FRIDAY:

Tsfat – another Jessica but mostly Rachel conglomeration—weekend of April 30-May 2

Shevet left Friday morning (4/30) at 9 in the morning. We were only like 15 (originally about 50, b/c of Marava) kids so they only sent a mini bus (sheirut) for us and no madrich. Dun dun duhhh….would we fight with each other without a watchful eye? No, of course not. We probably behaved better than usual. Rachel had a single seat and Jessica sat with Katie. The whole time people were passed out on top of each other. Rachel started reading “A Thousand Splendid Suns” from Kai, read about 200 pages. It was a 5 hour drive. We stopped once for a bathroom and rest where Jessica and Rachel got Magnum ice creams because it was two for 16 sheks instead of the usual 20 sheks. We then started driving again only to stop for lunch that Boaz had left for us at the previous station. Man, when we are only a couple of kids they treat us extra well. There were sandwiches, pastries, salads, and water bottles. We then drove some more and finally came to Tsfat. The driver didn’t know exactly where to go in Tsfat but we finally ended up at Ascent, the Chabad Hostel in Tsfat that we stayed at during Simchat Torah.

We got our room assignments (2 girls room, one boys room) saw Emma, who was joining us from Jerusalem and looked for Ami, who would be joining us from Bat Yam. Apparently Boaz likes Alex as a Madrich but not as a Shevet Madrich…really we just don’t like him, shhhh! Some of the Shalem girls had come up for the weekend and joined us so that was pretty cool to hang out with them. We put our bags down then Rochel, who was with us during Simchat Torah, took us for a tour to the big cemetery. She did seminary last year in Jerusalem and is now a madricha in Tsfat for a seminary. She talked about some of the Tsadikim that are buried here. We said the 20th Psalm and then went over to Chana’s grave and she told the story of Chana and her 7 sons. Rachel still thinks that Chana’s death is suicide even if the rabbis disagree. Some adults from New York kept asking Rochel for directions to different people’s graves, even for people who weren’t buried there. So we had walked down a big hill and a lot of steps to get to this cemetery—up we went. “Yam L’Yam no big deal, Tsfat is going to kill us though.”

We made it back to Ascent to change and make it to Rabbi Lieter’s talk only a little late. He really dislikes people coming in late, but there was nothing we could do about it. This was our first Lag B’Omer talk of the weekend, so it was still interesting. He told a couple of jokes, and the horse one that only responds to the Shema and Baruch Ha’Shem. Katie hates that joke. This was also our first introduction to a man that would stay with us through out the weekend and beyond—Iris, or Moshe. He asks many questions—interesting, but many questions nonetheless.

The girls then lit Shabbat Candles and then davened Kabbalat Shabbat. It was a nice service. We were split up into different groups to be taken to different Host Families for Shabbat Dinner. Katie and Naomi thought that they were going to go to the family that we all went to last time—that Rachel knows from home but it turns out that it was a different family. Rachel, Jessica, Julia and Emma went to the Freidmans. It was a nice dinner learning about the amazing adventure of how and when they came to Israel. They are a Chabad family. The Rebbe sent them to Tsfat with 10ish other families to rebuild the Jewish Community in Tsfat, 30ish years ago. When they first got here there was no running water or electricity. They were newlyweds with an infant. Now there are many synagogues, yeshivot, seminaries, and families. There is some crazy number of charadim people, tons of kabbalists and artists.

The four of us returned back to Ascent. Katie and Naomi had the key so we went to the Farbregen. We were the only girls till Anna and Masha joined us for a little bit. We were all really tired but they wouldn’t let us leave. Finally Julia left to see if the girls were here yet, but they weren’t so she came back. Iris was there along with many Aish and other boys. Everyone but the girls were pretty intoxicated. Iris kept going on about instead of getting married he got stuck with the rabbi. And how wine makes secrets come out—boy do they! The whole time Rachel was thinking that he is perfect for someone back home. How do I get his information for her? We were finally allowed to leave after much persuasion. The rabbi was disappointed, this was the first Shabbat in a long time that the Farbregen ended before two in the morning, and how a couple of weeks ago he didn’t go to bed at all.

We went back to the room and Naomi and Katie had just gotten back to the room. We all went to bed with plans to get up in the morning for services at 9ish.