A specific part of the Shalva trip that stood out was our visit to Tzfat. The humility of the city really grounded me in reality and got me emotionally invested in every little detail. Hearing the humbling stories of Rav Meir Baal HaNes and the Arizal showed me how much can be accomplished in life if you take advantage of the time you have in this world. To add to the amazing experience, we ended the Tzfat tour in a pitch black cave, briefly removing our individuality, and in the darkness, creating a kind of unity I have never before experienced.
The most memorable part of the trip, for me, was our hike on Sunday. When I woke up that morning, I was still having trouble walking (courtesy of the 10K I had just run). When I found out a small group would be staying back, I was very seriously considering staying with them, but ultimately decided to go. As we hiked, I got used to the unnecessary physical activity and began to enjoy it. We ended up going into a cave and Rav Yair gave a passionate speech, speaking about how sometimes darkness is the best and easiest way to be real, which really resonated with me. This gave me enough fuel to power through and reach the end of our hike relatively quickly. Despite my constant pain, I even found myself wishing the hike had been longer.
The run will always be something that represents this trip for me. Seeing all the people running together, and trying to accomplish the same goal, was really inspiring. At first we joined the 800m community walk with Shalva, walking with signs, capes, and cheering. At the end of the 800m walk, we danced the flashmob we had learned the night before. We then ran the 10k, which included seeing the old city. It was not only beautiful, but seeing people of all ages from all over the world, running together in this ancient city, made it an amazing experience.
True emotion and real thoughts came out throughout our Shalva trip. During the night of our trip to Tzfat, students, as well as teachers, came forth, telling each other about our past struggles and making clear the positive lifestyle we live in today. That night, the connection we felt between each other was palpable. The whole group felt as one, in the way we heard Rav Yair told the story of Tzfat – we were able to connect it to our own ways/lives. I am sure that each one of us has grown tremendously in our spiritual ways, and are able to bring it back to Canada with us, to spread our new knowledge among each other.
When considering the plethora of powerful moments and experiences that comprise our school’s trip to Israel, the one that most invokes feelings of heartbreak and awe in me is our visit to Kfar Etzion. There, our team watched a video on the settlement’s history and its courageous defenders during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence. At the end of the movie, I was shook to my core. The film showed how a small cohort of people – many of whom were Holocaust survivors still struggling to recover from the horrors they had just recently survived – stayed on to defend their small town from advancing, belligerent Arab armies. Almost all the Jews who stayed to fight were killed, and the film ended with a grenade being dropped on a newly engaged couple who had both survived the Holocaust. Processing the reality that entire worlds, entire dreams and futures could be wiped out by one hand grenade was difficult. I realized that while living is incredible, sacrificing one’s existence for something can be even greater. I thought it both terrifying and empowering that my presence in this land, and the presence of Am Yisrael here, is not just for us – those in the present – but for all those who died, who sacrificed their very existence for us.
