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Hi Everyone,
I am sorry it took me so long to get a proper post up, but I have not had more than a few minutes at a computer and wanted to try and at least do some justice to my experience here in Israel. This may be a bit of a long entry as I have so much to share. I will warn you right now, there is NO WAY I can come close to doing justice to this trip. But here goes:
I really didn't know what to expect when I signed up for Taglit (Birthright Israel). Despite the fact that I was being offered a completely free 10-day trip to Israel and had heard so many great things about the program, I was actually extremely apprehensive about it. Not only did the idea of traveling around Israel on a bus with 40 other 20-something Jewish-Americans make me slightly uneasy, but I was expecting to have ideas about Judeism and making Aliah (moving to Israel) shoved down my throat the entire time. I mean there is no way this free trip could be completely agenda free, right? Wrong. At least for me, and I believe I can
The Golan Heights
Chagai giving us our history lesson of the Golan Heights while looking over the Syrian Borderspeak for the rest of the group on my Taglit trip, the experience exceeded all expectations I could have ever dreamed of. The point of the trip is to simply allow us to connect to Israel. To bring us to this place and hope we love it. Obviously there are certain agendas, however, I truly believe in this program and how it can create a stronger community amongst Jewish-American youth.
I will give much of the credit of my experience to the my group of peers (including the 8 Israeli soldiers who traveled along with us). However, it was our tour guide, Chagai (yes, "Chagai the guide") that truly made the trip for me. The best thing I can say about Chagai is that he is the best teacher I have ever had. In the ten days we were with Chagai he taught us everything from history to politics to geology to just some great lessons about life. Each evening he would fill us in on our next 24 hours: where we would be going, what we would be doing, what time we needed to wake up, what we needed to wear, what we needed to bring, what we
would be eating and when, and then he would sit down and join us for a beer. Over ten days the man spent hours upon hours talking to us and spitting information at us and not once was I not excited to listen.
Being in Israel has truly changed my life. It has changed the way I see myself and the context in which I fit into every aspect of my life. It is a very strange feeling to be in a place I have never been, on the other side of the world, and feel oddly at home. For many years now I have not been very connected to Judeism. In fact, at times I have even denied my association with it altogether. However, being in Israel has reminded me that Judeism in not just about religion. It's about tradition, values, and a shared history of fighting for what you believe in. I have never been more proud to be part of something in my life.
Okay, so I am sure you guys are wondering what we have actually been doing here is Israel. Here is an overview of my time in Israel:
One thing I
was very excited about in coming to Israel was flying on the infamous El Al Airlines. Everyone had told me how incredible they are and what an experience it is to fly with them. So you can imagine how surprised Dave and I were when we arrived at JFK airport to find out that we were not in fact flying on a cushy direct flight to Israel on El Al, but were in fact flying on Aerosvit (Ukranian Airlines) and connecting through Kiev. For those of you who are planning a trip to Kiev, I hear the Aerosvit flights are extremely cheap. However, in any other case I would highly suggest avoiding this airline at all costs. The plane looked like it was bought from Pan Am in 1972, there was no soap, no movie (as they couldn't get the VCR, yes VCR, to work), the pillows were the size of gauze pads, the whole plane smelled like an armpit, the bathroom was held together by security tape, the flight attendants were abusive (I literally had a bruise on my hip from one of them shaking me awake to eat my shitty 3 am breakfast that consisted of an egg
log with a side of fried fish). All in all, it was a good experience. Kiev was cool, or at least the airport coffee shop had decent tea. And finally, we were off to the motherland...
We arrived late in Israel and thus had to skip the hike we had scheduled for that evening. Instead we hopped straight on our trusty bus, was introduced to Chagai, and headed north to the Sea of Galilee (The Kaneret). This is the sole source of fresh water to all of Israel and is one of the most beautiful bodies of water I have ever seen. We didn't get to swim in the Kaneret on Taglit, but Dave and I finally made our way back there two days ago and it was like swimming in the most amazing bath water I have ever been in. Unreal. While we were on Taglit we spent our time up north in the Golan heights, a beautiful mountain range that sits on the border between Israel and Syria. This land has been a huge part of the dispute in the possible peace agreement between Israel and Syria. The highlight of being in the Golan heights (while on
Archaeological Dig
This is where I found my Moses pottery! Taglit) was sitting at the top of Mt. Bental which overlooks the entire area and over the border into Syria. Chagai pulled out a huge map and told us the history of the Golan Heights, including the story of the 6 day war. It is an amazing experience to learn such lessons while you are actually sitting in the space it happened.
The next day we headed to Svat, the home of Kabala! Apparently Madonna is buying a house there. We also swung by a little town called Roshpina so Chagai could take us to the best falafal place in Israel (this was not scheduled on the trip, of course). It really was incredible. That evening we headed to Tel Aviv. We spent a few hours on the beautiful beach there before heading out for a free night on the town. Dave and I met up with his cousins for some coffee before meeting up with a new friend Dave had made while standing in line at the falafal place (typical Dave). He was a 26-year-old Israeli guy named Yayir who happened to be one of the most hooked up guys in Tel Aviv. So while the rest of
our group headed to the strip of touristy bars further inland, Dave and I, along with two of my favorite girls on our trip, headed to amazing club right on the water with a bunch of Israelis. This ended up being one of my favorite nights.
The next morning we were introduced to the 8 Israeli soldiers who would be joining us for the next 6 days of our trip. Four boys and four girls all 22 going on 30. They were typical 20-something-year-olds in most ways, but with a certain strength and maturity that only comes with experiencing things that most of us cannot understand. It was through them, through my Israeli peers that I learned some of the biggest lessons of this trip. To clarify, they were not there for our protection (we had two armed guards at all times), they were there to experience Israel right along with us...to learn from us, and for us to learn from them. And that we did. We spent our first day with them in Beit Gubrin were we climbed down into caves to do some archeological digging. I found a piece of pottery dating back to the time of
Moses...or something like that...I don't know...it was old! That evening we headed to Jerusalem where we would spend the next few days, including Shabbat. I fell in love with Jerusalem immediately. It has the energy of a modern city, but holds more history than one could even imagine. Now we are really talking about the time of Moses...and Jesus. From what I heard, they used to grab beers together😊 See, Israel is for everyone!
Our few days in Jerusalem were extremely powerful and moving. They included a trip to the Western Wall (an unspeakably powerful experience for me), shopping for shabbat food at the local shuk (market), and Yad Vashem (the halacaust museum...again, no words). It was in these few days that I truly felt my connection to Israel and it's history.
That night we headed south to Arad where we would spend a VERY short night before my favorite day of the trip. We woke up that morning at 3:30am to hike up to the top of Masada and watch the sun rise over the Dead Sea. This was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. Not to mention the story of Masada is
The Western Wall
Women praying at the Wailing Wall. extremely moving. Look it up😊 After winding down the snake path on the other side of Masada we headed off to hike amongst the natural springs and waterfalls of Nachel David. From there we headed to the Dead Sea where Dave and I (along with our group) covered ourselves in theraputic mud and then headed into the Dead Sea to float. Floating in the dead is a very strange but fantastic experience. It kind of feels like swimming in a sea of natural bath oil (or lubricant). I swear my skin as never been softer.
After washing the salt off of us, we hopped back on the bus and headed south into the desert where we would spend the night at a Bedion (Bed-oo-in) Camp. We had the most incredible meal of stuffed chicken, rice, vegetables, hummus, and laffa bread...all eaten with our hands while sitting on mats. We spent most of the night by a camp fire drinking beers under the stars, before we passed out in the tent that house all 40 of us for the night. By this point we were all pretty well bonded, so it was very fun to all pile in together.
Fallen Cornerstone
This is the cornerstone between the western and southern walls of the temple walls from the time of the second temple. The Hebrew writing inscribed on the stone says that this was the corner of the temple where the shofar was blown to announce the Sabbath and other holidays. It also shows that the same hebrew used today was also used 2000 years ago. Pretty cool. We woke up early the next morning to go on a disappointing camel trek, followed by an absolutely beautiful hike in Ein Avdat that made up for the grumpy camels. That evening we headed back to Tel Aviv for the last two days of our trip.
Those were the basic highlights of Taglit. We did an unbelievable amount in such a short time. I learned so much, met some amazing people, ate like a queen (Israeli food is to DIE for), and saw a beautiful country from top to bottom. There is just no way to do it justice.
After the trip, Dave and I headed up to Jerusalem to spend time with my dear family friend Naomi and Dave's sister, Becky. We spent some more time in the old city where we saw the church of the Holy Seplicre (Jesus' burial sight) and explored the underground caves below the city. We spent two days after that back up in the Golan heights where we went on perhaps the most beautiful hike I have ever done. Now we are with Dave's cousins in G'vet Hayim on their kibbutz. The kibbutz is amazingly beautiful. It's basically a small self-contained
city which includes about 1000 acres of the most beatiful farmland I have ever seen. We spent today (our last day) on the beach with Dave's cousins. The beaches here are amazing...silky sand, clear and VERY warm water. The only drawback is the water is infested with jellyfish...one of which got Dave pretty badly yesterday. I offered to pee on the wound as I heard that's what you are supposed to do. Dave declined. I was okay with that. Dave's family has been amazingly hospitable. There was chocolate on our pillows when we arrived...no joke. The whole family is just fantastic. Especially his cousins who are our age and have shown us a phenomenal time!
We leave in the morning for Greece. I am extremely excited for the next portion of our adventure, but also extremely sad to be leaving this amazing place. I will absolutely be back.
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cassidy
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fabulous. just fabulous
aly...sweet muffin...what an incredible time you are having. i am so happy for you and so wonderfully waiting the next installment of your travels. How incredible for you to take this trip. i miss you terribly. i love you more. i'm in vancouver, where i kinda live now, and i'm a red head. Maybe i'll start a my experiences on smallvile blog! love to you and dave, i can't wait to hear about greece! cunch