Emma Wergeles
Staff WriterBeing away for four months may seem like a long time, but it feels like just yesterday I got off the plane at Ben Gurion International (Tel Aviv) airport. My program is called TRY, it stands for Tichon Ramah Yerushalyim. Tichon means high school, Ramah is the Jewish Conservative camping movement and Yerushalayim is Jerusalem, the city where I am living. We spend every Thursday and half of Tuesday touring around Israel while simultaneously learning about these places chronologically in class. Other than that, I am doing normal high school every day, except Saturday. Yes, that does include Sunday.To me, the religious aspect of the program has three different sections: daily prayer, Shabbat and the holiest place in the world for Jews: The Kotel (Western Wall).First, daily prayer. Since this program is part of the Conservative movement, we pray a lot. We pray after breakfast and lunch, and we are supposed to pray after dinner, but that rarely happens anymore. The religious aspect of this program plays a huge role in the social aspect as well. There are a lot of semester programs in Israel to choose from of all different Jewish denominations, so if you choose TRY then you know that you are going to have to pray and partake in Jewish activities regularly. A majority of the kids in the program are very devoted to praying and the religious aspect, however, there are always a few kids who complain and whine about the constant religiousness.The most special part of being in Jerusalem is Shabbat, which goes from Friday night to Saturday night. Because Jerusalem is a very religious city, almost everyone stops on Shabbat. We don’t drive, we don’t use technology and we all walk to temple in the morning. It is the only place in the entire world where almost everything stops for a full day and in my eyes, it is magical. It is such a unique thing to see being from Santa Monica, where the hustle and bustle never stops, even for a few hours. It is truly one of the most beautiful and unique things that I have experienced in my life.Finally, the Kotel, it is an experience, good, bad, emotional, or emotionless, everyone has their own reaction to this “wall.” Everyone always talks about how when they walk up and touch the Kotel they automatically have this epiphany/intense connection to God. The first two times that I visited the Kotel on past trips I felt a slight connection. However, this time I felt something else. It wasn’t tears running down my face, but a pure yearning to touch and be a part of this wall. If you have ever been to the Kotel you will know that to get to the front and actually touch the wall is a struggle.Pushing through Jews is scary enough, but pushing through praying Jews, good luck! I, however, knew that I could not leave that place without getting that touch, that kiss, that prayer. For me, today was a breakthrough. I found a new connection to the Kotel, to the beautiful place that my ancestors walked and prayed. As I stood at the wall with my head leaning against it, I wasn’t praying or talking to God. I was thinking about how incredible these next few months of my life are going to be and how this wall plays such a huge part in my life and in my culture.Overall, the experience has been so amazing and I am so grateful to be able to spend time in this beautiful, spiritual and communal place with 45 new people that have become some of my closest friends.ewergeles@thesamohi.com
