After a long an jam packed week filled with exciting activities and new experiences, we spent a meaningful Friday afternoon at the Yad Vashem museum. We were divided in to groups and were given a tour. Our guides helped us learn a lot about the holocaust, and the horrors the Jewish had to endure not so many years ago. Yad Vashem really helps all of us reflect on how lucky we are and got us in the right mindset for Tisha B’av. Everyone was looking forward to a quiet and restful shabbos…but that wasn’t exactly what we received. Rather, we had an inspiring and ruach filled kaabalat shabbis davening overlooking the kotel, followed by an awesome dinner (thanks Leora, Yair, and Josh who organized shabbos!!) once everyone was full and feeling tired it was time for our walk back to the Ramat Rachel; AKA our biggest hike of the summer. We all expected it to be hard and not a great experience but all of us ended up having a great time. Everyone was so helpful towards each other and the tremendous amount of achdus shown between the participants of Yad BYad was incredible. When we got back, we enjoyed a good night sleep, probably the most sleep we’ve gotten all week. The next morning we had our learning groups run by Judah and Elana, which were very interesting and relevant to our daily lives. After another amazing shabbos lunch and circle time, we enjoyed a very long and relaxing menucha which was filled with games and optional learning groups given by the staff. Before we knew it, it was time for slow shira and Tisha B’av. After changing out of our leather shoes we read Meggilah Eicha outside the hotel while overlooking Yerushalayim. After Eicha, all the participants formed a circle and had a kumzitz. Some of the staff and participants shared with everyone what Tisha B’av means to them and helped make everyone’s fast more meaningful with their inspirational songs. The next morning we had an inspiring davening and reading of the kinnos. Before many of the kinnos different participants introduced the main points of that Kinnah and what it means to them. After kinnos, Tani ran a learning group that highlighted the different times in Jewish history and what each of these different time periods means to us nowadays. In the afternoon there were other optional earning groups as well as several movies about the holocaust offered. To break our fast the group went to a delicious dairy restaurant in Yerushalayim and enjoyed a meal of pasta, pizza, and delicious salad. We are looking forward to this being our last Tisha B’av. 

Ayelet Wimpfheimer and Adam Auerbach