We started this week of with a Tiyul to the caves where Jews lived during the rule of Bar Kochba. We got to crawl through two tunnels. These tunnels were was for Jews to survive more easily since the romans couldn’t locate the tunnels and caves.The first place we went to was beautiful. The fields before the cave were covered with red flowers and many other wildflowers. The flowers were absolutely gorgeous something so bright and happy soaking up the sun. We  had a lesson in one of the fields filled with flowers. Now we get to go into the first cave. The cave was extremely dusty and very small. We also managed to lose half of our group inside the cave, due to the fact they took a wrong turn, but we managed to find them. After crawling through this cave we proceed to another cave that was much larger. For this cave we had to wait in line for our turn.

Our adventures were done for the day, so we came back to campus and got to have a relaxing evening. The next couple of days were average class days,but on Thursday we all loaded our things onto the bus and took a very long drive to a crusader’s castle. We proceeded to take over the castle. We faced many obstacles, such as the inner and outer walls, the dry moat, the archers loop, and the inner wall, and the 180 degree turn. We then had class in our newly conquered castle. After this we went to celebrate at the hot sulfur springs. The springs were filled with lots of people old and young. The smell was also something else. I thought I was prepared for the smell, but I wasn’t the smell of eggs was completely overwhelming. I also broke my really expensive swimsuit, which put me in a bad mood, but it was fixed by the extremely warm water in the hottest spring. We all dried off and went to speak with one of Aubrey’s past students, who is now a kabbalistic artist. He was really fascinating to listen to, he told us his story of how he was brought up american and never felt very spiritual, but he began to study kabbalah and felt truly connected to Judaism. He also said his life changed when he read the book called Jewish Meditation. I now want to read this book. He also told us we could email him and he would recommend us books and explain our Hebrew names to us. I am for sure definitely planning to email him at some point in the near future.

We then went onto have dinner on the streets which was nice. I ate some really good Italian food and had great company. After this we all walked to the hotel and put our things down then we had a fun activity to celebrate Julia’s 16th birthday and had a little party. After the very long and exhausting day we all headed to bed. My roommates and I had an hour long conversation about names and what they mean to us, it was a great evening filled with laughter. My roommates also agreed that Frankie would be a fitting name for me to go by in college. The next day we headed into the old city to have a brief class. We got to go to the candle factory and shop in the artists market. There were many phenomenal pieces of art that I would have loved to buy but I didn’t want to have to figure out a way to take it home. After this we head to lunch, but on the way we made a quick stop to a cemetery and it was pretty creepy. I also felt like we were intruding upon the people there who were there praying. We had an amazing lunch in the park there were avocados, bagels, cream cheese, yogurt, bananas, and many other delicious foods. Meditation time! As great as it seemed it was hard for me to connect to this form of meditation, because it felt very limiting. It was nice to have a  moment to sit in the sun and appreciate everything though. After this we all went back to the hotel for free time and all the girls began to get ready for shabbat, which is always an amazing experience that brings us all closer. We all headed to synagogue it was a very uplifting experience. It was also very different than i’m used to since men and women were separated by a curtain, but we all sang and danced all the way through services. We were very welcomed and the woman who spoke thanking us for coming was amazing, she danced and sang with the entire soul she really made the experience uplifting the evening was filled with smiles.  After services we all had shabbat dinner together the challah was really yummy and so was dessert. The boys then went to the mikvah and the girls had an event all night.  I would explain in more detail of our activity but it’s top secret. It was very fun Lee took a lot of time planning a truly great bonding activity for us all. We all went to bed pretty late but it was nice because we got to sleep in until 11:30.

The next afternoon we all sat on a porch and read part of the story of purim.  After this activity we were all split into groups of three. In our our groups we explored around the city of Tzfat taking in the scenery and architecture. Sonya and I also went to a park and we got to be young and play on a teeter totter. It was a really nice to get to have time on our own to explore. We all headed as a group to my favorite part of the tiyul and probably the entire time we have been here in Israel so far. We went into a cave, but this time the cave was different. It was pitch black and as we walked deeper into the cave you could hear the melody of music floating through the air.  There was a beautiful harmony of many voices joined together in one entity. We then finally entered the cave pitch black at first, but there was a large group of boys standing in a circle singing their arms were all wrapped around one another. The boys from our group  joined them and the girls made a separate circle. Everyone’s voices were rising together as one. The acoustics were amazing. The cave is a place where clearly people come to chill with friends and hang. There walls were covered in graffiti and there were broken bottles along of the floor. The dingy grunge atmosphere though didn’t stop the beauty of the moment. At the end the girls finally got to join  the circle with boys and we all sang songs together, it was truly moving. We all sang and danced together as one unit. After we left the cave, sadly we headed back to the hotel. I could have stayed in the cave hours on end sitting and reflecting. This experience  really allowed me to see a deeper aspect of myself. Something was in the air, the spiritual connection I felt was earth shattering. We had time to pack up and chill then it was dinner and our drive home back to the Hod. The trip was truly amazing Tzfat has been my favorite place we have visited so far.