ATV Chabad trip

Yesterday morning I woke up at 4:40, far too early since we didn't leave until 6:50, for a trip up north. Although I should, I don't remember the exact name of the town we were in but we went ATVing and zip lining somewhere near the Kinneret (sea of Gallilee) which was great. We stopped at a restaurant for our first of 4 free meals with excellent humus before heading to the hotel. We had a wonderful Shabbas complete with services, dinner, lunch, and dinner again with inspirational and slightly brainwashing speeches from the Chabad crew. Chabad is one of the biggest Hasidic movements in Orthodox Judaism. My first experience with Chabad was at the Brandeis Chabad house and I must say they were great times. This Shabbas I was fortunate enough to learn much more about the lifestyle and set of beliefs from the inspirational speeches and through talking with the religious women and men. Although it is not the way I choose to lead my life, there is no doubt that the speeches and conversations throughout our Shabbas were very eye opening and sparked many conversations among friends. There were many ideas such as "everyone has a story," the five levels of pleasure, and "people are like trees" (seems weird at first but think about it, roots, trunk, branches, always growing, etc.) that were of course, easy to understand and relate to. There were also many things I had a hard time accepting, hence, I am not an Orthodox Jew. It was interesting to talk to Dani and Yomi who were both 23 and have only been religious (note, in Israel "religious" is pretty synonymous to "Orthodox," different than America) for two years. They told us about growing up and their typical American college experience and how they got from there to where they are now, religious, shomer negiah, and living in Israel. Someone who is Shomer Negiah or, "observant of Negiah," does not have physical contact with the the opposite sex with a few exceptions (spouse, children, parents and a few others). Clearly talking with them influenced many conversations back in the hotel room.

I learned a lot, had more stimulating conversation, took a real shower, slept in an actual bed, and saw the beautiful yet severely low Kinneret. Speaking of the beauty...the Kinneret looked so beautiful when we were on the beach I actually was speechless. The bright sun hitting the silver water that came to a white line where it ran into the foggy outline of the mountains which met the subtle blue sky was unbelievable. Of course, although breaking Shabbas, I tried and failed miserably to capture this in a picture but there are a few good ones when the sun was lower in the sky.
All the pictures from this weekend: http://picasaweb.google.com/SpivackL/ATVTrip?feat=directlink


Bed time for now, good adventures to come this week. As well as a new title for my blog, my mind is racing and I'm too indecisive right now. Also, I passed a Medtronic logo on the side of a building in Hertzliyah, I think that's a sign for mom!

-Lauren