The Day of Heroes

By Evan Schmidt

We began our day with a nutritious breakfast before heading in to Jerusalem to visit Mount Herzl, the Israeli military cemetery. This emotional place is a true juxtaposition of life and death; although it is a cemetary, the grounds are absolutely beautiful and are full of flowers and other beautiful things growing.

Ido led us among the graves through this beautiful green cemetery. It was emotional right from the start as we visited two American IDF soldiers known as "Lone Soldiers." A Lone Soldier is a young man or woman who serves in the IDF with no family in this country. It was moving to learn their stories and to hear that 30,000 Israelis attended their funerals to show solidarity and respect.

At one point during our tour, our Israeli friends played a beautiful song for us called "Pain of Fighters," and we listened to some of their stories of fallen friends and family. As we ascended to the top of this beautiful cemetery that overlooked Jerusalem, our emotions changed from sorrow to pride as we stopped to view Herzl's grave, as without him there would be no Jewish state in Israel.

Following the cemetery, we boarded the bus and headed to Mahane Yehuda, a market in downtown Jerusalem. We all hurried into the stalls as we were given an hour and a half to explore this enormous market looking for lunch, secret Moses gifts, and a snack to share. The market was extra crowded as there were so many people there gathering what they needed to prepare for the Sabbath. After our exploration, we headed back to the kibbutz and dressed to impress for Kabbalat Shabbat.

We exchanged our Secret Moses gifts and then enjoyed our final Shabbat dinner together as a bus. After dinner, we participated in a group activity in which we broke into small groups lead by our Israeli participants about what it means to be Jewish. It was a fascinating and important discussion. We all hung out after our group activity, relishing in the fact that we did not have to be anywhere until 12pm the next day! How exciting after such a busy week of advanture. We shabbated real hard, yet again, relaxing and enjoying the company of our new mishpacha. :)

#bus274

Photo Credit: Header Image-@allisachs, Image 3-@raleigh21

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Har Herzl

Mifgash

Lone Soldier

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The Day of Heroes

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