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Dear NCSY JOLT Israel Parents,
I hope this email finds you well. It finds us exhausted and exhilarated all wrapped up in one. Today was an awesome day and our first FULL day in Israel! We began our day with a later wakeup than usual (everyone was a bit jet lagged) and went straight to Shachris. It was very exciting to add the few additions to our davening that are special for Eretz Yisrael. But the most exciting piece was the fact that we now have Borchat Kohanim (or Kohain in our case) every morning. It's a real Zechut for us to hear it and A Zechut for our resident Kohain!
After davening we we went to breakfast….it was awesome. I was actually really impressed with the assortment of food that they had. We finished eating and went straight to the bus. Our first stop of the day was a place called Kfar Kedem. There, we had the opportunity to ride a donkey, make fresh Pita from scratch and learn about some Mitzvot that are Israel specific. Of course we ate a delicious lunch of Kabobs, rice, Chumus and Pita. From there we went straight to Tzipori, the ancient city inhabited by Torah scholars such as Rebbe Yehuda HaNasi, the author of the Mishna. It was very cool. After Tzippori we drove to Har Meron where we did a walk called Shvil HaPisga. This trail was relatively easy and was really just a nice walk, around the top of the mountain. We stopped early in the walk and released a live pigeon that we brought with us. It was actually really interesting the way we spoke about ancient forms of communication. And how pigeons were used to bring messages to people in distant places. At one point, there was an area which had a beautiful view of the landscape below. It was there that we davened Mincha together as a group and really took advantage of the landscape.
We loaded the buses and started our trip back to Ohalo and made it back just in time for dinner. We ate like kings and queens and then regrouped in the shul. We davened Maariv and then I reviewed some important protocol with the kids. Following that we broke up into learning groups and had some powerful sessions.
Tomorrow we have an awesome day where we are going to learn leadership skills experientially. Can't wait to tell you all about it. ;-)
If you have any questions or comments about anything please do not hesitate to reach out at any time.
Have a great night.
-Rabbi Weinberg
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