Hello everyone!
We spent this past Shabbat in the Moshav Nechusa where we all got to see what an authentic Israeli Shabbat experience was like. We arrived Friday afternoon and were picked up by our respective hosts, most of whom had children around our ages. We rested and got to know our host families a little bit for a few hours before Shabbat started, and then we all joined the community for Kabbalat Shabbat. We then went to our host families for dinner where many of us were able to practice our Hebrew and enjoy home cooked meals.
After dinner we all met up again in a park in the center of the Moshav where many of the local kids spend time on Friday night. Many of us mingled with local Israelis, and we made sure to stay out long enough to sing to Malkah for her birthday.
Shabbat morning we went to synagogue with our hosts and then had a delicious kiddish and went on a short tiyul just outside the Moshav. We then rejoined our host families for Shabbat lunch and a long afternoon to rest. Afterwards, we met as a group again and then joined the local teens for a seudah shlishit where we ate, schmoozed, and had an activity encouraging us to get to know the Israelis on a deeper level. We ended Shabbat with a camp-style Havdallah, and then had a bonfire with the local Israeli teens where we made pita and continued to talk to our hosts. We’re looking forward to another exciting day here in Israel as we enter into our last full week!