With just a few days left, our bus family came together to celebrate Shabbat in beautiful Yad Benyamin. As our last Shabbat in Israel, people began to truly realize that our journey together was coming to an end. That in less than a week, we would return to our different homes and separate lives back in Canada. We cherished every moment of this Shabbat with incomparable ruach and love, turning our sadness into joy and bringing the shabbat spirit in as a family. We took the time to really look back at our growth, individually and within our community, and take pride in how far we’ve come on this journey. Shabbat is the time to take a step back, to forget about our everyday problems, and to feel the happiness of such a holy day. Our last few days are like our Shabbat, we take the time to come together as a family and to appreciate each other and what G-D has done for us. When we return to Canada, we return to our everyday lives and issues, yet what we can strive to do is to take some of the holiness and joy of Shabbat and, as we try to to apply it to the rest of our week so that we can make every day holy and feel connected and grateful to G-D on a regular basis, we can take what we’ve learned and apply it to the lives we are returning to. This way our journey together is not ending, as we are taking with us not only the knowledge we’ve gained but are returning as different people, and are ready to make a difference with it back home.

Salome Henry