After Yom Hachanich and visitors night, we were woken up the next morning at 7AM. We then had tefillah and breakfast and boarded the buses for an exciting day in the old city of Jerusalem. A couple of exciting things on the agenda were going to the Kotel and touring the tunnels underneath it. This was the first time at the Kotel for some of us while others were making their return! Everyone on Yad B’Yad had very meaningful experiences at the Kotel where they were able to daven to Hashem about anything. Koby Schecter describes his experience at the Kotel: “I reached out my hand slowly to touch the Kotel and when I touched it I didn’t want to let go.” The Kotel tunnel tour showed us parts of the wall and old city throughout different eras including the Roman and Muslim time periods. For example, we saw a very old mikvah that dated back hundreds of years. After visiting the old city, we went to Gan Haatzmaut to have lunch. Following lunch we had learning programs led by Ellie Blanchard and Eytan Aryeh. Both programs were about knowing yourself and knowing when to use your strengths. Before Shabbat preparations we stopped at a supermarket to buy snacks that could be useful before the fast. We then came back to Bait Vagan prepared for Shabbos, called our parents, and took many pre shabbos pictures! We had an inspiring kabbalat Shabbat davening followed by an intense rock-paper-scissors competition. The theme of the shabbos was Chassidus, and every table was assigned a different sect.  After a delicious dinner, we had a chasiddish tisch with lots of singing and learned some new songs. After a late wake up on Shabbos and davening, we had kiddish and Eitan Schneier’s learning program about halachik scenarios. We all headed down for lunch and a fun circle time then chilled out during menucha where people attended chaburas and some attendance groups had shabbos parties. Group 3 led a game and then we davened mincha and had a large shalashudis. After a great shabbos, we davened maariv and started our Tisha be’av.

 

Nathan Fensterheim, Koby Schechter & Atara Herrmann