Kayla guiding us at Machon Ayalon
Clean at the beginning of Army Day
Learning how to ambush our enemies
End of Army Day, slightly less clean then when we began
Wednesday morning we visited Machon Ayalon, the underground ammunition factory during the Mandate period. Here Kayla, one of the directors of Keshet took us around and we toured the facility. We got to walk around the actual factory that was used during that time. That afternoon we got a chance to get a taste of what the Israeli army is actually like. At first our commander made us run continuously in short amounts of time to teach us discipline and the value of completing a task as a group. As the night went on we practiced ambushing, learned army formations and how to act as a unit. Later that evening we played capture the flag and thoroughly kicked the butts of the other team from Dor L’Dor. But our night wasn’t over yet, after a half hour of precious sleep we were awoken by sirens and forced to march with sandbag laden stretchers before we were allowed to go back to bed. We were the first group to arrive back and able to go to sleep before everyone else and showed our dominance as a group. In the morning we did the same stretcher march arriving back first again. After we were finished we headed to the beach to swim and then to a very nice hotel for some much earned rest. That evening ed had the chance to hang out with some teenagers from Dor L’Dor, other camps in Massachusetts.
learning to wrap tefillin in Tzfat
Sheva Chaya glass blowing demonstration
Yesterday we drove north to Tzfat, exploring the old city and learning about the spirituality and the mysticism of Judaism. We then had the chance to watch Sheva Chaya, an American Jew who made aliya to Israel in the 90s and works as a painter and glass blower in Tzfat. She spoke with us about her life while doing a glass blowing demonstration for us, which we all enjoyed watching. Then the girls came back to the hotel and we backed Challah for Shabbat dinner while the boys headed to the Mikvah for a new religious experience. We spent Shabbat at services in the square dancing and praying with the Orthodox Jewish community. The kids are had a great time dancing around and taking in the spirituality for the community of Tzfat. We had Shabbat dinner back at the hotel and then free time for the evening.
Today we have had a restful and enjoyable Shabbat. We had services this morning as a Micah community atop the highest point in Tzfat. After lunch each of the counselors offered a different activity such as yoga/meditation and conversational Hebrew for the kids to choose from. After some rest time we are headed to hear David Friedman an American born Jew who immigrated to Israel in 1977 and has lived in Tzfat studying the Torah and Jewish Mysticism. He has developed his own original system of translating kabbalisitic concepts into graphic shapes and colors based primarily on the Book of Creation.
Noah & Amanda
