Mom and Nanny Arrive in Israel!

About a month ago, on March 7th, my mom and grandma arrived at Kibbutz Tzuba to visit me! I had class when they arrived, but I said hello very quickly. I ate lunch with my mom, then finished my day of classes. We had dinner in chadar ochel, then talked for a while in the Belmont to catch up on the past two months. We then went to bed to get ready for the tnext day!

March 8th: This morning my mom and Nanny came to my Hebrew class. They met my teacher Rivka, and all the other students. Rivka taught us songs that day and had us "interview" our relatives and tell a short story about them to the class in Hebrew. We ended with songs. Then we had Jewish History, which my mom and Nanny also came to. In BG's class we learned about different societies of a Jewish Community to prepare for our tiyul the next day. 

March 9th: Today we left very early in the morning for Belvoir. It was pouring rain! We walked around ruins and learned all about crusades. It was extremely wet and cold, but we weren't there for too long. We soon left for Tzfat, where we learned about Jewish Mystecisim and Kabballah. We went to two different synagogues there. We also went to their amazing candle factory and saw Noah's Ark and the Beit Hamikdash made out of wax. For lunch and dinner, we ate at two different kibbutzim along the way. We returned to Tzbua very late and I went to bed because I had school the next day. 

March 10th: Today parents were invited to our General Studies classes! My mom didn't come however, except to my world history class. Then, when I was done with classes, we headed off to our weekend in Tel Aviv!

End of the Week

Well, I have finally caught up on all my posting! I'm sure I left things out so I will probably be editing these last few posts as the weekend progresses. I'll just sum up the past week. It has been going very well. When we returned from Masada we switched roommates. My roommates are great, Shayna, Olivia and Melissa. Last week Shayna and I went to play some basketball on the court for a little. It was nice to get out of the room for some time. Our room is always super clean which is a nice change from last time. It has been busy but I'm still enjoying myself! A few days ago I had a Drs appointment in Jerusalem so on the way back Adi (my madricha) let us stop for falafel which was a nice surprise. Looking ahead...my mom and Nanny will be arriving next week! Well, less than a week away actually. Then in about 2 weeks we leave for Poland which I am really looking forward to. School is going well here. The days are long, but it is worth it and I'm learning so much. On a regular day I'm in class from 8:30am until 7pm then possibly SAT prep after that. Today is an extreme exception, where we had a tiyul in the morning, and I only have 2 classes which is nice. 
Just wanted to give a quick update as to what was happening! Check back for pictures!

Islam Tiyul

Finally all caught up to today! Today we woke up at 6:30 to have Thursday morning services. Yair led the service. At the beginning he taught us all about wrapping Tefilin. We learned exactly what it is, why men do it, and many traditions behind this act. After services we rushed to breakfast so we could get back to the rooms and head off to class/tiyul. During breakfast Sandra called me so we talked for a little while. I then went to class where 

Yael was my substitute teacher. Today we visited a Mosque so Yael taught us the background of the religion, Islam, for about an hour. She basically covered how Islam is similar to Christianity and Judaism, how it spread, and its basic beliefs. We then headed to the Mosque. At the Mosque the girls were given head covers to wear and we took off our shoes. We then went upstairs and listened the head of prayer speak to us about Islam and Muslim culture. 

It was a very interesting morning and I learned quite a lot. We then went to lunch in that neighborhood. It was a great lunch! We had pita, falafel, French fries and a variety of salads and some very good lemonade. It was best lunch we have had. “I had twenty pitas!” my roommate Shayna says J That pretty much describes how good it was. We then came back to Tzuba for classes, which I only have two of today J

Full Day Tiyul of the Week

Today we traveled about two and a half hours up north to Beit Shearim. We sat outside and learned about the development of Oral Law in the Jewish Tradition. 

We discussed Hillel versus Shemai and whose ideas we follow today. We mainly follow Hillel because it is his grandson who codifies the Amidah, consolidates Judaism, and establishes many other traditions to make the Jewish religion a unified one. We learned about Yehuda and his accomplishments and contributions. 

Yehuda is the man who codifies the Mishna, or decides what is Mishna and what is not. We went into some burial caves that had both Jewish and Hellenistic Art. We could tell the difference between the Jewish and Hellenistic because Jews are not permitted to have art such as animals on their stones, where as the Greeks and Romans were. 

We also saw many other ancient sculptures, such as one of a Menorah from Beit Hamikdash. These burial caves were a very desirable place to be buried, because the location was where the Sanhedrim sat, and everyone wanted to be buried by Sanhedrim. After this part of the Tiyul, we headed to a nice spring. Supposedly the water was about 80 degrees, but it was definitely colder than that. 

We got changed, had pizza and vegetables for lunch, and then went swimming. There was also a waterfall on the other side that we could play in. Swimming was fun and refreshing. We then got back on the bus and headed to a small museum that contained a mosaic. The mosaic had been very well preserved. 

We discussed what each item on the Mosaic symbolized then we went outside and split into our classes. In our classes we discussed our Jewish values. We played a game having to do with what we believe and what we would choose to do in certain situations having to with Israel or Judaism. We then went back to Tzuba to sleep after a long day!

The Weekend

Thursday night was a fun night. We went to the Mamilla Mall in the evening. It was an outdoor shopping center. It was fun to go to a new mall. It was a cool shopping center and I got some free pizza there. I didn’t really buy anything else but it was fun! Friday morning we headed back to Ein Kerem for our Tzedakah project. 

We went to some sort of ecological site and we helped them move stones. All 80 of us made a chain line and passed stones down to the end. I was pretty tired by the end, even though we only stayed until about 12pm. Then we went to the shuk! Because it was Friday, it was extremely crowded because everyone was there in preparation for Shabbat. It was overwhelming but they had really good food. I got some incredible strawberries. For lunch I had falafel. 

I didn’t buy that much at the shuk, just some strawberries and oranges, and a really good piece of pita that had zatar and some other spices on it. The food was good, but honestly I wasn’t too sad when we had to leave. We then returned to Tzuba to clean our rooms and get ready for Shabbat. After the service we had the option to go eat dinner, change, then watch a movie or go to the bomb shelter party. I chose to watch the movie. It was an Israeli movie in Hebrew with English subtitles called “Somebody to Run With” in English. After that, I was exhausted so I went to sleep. 

Christianity Tiyul

Today we headed off to a small neighborhood outside Jerusalem called Ein Kerem. It was pretty close to the Kibbutz. When we got there, we sat outside and BG taught us about the basic Christian beliefs and the similarities and differences to Judaism. 

We talked about parallels from the Christian Bible to the Torah. We also learned about Paul’s message and the split of Christianity from Judaism. We weren’t really learning about Christianity, but we were studying the evolution of the religion and how it became a separate belief from Judaism. We then got to see two churches. Both were Catholic but very different. The first was much smaller and the depictions on the walls were much more noticeable. We were told that by looking around the church one could easily pick up on the values expressed by Christians. 

At this church we started to talk about the story of Mary’s sister Elizabeth and her son, John the Baptist. Before heading off to the second church, we stopped for some very good ice cream. At the second church, we walked in while Mass was taking place. As we walked in, we saw the Eucharist, the holy water, and other holy items. We went outside, discussed what we saw, and then headed back to Tzuba to continue with General Studies for the rest of the day. 

Bar Kochba Caves

I know it has been awhile since I have last posted, but it has been so busy here! We have had quite a few Tiyulim and busy weeks. 

I will start with on February 22 we had a Tiyul to learn about the Bar Kochba Revolt. This revolt took place after a series of many other revolts after the destruction of the temple. In 135 BCE Bar Kochba (known as “son of stars”) was thought to be the Messiah. This took place because Jews were not happy under the rule of Hadrian who was turning Jerusalem into a Roman city called Aleia Capitolina. At first the revolt goes well for the Jews, as the Romans are taken by surprise. 

A sign to us that this revolt was going well is that Bar Kochba mints his own money, which is a sign of sovereignty. It took the Romans three and a half years to put this revolt down, but when they did, it was not pretty for the Jews. The revolt is described as a huge tragedy according to Jewish sources. 

So what were we doing on this Tiyul? We were crawling through caves! During this revolt the Jews and Romans used caves as part of their warfare. The Jews would run through these tiny caves with Romans chasing after them. These caves were extremely small. I mean extremely extremely small. They were also very dark that even with a flashlight it was difficult. I personally didn’t really enjoy these caves. But it was cool to go through them and get a hands-on idea of what the revolt would have been like. After the caves we talked about the wild asparagus that grew where we were and we even got to eat some. 

Then we walked up to a “pyramid” on the site. Apparently it is the only thing of its kind to be found in Israel. I wouldn’t quite say it was a pyramid, but more like a lot of stones on top of each other. Then it was lunchtime! We had a great lunch consisting of pita, schnitzel, and various vegetables. It was very enjoyable. 

We then got on our buses and headed to the Beit Guvrim Amphitheatre. This was in one of the major Roman cities in Israel and it was used for Roman activities such as fights, theatre, and basically just entertainment. We learned about Roman leaders and great Jewish leaders of the time period. At the end we played a little game in the amphitheater, then we headed off to our next destination. 

We had a hike up to a nice spot with a great view. I’m not exactly sure where we were, but there were lots of beautiful flowers native to Israel. When we were done there, we headed back the Kibbutz.