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May 20
2010
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Waking up really early was the only “bad” part of the day. First thing at 6 a.m., we got on the bus on a drive to Latrun; an Israeli army museum. At the museum, we climbed on tanks, met two Israeli soldiers who talked to us about what it takes to be in the Israeli Defense Force, and learned about the evolution of tanks through the years. After the stop at the museum, we were back on the bus on the way to a Moshav. A Moshav is similar to a farm. At the Moshav, we went on a tractor ride to the fields where we learned about how cabbages are grown and where Etrogs are grown. We also made pita bread and picked eggs from the hencoop. After our trip to the Moshav, we were yet again back on the bus on our way to the Kibbutz. Once we arrived at Shaar Hagolan, we were given our rooms and time to rest. After our rest we went to the Shavuot festival at the kibbutz where we ate snacks and watched different performances from the children and women of the Kibbutz. After our Shavuot festival, we had dinner at the dining hall and sang songs, prayed, and danced in honor of the holiday. Following our fun dinner experience, we had the Meyer 8th Grade Tikun. We all sat in a circle and had a chance to say Thank Yous and Apologies to friends and classmates whom we never had a chance to address. After our group Tikun (which means fix in Hebrew) some children went to bed while the rest of the children stayed to study the book of Ruth with Yaron until 2 a.m. We explored so many ideas and shared many opinions about so many things. It was a great holiday!
On Wednesday, we woke up late because we didn’t have a wake up call. Yaron wanted us to recharge and to revive ourselves. Most of us woke up at around 10:00 am. We all met at our meeting spot and prayed and studied a text about the ten actions the Talmud deems as most important. We had an intense conversation about how to describe Judaism based on the Shema prayer. We ended up with the words: Creation, Revelation, and Redemption. After studying, we ate lunch around 1:00 pm. After lunch, most of us stopped by the pool for a few hours. Some of us slept in our rooms or relaxed at the tower. At 6:00 pm, we walked around the Kibbutz and saw the cows and the Date trees. We all love the smell of the place. Not. At 7:30 pm, we ate dinner, and everyone got some of the new beverages from the new coffee machine. After dinner, we met at our meeting place and talked together and shared our feelings and experiences over the holiday. We finally went to sleep at around 10:00 pm.
