By Allen Levine

Day two consisted of Mayanot 255 visiting the holy city of Tzfat. We left the hotel around 7:30 in the morning and headed west, getting a first-hand experience of all the beautiful scenery of Israel, including the second tallest mountain in Israel, Mount Meron.

The first activity of the day was a brief lesson of Kabbalah at the Tzfat Gallery of Mystical Art from Avraham, who was a Detroit-native that moved to Israel after learning about the teachings of Kabbalah. He was passionate as he gave us a basic run down of the concepts that make up the ancient teachings. We then headed to the holy Synagogue Abohav.

At Synagogue Abohav, we learned more about Kabbalah as Rabbi Chaim Lipskier gave us his take on it. After spending some time there, we traveled through the city to the Ashkenazic Ari Synagogue. We learned how special Shabbat is to the Jewish religion and learned how there are six directions, with the middle symbolizing Shabbat.

After the Ashkenazi Ari Synagogue, the men underwent a truly fantastic and eye-opening experience as we got to take dip in he famed Aris Mikvah. We learned that this cleansing in the holy water purified us for the New Year and rid us of our baggage.

After the Mikvah, Mayanot 255 was given free time to get lunch and shop around the town before we left to return to Tiberius in preparation for Shabbat.

The journey continues.

By Camilla Lever

The 10 hour plane ride was just the start to our long journey to Israel. As soon as we got off the plane our tour guide was waiting and ready to give us our first taste of the Israeli lifestyle. We stopped at a Kibbutz to learn exactly how one operates. Learning what it takes to operate such a huge operation were hundreds of people work to produce organic foods, bees, and insect farms. Touring the Kibbutz gave me a better understanding in how people choose to live their life and to appreciate the beauty we can receive in nature.

By Chelsea Pierce & Marissa Wertheimer

As we waited anxiously in the airport lobby for the other students to arrive, we wondered what everyone would be like. Would they be enthusiastic and psyched to go, or would they dread the long flight and be a quiet and shy group? One thing we knew we would all have in common was that wed all gone through a lot (flight cancelations & delays) to finally get to the airport.

After meeting up with the group, we were interrogated by the El-Al security, an experience that a lot of us were not expecting. However, it wasnt too intimidating. Once it was over, we realized how reassuring it was that security was so inquisitive and that our safety was their #1 priority. There was an overflow of emotions that came to us once we met the other students and were sitting in the terminal, waiting for our El-Al flight. We were energetic (although most of us were running on about 3 hours of sleep), excited, nervous and ready to go! Once we got on the plane, we made our way to our seats, introduced ourselves to each other (for what seemed like the hundredth time) and started thinking about what the trip would be like.

Weve now been on the plane for about three hours and were still wondering what our experience will be like. To us, this journey to Israel is still so surreal. A couple of things we cant wait to do are: SHOPPING, camel riding, visiting the Western Wall and meeting other students visiting Israel FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!

To keep ourselves occupied during this ten-hour plane ride, we attempted to sleep, listened to music, read a magazine and gossiped about celebrities, attempted to sleep again, walked around the plane and giggled about the people sleeping around us. In addition, we realized (an hour into the flight,) that we have small TVs attached to our chairs with simple-looking remote controls. Even now, a few hours into the plane ride, were still trying to figure out how to turn the TV on! On the monitor in front of us, it updates our flight altitude, speed, time of arrival, temperature and the local time. In Israel, the time is now 11:48 P.M. So, Leila Tov!

Make sure to keep up with us through the blog entries! 

By Rabbi Chaim Lipskier

As we get ready for the trip of a lifetime that is Taglit-Birthright Israel, we know that there are many of you that would have loved to be on this trip, so we decided to keep an updated blog of our trip and to let you enjoy the journey with us. Please check back daily for updates and hopefully soon you might be able to go to Israel on your own!