By Noam Green and Sophia Deutsch

Today was an exciting day in which we had the opportunity to truly connect with our past. First thing in the morning, we drove to Hevron to visit the Maarat HaMachpela. We received a short history lesson and learned about the significance of this historic site. Given the opportunity to explore, we saw the entrances to the tombs of our patriarchs and matriarchs. This experience was like none other, allowing us to connect to our ancestors in a meaningful way. Rabbi Rael gave us a very inspirational talk about what it means to have such a heritage…

Afterwards, we went to Kfar Etzion. While there, we watched an interesting video about the people of Gush Etzion who defended their Kibbutz and the holy city of Jerusalem. Following the movie, we reconvened outside and ate an Israeli lunch of falafel in the shade. it was delicious!

After that we went to Etanna (our tour guide)’s house in Efrat. In her basement were many historical Jewish artifacts from various regions witch her dad discovered. We also ate home-made cookies! Joey lazerowitz played piano for us and we had a blast singing to his music! Her house was a lot of fun!

After her house, we made our way to Kever Rachel (Rachel’s tomb). The boys went to the men’s side and prayed Mincha, and the girls went to the girls side. Etanna gave us a really inspirational talk about what Rachel was all about – she was a mother to the Jewish people and truly cares about all of her children. She was an amazing woman who, after years of childlessness, finally had a son, Joseph, who was to later become the Vice-Roy of Egypt but would nevertheless maintain his moral and ethical standards. After that talk, we went to pray Mincha in the section for women. Everyone prayed either alone or with advisors…

We then got back onto the bus and went to Gan Sacher in Jerusalem… Gan Sacher was totally awesome, we had a delicious barbecue with burgers, chicken pieces and salad, and we played a lot of football! We played with baby Ayelet as she adorably pretended to speak on the phone…

We then came back to the hotel and went to hear Doctor Lukins who spoke to us about the political situation in the middle middle East – it was really informative!

We then had free timed went to bed…