Worth the Wait

Arms linked together, our hands squeezing each other’s as tight as we could, and tears welled up in our eyes as we stared at the Kotel for the first time in person since our arrival in Israel two weeks ago. My friend, who I had only known for two memorable weeks had mentioned to me before the security to enter to Kotel, that this was her fist time to the incredible place that our faith centers around. After she made that statement I didn’t let go of her hand, I knew how special this moment was. Reminiscing on my first experience at the Kotel just 7 months earlier with my best friends at my sides and remembering the feelings that rushed through my body. The fear of it not living up to expectations, the excitement to finally be at the most important place in Judaism, the love for Judaism and Israel, everything one could feel I had felt. I began feeling it all over again and became overwhelmed with emotion.

    Tears welled up in my eyes as I looked around at my mispecha, family, standing around me about to go have our first experience as TRY ’17 at the Kotel. We slowly began walking towards the wall, and my excitement grew. We finally reached the wall and I patiently waited for a spot to open up on the wall. The first space open I eagerly motioned to my first timer friend to go have her first moments at the wall. By the time a space opened up for me, tears were streaming down
my face. Then for the second time in my life, I was touching the pinnacle of my faith and my closest connection to G-d. I push both hands upon the wall and rest my forehead to the wall and I can feel the indents, the cold stone, and the spirit of Judaism rushing through me. My mind, body, and soul felt connected and at peace with everything. I prayed, I thanked, I thought. Being at the Kotel is an indescribable experience. My main thought after stepping away from the wall was that my beliefs, faith, time commitment to Judaism, were all incredibly validated.
As we all began leaving our respective sections of the wall and returning to plaza we gathered in a circle and discussed our experiences. Similar and contrasting experiences were shared but all were incredibly meaningful. Betsalel, our Israel Core Course teacher, reminded us of the family we are creating here, the importance of our unity as a group and the power we have together as TRY ‘17

Welcome to Israel, heres the desert.

No service. Two words most teenagers dread to hear. Those two words were told to me and the 43 other TRY chanicim (students) before we embarked on our first tiyul, trip, to the Negev Desert in southern Israel.  We had no idea what to expect of this trip, but many of us were excited to escape the seemingly artic conditions of Jerusalem. All we were told was that we would be riding camels and sleeping in mud huts. Typical school field trip stuff, right? We hopped on the bus with mutual anticipation and excitement for our upcoming adventures. After arriving at our first education stop for the day, an overlook of Be’er Sheva, a city marking the northern border of the Negev, we began to make Israel our classroom. We learned about how our ancestors utilized the land of Israel, in their time Canaan, to their every need. After this unexpected stop, we began heading even further south to a place called Be’erotayim, a desert city near the border of Egypt and our home for the night.

At Be’erotayim we were greeted with a line of camels and our two desert guides. Introductions and rules were given and before I knew it I was on a camels back gallivanting along through the land of my ancestors. After a lengthy camel ride, we got to our home away from home for the night. It looked exactly as you would expect a desert experience destination place to look like. Middle Eastern inspired print hammocks and tapestries were hung all around for relaxing and visual enjoyment.  Hunger quickly caught up to us and we headed to the central room for dinner. Low tables with huge silver plates covering them, surrounded by sitting pillows was the scene that greeted us as we entered the room. After quickly settling in at our tables, bowls and plates of Middle Eastern food was brought out to us and laid on the large silver plate. Hummus, oversized and homemade pitas, some type of delicious meat, Israeli salad and more were served in excecess to us. We schmoozed, and rejoiced in our days experiences over the delicious meal and ate till we were stuffed to the brim. We were given some freetime to relax and enjoy our surroundings while the sun set on the rocky desert horizon. A campfire was madesurrounded by more sitting pillows for us to relax and enjoy near. Tea and coffee were prepared for us, the sweet tea was in high demand by everyone present at the fire.

After relaxing with our friends, we all gathered as a kehila (community) around the campfire for some bonding and singing. Our madrich (staff), Milk, tore out his ukulele and began strumming well recognizable songs for us all to sing along to. Song such as Lean on Me, Wake Me Up, Riptide, and more were brought to life by TRY ’17 and the other Ramah staff joining us. We paused for a moment during some of the songs and were told to look up. It was a sight unlike any other. The entire milky way, and many constillations were displayed for us in a way one could only dream of. The sight was breathtaking and magical. The silence of the desert enveloped us as we looked at a sight that was much bigger than us, but a sight we could only find in the desert. After letting the moment sink in, we sang some more and began to slowly head off to bed.

In the morning we were greated with another incredible breakfast, and more tea. We daavened Scha’arit, the morning service, around the campfire and quickly headed out for another day of camel riding and learning. Roughly 20 minutes into our journey we stopped in a fairly flat and not so rocky area. All of us gathered in a big circle and were given a short spheal by our Israel Core Course teacher, Betsalel. He spoke about how our ancestors connected to G-d and the manner in which they prayed. He taught us that in the biblical times of Abraham, if you wanted to pray you spoke aloud to G-d. As simple as that, you talked and had a conversation. After explain this to us he requested we all leave the circle in silence and find our own spot far enough away from others that if you talk softly they could not hear you. We were told to leave all time telling devices in the circle. He asked we go and have a conversation with G-d, talk about anything we wanted, and take a moment for ourselves without any concept of time. We dispersed from the circle and headed into our own personal conversation with G-d. I looked around and saw my classmates spread out across the desert and quickly began my own conversation with G-d. I talked about my future, my frustrations, fears, aspirations and more. I had felt connected and I had felt like I was heard. It was a moment I will never forget and aspire to have more like.
After we heard Betsalel belt Ozi V’Zimrat Ya, a common jewish tune, we began to head back and reform the circle we initially had. Once reunited we discussed our experience while praying. Hearing similar and contrsting experiences of others formed another stich in our close knit kehila. We proceeded to complete some additional learning and began heading to our lunch spot. Once there we made a homemade, desert style lunch complete with homemade tehina, Israeli salad, eggplant salad and desert style dirt cooked Pita.  The meal was incredible ad rewarding since we had a hand in making it.  After the rugged meal, we headed back on the camels and proceeded back to our mud huts to gather our things, head to the bus and leave the desert. This tiyul was an incredible way to begin our journey here in Israel. We saw the incredible power that the nature of Israel has to capture our hearts and leave us in astonishment. If this was tiyul one, it can only go up from here. I cant wait to continue to be in awe of this country and see all it has to offer.

Fresh Start

3,2,1, Wheels up.
I looked around me on the EL Al plane departing from JFK containing me and 18 other kids also leaving from JFK, about to embark on the adventure of a life time. I was terrified, scared, nervous, excited but most of all, beyond thrilled to be going on a plane back to my home. Israel was awaiting my arrival and I could feel it in every ounce of my body, heart, mind, and soul that the next time I was on the ground I'll be in the best place on earth, and my home for the next 4 months. I knew TRY would be a much needed fresh start, reset, unique, new, and outside of the box experience but that didn't help my initial minds much. Now, lemme tell ya, as excited as I was to be going, I was scared beyond belief. Meeting 43 new people who I'm all the sudden supposed to become best friends with and make life long memories and live with for the next four months is an incredibly daunting task, yet one I was just thrown into. Meeting everyone at the Ben Gurion airport after a long, overwhelming and intense day of travel made me wanna run for the hills, but I'm here to tell about it so I guess I made it through okay.
The first few days felt like weeks, each with long hours, intense schedules of orientation, meeting people and remembering names broken up by meals and the few hours of sleep we got. We all bonded over our mutual exhaustion and hunger. I made new friends and having people by my side made this entire process much easier. We began our Israel Core Course (ICC) class on day 2 and quickly began anticipating our first tiyul, trip, to Be'erotayim a place on the negev, desert, we were going to be spending some of our first moments together.
I continuously think back to my sobbing spell in the STL airport after EMTZA USY Winter Shab had ended, I had said good bye to my best friends and began embarking on this journey. I felt as though going on TRY was going to be a huge mistake, boy was I wrong. Although I am only one week in to this four month journey, I can confidently say TRY is one of the best decision I have ever made for myself. I am in constant awe at the people I'm with, the place I am living in, and the country and culture the surrounds me. I'm TRYing it and loving it and can't wait to see what the rest of the whirlwind trip is gonna bring me.