The week before Chofesh was an eventful one, with tzvatim running Pasechot for their chanichim, and my tzevet in Tveria renovating the new BAMA building. It also included my seeing Jordana and Natalie, two friends of mine from home, who were in Israel for the week! Finally, all of us kvutzamates packed up and were ready to embark on our own separate adventures for Chofesh! The night before separating, Bar and Sarah came to our house and the kvutza had our very own seder! We removed all the couches from our salon (living room), and arranged cousions on the floor so we could truly relax. Our Haggadot (books for the seder), were compiled by all the members of the kvutza! In groups, we each led sections that we had prepared throughout the weekend, sharing texts that we found meaningful and engaging the kvutza in sichot that we found relevant to the themes of Pesach.
The morning after the kvutza seder, I took a direct bus to Jerusalem to meet with Anya and her family, which was visiting her from Philadelphia! Anya and I have been very close friends for some time, and her parents and siblings have always graciously welcomed me as an additional member of the family. The night I arrived, we went to a family that invited all of us into their home for the seder--even though they didn't know any of us! It turns out that they invite guests they've never met before into their home year-round.The seder was a long one--lasting until 1:30am--as the family leading the seder decided to incorporate meaningful discussion, lively singing, and interesting current events into night. All in all, it was a fascinating seder to be a part of, and the food--particularly the salted chocolate matzah--was absolutely delicious!
The next day, Anya's family and
I spent the day at the Israel
Museum! We first visited the Herod exhibit, which has been getting a lot of publicity. I personally found myself bored. The exhibit was focused on the long-awaited discovery of Herod's tomb, but I longed to learn more about Herod himself as a leader. After exploring the museum a bit more, we ate dinner and then went to an Ice Festival! The festival included watching an show where the performers danced and did acrobatics entirely while ice-skating! Following the show, we each received coats and entered a large room filled with gigantic, colorful ice sculptures! Some notable ice attractions included a scene filled with ice dinosaurs, an underwater scene with lots of fish and large sea creatures, and a slide! Once we felt that we'd had our fill of the unique festival, we picked-up Zak, a friend in the Rishon kvutza (Kvutzat Rakafet), and then had a second dinner at a restaurant that served Kosher for Passover Pasta! The pasta tasted exactly like regular pasta, and after the meal Zak, Anya, Avram (Anya's brother), and myself went out for sushi--our third meal of the night!
The next day was one filled with lots of traffic across Israel, and my travel time from Jerusalem back to Karmiel tripled that amount of time that it normally would. I spent the night at the house with a few kvutzamates, and then headed to Tel-Aviv the following morning to spend the day with Joel, one of my close friends from Galil in Kvutzat Rakefet. The two of us spent a large portion of our time together at the Eretz Yisrael Museum at Tel-Aviv University. Our favorite exhibit was one about Ethiopia, which described the history of Ethiopia through the presence of different religions in the country, as well as the history of Ethiopian Jews and their presence in Israel. As the sun was beginning to set, Joel and I made our way to Yafo for dinner, where he enjoyed schwarma and I had shakshuka! After eating, we walked along the water, and then explored Yafo's night-life! Together, we admired paintings in an art shop, learned about an ancient method of jewelry-making, and enjoyed festive live music!
The next day, I journeyed down south to stay at the home of Kristina, a friend that I'd made on Muss! As Kristina and her family mostly spoke in Russian I attempted to pick-up a few words. On Friday night, we stayed-up late playing guitar and singing on the porch, and the following day included a fun trip to a Monkey Park (which is exactly what it sounds like--a park filled with monkeys). After saying goodbyes, I stayed in Karmiel for a bit to hang-out with some kvutzamates, and then ventured to Kibbutz Shomrat, a kibbutz next to Akko which is home to family friends that I have visited multiple times throughout Workshop. I joined them for their Mimuna Dinner (a tradition within Israel), which they took as an opportunity to do a mock seder to entertain the grandchildren!
It was nice to spend the end of Pesach with family friends, but it was even nicer to return to Karmiel. Everyone has been so excited to be with one another and make the most out of the rest of our time together for the rest of Workshop, and I hope that this mentality remains for the next two months!
