Masa 2019 Day 1

Today was the first day of Masa Yisraeli, a six day journey connecting each person with different aspects of Judaism, Israel, our communities, and ourselves.

Today was אני ועצמי where we focused on connecting to ourselves and discovering our true selves. We started off the day loading the bus at 5 am to get an early start to our first hike through the crater. We had our first circle time where we described ourselves and asked each other  “who am I.” After a long and challenging five hour hike, we finally made it to our campsite. When we got to the site, we all split up and went to separate locations for 45 minutes where we watched sunset, wrote in our Masa journals and davened mincha. Our Masa guide explained that התבודדות, introspection, is vital to understanding ourselves and finding our true self.

Being alone with our thoughts watching the sunset over the crater in the Negev allowed us all to feel a sense of peacefulness. After this session, we all worked together to cook our own dinner and then ended off the night with singing, bonding, dessert, and a closing circle of the day.