Day 5

I apologize in advance for the lack of facts in this blog post…. I am so overwhelmed by every breath I take in Ha’eretz Yisrael that I remember only the emotions and hope I will hold them close to my heart for the rest of my days. This is my second trip to Israel, my first being as a college student on the Birthright program. Needless to say I am seeing Israel through an entirely different set of eyes, yet the feelings invoked by this land are stronger than ever.

But enough about that, I’m sure you are all reading this for an idea of what we did today, not the metaphysical ramblings of a 27 year old man.

The day started with yet another excessive Israeli breakfast, I’ve learned my lesson and try to stick to fruit. We boarded the bus at 8 AM after being read the riot act on what we needed to bring for the day: Modest clothing for visiting the synagogues in Tzfat, water safe clothing for rafting down the Jordan River, and a back up set of clothing so we wouldn’t get the bus wet.

After making sure we were all ready to go we headed to a Modern Orthodox school in the city of Tiberias, which is St Paul’s partner city in Israel. After an introductory slide show by staff, a sea of smiling Jewish faces stormed into the gymnasium to meet us. The first activity was making prayer plaques; the blessing for the wine as well as the Shabbat candle blessings. I was hanging back and trying to help my dad with his Hebrew until one of the trustee’s (a mentor for the children of this particular school), Sasha, pulled me to one of the tables and the work began. After a few minutes of glue smearing I was the proud owner of a prayer plaque for my home.

The music teacher came out next and started singing several songs that I wasn’t familiar with. However, I am blessed with an extremely loud clap which I put to use during these songs. Once the words of “Am Yisrael Chai” left her lips it was an entirely different story. The familiar tune and the energy generated by dozens of kids clapping, singing and loving being Jewish will be one of the defining moments of my trip. It is inspiring to know that the future of our people is in such capable young hands. Finally, with the music blaring from the speakers we all began dancing a Hora-esque jig. I introduced a few new moves to the kids (words cannot do this justice, hopefully pictures will be added) and by the end of the dance I had many new achiim (brothers).

Leaving the school we headed further North into the hills of Gaililee and the mystical city of Tzfat. I must stop and take a moment to thank our bus driver Elle (sp?) who navigated the labryntine streets with unbelievable dexterity in our giant tour bus. We walked through the old city and got a better understnding of mystical Judaism or Kaballah. We visited synagogues of both Ashekenazi and Sephardic jews and heard of the additions both sects made to further this aspect of our faith. The most long lasting addition to our faith as Reform Jews is the Kaballat Shabbat service. Rabbit Spilker told us about a Shabbat that he celebrated in Tzfat, I hope all of us are lucky enough to have a divine experience such as that.
The remainder of the day can be described with one word: WET. Considering the heat we’ve been schlepping around in, I believe this was welcomed by all. Our first stop was a hike through the Tel Dan National Park. It is a lush green forest fed by the main tributary of the Jordan River. This made a fitting transition to the final activity for the day, rafting down the Jordan River. Despite the hype surrounding this river in song and lore it hardly qualifies as deep or wide. The mass amounts of boats in the river created a situation with plenty of splashing and the Israeli version of bumper boats. Watching the wide variety of ages on this trip all come together to spend a great afternoon having fun on the river was a site I hope to see repeated during this trip!!

Adam Bahr