Running a 9-days tiyul can sometimes be pretty difficult, especially while trying to balance the seriousness of the time period together with having a great experience. The Kollel rose to the challenge and came up with four different ideas which gave all the NCSYers, not only an enjoyable experience, but a meaningful one as well. A trip to Judaism’s great rabbinic leaders was one option which the boys took advantage of. One bus headed to Yerushalayim with the Kollel’s own Rabbi Gordon which was headlined with a shiur given by Rav Asher Weiss. The other Gadol trip headed to Bnai Brak with Akiva Ackerman. This one stopped by R Chaim Kanievsky and the NCSYers were able to witness some of the holiness the Rav possesses.
The next trip went to the Shomron with Rav Mo Kaplan. They made some stops across the Shomron witnessing it’s naturally beauty as well as understanding the danger which the citizens put themselves in daily. Stopping at Beit El and the sight of Mishkan in Shiloh we were taken to our past, before looking to the future in Kfat Tapuchim to witness some dog training. Later on the NCSYers were taken to a lookout on Har Grizim where you could see Shechem and the Kever of Yosef from above.
The trip to the old city went a little less far back into the past. As they visited Ir David and learned how Dovid constructed the sight of his palace right next to the Old City. Following that the NCSYers exploredt how Chizikayahu built underground water tunnels in order to take away the water from Sancheirev and his army. The boys were excited to hear about the miracle of how the Assyrians fell but were even more excited to walk through the actual tunnels which Chizikiyahu built. Following the tunnels, the groups moved to the virtual reality tour of Har Habayit and the Beit Hamikdash in its full glory. It was really cool to see the grandeur of the building and the details which were depicted on each and every aspect of its structure. The boys were saddened to realize what we no longer had but began to appreciate what will eventually come in the future. For these trips, the last activity was a much more relaxed scavenger hunt around the Old City which have everyone running around the Rova taking selfie’s with mosaics, finding obscure door handles, and spitting raps
The final option was made to educate the NCSYers about some of the modern-day tragedies that have affected our people. Starting in Har Herzl we learnt about the great sacrifices which many have made for our country. Then in Kfar Etzion the boys learnt about the sacrifices many had to make during the wars in order for Israel to continue to exist. Unfortunately we learnt that those sacrifices didn’t stop even in recent times as they visited the memorial for the three kidnapped boys from the Gush as well.
The trips all ended together in Chevron where we all enjoyed some hot pizza, crunchy chips and way-too-sweet ices. After nourishing ourselves the Kollel made their way up to the Keverim of Maarat Hamachpela. There we heard some inspiring words from R’ Netanel Lebowitz, who challenged everyone to step up just a little more during tefilah to make it into one of the most meaningful of the summer. He reminded everyone that Chevron is the place where we can connect to G-D even when Jerusalem is destroyed, implored the crowd to take advantage of this opportunity. Together the Kollel davened one of the strongest, loudest and most meaningful marivs of the summer.
Heading back to Beit Meir, the day still wasn’t done. Moshe Horn made a siyum and Yummies opened up, allowing the boys to enjoy the simcha of Torah and, by extension, the simcha of meat as well.
