Post-Pesach Tiyul

Welcome Back from Pesach vacation!

As a fantastic addition to the normal schedule, we partcipated in a two-day tiyul last week .

Additionally, Rabbi Yossela started a new class about "Tefilla" which is very interesting.

We partook in a meaningful tekes for Yom HaShoah and commemorated the day by a memorable activity.

Also, Rabbi Motty Berger from Aish Hatorah gave a special lecture that turned into a discussion about "Can the Jewish people disappear?"

All in all another great week!

Below are photos from the tiyul and some additional updates.

Enjoy!

The Shalem Staff.

Pre-Pesach Volunteering and learning

Some of us later contributed of ourselves by volunteering at the "Chazon Yishaaya" soup kitchen and helped pack around 10,000 packages for "Kimcha D'pischa" - making sure that Holocaust survivors and other poor people receive food for Pesach. WOW, that was amazing!

Additionally, Rav Yossela reviewed the halachot of Pesach with us, reminding us what to clean, how to clean, and what to do with the remainder of our chametz. He taught us the halachot of Mechirat Chametz, including how exactly to go about it, and talked to us about the timeframe of Bedikat Chametz and Biur Chametz.

We accomplished all this while continuing to learn our regular Judaic classes and volunteering. In short, what a great first two weeks in Jerusalem! Can't wait for more!!

Purim and Moving to Jerusalem (Mid-March)

This week was so much fun. It began with Purim and, as you know, in Israel, there are two Purim's - on the 14th of Adar and on the 15th of Adar (Shushan Purim). Some of us had a great seuda in our apartments in Arad and some of us went to Yerushalayim on Sunday and did not celebrate that day. On Monday we all came to Jerusalem in the morning and had an awesome Seudat Purim with Rav Yossela in Beit Ar-El. Afterwards we scattered to participate in the different exciting Purim events in Yerushalayim and had lots of fun.







We then went back to Arad and had a "Last night in Arad" celebration. We cleaned our apartments and then headed to our new home in Jerusalem on Wednesday.



WOW! It's so great to be in Jerusalem, just breathing in the spiritual air all around! The campus is beautiful and the neighborhood is so peaceful. It is exhilarating living in the heart of the city! Although a few things were missing from the apartments when we first moved in, they were replaced quickly by the really great staff. Some of us even went to the mikvah with Rav Yossela to toivel new keilim!



Last week we had an interesting sicha with Rav Yossela about the need to continuously and actively try to enhance our lives religiously and spiritually. He discussed with us the ability we have to take control of our lives and look to the future. We had some great learning, both Judaic and secular, and we are very excited to meet or new teachers in Jerusalem.



Our madricha Moran has been very helpful, warm, and cheerful. This Shabbat is our first in Jerusalem as a group and we look forward to a fun Shabbat B'Yachad! This is going to be a great change! These new surroundings will hopefully enable us to continue to grow spiritually and mature into the leaders and Jewish adults we want to be. We are going to make the most of the little time have left!

Ranch Life by Barry Kantrowitz

The beeping of the alarm rings distant, like a blurry light at the end of a tunnel. The noise keeps getting louder and more intense after every beep, soon pushing me into consciousness. I look at my clock after hitting the snooze button, its 8:20, I've got time. I then tuck myself back into my warm covers, remembering the pleasantries and freedoms that sleep has to offer. I drift back into limbo. I'm gone.
The same obnoxious beeping goes off again in my mind as my eyes open up slowly and check the time, its 8:50! Without even giving a thought as to how cold the apartment was or how tired I was, I quickly jump into a pair of overalls, strap on my boots and put on my cowboy hat. After davening, I go for the door, turning the knob to find that it's locked. What a surprise. I rummage through my closet to find a neon green key with a pocket flashlight attached to it. I dart back to the door, thrusting the key into the lock and turning. I decide to take my bicycle with me, being that it's the only way I can get to the destination I have in mind. After fitting my bicycle vertically in the elevator room, I press zero, counting every four seconds as it changes floor numbers, until it reaches the ground floor.
I get out and my bike collapses back on its two wheels. The ride there is mostly downhill, barely pedaling as I rip through the wind and feel the breeze pull back on my curly brown hair. My blue eyes begin to tear as the gusts of air press against my pupils. As the descent begins to even out into flat land, I turn up my gears and begin pedaling onward. The nicely paved road soon turns into a jagged, rocky desert trail.
When we arrive there we park our bikes underneath a steel awning next to the corral. I look around and see just mountains and desert, parts of it shaded from the clouds. We then go to the side of the barn and attain our utensils; a rake, a shovel, and a wheelbarrow. We roll it all out into the petting zoo, the precursor of what is yet to come. Being that basically all the animals in the zoo are birds, it's fairly easy to rake up their messes and change their food and water, except the duck's.
After cleaning the petting zoo, we then move to the horse stables. This time, we haul out a bigger wheelbarrow and bring out the pitchfork, a necessary device in the cleaning of the stables. There are around 10 horses and one pony, Monty. We then proceed to strap the bridles onto the horses and walk them into the corrals, where they run and gaze gracefully among their kind. Though horses are a beautiful species, they leave an awful mess that takes some time to clean, that's where we come in. After around 3 hours, we take a lunch break. Usually taking place around the cafeteria, our lunches consist of food we brought from home or a barbecue with hummus and pita, supplied by the owners of the ranch, Yeshai and his father Ami.
After eating, we finish up on the horses, driving pitchforks into bales of hay and placing them into the food tanks. When we finish the final raking and dumping, we take a couple minutes out to play with sandy, the youngest of three dogs that Ami owns. Once all of the tools are stored away, we go to the back of the stables, where there are numerous irrigation pipes of all sizes. Some are loaded on a tractor, some stacked already on the ground. We then proceeded to aid Ami in the unloading of the tractor. Ami is an aged man of great wisdom. His hands are callused like the ground or the rusted pipes that we unload.
When we finish taking the pipes down, we all hop on the tractor and go on a 30 minute tractor ride with Ami to the main irrigation fields, to where we load more pipes onto the tractor. The field is beautiful. All there is for miles is sand and more sand, but over there is this giant patch of green, sprouting plants such as alfalfa and hay, reminds me of the Garden of Eden or something that's flawless and beautiful. When all the pipes are loaded, we head on back to the ranch, where we stack them on the ground with the others.
After doing all the pipe work, we head on back to the corral, where we lead all the horses back into their stables so they can eat and rest in a clean environment. Sometimes we clean off the horses and let the pony run around, followed by them going back to the cells and eating some more. When everything is clean and done, we are free to go. We bid farewell, get back on our bikes, and start pedaling home.
All in all, I have to say that volunteering on the ranch is definitely one of my highlights of Arad, if not the year in Israel. From the views, to the people, to even the cleaning of the cells, working here inspires a good and rewarding work ethic, as well as a love for nature and all that resides in it.

Masada

At Masada this morning, after a very early wake up and short climb up the Roman path - as opposed to the longer, more chosen snake path - we watched the beautiful sunrise that attracts so many people to the ancient fortress. Watching the sun peek over the mountains on the other side of Yam HaMelach (Dead Sea) was very inspirational, and in the distance, some of us said morning prayers with the rising golden sun illuminating the words on the pages of Siddurim.
Although watching the beautiful sunrise was inspiring, the image quickly left my head, as it only lasts a moment, and beautiful sunrises can be seen almost anywhere. But what stuck in my mind more about the day wasn't the rising sun, or the inspirational prayer, or the stories or history that the remnants told. After a whole morning touring Masada, the thing that stuck in my mind the most was what we saw as we prepared to leave.
As we walked by the top of the snake path, a large group of soldiers were walking up on a hike. A few dozen soldiers in uniform, taking turns carrying each other on stretchers, worked their way up the side of Masada, singing songs to keep themselves motivated. As they hiked up, singing, "We are believers, sons of believers, and we have no one else to rely on, but on Our Father in Heaven," I felt a sort of inspiration that cannot be felt by a beautiful sunrise or impressive fortresses of the past. I felt inspired by the message of now, and the message of the future.
After hearing the story of Masada, of Jews rebelling against tyranny and taking their own lives as Roman soldiers climbed the sides of their fortress, here I got to see soldiers once again climb the sides of Masada. But instead of oppressors coming to enslave and destroy the Jewish people, Israeli soldiers, coming to protect the continuity of the Jewish people rose up and reached the top. And as they did so, tired and in need of someone to lift them up, they sang out with great strength about the power of God uplifting those in need of someone to rely on.
The sun rises and sets every day, and every day it looks just as glorious as the day before. But the sunrise is not what I find most inspiring. Although the Jews of Masada saw limited sunrises like that of today's, the soldiers that today climb Masada give hope that we as a people may see limitless sunrises, and that, not the rising and setting sun, is something even more eternal, inspirational, and worth praying for.

By Yoni Buckman