by Yonatan Chudnoff & Micha’el Shloush To continue our weekend’s theme of connecting with ourselves we started our day on Friday by doing yoga. It was a very interesting experience that we had never been exposed to before. Doing the yoga allowed us to explore our connection to ourselves on a physical plane. Afterwards, we drove to Tzfat and began to prepare for Shabbat. We enjoyed a beautiful Kabalat Shabbat in the famous Breselov shul in the Old City. After a delicious meal, we met Simcha Mervis MTA alumnus, who taught us how to integrate what we’ve learnt here, and bring it back to MTA to share with the school, all of this during a wonderful oneg. The following morning, we had a choice of davening in the Kosove or AR”I’s shul’s. Both were amazing experiences. After our Shabbat meal we walked around the old city and learned the history behind Tzfat. We davened mincha in Rav Yosef Kairo’s shul in the artists’ colony and continued on to a very spiritual shalosh seudot that was full of ruach and food. After Shabbat we made our way to Tel-Aviv. The next morning, we went to the Palma”ch museum, which illustrated the creation and purpose of the palma”ch and how, even though they were such a tiny group, they were able to make a huge difference in the Independence War. We were even fortunate to here from Shaul who is a former Palama”ch member who shared with us a couple of stories of his experiences during his service. Later that day we celebrated Rav Dov’s birthday party, which was full of amazing, inspirational, dvar torahs and, of course, singing and dancing. Tuesday was a big day for us. In the morning, we didn’t learn with our regular chavrutot, rather, we were each paired up with ninth graders, so we were able to form relationships with even more students in the yeshiva!! Next, we were in for a surprise. Shmuel had managed to get us a Tzah”l Krav Maga instructor to teach us a few ways to defend ourselves, if ever need be. Later that day, we discussed the idea of aloneness and had 15 minutes of quiet to think about life in general. From there, we went to Uriah’s house, who we all call Abba, as he is like a father to us all. He showed us how to make falafel, and Hummus, and we also made a meat dish. We even got freshly made, hot pitas from the bakery on the kibbutz! Thursday was our last day here. We started off the day by waking up for an early shacharit in the kibbutz’s shul. We were then treated to a scrumptious breakfast of lachmaniot and various spreads. Our whole grade in Mako”ch decided to send us off with a hike on Derech avot, which is the path, which Avraham Avinu took to go to Har Hamoriah. During this tiyul we were really able to have one last amazing bonding experience with the Israelis. When we returned to the kibbutz we had an ending “kulam mikablim” where the Israelis and us reflected on our thoughts about what we wanted to accomplish at the beginning of the program and how we were able to accomplish those goals. On to the next surprise! The 10th grade prepared a BBQ to commemorate the end of the program, topped off with an amazing game of Makot with the Israelis. Later that day we had one final Mishamr where many of us stayed up all night, and had one final sicha with Rav Dov where he discussed how niggunim can help a person significantly throughout life. One Shabbat left, and we are on our way home. We will be spending it at the YU Israel Center, Gruss in Bayit V’Gan. We can only imagine how the Yerushalayim air and the YU atmosphere will help put us back in the right mindset for our fateful flight on Sunday morning….