This week was an amazing one, full of true natural wonders. 

On Friday, the Ramahniks left the Chava to go to their “adopted” Shabbat in Ramot. Basically, several Israeli families took everyone in, and then spent Shabbat with them. This left us USYers alone with our madrich, Ezra, for the first time. 

Before Shabbat started, we all took cabs to the new Beit Nativ, at the Conservative center, where we met with the participants of HeChalutzim Seminar, who were “adopting” us for the night. They had been in Israel for the past two weeks, seeing the country to be able to go home and promote USY’s Israel programs. I had a lot of fun with them, hearing about what they had done. There was also a shabbaton for the students at the Conservative Yeshiva, to which many “famous” Jews came, which was cool too! 

As soon as we left Beit Nativ, it started to pour, raining in sheets! We had a forty-minute walk ahead of us, so we decided to make the best of it. We began to sing Shabbat z’mirot as the rain made our hair and clothes cling to our bodies. Umbrellas were useless, since the wind blew the downpour everywhere. Once we ran out of z’mirot to sing, we began other songs, from Rent, and a lot of The Beatles’. But the nicest thing about the walk was that I said, “Shabbat Shalom.” to everyone we passed, and though I received many, “Crazy Americans!” looks, everyone returned the greeting. 

After drying off, we went to sleep, tired, but united in a way that only singing in the rain can make a group. The next morning we went to Mayanot for Shacharit. It was also a minute-minute walk away. 

The walk was less fun without the rain, but we did manage to get to synagogue before the Shema, dry. This is a Masorti (Israeli Conservative) minyan, which meets in the Masorti High School every Shabbat morning, and on Friday nights once a month. The D’var Torah was in Hebrew, and I was, to my surprised delight, able to understand it completely. 

After services, congregants took us in for lunch. Heidi and I (vegetarians stick together) went home with the Youth Director of Noam, Israeli USY. He, and his American wife, helped us to understand what it is like to be Masorti in Israel. It was extremely interesting. They had a girl, a boy, and then a baby girl. All three were adorable. 

Sunday and Monday we had class. And then, Monday night, it began to snow, and was coming down hard. However, we doubted that the snow would stick to the wet ground. But when we woke-up Tuesday, the ground was covered; not more than two inches, but definitely covered. All classes, as well as our tiyul to the Old City for Christian and Muslim sites, were cancelled. Instead, we watched “Dogma,” to brush up on our knowledge of Christian theology. It was nice to have a day to relax and play. Since it continued to snow Tuesday, we planned on sleeping late, until Shacharit at nine, on Wednesday. We did so, and all classes but the Jewish history class, AP English, and Hebrew were cancelled. By the end of the day there were possibly seven inches. 

It was so funny to be here in the snow. It hasn’t snowed here for two years. The mayor of Jerusalem cancelled all school, with a big smile on his face, specifically so that children could play in the snow. At the Chava, they plowed the roads with a bulldozer, and, for lack of shovels, tried to clean paths with squeegees. The snow also turned to slush as soon as you walked in it, because the ground retains heat. And it wasn’t that cold out, even though it was snowing. Snow is always beautiful, and having it snow in a desert country was pretty amazing. 

Today, our tiyul was up north, to Tzippori. We started off for the two-hour bus ride after breakfast and Shacharit. I promptly fell asleep, until I woke up to find the bus stopped on the side of the road. The bus had broken down. We waited fifty minutes of a new bus to come. Tzippori is an incredible site, once on gets there. It was the seat of the Sanhedrin, the main Jewish court, at the time the Mishnah was codified and written down. Throughout the site there are beautiful mosaics, the most famous of which is the “Mona Lisa of Tzippori.” The one in the Roman market is full of pagan symbols, recounting Greek mythology. This is no surprise. What is shocking is that the synagogue also contains these graven images, one of the Greek god Helios. It is incredible to see that the rabbinic law that modern Jews follow was written in a place of such assimilation. 

As we were sitting in the ancient theater of Tzippori, we saw a rainbow over the valley. There is so much natural beauty in this country, between the rain and snow, and of course, rainbows. The rabbis were correct when they said that out of all the beauty given to the world, God gave nine tenths to Israel, and that nine tenths of that then went to Jerusalem. 

In prayer that this country will be seen as beautiful, and not war torn, someday soon!