On Friday, after waking up and eating breakfast, the first
thing we did was visit Yad Veshem. Yad Veshem is the Holocaust memorial museum,
which many of us had been to before, but this was a new experience. Not only were we with the Israelis (some of whom had never been to the museum), but we
also got a tour of the sites outside of the museum that were built in the
surrounding areas that we had never seen before. Afterward, we went to the Machaneh Yehudah shuk, a traditional Israeli market. It was a strange experience being there on a Friday afternoon right before Shabbat. The market was
extremely crowded, flooded with people speaking different languages and
interesting stalls full of food and other goods. We got to walk around with the
Israelis and see the market and how they navigated through the pool and how
they interacting with the shopkeepers and the people around them. At the end of
our time at the shuk, we all bought souvenirs and pounds of food to be shared.
We also ate lunch at the shuk and were able to enjoy some more Israeli food.
Finally, after our morning, we drove to our partnership
region to spend our Shabbat together on a kibbutz in Shafir. After
resting for a little while, we all put on our fancy clothing and when we were
all dressed in white, some went to the kibbutz synagogue while the rest of us did our own Kabbalat Shabbat service. Those
that stayed enjoyed a group yoga session and meditation. Following
dinner we had a lesson the parasha of the week, led by Liana. We talked about
forgiveness and the reasons that people do or don’t forgive each other. We spent the rest of the night hanging out and having fun.
By Leta Berkowitz
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