This opportunity so far has been an absolutely incredible way to experience Israel. The program is designed so we get to travel to the places we are learning about and really get to see them with our own eyes. Muss is giving me the opportunity to truly experience Israel in a different lense. I am living here, I am not a tourist. The places we go we are not just visiting, but rather sitting down and taking notes. I find this one of the most cherishable things about this experience.

Here’s an example of how Israel is my classroom… at Gilboa, we climbed all the way down the mountain, just as Shaul did with his army to face the philistines. Shaul heard that the Philistines were trying to capture the Jezreel valley, which if it happened they could divide the territory in two. So, he brought his army and raced to mount Gilboa, and then climbed down to meet the Philistines. That is what we did on the Tiyul!!! Being able to experience something like this firsthand is truly a special thing. On our Gilboa “hike” (it truly was much more than a hike), we stopped and took notes about 3 times. Each session was about 20 minutes, but it was really amazing to learn the story as I was experiencing it.

Another example of how Israel is truly my outdoor classroom, allowing me to relive history, is when we were taking notes about the destruction of the second Beit Hamikdash, sitting on the stairs to the entrance of the temple. The Holda stairs as they were called is where millions of people flowed into the Beit Hamikdash to pray, and I was sitting there imagining the scene before my eyes. The fact that I could go there and experience that is something that I did not even know was possible. Before the program I simply thought that the tiyulim were kind of pointless, but I realize now how much they mean and how awesome they are. Something else that really resonated with me on this Tiyul was when we were sitting on Herodian Road, overlooking the Western wall. My teacher pointed out writing on one of the stones high up, which must have been written after the destruction of the temple, because the ground level would have been higher. What was written was something along the lines of, “Your Hearts will rejoice”, meaning that you will return to Zion. Just as the Jews did after the Babylonian Exile hundreds of years earlier, we will return to Jerusalem, the heart of our religion. Right now in this very moment, we are fulfilling that prophecy. Now that’s crazy. Something like that I would not be able to see in a picture of the wall, it’s not even something that normally gets taught. But, since I was there and seeing it with my own eyes I got to have that awesome realization.

Finally, another example is when we went to Masada. Masada was the mountain where the Zealots, one of the 4 sects of Judaism at the time of the 2nd Beit Hamikdash, fled to. In the end, facing death by the Romans, they took their own lives, dying as free Jews, dying avoiding slavery and rape and whatever the Romans may have brought onto them. I cannot conjure up the words to describe the feeling I had hearing the outcome of the story of the Zealots. But I can say one thing- learning it on Masada, overlooking the remains of the Roman encampment which surrounded the mountain, was a truly incredible experience. We could have been studying the story of Masada in a classroom, possibly watching as our teacher pointed out where the Roman army camps would have been, or where Herod built his marvelous palace for himself when he built the fortress. But…. instead, we were living it out, truly following in the Zealots footsteps and exploring every crevice of the fortress. Even the climb to the top felt special, as I knew that at some point the Zealots made the same climb I was making. Overall, experiences like Masada is what this program is truly about, and I love the combination of adventure and note taking that we do on every tiyulim.

My experience has been nothing shy of amazing so far and I cannot wait to continue my learning!