Like most of the parents my mom has been reading this blog daily and gets anxious if it hasn’t been posted when she checks so, HI MOM!
We have been to so many incredible places and had so many awe-inspiring experiences in the past 10 days but what has impacted me most is the people. When I decided that I wanted to blog I couldn’t think of what to focus on because everything was so significant in different ways but more so because everything was defined by the people involved.
Our Israeli soldiers always make fun of us for saying “sorry” so often and make us cut lines and use “it’s okay, we’re Israeli” as justification for doing so and try to explain that this isn’t the nature of Israelis. However, we’ve been constantly surrounded by warmth everywhere we go, from speakers that are enthused to have attentive and curious Americans as their audience to shop owners who immediately smile and give us “deals” when they see that we’re associated with Taglit.
In one of the stores on Ben-Yehuda Street the store owner told me that I should buy cheap things this trip and then return and buy more upscale items once I’ve found a “rich husband” and then proceeded to tell me that if I can’t find this “njb” (nice jewish boy, as Danielle says) that I should marry his son since he “loved” me. I laughed and smiled politely when he continuously professed his love inspired by our 10 minute interaction but he got incredibly serious and explained how Israelis love differently than Americans. He told me how they love things, places and people and don’t use length of interaction as a gauge: when you love, you love. A similar sentiment was conveyed by Avraham Infeld, an incredibly accomplished and engaging speaker that managed to awaken our lethargic group physically at the early time of 8 am but also emotionally. In addition to exposing us to new perspectives he discussed an important difference between Hebrew and English. In English we say that we “fall in love” in accordance with the Christian idea that passion is a sin, but in Hebrew the phrase is “to rise in love” since it enhances your life and is encouraged by Jewish tradition.
This trip has undoubtedly been filled with love for each other and our experiences and eagerness to enhance each on a daily basis. Everything from bus conversations with the soldiers to helping new friends overcome their fear of heights while descending Masada to experiencing the contagious nature of the enthusiasm of our guides throughout the trip enriched and defined our trip in a way that the scheduled activities alone could not have. As our final day in Israel comes to an end it is hard to believe how far we have all come as individuals, jews and a group but we have all expressed our commitment to maintaining these connections both to our faith but also to each other when we return to grounds, in the coming weeks, months and years.
- Brittany Wengel