Tsfat Shabbat

I just got back from Tsfat - http://www.safed.co.il/ where I stayed at http://www.ascent.org.il for Shabbat. It was one of the most joyous and excited times I have had in Israel so far. The people, the classes, and the beautiful nature all combined to make the experience wonderful. When we arrived, we went to an art presentation where we saw some amazing pieces of art. : http://www.kosmic-kabbalah.com/
On thursday night, we traveled to Meron, near Tsfat where Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai is buried. Over 400,000 people came out to celebrate. See: http://www.aish.com/omer/omerdefault/Lag_BOmer.asp

It was an absolutely wild time. We were packed in like sardines to see his grave because of all the people who made the trip especially to go there. I ran into about 10 friends of mine there and we stayed up till 3am.
I went to the Ari Mikvah before Shabbat which was really great, as it is so famous. See: http://www.ascent.org.il/NewAscentOfSafed/Safat/Places/SafatCity/mikvah.html and also

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Luria.html to read up on the Ari.

On Sunday we toured the city and saw a great view the Sea of Galilee as the sun was setting. The trip was definitely a success and very rejuvinating!

Laura Bush in Jerusalem (she is in the black)

Laura Bush visits Jerusalem

I was in the King David hotel on friday and I happend to talk to a guy who turned out to be working for the American consulate. I asked him what he was doing here, and he told me that he was preparing for the First Lady, Larua Bush to come and visit Jerusalem on Sunday (today). She was in Jordan, is in Israel now, and is going to Egypt next. Today, while my Hebrew class was about to start, we all saw many stretch black limosines come into the Western Wall plaza. From the news, people knew that it was Mrs. Bush. I quickly ran to get my camera and I went right down. She was right up at the wall, (perhaps praying, or putting a note inside, but I couldn't see because of all the security detail and the journalists and photographers. As she was leaving the wall, I saw her and I got a few good pics. She was wearing all black and had her head covered with a black cloth. There was so much comotion and she was essentially put into one of the limos and the whole entourage left the scene, with tons of cops, American secret servicemen, tourists, and photographers all struggling to see her. It was very intense. Well, at least now I can say I saw the First Lady in person, it was a fun interlude for the day. I plan to travel to Safed this Shabbat with some friends from the Yeshiva so I am really looking forward to that.

New Zman (Term)

Now that the second term has begun, I am really busy with my courses and my studies.

My classes now include, Halacha class in the morning, Gemara - Bava
Kama - which means First Gate in Aramaic and deals with damages. See
: http://hillel.myjewishlearning.com/texts/talmud/Overview_The_Mishnah/Nezikin4270.htm
for the details.
My next class is Shemona Esri - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amidah
and then I have lunch. After lunch I have Hebrew Ulpan 2 where we are
starting to write and read.

I then have a class on the book Mesillat
Yesharim : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesillat_Yesharim
followed by Navi class (Prophets) : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neviim
Finally followed by a class on the parasha of the week.

Today was Israeli Independence Day and there were many people near the
Western Wall. There were Israeli flags everywhere! See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Independence_Day

During Remembrance day yesterday, - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Hazikaron

I saw the President of Israel Moshe
Katsav from the aish balcony. He gave a speech in Hebrew about the
~22,000 fallen Israeli soldiers and the victims of terror. See below for the news clipping:
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Israel recalls fallen, celebrates Independence Day

May. 11 - Israel's main Remembrance Day memorial took place Wednesday at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl and there were additional ceremonies simultaneously at 43 military cemeteries around the country, The Jerusalem Post reported. A two-minute siren sounded at 11 a.m. A ceremony also took place at the memorial for fallen Beduin soldiers at the Hamovil junction in the Galilee. The nation bowed its head Tuesday evening as Remembrance Day began, mourning the 20,368 servicemen and women who have fallen in its defense since November 1947. "Tonight all the people of Israel are standing in silence, bowing their heads, filled with pain and agony," President Katsav told the crowd at the Western Wall. At sundown on Wednesday, the mood will shift as the nation begins celebrating its 57th indpendence day, with celebrations taking place throughout the country over a 24-hour period.

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Ok, I am off to check out some of the Independence Day festivities!
Shalom ;)

3 day "Nach" Tiyul

Hello!
I just arrived back in Jerusalem after spending three days on a Tiyul (Hebrew for Trip) in the north of Israel, around the Sea of Galilee. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_of_galilee to learn about it. It was an amazing trip. We got to see a great view of one of the oldest cities in the world: Jericho - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jericho

We also went to Gamla, a famous site where the Jews fought with the Romans and were finally conquered, although the remains are still there today. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamla
We camped out right on the beach of the sea of Galilee and in the morning I went swimming in the sea which was really refreshing! The area in the north of Israel is the most green in the whole country and amazingly not too far away from total desert. The reason it was called a "Nach" trip was becaused on points of the trip we discussed the Prophets and writings of Israel. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanakh One of the Prophets we discussed was Joshua, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Joshua for a detailed account of the actual places discussed. We even got to see Shechem (or today called Nablus, a corrupted name of Napoli that was given to the ancient city by the Romans) from a distance. We also saw the tallest mountain in Israel that had snow on it: Mount Hermon - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermon
The area was extremely beautiful and very inspiring, and I even had a view of Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon from one of the peaks. We went to one border town right next to the barbed wired border between Israel and Jordan and in between every two houses were bomb shelters due to all of the wars launched upon Israel.
My next term will begin on May 9th and I am really looking forward to getting started with it and learning more about my ancestry and my culture.