From South to North, Shavuot

On Sunday we began our journey to the opposite end of the country: the Golan Heights. Along the way we stopped at the site of the Valley of Tears, where very few Israeli tanks battled outnumbered for 3 days against Syria during the Yom Kippur war. We discussed the battle and later stopped to see a movie in which participants were interviewed. we also stopped at a scenic overlook of the mountains to discuss the story of Eli Cohen, and Israeli spy who gathered information for years in Syria that proved crucial to Israel's success in the Yom Kippur war and ultimately to its survival as a country.The story of the Syrian defeat was crazy, and it was interesting to learn about something more modern and relevant in Israel's history. The North is my favorite part of Israel; it's lush, green, and mountainous. Despite its beauty, however, the countryside is still punctuated with barbed wire fences and signs warning of remaining land mines from Syria. To me, these symbols serve as reminders that Israel's existence is indeed precarious. Additionally, we were in what is called the "finger of Israel," or its Northernmost part-Lebanon and Syria are literally a mountain away. Again, crazy.

We had an afternoon of fun as we kayaked and rafted down the Jordan river, which is surprisingly not that wide across. At night we stayed at the Ginossar Hotel again and enjoyed their famously delicious dinner. The next morning we zip-lined or rappelled down a mountain, which was cool, and had a picnic lunch at a park. Amazingly, it rained! At the park we had a serious discussion about whether or not Israel should give the Golan Heights back to Syria. Afterwards, we boarded the bus for a long ride home and DOTS.

Tuesday we woke up late and cleaned up a little; we had been on the move like crazy for the past few weeks. In the afternoon we headed to Jerusalem for Shavuot. We checked into our hotel and then had free time on Mahane Yehuda, a street with a famous shuk, or market. My friend Jess and I decided to forgo shopping and instead purchased fruit, nuts, parmesan cheese, and olives from the fresh outdoor food stalls and have a picnic; it was a gorgeous, breezy day- a nice break from the heat of the rest of the country.

At night we walked to services at a Karlebach shul for Shavuot. The singing was beautiful and I really enjoyed the service. Afterwards we went back to the hotel for a little to rest, because it's a custom to stay up all night learning on Shavuot and I fully planned on doing so. I succeeded in attending 2 sessions and staying awake for one and a half (I tried for three, but one was too full), walking around Jerusalem in the middle of the night with my friends and hundreds of other Jews, and pulling an all-nighter. I know my mom is probably freaking out as she reads this but it was really, really cool to be able to do this while feeling safe and like it was the norm. We met up with the rest of the group at the hotel at 4 a.m. to walk to the Kotel; it is also customary to go there on the Shalosh Regalim, which consist of Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot, so we went. It was insanely crowded, so I said the Amidah and then left- the sleeplessness and pushiness of hundreds of women were not a good combination. We returned to the hotel to sleep, and in the afternoon we went to a park to eat, rest, and hang out.

Thursday and Friday were pretty uneventful (for me at least) because I had to take the AP Spanish and English Literature exams. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing, but I started speaking Hebrew into the recorder during the oral part of the Spanish examination.

Thursday night, however, I was able to go to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art (which I have been wanting to do since spring break) with two of my friends. It was a great museum, and I know it sounds silly but I was so proud of it- even though I think of Israel as being so small and such a new country, the museum housed works of big names like Monet, Renoir, Picasso, Klimt, and Matisse. Anyway, I was impressed. I went to 4 exhibits: Tamar Getter, Robert Baser, Edgar Degas, and Melanie Daniel. The explanations for Getter's work were all in Hebrew, so while I didn't learn that much about her pieces I enjoyed them for their aesthetic value. The Robert Baser exhibit was really cool, firstly because it was huge and showcased a wide variety of styles and mediums and secondly because his pieces represented different times in Israel's history- reading the titles and dates helped me put each piece (many were about the Lebanon and Gaza wars, and one that gave me chills, called "Unknown Soldier," consisted of polyester tubes painted and sculpted to look like organs with a circular mirror on top where the head should have been) in context. On a different note, the Degas exhibit consisted of his entire collection of bronze sculpture that mostly represented French ballerinas during the 1880's. On an obvious level it was interesting to see a representation of movement cast in bronze. My favorite thing I learned though was that instead of glorifying the womanly figure, Degas chose to show the suffering and humanness of what was a lower class profession; over half the sculptures portrayed women bathing, pulling on stockings, or rubbing their backs. Melanie Daniel won a prize for new Israeli painters, and I really liked her paintings because they were different than what I had been told while visiting the galleries was traditional "Israeli" art. She's from Canada, so she painted scenes of snow and forests in cool colors, very different than the art (which was lighter and often inspired by the Bible or the Israeli desert) I saw in Tel Aviv. There was also a really cool installation by an artist named Tzuri Guetta, which is hard to describe but I would suggest looking up- it blew my mind. With that, I am done ranting. I really got a lot out of it though, and I'm glad I got to go before leaving.

So back to Friday...after the exam we had free time and just hung out. Shabbat services and dinner were nice but a little sad as they signalled the coming of our group's last weekend in Israel together. We stayed up late, talking, playing Bananagrams, and packing. It's scary to see our rooms start to empty; I can see some parts of the floor for the first time in weeks.

Now it's Saturday, and services today were as special as those in Tzfat. We actually had to break to eat lunch because we were running overtime and the cafeteria workers needed to get home. People read Torah and Haftorah, gave a Dvar Torah, and a speech. It was an involved, participatory Shabbat, and I started tearing up during the Torah service. I know I can go to Shul at home, but I'll miss the feeling of oneness I have when I look up at the podium and see that those men and women are just 18 year old kids, kids my age- my friends. It never fails to impress and amaze me. Our circle of singing Adon Olam was even louder and more spirited this time around, but as powerfully beautiful as the sound was it also saddened me- it was another one of those "lasts."

After services I finished packing, and then we had a final bus meeting in which we said one challenge from the trip and what we had gained. Mine are sort of long and well-suited for a final blog post, so I'll save it for then. But yeah. Second to last night? Time has flown. On the plus side, I am typing in the present- I'm caught up! To give you an outline of what's left, we have Havdallah tonight, a day in Jerusalem tomorrow, banquet, and then...JDS leaves. I'll try and post before Weber does too. Shabbat Shalom, Shavua Tov.