Today was so much fun! We woke up, walked up Tel Azeka, and got to see the beautiful Valley of Ellah. Since this is the site where the David and Goliath Battle was, a few of the TJJers reinacted the story. Mallory was Goliath and Grace was King David. Mallory was very intimidating with her crab hat and ferocious roar, but thankfully Grace managed to “slay” her in the end. After that, we went cave crawing at the Bar Cochba Caves of Tel Goded. During the time of the destruction of the second temple, Jewish rebels hid there to escape from the Romans. Some spots were super small, and I was so impressed that Diesel (6.4 ft) could wiggle through! We all went one after another, sometimes crouching, other times on our hands and knees, and even army crawling. During the middle of our excursion, we crawled into this large area where we could all sit in together. As everyone emerged from the tight hole into this large area, we congratulated and clapped for them. Finally, when everyone got in the large area of the cave, we turned out our flashlights and sung songs. It was kind of scary, but also a super cool experience. It was almost like reinacting our experience at the blind museum. After that, we went to Latrun and went to the Israeli Defence Force Armed Corpse Museum. We broke up into two groups and our guides were Israeli soldiers. A lot of the guys were really into learning about all of the different tanks and which wars they were used for, but I thought it was fun to stand on the tanks and take pictures. While we were there, we relaxed in their air conditioned movie theatre. In the theatre they had a piano. Before the movie started, Yael started playing This Love by Maroon 5 on the piano and Lily jumped on the stage and started singing.  The movie we watched was on the specific roles of the tank core in the IDF. After that, we went to Bar Ilan University with bus 8 to learn why we should take a gap year in Israel after high school. I think it would be a great opportunity to be able to come back to Israel, especially for a whole year. I’m so excited for tomorrow because we get to go volunteer. I can’t wait!

 

– Lissa Leibson