Even though I grew up as a Reform Jew, Judaism has always played a big part in my life. I attended Hebrew School for 13 years, I can read Hebrew, I spent a summer at a Jewish sleepaway camp, and I was very involved in BBYO, a Jewish youth organization in high school. However when I got to college, I'm saddened to say I lost much of my connection to the religion. I still observed the high holidays such as Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah, even though none of my friends at Binghamton are Jewish, and many struggled to understand my connection to these holidays, since I hardly observed any other part of the religion. Here I am, a college graduate, and I have finally re discovered the connection to this beautiful religion that I have craved for the past four years. I regret not taking advantage of the opportunities that Chabad and other Jewish groups on campus had to offer. However, regret doesn't get you anywhere in life. Instead, I will be taking this feeling of regret and turning it into a feeling of opportunity. I spent a good portion of the trip asking Rabbi Levi and other Israeli staff about what simple things I can do on a daily basis to feel more connected to my religion. It's easy to feel connected when you're in the most Jewish country on earth, but carrying that feeling back to America can be difficult. Rabbi has encouraged me to begin my day with the Modeh Ani morning prayer, to say the Sh'ma at least once a day, and of course, attend Shabbat services at Chabad as a graduate student at Binghamton next year.
Throughout Hebrew school, we always learned of the stories of Moses, Noah, Abraham, Joseph and many other prophets and patriarchs. I'm not gonna lie; I was a little skeptical of whether these stories actually held any truth. But coming to Israel and actually seeing where these stories took place has confirmed my faith in Judaism and made me eager to learn more. I've heard all my life what kind of impact Israel can have on people, but I never really understood it until these past 10 days. Now, I will never let that feeling go.
Before the trip, Rabbi Levi asked us to write down our wants and expectations for the trip. One thing I wanted was to witness something incredible, perhaps a miracle. This was obviously a huge expectation, but here's what I learned the past 10 days. Miracles happen every day. Maybe Moses isn't splitting the Red Sea on a daily basis and Noah isn't building an ark and saving mankind all the time, but miracles happen in small doses right before our eyes every day, and often times we don't take the time to appreciate them enough. I witnessed a few extraordinary things this trip, but one was Saturday morning when I went out for services with Rabbi Levi, we spent around 15 minutes looking for the services, when we only had about 40 minutes to spare. If we didn't find it within a few minutes, we would have likely missed out on services. On a deserted street, we found a man walking to the services, through a building, into a random apartment, and into the specific room we needed and we were able to join the Minyan. Maybe this was just pure luck, but in the beautiful land of Israel, I'd like to think it was a little miracle that we happened to wake up when we did which led us to eat breakfast when we did, which made us leave the hotel when we did, which in turn is why we got lost for as long as we did, just so we could run into this man and find the service. If there's anywhere that I would bet on witnessing a miracle on any given day, it would, without a doubt, be Israel.