Monday April 14, 2014
EIE gives the students the opportunity to experience the
Passover holiday in a family setting. All of the students on EIE were divided
up and sent off to either their family or a host family, arrange by EIE. I had
the opportunity to spend the holiday with my mom’s cousin Shari, her husband
Baruch and daughter Maa’yan.
On Monday
morning all of the EIE students loaded buses to be dropped of with their host
family. I got off in Modi’in where I was greeted with open arms by Shari,
Baruch, and Maa’yan. This was my first time meeting the Pilo family. We spent
the day hanging out and getting to know each other, first at the mall and then
back at their house where Maa’yan and I baked a cake. After a few hours we all got dressed up and
ready for the seder. We were celebrating the seder with Baruch’s family who
lives in Netanya. The seder was at his cousins house but I also had the
opportunity to meet his parents, his aunt and uncle, his brothers and all of
the kids. In my family at home, and most families living in the diaspora, we
take time in our lives to do Jewish things such as the seder, going to temple
because it allows us to connect with our Judaism. But in Israel, the Israelis
see it as they live in Israel, so they are Jewish and don’t need to go above
and beyond.
We arrived at their house and everyone welcomed me and were
very nice. At first I was very overwhelmed by the language barrier but I found
it very entertaining to see how other families celebrate this holiday. The 17
of us sat down at the table and one by one each person would read a passage
from the haggada. There was no order to who would read. Whoever wanted to
participate could just jump in and read. The whole seder was in Hebrew but they
provided me with a English haggada so I could follow along. Each person would
read faster than the one before and by far this was the quickest seder I have
ever been to. It was very different from my seder at home. At home I celebrate
Passover at my house with 30 of us gathered around the table. Our seder is very
unique. It is interactive. The haggada has many fun Dr. Seuss style poems,
readings and songs. When we get to the plagues we all pull out our plague bags.
The one main difference between celebrating Passover at home
and in Israel is what is on the seder plate. Before this experience I assumed
the seder plate is universal, but apparently not. At home we have a shank bone, egg, bitter
herb/maror, charoset and parsley. But in Israel you have everything the same
but instead of maror you have lettuce. Therefore when creating the Hillel
sandwich you create a lettuce wrap with
a piece of matza and charoset wraped inside. I found it very interesting to see
the differences between the seders and to see how each family includes their
traditions. The coolest part about spending Passover in Israel is every year at
the end of the seder you say “next year in Jerusalem” and this year I am in Jerusalem. It’s amazing to see how
life plays out. A year ago I had no idea I was even considering EIE and look at
me now already three months into my EIE journey.
After the seder we ate and ate. Everything was delicious.
After a very fun evening we headed back to the Pilo’s house for bed.
Tuesday April 15, 2014
Today I spent the day with Shari, Baruch, and Maayan. We
spent the morning relaxing. In the afternoon we went to a utopia, where we saw
beautiful flowers. After the utopia we had “lupper” (lunch and supper) and
relaxed the rest of the evening. Maa’yan and I walked her dog Snoopy and she
showed me around Modi’in. If I were at home right now I would have been getting
ready for seder number two, but in Israel they only do one seder. After a
relaxing and fun day we went to bed.
Wednesday April 16, 2014
This morning we woke up early so that I could pack my bags
and head to the bus pick up location. After a fun few days living in Israeli
style it was time to say goodbye to Shari Baruch and Maa’yan. I had an amazing
time with them and really enjoyed celebrating the holiday with Israeli
traditions. I am excited to take things I learned from their seder and bring
them back to my seder at home next year.
The EIE bus arrived to pick up all the kids staying in
Modi’in. We all hugged and smiled being reunited after two days apart. It was
fun hearing about what everyone did for Passover but we were all SO happy to be
together again. After a very long bus ride up north we arrived at a river that
branches off from the Kinaret. Today marked the first day of Yam L Yam (sea to
sea). Today we had a beautiful water hike though the river. The water went up
to my hips. After the hike we took a bus to our first campsite where we stayed
the night. My tent tonight was Jordan Karpin Avi Goldstine and me! Our staff surprised
us with matching custom designed NFTY EIE Yam L Yam bucket hats with our last
names embroidered on. We all looked so cute. Everyone screamed with excitement!
We had dinner and then got into our tents for bed because we had to wake up at
5:45 the next morning.
Thursday April 17, 2014
This morning we woke up at 5:45 and we were divided into two
large groups. Guys group (which I was in) and Maya’s group. These large groups
were our hiking groups. Within the large group we were divided into smaller
groups, which we would cook with. We were responsible to cook breakfast and
lunch in our small groups, and dinner was made by the staff. Each person was
required to carry something either food, pots, or the portable gas burner. Eventually
we were on our way for the longest and toughest hike of Yam L Yam. Today we
were hiking UP Mount Merom. My legs
were burning. The whole hike was up hill and each step would hurt more than the
one before. My whole body was covered in sweat. Thank goodness they gave us
back packs to use because mine was soaked. After a while of hiking we stopped
for breakfast. Because it is Passover it was matza for all! We were given
matza, peppers, chocolate spread, jam, rice, salami, and other random items that
were to last us the two meals. For breakfast we ate matza and chocolate spread,
hard boiled eggs, apples, and tea. After breakfast we continued hiking taking
breaks here and there. We stopped for lunch mid way up the mountain. For lunch
we made rice, using the burner, chopped up veggies and ate salami slices and of
course matza and chocolate spread. After lunch we had a lesson on using a map
to get to a location and then group by group we were off on our own to find our
way up the mountain to the campsite. It was really fun to break into our small
groups because when you hike you can have the best and most interesting
conversations with people and being in small groups allowed our group to get
really close! It also gave us freedom to adventure on our own for a bit. When
we arrived at the campsite we organized our things, ate dinner and
relaxed. After dinner we did an evening
activity in silence. We hiked up into the forest. Through the forest we were
dropped off one at a time. We were given 10 minutes or so to sit in the silence
of the forest and hear the sounds of the nature. Personally I did not like this
activity because every sound I heard I freaked out fearing the animals would
attack me. After the activity we all walked back down to the campsite and went
right to bed.
Friday April 18, 2014
This morning we woke up at 5:45. Because we were at the top
of the mountain it was absolutely freezing when we woke up. Eventually we all
rolled out of our tents packed everything up and drank tea to keep us warm. All
day we hiked down the mountain that we had hiked up the previous day. Often I
wondered why we could not have just gone around the mountain… Going down was
very steep but I found it easier than going up. Again it was very hot out. By
this point I don’t know what is a tan and what is a layer of dirt? We stopped
for breakfast eating the same foods as the day before. We continued hiking. As
we hiked there were a lot of cows just wandering the land and their poo was
everywhere!! We stopped for lunch at a natural spring that looked more like a
mikvah. Today my group was a lot more creative than the previous day with our
meal preparation. We decided to cook the salami and mix it in with the rice. We
also learned a really amazing army trick. If you take a can of tuna open it and
remove the lid but don’t pour out the oils. Then take a piece of toilet paper
and place it over the can and light the paper on fire. The fire will cook the
tuna. It is delicious. After lunch we did the same thing as the day before we
went off into our small groups and hiked to the campsite where we would spend the
next two nights. We arrived at the campsite and had services for Shabbat
followed by dinner and evening activity of star watching. We were all exhausted
after all of the hiking. We went right to bed.
Saturday April 19, 2014
This morning we had a slow morning. We were given the
opportunity to sleep in but because we were sleeping outside the sun woke us
all up by 7:00am. First we had Saturday morning services followed by a “easy
hike”. This hike was in no way easy! First we went down a very steep mountain
for about an hour. When finally we arrived at a stream where we spent the day.
After a few hours we hiked back up and it was ten times harder! We arrived back
at the campsite and had a beautiful havdallah service as the sun set. After
camping for five days, on the last day we had our first camp fire. After a long
day we went to bed, our last time sleeping in tents.
Sunday April 20, 2014
Today is our last day of Yam l’ Yam and for the final portion
we biked from our campsite down to the Mediterranean Sea! After we packed up we
were all given bikes and helmets and one at a time, almost all 66 of us road
our bikes in a line. We biked through banana fields and farms! It was so
refreshing to have the fresh wind go though me as I biked. We finally arrived
at the Mediterranean and we all cheered. After a five day hike we arrived. From
sea to sea. I have hiked across Israel! I felt so accomplished. Even though it
was really difficult we all kept each others energy up and encouraged one and
other to keep going! After a long week we reached the sea and we all ran into
the water! It was very refreshing! We spent the day at the beach relaxing after
a tough week. Our night was spent at another kibbutz because Tzuba was still
renting out our rooms for Passover. On Monday night we arrived at Tzuba at
10:30pm and broke Passover with pizza!!
