The past week by far has been our busiest city so far! We started this amazing week at the tunnels from the Bar Kochba Revolt. Yossi led us as we made our way through the crawlspace. We crawled into the main cave where we could see ash from Roman oil lamps. Yossi instructed us to turn off our flashlights. As we turned them off, we began to sing Henei Ma Tov and it felt absolutely amazing. As we sang I could feel the “Kehilla Kedosha” – holy community – that has formed between us. After finally making our way out of the tunnel, we hopped onto the bus and drove about ten minutes away to a mini-Colosseum style Roman arena. We later found out that this was where Rabbi Akiba and the other 9 main Rabbi’s were executed by the Romans after the Bar Kochba revolts. This made me upset because it shows how anti-semitism has been a common theme in history for thousands of years. Yossi told us some very powerful stories as we sat in silence. Afterwards we went to lunch and then made our way back to campus.

Next, on Tuesday, we got up nice and early in the morning and made our way to Belvoir, a fortress from the crusades. Here, we walked around the path up to a water cistern. In here, we sat down and discussed our commitment to Israel. Yossi asked us if we would drop everything to go and help Israel in a time of war. As many others did, I answered 100% yes! After learning about all of the times that the Jews have faced anti-semitism and hate, the least I could do is to come to Israel in support of this amazing country and the Jewish people. After going to this fortrise, we made our way to the hot springs at the Hamat Gader resort. At the resort we swam for 20 minutes and ate lunch. We also visited the zoo connected to the resort.

The 29 of us all got onto the bus and began our journey to our next stop, Tzvat, the city of Kabbalah or Jewish mysticism. After drifting of to sleep on the bus, I was awoken by Yossi’s voice on the loud speaker saying, “Boker Tov! Time to get up!” We all got off of the bus and walked down the street in the old city of Tzvat. Yossi led us down the street to the Ashkenazi HaAri Synagogue. This synagogue is from the 1500s and was beautifully pained and had an amazing aron hakodesh. After our visit here, we had a few moments to walk around in a few stores including the tsfat candle factory. I bought a few gifts from the stores and then we made our way to the next destination. We walked down further through the streets of tzfat. We made our way to the Kabbalah art gallery. We were greeted by Avraham the artist who created all of the works of art. He opened me up to a whole new part of Judaisim that I have never known about. The concepts of Kaballah were beautiful and he was very inspiring. After our brief lesson about kaballah, I felt very educated and inspired to learn more about my Jewish roots and research my Hebrew name.

When we left this location, we went to the Safed cemetery down the street. At the cemetery we separated in our like guys in the back and girls in the front because of the mostly orthodox presence in this area. When we got to the inside of the cemetery, we saw the graves of the leaders of Kaballah from the 1500s. Later Yossi sat us down by a few graves of teens who were tragically killed by terrorism on a high school trip. Most of us were very upset and started to cry. I don’t cry a lot, but when I hear about anti-semitism, I get very emotional because I have been free my whole life to pray and practice my religion without being scared to be attacked for it but here we stood at the final resting place of 17 Jewish teens who were killed because of who they were.

We left the cemetery and headed to Afula where I had the best falafel so far! We came back to campus and spent the night here but then got up in the morning and headed toward Jerusalem. In Jerusalem we started at Yad Lakashish, Lifeline for the Aged, a place where elderly people in Jerusalem can create Judaica all day in return for a hot meal and money every month. We had a tour of the workshops and made our way to the gift-shop where I purchased a Kippah. Buying Judaica from this non-profit organization made me feel very good because I was supporting an amazing cause. According to Maimonides’ eight levels of tzedakeh, this is the most important type of tzedakah because it is providing a job for someone and helping them live their life. After this, we went to Pantry Packers where we filled bags with beans and other foods to be delivered to needy families. We then spent the rest of the day at the Israel museum where we leared about Jewish History.

Finally, on Friday, we had our unit test in the morning which I earned a 98 on! After taking the test, we hopped on a bus for Jerusalem. When we got to Jerusalem, we were let off at the Shuk. At the Shuk, we were given about an hour to roam around to the different vendors and shops to make purchases. Becasue it was Friday afternoon, there were swarms of people everywhere walking in every direction. I ended up purchasing starfruit, fresh orange juice and zatar which I have fallen in love with during my time here. When we left the Shuk, the bus took us to the hostel. We went to our rooms and rested and got changed before going to the Kotel for kabbalat Shabbat. This shabbat was going to be a lot different that the others because I decided to try being Shomer Shabbat. When we went to the wall, we were able to see various groups of Orthodox Jews dancing and singing. This was a beautiful experience which opened my eyes to the other sects of Judaism. At the end of our time at the Kotel, the February HSI students made a circle where be sang some songs. The rest of our time in Jerusalem consisted of Benjy giving us a tour of the city, Shabbat relaxation in the park, and DOTS at Ben Yehuda street.

This was one of our craziest weeks so far. Its hard to believe I have already been here for a month! I can’t wait to see what the next month has in store for us as we go to Poland and Explore modern Israel.