This week was not a regular week in any country for Jews as we celebrated eight glowing nights of Chanukah. In Yeshiva we spent Sunday and Monday exploring Israel on our own. We relaxed, went to museums, visited historical sights, and just hung out with friends.
This happy chag had a bittersweet taste as through Sunday we all kept close to the news headlines to watch as negligence caused the worst fire in Israeli history. A teenager who chucked a coal into the forest and didn’t notify anyone about the fire set the Carmel ablaze on Thursday. The disaster claimed forty-two lives, 50,000 dunam of land, and caused 17,000 people to be evacuated from their homes over a three-day period.
Tuesday: At 9:00am we left Jerusalem to explore the north. We stopped on Kibbutz Ginosar for lunch. We then continued our drive to the Hula Valley for a tractor ride through the reserve. We saw thousands of cranes migrating and a bunch of other birds and animals. Davening in such a natural place gave us a sense of Israel that one does not get on a daily basis. After our bird watching we drove to Kiryat Shmona: davened, lit candles, learned a bit, and went out for a fantastic meat dinner in the city. Afterwards we all headed off to sleep, learn, or wander the city a bit.
Wednesday: As always, we woke up early to daven and get ready for our day. We bought our breakfast on the run and continued to our tiyul starting point at nachal ayun. We enjoyed seeing the Israeli-Lebanese border up close on our walk that had beautiful waterfalls and a breath taking landscape. After two hours we headed off to Tel Chai. Tel Chai is the story of Trumpeldor death, which we learnt about with an intensive interactive tour. The tour guide explained to us that Tel Chai is special since it was the first location that Zionistic pioneers fell in battle who where simply trying to settle their own land. Back at Yeshiva we davened with the Kibbutz (always a fun experience), lit candles, had a shir, and then celebrated the last night of Chanukah with the whole Yeshiva together. We danced, ate, and sang into the night with our shiluv, the bogrim, and our rabbeim.
Thursday: Started with davening at 7:00am as we do every day in Yeshiva. The morning was the final piece of our shiur klali frenzy (the whole Yeshiva learns together and one of the Rosh Yeshivot give the morning shir). We had the opportunity each day of chag to hear from a different Rosh Yeshiva. Following lunch and mincha Rav Yehuda gave his Parshat HaShavua shir which was followed with our daily afternoon chevrutot, and a unique shir from Rov Yossi on the possible differences in tradition with general Jewish thought and Italian practices in the thirteen hundreds. After dinner, arvit, and night seder we had our Thursday night special sicha. Rav Bigman elaborated on a sicha we had in the past on Chiluni religious practices.
That was our week, we hope you enjoyed hearing about it. Shavua Tov.
Shabbat Shalom.
-Kyle Blank
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