Hello everyone!  This past week has been amazing on so many different levels.  I’ve probably had the most spiritual connection with Judaism during Simchat Torah, the final day of Sukkot in Israel.  Simchat Torah is basically a Jewish holiday on the final day of Sukkot where they celebrate the end and start of the Torah.  It usually ends up in big parties and dancing.  We were taken to Jerusalem to celebrate the holiday and the madrichim allowed us to pick our services.  Doni, the teacher of Israeli Studies for the other half of the Semester students, told us that the Yemenite service would be a great option for boys to go.  It is supposed to be a “once in a lifetime experience” of Judaism.  I selected it with a bunch of friends to go to.  Once we got through the forty-five-minute walk to the synagogue, we entered a space filled with dried palm leaves for a ceiling, shaky walls and dozens of orthodox Sephardic Jews.  Looking at my surroundings, I knew this would be an experience worth-while.  The synagogue was like a giant sukkah with a fifteen-foot ceiling and multiple ornaments hanging.  The rabbi did a quick thirty-minute service and introduced us to the other Jews in the synagogue.  Soon after, the plastic chairs were taken away before us and beautiful Torah casings were taken out.  We then danced around them singing and chanting.  After that, the entire time was a rave; a group of the AMHSI boys crowding around each other, jumping, chanting and bumping into each other.  We sang everything from Hava Nagila to Oseh Shalom.  It was spiritually moving and furthered my interest towards Judaism.

We also went to Masada the week before.  I’ve always heard my dad talk about Masada and marvel at its existence.  Now, finally able to experience what he had forty years ago, was amazing as well.  The journey started at four in the morning by the hot Dead Sea.  The Sun hadn’t come out yet and the land was pitch dark.  All we could see was the light coming from the cable car and a silhouette of a mountain.  The hike was supposed to be almost an hour, but we left a little late and I wanted to get to the top faster.  I did with just a little over thirty-five minutes.  At the top, we spent a total of four hours studying the tragedy of Masada.  At the end of our lesson, we were led to a cliff where allegedly many Jews took their own lives to escape the wrath of the Romans.  It was extremely influential when we were told to yell our Hebrew names out to the echoing mountain range.  Hearing our Hebrew names being yelled back at us was symbolic in that there were most likely actual people who took on our names before us that died on Masada, died trying to protect Judaism.  This truly emphasized the importance of my involvement in Judaism and changed my perspective on engaging in more religious activity. 

Thinking of Israel being my classroom, I think it’s amazing how we have tiyuls two times a week learning about Judaism and Israeli studies at historical sites.  Since I’m a history freak, the idea of learning history at the sites that it happened is amazing to think about.  This truly highlights how lucky I am, and other people who were accepted into the Impact Fellowship program, experiencing school in a completely different way than any of my peers may ever will.