First, WOW…Israel is so much more than we expected, and we expected a lot. We have already done so many profound things on our journey that is it a bit overwhelming (and a tad bit tiring). So let’s review what we have experienced and our impressions.
Did you know Israel is 6343 miles away from the United States, because after the plane ride, we sure do! As you know, we flew El Al and the food was pretty damn good as far as plane food goes. The service was fantastic and the seats were comfortable. For many of us, it was our first time being immersed in Israel’s culture, including the language and daily praying. Halfway through the flight a few of us “birthrightians” participated in Maariv, the nightly prayer. After dinner (which was really at 3pm in Eastern Standard Time) we had breakfast soon afterwards. We landed on time, collected our belongings and luggage and begun our Talgit-Birthright journey!
Our tour of Israel officially started at Sataf, an Israeli national park. When our incredible, amazing, funny, inspiring (and any other positive adjective you can think of) tour guide, Bruce, told us that we were about to embark on a hike, we were…disoriented. Perhaps it was the lack of sleep or the ten hour plane ride, but we were not “jewbilated” about a nature hike (it was 1:30am in our brains, mind you) but we persevered onwards. This deserves another WOW. This park was originally an arid land, with little to no vegetation. Yet, with the collective donations of millions of people from around the world, people planted trees to help transform the park into a beautiful nature preserve. It is interesting to note the parallel between the transformation of the nature park and the transformation of Israel as a whole. With the help of Zionists around the world, Israel, much like the park, is truly one of the most amazing places on Earth.
Our next stop, and one of the most significant and profound, was our visit to the Old City. Not only was the history extremely important to us, the incredible spiritual meaning of the city reverberated throughout each of us tremendously.
We feel that this part of our day deserves its very own post, so we will post this and our adventures on our second day tomorrow.
Until then, Lilah tov from all of us!
P.S. We miss you :)
Love to get an update on what is happening with the Bus 827 group.
ReplyDeleteWe miss you and hope all is well. Shabbat Shalom,
Susan, Bryan, and Daniel (Rachel A. 's family)