Day 21: Monday 1st August 2016

Our first activity of the day was an interesting tefillah session on the amidah. We looked at its structure (praise, ask, thank), its origins (the story of Hannah in the temple) and the actual meaning of some of the blessings in the prayer.

After the discussion it was time to bid goodbye to the Ein Tsurim kibbutz, where we'd enjoyed our final Shabbat of tour. As soon as we'd packed our cases and ate a quick breakfast we were on our way to the first destination - the Weiszmann institute of science.

Here we witnessed some astounding scientific phenomena such as a 'singing bowl' that produced sound waves in the water and a sound mirror that allowed us to hear each other whispering from distances of over twenty meters. We were also able to feed some fish and look at lots of rare flora and fauna.

 

 Next, after eating lunch, we took a tour of Machon Ayalon, a kibbutz under which the Haganah built a secret ammunitions factory. It was really interesting to see how they were able to conceal the factory from both the British and the other members of the kibbutz, whilst at the same time producing millions of bullets to help fight for an independent state of Israel. It was astounding to see just how meticulous they were in attempting to keep the bullet factory's existence secret, including the fact that 15 members of the Haganah would work in the field every day in order to keep up the pretence. Those members also showed remarkable determination and intelligence, as they managed to build the secret underground factory in just 22 days.

We finished the day with a more quiet evening, first going to the 'I am Jerusalem' simulator and then to a shopping centre to spend some free time. The Jerusalem 4D simulator was very cool, guiding you through tours of both the ancient and the modern city, allowing for an immersive experience. The shopping centre was even more relaxed and many of us chose to go and eat dinner at the multitudes of burger restaurants, most notably the incredible kosher McDonald's that made for one of the best meals of tour.

By Seth Weisz