This time last year, I never thought that I would be exploring the land of Israel during a normal school day. I never thought that I would be traveling to a new city almost every day. A year ago, this was only a dream.

Every tiyul, we get to a spot where we can sit down, and we take notes, often pages of them. We talk about kings, prophets, and the people that once lived there. We take out our maps, circle where we’re sitting, so at the end of the trip we have a running list of everywhere we’ve been on a tiyul. But the notes aren’t where I learn the most on the trip. The times that I learn most on the tiyulim is when I’m looking through ruins, staring at the landscape, and beginning to see the civilizations that crumbled.

Earlier this week we hiked up Masada to see the sunrise, and then spent a few hours exploring the sights. We looked at the old homes and buildings of King Herod and the Jews that lived there after him. While there, we had discussions about the hard decisions that the people there had to deal with, like what to do when the Romans invaded. Since we were there, looking at the history, touching the walls, and staring out at the land below, we were able to come to much different conclusions than we would have if we were in the classroom. We barely took notes that day, but that was the day that I learned the most, and felt connected to the land and the history.

On our first tiyul, we went to Tel Gezer, and explored the ruins there. The coolest thing we saw was a gate that King Solomon had ordered to be built. The fact that one of our ancestors, one of our best kings, had stood where we stood thousands of years earlier, and touched the same gate that he touched, was mind blowing. I had never experienced anything like it. It was a moment I’ll never forget.

Learning out on the field is completely different than learning in a classroom. On the field, you can see the landscape, feel the soil, and understand the history more. In the classroom, sitting at a desk, you end up just jotting information down without really thinking about it. I didn’t begin to think how this history affected me until I went out into the land, and learned by living.