Dear Yad B’Yad Journal,

Today was our first day of Yad B’Yad. We started off meeting up at the shul in West Orange, playing games that helped us learn each other’s names. We were then introduced to our attendance groups, and proceeded to go bowling with our attendance groups. The bowling scores ranged from 150 to a straight zero. We then went to our hosts’ homes and prepared for the holy Sabbath. We joined the shul for an uplifting קבלת שבת. We continued our fun with a laffy taffy game, a delicious dinner, beautiful zmirot, and our first circle time. We all enjoyed a great night’s sleep, and the following day we took advantage of the shul-wide kiddush. Before lunch we had our first learning programs; one group led by Shira discovered our individual values and the other group led by Kaz talked about the importance of the value of Tfilah. After lunch and circle time, we had a two hour break in which the activities all varied, but a great time was had by all. Afterward, we all walked to the Saibel’s house for an oneg, where everyone enjoyed lots of food, great games, and each other’s company. We then returned to shul for mincha, and then joined the shul for a shul-wide סעודה שלישית with singing and דברי תורה. מעריב followed, then we enjoyed a musical הבדלה led by Isaac and Jacob. Our excitement to get to Israel couldn’t be contained as we all sang and danced. We continued the night with lots of fun as we played a competitive game of Panoply led by Chaya. The night ended off with a bang as we enjoyed ice cream sundaes at our Melaveh Malka. With only a few hours of sleep, we woke up at 5AM and went straight on a plane after spending a few hours at the airport. You could feel the excitement on the plane. People busied themselves with sleeping, watching movies, and hanging out. Finally at 5:30 in the morning we landed in the holy land. Even though it was early and we were all super tired, we are all so excited for our first day in Israel!

Shlomit Ebbin and Arley Bornstein