25 minutes outside of the city before we noticed the dramtic change in climate and terrain: HOT and DRY DESERT!!!

We travelled onward towards the east, and when we hit that certain junction, hung a left, and continued south, keeping the Dead Sea in view for oh, pretty much the length of the drive! (it’s a pretty long sea… although sadly, it is swiftly drying out) We saw stretched before us the whole of the plains that at one point in time was a lush and green fertile area… that is, until God destroyed it with fire and brimstone from the sky, and the cities of Sedom and Amorrah then went kaput… and so did all the beauty of this area. Nothing but dry and barren desert, with a pungent salty and chemical air, all the way down south, as far as the eye could see.

And see we did!!

The mountains in the distance were huge, and at each and every turn we thought we could see Massada, but my, how all these mountains look the same!

We finally arrived at our first stop which was the desert oasis of Nachal David - David’s Embankment, also known as the oasis springs of Ein Gedi. After briefly checking out their gift shop while our entrance fees were settled, Yoni did a “Misdar Kovah, Misdar Mayim” - a Hat and Water Check (like they do in the Army!) and we even lined up in a “Chet” shape like they do in the army. And then we headed in.

We were surprised to see so many diverse wildlife right from the start! We had the privilege of seeing the Ibex (a small, desert ram/antelope) )which Yoni told us “not only looks cool, but supposedly tastes pretty good as well.” (!!!)) and also the Rock Hyrax, which is a small rodent-like animal that looks like a cross between a rabbit and a beaver. (just no tail!) The rock hyrax, were so plentiful this morning, that they seemed to be everywhere! In fact, they also exhibited this interesting disinterest in the tourists passing through the area that they were walking within close to two feet of our sitting group when we stopped to listen to Yoni begin to tell us of the significance and beauty of the Ein Gedi reserve. His story, naturally, pointed towards King David and his time spent as a refugee escaping King Saul’s wrath. but once again, Yoni was able to transport us back in time to make history come alive for us, and as we hiked up the nature reserve, we could envision the garrisons of King David seeking shelter in the rocks and crevices of the mountain gorge.

The hike up was absolutely gorgeous! Waterfalls and streams cascading every which way. Though there were many groups touring, we plowed ahead and passed the water-holes by in order to ascend to the top of the reserve and see the massive waterfall and bathing pool at the top. We sat and made ourselves comfortable (some of us accidentally placing our backpacks in a little… muddy area!) as Yoni finished the story of King David and King Saul and mesmerized us once again.

We struck out back down the way we came, only this time we took advantage of the empty bathing areas and did not hold ourselves back from using them! The boys went first and found an awesome water alcove with a waterfall and rock-wall that provided easy footing and handholds to allow them to climb up a foot or two and jump into the deep waters below the natural spring-water waterfall. We set our electronics aside (and Rabbi Akiva even loaned an extra pair of his bathing shorts to one of the boys so that he could get into the water!! They were a bit big, but with a belt, hey, anything is possible!) and proceeded to conquer the water pool!! (It was so much fun! Check out the pics and see the hang time we got!)

 Unfortunately, since after the boys begen to leave, a different group of both boys and girls took our place, we went in search of a different water-hole for the girls to swim in, and lo and behold they found one, one that had an entire seminary of Israeli religious girls who were on tour that day with their school! Our girls quickly befreinded them and they all had a splash - I mean, a Blast!

We made our way out of the nature reserve and changed our wet clothes in the bathroom. Some of us bought some souvenirs, some got ice cream (some had their ice cream fall off of the stick and land on the floor…!) and then we all enjoyed our packed lunches which we took the time to enjoy as we sat in the shade of the entrance to Ein Gedi.

 After we said birkat, we boarded the bus that would take us to our next attraction that would occupy the bulk of our afternoon: Massada. The moment we arrived, Eli, one of our chaperones, bounded off of the bus, but only Rabbi knew why, and some of us were wondering as to where he was going. Even so though, we got off the bus and followed Yoni to the welcoming center at Massada where we were given some background as to what we were about to see and then went to see a short film about its history. The theatre opened up to the path to the cable car that would take us up the mountain, but not before Yoni did a hat and water check, telling us all that the moment we reached the top there would be a place to fill up our water bottles and that over the course of the tour until we reached a certain point, we should all have finished at least half of our bottles (and if not, we would be drinking them down to that half-way mark in one shot! -don’t worry, nobody had to ;o). We all had our hats and water (and cameras) and Yoni passed out our lift tickets. We got in line to board the cable car (one of the boys lost his ticket… don’t even ask me how that was POSSIBLE…) and the car begain to move and ascend the mountain.

   On the way up, Yoni was pointing out to us the remains from the Roman encampments, as well as the famous snake path that winds up the side of Massada, the only way in or out in time of old. Yet Lo and behold! On the way up, one of the girls shouted - Hey! is that ELI?!? Sure enough, there was our Eli, bounding up the snake path!! Not only were we so excited to see him as we headed up the mountain, but we were amazed that by the time we exited the cable car, he was maybe 100 feet from meeting us at the top!!! It was amazing!! (Now we knew where he was headed once we arrived and he jumped off the bus… AMAZING!!)

Atop Massada we filled our bottles and Yoni began his tour. The view was amazing and the weather very cool - it was an absolutely perfect day to see Massada. You won’t believe me when I tell you this, but the tour atop Massada, which included davening Mincha in what might also be one of the oldest shuls in the world (see Day 4 when we did Katzrin), took about 3 HOURS - and it was so interesting and awesome, NOBODY COMPLAINED!! I know, you think I’m crazy and that the 8th Graders were for SURE complaining, or that it was way too boring, but I’m telling you guys the truth. It was such an amazing tour and we had such a wild time that we literally were able to spend three hours atop Massada and nobody was bothered by it. (And these are your 8th Graders!!! I know groups that couldn’t last 20 minutes! How amazing are they!! They’re AMAZING!!)

So after an inspirational tour, we boarded the cable car down (but not without at least ONE more boy losing his boarding pass….. I’ll let you all guess who the culprit was!) and headed into the gifdt shop before heading out to the final stop for the day, the Dead Sea.

We found a special beach that is used by religious people, or just people looking for some privacy, that had separate beaches. The boys took the plunge (as well as some of the girls) and fought off the burning sensations long enough to get into the water and float a bit. Dov started to drift off towards Jordan before Chaim called him back, telling him that if he thought he was going to come after him and rescue him should the Jordanian border police come and take him away - he was wrong. We all had a salty-good time, and some of the boys, after showering off, had some swinging contest on a makeshift set of parallel bars!

We boarded the bus finally for a long ride home, exhausted, yet completely blown away by yet another awesome and completely packed, amazing day here in Israel. The rest is History, as they say, and we’ll be speaking to you more about tomorrow and some more after, and after, and after, and AFTER!!!

Have a great night West Hartford!! We’re having the time of our lives here in this trip!!!

All the best and Shalom,

Rabbi Akiva

Alas! Last night and Shabbat, and the entire week in fact, were so amazing, it was somewhat with a heavy heart that this morning we had to say goodbye to our hotel in Kibbutz Lavi which had become somewhat of a second home to us on our trip. Although saying goodbye to the north and heading south was something we were eager to do (especially since our upcoming stay is in the Holiest of Cities, Yerushalayim!!), it sure was nice to have the added benefit of a little extra sleep this morning to help ease into the transition: wakeup was at 7 am!! Can you believe how late that was?! We thoroughly enjoyed it!

Davening was at 7:30 and Elisha led us once again in davening, and Rabbi Weiss and Rabbi Akiva, and Shimi Weiss, performed the Birkat Kohanim - the priestly blessing - and we had a full 40 minutes to eat breakfast and get our things together and onto the bus, a NEW bus in fact, with our new driver, Menachem! (Menachem is from the town of Afulah, in the north of Israel.)

Well, after finally getting everything onto the bus, we headed out in the general direction of SOUTH, and we were on our way to making the various planned stops on the way down, the first of which was Caesaria.

Sitting on Israel’s northern Mediterranean coast lies Caesaria, the ancient port city built by Herod in the 1st Century. Throughout the ages Caesaria has undergone some tremendous changes, and the ruin and remains of what was once a magnificent architectural achievement lay cast and jutting into the sea. We walked the shores along the clear blue-green waters of the Mediterranean as we explored the remains of this historic city. Yoni even took us in to see a special movie detailing the specifics and the history of the city, and though there were, like, FIVE other groups who were interested in seeing the ENGLISH version of the film (even though a significant number of them only spoke french… how do I know this? Well, we kind of sat next to twenty of them!), we still enjoyed it and even more so the holographic imagery room, where we could speak to and ask questions of holographic characters throughout the ages. (It was really cool!)

After exploring the remains of this city, as well as imagining ourselves walking through the cardo, the main thoroughfare of the city, as well as sitting in the amphitheatre, and walking the length of the massive hippodrome, we headed back to the bus and began to search out a place for lunch.

We found a great little mall where we could sit down and eat our packed lunches from Kibbutz Lavi, and with some leftover time we were given a few minutes to do some shopping. There were a couple of cool stores in the mall that a few of us went into, and some of us saw some… interesting things to purchase! We had a nice time, but were itching to get to our next attraction already: the Armored Corps Museum of Latrun.

Latrun is the junction point between many key crossroads. It overlooks the valley that is referred to in Tanach as “Emek Ayalon” - the Ayalon Valley, where Yehoshua asked Hashem to extend the day, and have the sun stand still for a few extra precious hours in order to vanquish our foes, the Plishtim.

We explored the Museum with Yoni guiding us through. The Tanks we saw were amazing (and super-HUGE!!!). Yoni made a point of pointing out to us the Merkava Arbah - the Merkavah 4 Israeli tank, which is the most advanced and impressive tank that has ever been assembled. Yoni explained to us all the powerful features the tank has, including specially designed/enhanced armor that is the strongest armor ever made (composed of a special alloy that the Israeli Government keeps secret!), a rear exit for escape, and a highly advanced computerized technology that can do amazing things from locate and track enemy tanks and target them to even regulate the temperature inside the tank. (the Merkava 4 tanks have air conditioning for the crew!!) Last but not least, Yoni explained why the tank is called the merkava. You see, the word Merkava means “chariot.” Now, most tanks in use today are designed so that the engine, which is the most expensive component of the tank, is located in the back of the tank, so that if the tank should get hit from enemy fire, there is a good chance that the engine may yet be salvaged. However, the priority in the Israeli army is that the most important part of the tank to protect and try and “salvage” is the CREW! And, just like a chariot, which has its “motor” (meaning, the horses) in the front that pulls it forward, so too does the Israeli tank “Merkava” have its engine in the front of the tank, which is an extra added element to help protect the crew. (Check out the pic. we took on the tank! It’s awesome!)

We then took a tour through the remaining building structure that used to be a British Police Station before it was turned over into Arab hands before the War of Independance. Now it is a museum dedicated to the Israeli Armored Corps Division. The museum has some amazing exhibits and powerful memorials. We were able to see some impressive displays as well as an interactive console that allows patrons to look up any name of any soldier who lost his life in the service of his country from the tank corps, in any war in Israel’s history. We davened mincha in the special synagogue that is located there, and then had some time to explore the grounds on our own… there were over 100 different types of tanks on display!! Some of us climbed on them, some of us took pictures by them, some of us tried to climb inside some of them (some even tried to take them apart.. BEN!) and it was really a lot of fun and made for a great time and some amazing pictures.

Finally, we boarded the buses for our last stop near Bet Shemesh: Tel Azeikah.

After our amazing driver Menachem steered us down a crazy road, we got off the bus and followed Yoni up a small hillside which seemed like it would be a short hike. To our surprise, the path on the hike was lined by several concrete blocks placed at varying intervals. What was wild however, was that engraved into each block was a different pasuk. A pasuk from Tanach. From the book of Shmuel, to be precise. Something about a battle. And a war. And King Saul…

And then we saw it… the pasuk… something about a boy, a shepherd stepping forth from the ranks of B’nei Yisrael… claiming how the fact that a Plishti warrior-giant who can curse the warriors of Israel and their God is a blight and defamation of God’s name… about how he won’t stand for it… And as we ascended the steep hill and looked out across the valley that separated between our hill and the one across the way, we read the final inscriptions…

“And David stepped forth and met the Philistine…”

 And then we understood… We were overlooking the battle field of over 2000 years ago where David slew Goliath with Goliath’s own sword after knocking him unconscious with a stone from his slingshot. We were in awe….       The field!!          We could see it!!

And we sat there amazed as Yoni our tourguide told over the story from Tanach and we could literally see the battle taking shape… where Dovid and Goliath would have most likely fought… And 2000 years of History - just like that! - became reality.

After sitting there mesmerized as time literally stopped, we took in the scene and the absolutely amazing view from up there - which allowed us to see all the way to the Mediterranean! - and then followed Yoni on a quick tiyul around the area of Azeikah.

We at last descended and rejoined the bus for a trip home to the Ramada Hotel where we are staying for the remainder of the week (before Shabbat) and headed into dinner.

What an amazing trip!! We start out our days based in Jerusalem from here on in. We’re halfway through the trip, but still looking forward to what’s in store. Have a great night Sigel Academy! We’ll be back for more tomorrow!! …as we explore a little bit of the southern region outside Jerusalem tomorrow, with Ein Gedi, the Dead Sea, and of course, Massada.

Laylah Tov!!

Most people recognize a certain acronym TGIF and say it stands for “Thank God It’s Friday!” But while on this year’s 8th Grade trip to Israel, though we were excited for the activities of the day, the fact that it was Friday meant that our first week was coming to a close and we were already halfway finished our trip!! AHHHH! Where has the time gone?!?!

Anyhow, this morning started off the same way it always has… wakeup, daven, eat breakfast, get ourselves onto the bus… you know… the usual! Yet once on the bus, we headed for our first stop and that was Tzfat, one of the four holiest cities in Israel. Tzfat is located on a high mountain-top and the air up there is quite refreshing and wonderful. We pulled up to our starting point and began to follow Yoni through the old city streets that reminded us very much of the streets of the Old City of Jerusalem that we saw our first day in Israel. The streets were made of stone and were so narrow that cars could not drive on them.

     Our first stop on our walking tour was a nice and shaded area where Yoni took the opportunity to not only tell everybody to drink, but also to tell over the stories and history of Tzfat and get us aquainted with the city in a personal way. Yet what stories of Tzfat could be complete without some discussion of the Ariza”l, the holy Rabbi Yitzchak Luriah, who changed the face of modern day Judaism with his dissemination of the secrets of the Kabbalah. Yoni related to us how the Lecha Dodi that we sing in synagogue each Friday night was actually written by the students of the Ariza”l, and how so many other aspects of davening and ritual were impacted by his teachings.

     From there we continued our walking tour through the city and stopped along the way here or there to hear of the miracles and stories of the people and sages throughout our history who lived and studied in Tzfat. We passed the Kossov shul, and also the Ari-Ashkenazi shul where we prayed for the welfare of Israel and its citizens. We also wandered over to the gift store “Nerot Tzfat” - Safed Candles, where the famous artistic wax candles made in Tzfat are sold in all their various and beautiful designs and colors.

     Tzfat actually is generally associated with art and artistry and there is a large and prosperous artists colony and market there and we were given some free time to explore and wander through it and make purchases. During that time, Rabbi gave us all some money with which to purchase lunch and then had back to the bus at the end of that time. A bunch of us found a great little cafe shop that made personal pan pizzas that were absolutely delicious!

   After heading back to the bus, we took off for our next stop which we were eagerly looking forward to since Wednesday and that was Kayaking down the Jordan!!! But I’ll stop here and let Miriam Klau take over and give you her take on things…. Miriam, take it away!!

     Thank you, Rabbi Akiva!

This week’s Parsha is Parshat Shmini. Actually, what we did on Friday has nothing to do with that, but I thought I would tell you anyways.  We were about to go kayaking, an activity from Wednesday postponed to Friday due to Rabbi Weiss’s lack of talent in rappelling (snicker snicker)  

***This is a highly debated topic as to who won the Rappelling contest at Manara… was it Rabbi, or was it Miriam. It was clear that the two best rappellers were Rabbi Weiss and Miriam Klau, HOWEVER, which of them was faster is a topic of debate. Most agree that Rabbi won hands down (AHEM!) saying there wasn’t even a competition and that he dropped down that cliff in less than 5 minutes like a pro. Yet there are those who insist that Miriam was faster. See relevant sources and chaperones for more details. I personally think Rabbi won, but you might claim that I’m biased… well, maybe. But who cares? I still think he won. Mrs. Loew however disagrees. But then again, she’s ALSO pretty biased, what with the girls only supporting the girls…. Every time the boys beat the girls Mrs. Loew says they didn’t really beat them.. so who can you trust, really? Anyhow, I say Rabbi won, but I don’t argue if you say it was Miriam. Anyhow, enough commentary, now back to Miriam’s take on kayaking.***

     After half an hour of rules once we actually got to the place, we learned that we are not actually going kayaking. Rather, we are going rafting. Six people per tiny boat. SIX! Sounds fun, right? Well, fine. We can deal. TWO people get paddles on each boat, meaning that two of us get the blame when the boat turns over. Lovely. Still, we can deal. So, okay. We all split up into groups, the chaperones taking kayaks, two in each. We roll down into the water, and start moving. The water is cold, and we could tell this immediately, solely for the reason that everyone had already begun a water fight!! Six OW’s and Three sorrys later, everyone was sopping wet. Even the chaperones had joined in! Though it would be okay to end there, who could forget the BOAT HIJACKING!!!! Grabbing each others paddles is certainly fun, but only if you can hold on. Most of us couldn’t, but it didn’t really matter so much anymore. Between the Hypothermia, getting hit in the face with paddles, and BEATING THE BOYS (heh heh heh), we had an AMAZING time without question! 

Thank you Miriam for tha awesome commentary. The Boys indeed were beaten by the girls, but the real winners in that contest were CLEARLY the chaperones, soaking and drenching every raft at will due to their incredible talents in using the paddles as splashers (as well as having the extra added bonus of actually knowing how to row a boat, paddle, and STEER… comes in handy, you know, like when you’re going RAFTING). Everyone was quite soaked by the time we got out of the Jordan after going down the waterfall at the end (which was AWESOME!).

We got changed and quickly jumped back onto the bus to head to the next stop on our trip, Teverya,  to see the graves of some of our holy sages. Namely, the Rambam - Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, or Maimonides, and Rabbi Akiva, one of the greatest talmudic sages, and Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato, who is buried right next to him.

     To visit and see the graves of these amazing personas in history was something quite powerful and moving. We spent some time reciting Tehillim - Psalms at their gravesite and even hearing stories about them. We had to move wuickly though because Shabbat was swiftly approaching and we had to get back to the kibbutz to get ready! yet even just to see the final resting place of these great sages was something that will hopefully leave an impression on us for many many years to come.

I’m gonna turn it over to Chani Schreiber to let you hear her impressions of Shabbat at Lavi. I’ll be back in a bit…

Hey Guys, it’s Chani. (Hi Ima!) I’m writing here with Amy Zablotsky who also says hi (Hey Mom! Having a really great time here! Do I HAVE to come home?). Thank you Amy. Let’s tell them about Shabbos already!

Okay! So I’m sure Rabbi Akiva has been telling you all about how amazing our trip has been. Well he’s right and everything he’s been telling you is totally true. HOWEVER, there might be a few details he may have left out! So let’s set it straight, right Amy? Yes, lets! So Friday: so we got back to Lavi at like a HALF AN HOUR before Shabbos [**WHAT? It was totally not a half an hour before Shabbos, Amy, Chani!!** - Hey Rabbi Akiva, who’s telling the story, us or you? - **Fine! But tell it right!! It was at LEAST 45 minutes, if not an hour!** - Fine, but still, that’s nowhere NEAR enough time for us girls to get ready!  - **Girls?! Ha! That should be PLENTY of time… How long does it take to get ready?** - Are you kidding?? At LEAST two hours! Don’t you remember what [one girl] said as we were getting off the bus? ‘But Rabbi, that’s not enough time for us to get pretty!’ - **Whatever…** - Anyways, thank you for your commentary Rabbi Akiva, but I believe WE were telling this story? - **Alright, Alright, I’ll go now. The floor is all yours.** - Thank you. As we were saying, a HALF HOUR before Shabbos - **Sheesh!**] After taking the fastest showers and of us ever took, we all made our way to the lobby where they had tables set up with candles. Every candle was the same shape and size; no flame brighter than another. Jews from all over the world, all speaking different languages came to spend Shabbat at Lavi with us. Never had I felt the Achdut - Unity - of B’nei Yisrael stressed more as I said “Good Shabbos” to friend and stranger alike, with equal warmness.

      Next thing I knew, we were davening Kabbalat Shabbat and Maariv - the evening service prayers. Again, the feeling of Achdut as we sang and danced (with a mechitza of course) to welcome in Shabbat. After davening, we made Kiddush and had our meal. First there were appetizers, then there was some yummy Moroccan fish and a delicious mushroom thingy.  We all enjoyed soup that was “Ken Besari, aval ayn basar” - Yes it is fleishig, but there is no meat in it. (or something like that!)        Anyways, there was no meat in it so Miriam enjoyed it as well. Then after, the meat (you know, some chicken and rice, and maybe some other stuff) and after dessert (pareve ice cream and fruit) and some heartily sung songs, we benched and played kugelach. Chani easily beat all the boys, getting quickly to “Al Yad” while they all struggled with “onesies”!

     Us girls also went with Mrs. Loew to get some fresh night air. Lavi has a beautiful path through a garden to a wonderful park with sea-saw things and turning things and hammocks and other fun stuff. We all hung out for a while, having fun and enjoying Shabbat. With the dreaded curfew on our heals, we regretfully walked back to the hotel, ate some cake that house keeping had kindly left in our rooms, and went to bed.

     The next morning, Rabbi Weiss expected us to be in shul, ready to daven, at 8:45. HA! I lost no time in telling Rabbi that we can do it early, but 3 hours early is pushing the small amount of luck that anyone could have with 11 exhausted teenage girls. We actually didn’t too bad, most of the girls were only an hour late. Despite the early hour, davening was just as spirited and inspiring as the night before. Then Yoni Weiss, Rabbi Weiss’s youngest son, led us in some interesting games, climaxing with the still unanswered question: What is the “Best Jew”! This question was followed by more games and activities and some in-depth discussions, concerning everything from halacha to character traits to whether one lives in Eretz Yisrael. We’ve never been asked or had to thin about so many questions and it got a bit annoying when we realized that there weren’t always straight answers and there are a lot of opinions on the matter and the opinions are constantly changing.

    We had a very large, nutritious and filling lunch, Mincha, and (Thank G-d!) a three hour break where we could spend the afternoon doing whatever we wanted, in most cases, sleeping. In fact, that is what I should be doing right now as it is near 11:00 at night so good night and thank you for reading the blog.

Thank you Chani and Amy! That was most informing.

After Shabbat, we had a Havdala ceremony, followed by some singing and dancing with music (Yoni Weiss brought his guitar), and we came back later for some ping pong matches and we had Pizza ordered for that evening that we all  enjoyed.

We’re headed south tomorrow morning and we’re packing up to leave this amazing kibbutz where we have been for the past week… Layla tov Sigel Academy! We’ll catch you later! Shavuah Tov!! 

Well, we started off this morning as usual with wakeup, davening, and breakfast. We got a good night’s sleep and felt refreshed in the morning and even managed to get to the bus with everything we needed with time to spare. (No pushups this morning! Although later there were a few who earned themselves some!!) We greeted Yoni, who had our packed lunches with him when he came to bus, and after we all were in our seats we drove off towards our first activity of the day: a HIKE!!

Kibbutz Lavi is located in the Galil, which is the northern part of Israel. Being in the north puts us at an advantage for touring the northern part of Israel, but also gives us the opportunity to be close to the Golan Heights, the most elevated and beautiful part of our northernmost border. Well, today, we would have the opportunity and the privilege of not only touring in the Golan, but also actually HIKING in the Golan, which is, without a doubt, such an amazing and awesome experience. We started out driving north and after about 40 minutes, we came to a bridge… A “very, narrow, bridge.” (Yes, in case you were wondering, we sang the song as we rode over it. Hooray.) This bridge (which wasn’t so narrow anymore, they widened it in fact!) went over the Jordan River. We watched through the windows as we crossed the historic waters of the Jordan, whose waters split as our nation crossed into this land so many years ago. And as we did so, we crossed over into the most northern and defense-related territory of the Jewish People, the Golan Heights.

The Golan Heights are GORGEOUS. (oh, wait. I think I said that already. Alright, well, I’ll just say it again!) The Golan Heights are GORGEOUS!!! And the most important message that we walked away with from all of our tours today is: the one with the elevated position has the advantage. Period. And from what we saw, it was not hard to see why. But I’m getting ahead of myself… Mimi! You wanted to say something about our hike today?

Hi! This is Mimi Feigenbaum. And YES Rabbi Akiva, I have something to say about the hike today and it is “What goes down, must come up!” We must have climbed down a MILLION stairs today on our hike of the “Jilabun”. We saw an extremely beautiful waterfall and got to swim in the freezing water. Only some of us (aka - Serena, Chani, Mimi, Miriam, Miriam, half of Amy, Yonatan and Arieh) were brave enough to swim to the falls. It was so cold but well worth it.

We saw an assortment of bugs and crabs - let’s just say some girls (not Mimi or Serena) were totally freaking out! At the end, Rabbi Weiss was nice enough to treat us all to some ice cream. It was so good! It was an amazing hike and swim! Well worth it.

Thank you, Mimi! That was great.

You’re welcome Rabbi Akiva. Bye!

The hike, as Mimi related, was indeed amazing. A hike down into the wadi to a waterfall of at least 200 feet in height. It was spectacular. The boys and girls took turns swimming with the girls going first. Finally, after swimming their fill (and Mrs. Loew dropping a walkie-talkie in the drink!) the girls headed up the long and high side of the ravine, that was about 600 feet in height from top to bottom! Luckily, (and I’m sure COMPLETELY by coincidence of course!) there was an ice cream truck RIGHT where we came out of the hike! How convenient!! Rabbi treated the girls as we waited for the boys and when they finally arrived, we boarded the bus and headed to lunch, which we ate at the ancient Talmudic village of Katzrin. Lunch was nice… packed lunches again from Lavi. Not too shabby, I must admit. After we benched, we got a short walking tour of the ancient city where we were able to glimpse what is probably one of the oldest synagogues in the world, and even see the houses and remnants of the city. We learned about the “be’er” (sorry, can’t tell you, it’s classified! Have to be an 8th Grader to know, but it definately has to do with “buchers”) and we headed on out and made our way to the next attraction: Har Ben Tal.

Har Ben Tal overlooks the Syrian border and is the remnant of a a now extinct volcano. Much of the rocky terrain that makes up the Golan Heights is entirely volcanic rock! That’s also what helps make it so fertile and wonderful for growing crops, and of course, grapes, for the Golan Winery! (although on this trip that won’t be one of our stops… awwwww… Maybe if we had come BEFORE Purim… ;o)

We made our way up the steep mountain and what a majestic view it was, to gaze out at the valley below us. Up on top of the mountain, we saw the remnants of the Syrian bunkers that used to occupy this mountain-top and which used to shoot down on the Jews who lived in Israel. Yet now this mountain and its bunkers belong to us and the longstanding peace is watchful and kept. We found seats and tried to hold on and not be blown away (the wind was particularly strong up there today!!) and we listened as Yoni Berg, our fearless tour guide took us through the history of Israel’s wars and spoke about the strategic significance of the Golan Heights and how each of Israel’s four major wars were fought and won. It was pretty wild and from that vantage point we were quite intrigued (and practically frozen solid!)

We took our last photos while some explored the bombed-out bunkers and then headed back to the bus to head to our second to last stop: El-Rom, where we saw the unbelievable movie about the force of Oz 77, the courageous and determined force of Israeli soldiers who against odds unimaginable, were able to hold off an invasion of over 800 Syrian tanks with nothing more than 47 of their own, technologically deficient tanks. Of the 47 Israeli Tanks, only 4 remained in a workable state after the insane three day battle. Led by army commander Avigdor Khalani, the Israeli strength of 47 tanks were able to fend off the Syrian invaders who outnumbered them by close to 20 to one!! The film was gripping and moving and it was incredible to hear the actual voices from the radios that were speaking during those three days and see actual footage from that pivotal battle.

At the end of the film, we drove out to see with our own eyes the valley where that fateful battle had taken place, now known as “Emek HaBacha” - “The Valley of Tears.” Yoni described to us the precautionary measures that are in effect now that would prevent Syria from ever trying to come in and invade Israel again. The view was powerful and moving. It was like watching history literally come to life. Yoni then informed us and explained to us the significance of the memorial there and we opted to take a photo atop the remains of a Russian tank that was used by Syria and destroyed during the battle. (We could see the actual HOLE that the shell that blew up the tank MADE as it was fired into the tank from an Israeli tank. It was incredible!) Israel, thank God, and we pray, will always prevail over her enemies. (Amen!!)

After this moving experience, we at last headed to dinner which was served to us at the Chan El-Al, which is also in the Golan, and provided for us a delicious dinner of home-made fries, (”Chips” in Hebrew!) and pitot, salads, chumus, and barbequed chicken and hamburgers! It was awesome! Finally, realizing that the day was coming to a close, we headed to the bus, eager to get home, knowing that tonight we had our video conference!!!!

And, as you all could see (literally!) it was quite impressive!!

HEBREW ACADEMY!!!
WE LOVE AND MISS YOU!! BUT WE’RE HAVING THE TIME OF OUR LIVES AND THIS TRIP IS ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE!!!

We’re pushing the clocks ahead tonight so we have to get to bed a little earlier than usual.
Tomorrow is Kayaking and the Holy city of Tzfat and we can barely wait, because after comes our first Shabbos in Israel together, and we’re loving every second of it!!!

Have a good night!! Our’s will be over by the time your’s begins!!
All our love,                                                                                                                                                                   The 8th Grade, Rabbi Weiss, Mrs. Weiss, Mrs. Loew, Rabbi Akiva, Nataly, Leslie, Yoni, Chaim, Eli and Eli.

Hello West Hartford!!

Since we were so good yesterday, and did such an amazing job getting down Mount Arbell, Rabbi gave us a gift and let us sleep in this morning… wakeup wasn’t until 6:30 a.m.!!! Whew!! It was awesome….

Anyhow, we woke up, we davened, we breathed in the holy air of Eretz Yisrael and took in our surroundings and marvelled at the greenery of the north of our blessed and Holy land and after a wonderful davening we headed for yet ANOTHER awesome Continental Breakfast here at the hotel in Kibbutz Lavi, and gobbled up the scrambled eggs, the salads, the pancakes (Noa Roffman, where art thou, O Pancake King?) the desserts, the puddings, the cheeses, (the FISH, for those who can even think to stomach it so early in the morning!) and after we had eaten our fill, we benched (for those of us who ate bread) and had about twenty minutes to get what we would need together and be out on the bus by 8:30.

Now about that bus, and being on time, you see, Yoni, our tourguide has a little rule that you all should know about. You see, he can appreciate that sometimes things happen and we can be a little late. A little late, yes. A LOTTA late, NO. Soooo…… there’s a new rule in the 8th Grade: if we all aren’t on the bus within 10 minutes after the time for being on the bus was called for, the ENTIRE 8th Grade has to do PUSHUPS!!

PUSHUPS!!!

Did you hear that?

“Yes Rabbi Akiva, we did.”

Hey, who’s that?!

“It’s Ben. Remember, you asked me to write something for the blog tonight? About what we did this morning in the burnt out forests here in the North from the Lebanese war?”

Oh, right! Good! Well it’s about time you got here.

“Sorry. Rabbi had to speak to me… errr…. I mean us… uhhh, I mean, we had to talk to Rabbi.”

Oh. Okay. What about?

“Nothing… just… saying goodnight. Yeah!”

Okay. You done?

“Yeah, I’m done.”

Good. So how about that blog?

“Well, if you would let me near the computer, then maybe I’ll be able to finally TYPE IT!”

Oh. Ah-ha. Ha ha. right. Forgot. Here ya go.

“Thank you. See you later Rabbi Akiva.”

Oh I’ll be back. Call me when you’re through.

“Sounds good. Hey all. Now where were we? Oh yes… my blog… here we go!

Hello Achi, Achoti, Achotai and Achim Sheli!! Today we had an amazing experience at the historical site called Beer-Iyah. This is the site of one of the most beautiful forests in all of Israel. Unfortunately though, during the last Lebanese War last summer, this important forest was severely damaged by the Katyusha rockets that were fired into Israel by the Lebanese and Hizbollah. The area was left scarred and burned. The 8th Grade actually SAW the remains of one of the rockets that fell in the area, which helped make the situation more real for us.

This morning though, we were recruited to help re-form the stone path running through the forest. Due to the laws of Shemittah (7th Year Sabbatical Laws that are kept in the Land of Israel) we couldn’t clear charred branches or plant trees, but we helped as best as we could in accordance to the mighty laws of Shemittah.

The most important thing, in my opinion, that we learned today was that sometimes tragedy can unite the Jews from all different backgrounds to come together and rebuild the beauty of Eretz Yisrael. (Also, we learned that the girls in our class are lazy and squeamish and no match for the totally awesome boys who beat them senseless when it came to competing in re-building the beautiful stone roads of the Holy Land. Ours were so much better and longer - we ROCK. But don’t tell Rabbi Akiva I wrote that when he gets back or he might not let me post it. here he comes. Bye!)

Hey Ben, how’s it going?

“Awesome. I’m done.”  

Good. Did you write anything inappropriate?

“Me?! Of course not! You can even check if you like! (please don’t check please don’t check please don’t check…)”

No. No. I trust you. Good job. It’s almost curfew. You better head to bed.

“Okay. See you tomorrow Rabbi Akiva. Have a good night.”

So… let’s see… where did he leave off… hmmm…. WHAT? Don’t tell Rabbi Akiva… ah HA! I’ll take care of this…. but it’s getting kind of late. Alright, let me just finish this post and I’ll come back later and just edit up that last part. it’s getting late. I’m sure I’ll remember though. But let’s see… what did we do after the chessed work in the forest…? ah yes… Manara Cliff!!

Tzuk Manara, or Manara Cliff is a massive mountain that lies in the north of Israel, opposite Har Chermon, and overlooks the town of Kiryat Shemona. We headed over there because there are some awesome activities to do on the mountain (like zipline and rappelling! And even a cool cart-roller-coaster down the mountain!) and it’s a great place to stop for lunch and enjoy the view. So that’s where we went and that’s exactly what we did!

We headed off the bus and enjoyed our cool packed lunches from Kibbutz Lavi. (Deli sandwiches and packed side dishes… it was GREAT!) Since it’s a Shemittah year, the food products grown in the land of Israel have special status and kedusha - holiness to them. Because of that, there is a special way they must be treated and disposed of to make sure that the kedusha is retained. It’s amazing that the Kibbutz is so sensitive to this that they sent us off today with not only our beautifully packed lunches, but also a HUGE bin to keep the left-over food in order to return it to them so that they can be careful to dispose of it in a proper and special way.

ISN’T THIS AMAZING?!??!?! Where else on EARTH do you even HEAR about someone’s leftovers being HOLY!! This entire land is holy!! And here we are, the 8th Grade class, not only WALKING in the Holy Land of Israel, where every single step we take is another mitzvah; not only BREATHING IN the air of Eretz Yisrael that is waking up and energizing our souls with holiness and life; but even every single bite of food that we EAT is imbued and filled with Kedusha!! With HOLINESS!!! It’s AMAZING!!!! (Maybe we should just stay here forever? hmmm….. I’ll ask Rabbi tomorrow morning… :o)

 Anyways, back to our story… So we got to Manara, had a delicious lunch, and after we benched, we made our way to the entrance to the massive cable car that would haul us up the cliffside to the middle landing of the mountain. Though ordinarily we would eventually continue up to the top of the mountain, today we would only end up making it to the middle landing (unless you had to go to the bathroom… there were a few of us who made it to the top with Mrs. Weiss who did a bathroom run…). But the reason for that was because never before did so many 8th Graders want to do the rappelling instead of the Zipline! 

Anyhow, to make a very long story short, we arrived at the middle landing, got a quick lesson from one of our facilitators named David (along with his side-kick Ayal) and we quickly divided ourselves up into two groups: Zipliners and Rappellers. (Rabbi Akiva went to Zipline, Rabbi Weiss went to Rappel, and also ended up breaking the record for getting down the fastest: under five minutes!! He was amazing!)

Mrs. Loew took the school camera and stood on the lookout to see all the students going ziplining. Some plunged right into it! Others looked a little nervous! But we all made it down and had an awesome jeep ride back up afterwards. (Rabbi Akiva went down upside down!)

The rappellers though were in a league of their own. These guys did an amazing job as well, and though it took a while for all of them to finally complete the 160 foot cliff-walk, they did a fantastic job and really showed some courage and strength. (Check out the pics… you’ll love ‘em!)

After finally finishing the afternoon’s activities, we figured to say goodbye to the cliff and head on out but it was a little late. We realized we wouldn’t be able to make it to Kayaking today so we instead opted to push it off until Friday, since tomorrow night here in Israel they push the clocks ahead an hour and we’ll get an extra hour for activity on Friday. In place of kayaking though, we headed down to the bottom of Manara Mountain and paired up and headed onto the go-cart roller mountain coaster!!  Some went super fast, and some went a bit slow… some were too wiped out (or scared!) to go at all, and then others, well, they were just a little crazy and didn’t even bother using the BRAKES when they went down so as to have the fastest ride ever!! It was really awesome, and even Rabbi paired up with an 8th Grader to almost break ANOTHER record for fastest down the mountain-coaster! (I’ll let you all guess who it was, but I think there’s a pic of it! Those two went FAST!!)

After we conquered Manara, we headed to Tel Chai to learn about Yosef Trumpledor, a truly remarkable Israeli Pioneer, and we davened Mincha by the graves of the first pioneers of the settlement that would eventually get its name from the 8 brave Jews who died protecting its inhabitants: Kiryat Shemoneh.

After davening, we drove about an hour back to Teverya where we walked briefly on the tayelet (boardwalk) and into a fine restaurant where we settled down to a nice and pretty amazing meal, including appetizers, salads, our choice of a main course from one of six different awesome meals (including felafel, shwarma, shiskebob, chicken, schnitzel, and fish!) and even a pretty decent pareve ice cream to top it all off.

We licked our lips, benched the Birkat HaMazon, and walked the streets of Teverya towards our bus, where we met Adeeb, our driver, boarded the bus, and headed on home to the Hotel at Kibbutz Lavi.

WHEW!!! What awesome days we’re having!!! Here we feel like we haven’t even been here two days and I’m already finishing up Day 3 of our blog! It’s as if our trip is almost over already, and Shabbos is right around the corner!!! I can’t believe that tomorrow is already THURSDAY!! AHHH!!!!!

Have a good night, West Hartford!

Have a great day at school Hebrew Academy!! This is Rabbi Akiva, signing off on tonight’s blog for the 8th Grade Trip to Israel! We’ll be up and at ‘em in about six and a half hours… and off to explore and see more of our beautiful homeland and heritage, the Holy, Holy Land of Eretz Yisrael!! Have a good night! Bye!

(hmmmm… Am I forgetting something?  I just know I am.   Somerthing I was supposed to do? To say? To check, or edit? I can’t remember… Oh well, I’m sure I’ll remember tomorrow. Time for sleep. <YAWN!> Goodnight!!!

Tired??! No! Why should we be tired??!

We got a FULL night’s sleep, that’s for sure! I think we were out the moment our heads hit the pillows in fact! But after a full night’s hard-earned sleep, we were up and out of bed at 6 a.m. this morning, and at davening on time at 6:30. Davening went until about 7, it’s true, and we had a cute guest join us for davening, walking all around and bumping into some of us as we sat and prayed… Naturally I’m speaking about Rabbi Weiss’s own grandson, Maor! So after davening was over Rabbi gave welcome to Elisheva, his daughter, and Maor, who would be joining us and assisting on the trip. (Elisheva is not only a great mom, but also a certified and senior LIFEGUARD! Always a good person to have with you when doing water activities!) We headed on downstairs for the illustrious Continental Breakfast that awaited us in the Hotel restaurant level, and we chowed down and enjoyed the amazing spread! We then headed to our rooms, packed up shop, and finally reloaded the bus and were set to roll by 8:15, when we got ourselves cozy and settled in for a nice little three hour road trip up north. Most of us slept, but some of us took the opportunity to talk, sing songs, admire the gorgeous scenery, and in general just have a great time. Finally, after one rest stop and a lot of fun, we reached our first attraction for the day: Rosh HaNikra.

Rosh HaNikra, is, BEAUTIFUL!! Overlooking the gorgeous and sparkling-clear waters of the Mediteranean, Rosh Hanikra consists of a large outcrop of chalk-rock that serves as a natural buffer between Israel and Lebanon. In the past, it took tremendous amounts of time and work to traverse this outcrop of rock to pass between the two countries, but eventually an underground tunnel system was built to allow for trains to pass easily. Early in the 1900s however, when the system was being used by our enemies to smuggle weapons in to harm Israel, the main bridge of the track system was blown up by the Jewish fighting force, the Haganah. The remains of this tunnel can still be seen today, and the tunnels, or grottos, of Rosh Hanikra have been carved out accordingly, as well as by the weathering from the Mediterranean Sea. You can see the clear blue-green of the waters as they smack and splash through these caverns and it’s quite amazing! But the first thing is to get down there! How, you ask? CABLECAR!

We piled into the small cable cars and made our way down to the caves. We explored the caverns and tunnels of the site, and were even entertained by a nice movie explaining the history of the site. (We even got to see a display from the Israeli Navy, as one of their battleships passed by us in the waters!) After taking the tour and seeing the movie (and a few of us longing for some gumballs…) we posed for a picture by the Israeli Army base protecting our border, just a few feet from Lebanon! (Very cool, indeed!)

Next stop for us was the ancient settlement of Hoshayah, also known as Kfar Kedem. We arrived with our appetites and were quickly introduced to our host, who insisted that we had traveled back in time. Well, I’m sure he was well-meaning, but he was able to convince some of us, especially when he got us all dressed up in ancient traveling clothing! But not only that… he then took us to a threshing floor where he taught us how to thresh wheat and we proceeded to grind it into flour!!

After grinding out flour, it was simple to add water and make dough! Which we then kneaded out into flat cakes and proceeded to cook on some Beduin grill! Some of us Some of us were more adept at the flipping of the bread than others… and some of us worked hard not to get our feet caught on fire… (SERENA!) or our pants (ARI!). But after cooking our dough, we were invited to enjoy it with some zatar dip and you can even ask Matti (who was the first to cook his dough and brave the dip): it was quite good!

We then sat down to enjoy an amazing lunch, that was served in the finest Beduin style, with trays of food served to us while we reclined. The food was awesome, just one small things… NO FORKS! After all, we had traveled back in time, didn’t we? No forks or knives then! (but they had pity on us and finally brought a few spoons…) Rabbi Akiva and Chaim proceeded to teach the group a special Egyptian song that included verses that the 8th Graders were required to make up on the spot. The largest girls’ table won that competition (judged by Rabbi and Mrs. Weiss). And after saying the Birkat HaMazon outloud, we went to pick out donkeys that we would ride around the area.

Some of us got some manageable ones, while others… well… let’s just say that they somehow were able to manage! We learned the special words that the donkeys would command to make them stop and to make them go forward. A few people were startled (Mrs. Loew! Watch out! …Michal!! Watch out!! I’m going to fall off!! Ahhh!!!!) and a few even fell off (Chani!! Be careful! We’re not re-telling the story of Yitzchak and Rivka here!) …And some (Rabbi Akiva), led their donkey and the one riding it (Rabbi Weiss) shouting out “Kacha Ya’aseh L’ish! Asher HaMelech Chafetz Bikaro!!!”

All in all we had a real blast and nobody got too messy or had TOO much trouble riding or leading. (Some in fact, even enjoyed it! …no comment here though.)

After dismounting, giving back our garb, and taking a few pictures, we said our thanks, headed back to the bus, and made our way for the Arbell cliff. The cliff looked somewhat daunting, and it was getting close to sunset… but we were charged with energy and with Yoni at our head leading us, we set out in the windy afternoon and prepared to take on the mountain!! (that is.. cliff. Whatever!)

We made our way down. Since we were trying to move quickly to make our next attraction, we all picked up the slack and embraced the challenge. The staff spread themselves out and without question, this year’s 8th Grade class topped EVERY SINGLE RECORD getting down the cliff!! Even the most worried among us made RECORD TIME! All did amazing, but definitely some special awards should be in order, for Amy, and certainly Arielle, Sandy, and Serena too. These girls did so well, I’m surprised that they’re not professional ROCK CLIMBERS!!

We made it down the hill by nightfall, even getting the opportunity to make a small night-hike out of it. We met our driver at the bottom, posed for a super-fast photo, and drove straight to Teverya (Tiberias) to make our date with a certain boatride!!

Well, we made our date alright, but the boatride was certainly an experience! We walked a gang-plank to board and enjoyed (well… maybe enjoyed isn’t EXACTLY the right word!!) the music. Some of us got up the courage to dance (Who can dance like a Hassidic Rebbe?!! Ready… Go!!) and some of us enjoyed sitting and admiring the gorgeous view of the city and its lights from the deck. Sandy dropped her camera down into the barrels of the ship, where the entire boat staff (and Chaim, Rabbi Akiva, and Mrs. Loew) spent a good while searching for it… only to have it miraculously turn up on her seat on the bus!! (That was a 5.0 Magi-Pixel Camera, that was!) but all in all we had an awesome time! It was such a blast!

We got home, davened maariv, and headed to dinner. We’re looking forward to another awesome day tomorrow!

Nighty-night Sigel Academy! We’ll be back for more news later!!