Today we went talking through a very cool tunnel. What I remember most about today’s trip, was how meaningful it was to be in the cave with complete silence, listening to the sound of the water.

This photo was taken at a site looking over all of Jerusalem. After being told to put blindfolds on, we were led off the bus and into an unknown location. While our blindfolds were still on, we were given a speech about the importance of the place we were about to lay eyes on.

This tiyul was on Mt. Carmel after we visited Megiddo. We learned that on this mountain, Achav and Elijah the prophet battle. This fight is really the battle between one god and many gods.

Today we went to see caves and a Roman amphitheater that were from the time of the Bar Kochba Rebellion. It was honestly my favorite tiyul so far. Learning about Rabbi Akiva and Bar Kochba was really cool.

This tiyul, I went to Jerusalem, again. On what is arguably the most tourist-ey tiyul yet, I explored the tel Eked, the inside of several museums, and the Jewish quarters of Jerusalem.

Today has been amazing as we visited Bet Guvrin and discussed the Bar Kochba rebellion. The story focuses on Shimon Bar Kozba, the supposed meshiach who takes leadership as king after the second Beit HaMikdash is destroyed in 70 CE on the 9th of Av.

I took this photo at a non-profit called Yad Ezra Veshulamit. They are an organization that packages food for those less fortunate. It was great to be able to do something good and have them project to us the impact it would have.

Last week we went to Yad Vashem to learn about the Holocaust. I had been to Yad Vashem once before when I visited Israel with my eighth grade class but this experience was very different.

Today we visited Akko which is in the Northern tip of Israel. We had the opportunity to have the beginning of our class on the beach. We learned that the Jews were upset with the British because the McDonald white papers were not able to let the Jews come to Palestine.

Challenging, exhausting, rewarding, emotional, crazy, and dirty. Very, very, very dirty. All of these adjectives sum up the jam packed past 4 days that I have had. Yam le yam was definitely something that I’ll forever have on my resume of life.

Today we went to many different locations but the ones that stood out to me most was the prison and seeing the water tunnels by the border of Lebanon. In the prison we got to see where many very important Zionists were locked up during the British rule.

This was one of my favorite tiyulim this whole trip and I had been looking forward to it for a long time. For the first day we visited the house of Ben Gurion which was in Sde Boker. As you can see in my picture, he had fairly nice home with some good reading books.

The picture was from a nature reserve called Ein Avdat. The landscape and mini hike was stunning with the spring running through the rock making a little gorge. This sort of reminded me of Moab, Utah and its canyonesque landscape. I picked this picture because it truly captivates the beauty of the place we hiked. As you can see, the light reflecting off the water and the Sun peeking behind from the rocks above made a beautiful image, a treat to the naked eye.

For our last tiyul (hold on let me go cry for a bit), we went to the Golan Heights. Personally, I think that this was the best tiyul to end on. On this tiyul we learned many stories about Israeli heroism and how Israel prevailed against all odds.

In this picture, I am standing outside a mosque in an Israeli Arab village. I learned a lot on this trip. We met with a lady named Yasmin, who taught us all about the lifestyle of the people in the town.

This was taken on Masada where I learned about how King Herod built a palace on Masada as a hideaway, but it was taken over by Zealots during rebellion under Roman rule. They had a mikveh and storage houses for food. They still had hope!

This is Emily and I wrapping ourselves in an Israeli flag. This photo was taken at the top of Masada. Masada is the location of a harrowing story where the zealots committed mass suicide to avoid being enslaved by Romans. For me this photo represents being able to be freely Jewish in the state of Israel. I don’t need to take drastic measure to preserve my Judaism.

These are my favourite parts of Israel so far. Jerusalem was such an amazing place filled with so much history. It had such an interesting architecture style. Mt Gilboa was also very fun as I got to see so much of Israel while hiking. It was an amazing sight. Meeting all my friends from other programs in Israel was so fun as we got to meet up and talk as I don’t see them very often.

The Gilboa hike was really magical. When we started to walk I found it all right it was quite muddy which is really lovely but my shoes kept getting really heavy so I was finding it a little tough.

This tiyul was beyond amazing. I felt so part of history and learning while I was sitting where this history happened was very eye opening. This time period is early Canaanite period and related to Abram.