By Jason Kramer

Today we woke up late-ish at 9am and met in the ‘Cheder Peilut’ (activity room) at 9.30am. We were all sitting on the floor because the 9th of Av is a day of collective mourning for the Jewish people and there are certain Things that we do on that day. We all prayed the morning service together and then we said special ‘Kinnot’ (Lamentations) describing different terrible events that happened throughout Jewish history. Our advisors each presented a kinna before we each said them quietly to ourselves. The kinnot described the times of Titus, the Crusades, the ten martyrs killed by the Romans, the loss of morals, the destruction of the temple, the holocaust and the return to Zion.

After the kinnot, we watched a movie called ‘The Pianist’ to add to the sad mood of the day. It was a really interesting movie about a guy whose family name is Szpilman who was a pianist from Warsaw in Poland – he went through the holocaust and managed to survive by hiding out in different places. It was an interesting and informative movie.

After the movie, we had free time to relax for two hours and then we met at the bus at 5pm to leave for Jerusalem! We got to the kotel at 6pm and each had some time to pray / hang out there / sing. It was my fifth time there. While davening i was fortunate enough to get an Aliyah and preform the birkat hacohanim for my first time.
To break the fast we ate at a fancy Italian restaurant which was delicioso!

Finally, when returning to the kibbutz I spotted two fully camouflaged soldiers in the bushes who were part of an elite army group (who just happened to be armed). We later found out that it was a training exercise, and that everything was beseder! As you can see, we had another exciting day here on TJJ.

Like a tiger,
Jason