By Liora Bernstein
About a month ago, a huge rain and hail storm battered Israel. The rare April deluge swept across the country forcing the closure of roads and hiking trails due to flash floods. This same weekend, our cohort was supposed to go hiking in Wadi Qelt, which is only about 15-20 minutes away from our home at Hebrew University. Due to all the flooding the days leading up to the hike, we were forced to change our plans because the hiking trails still hadn’t been cleared and were very muddy. After realizing we had to change plans quickly that morning, Rabbi’s Cohen and Zeff, along with our amazing tour guide Jamie took us to Britain Park, a hiking trail right near Beit Shemesh.
Although it was hot and muggy outside, and gnats would swarm us any time we stopped to listen to Jamie speak, everyone was thrilled to be outside and enjoying the best thing that Israel has to offer: hiking trails. Although storms had swept the country just days before and many hiking trails could not be hiked, Jamie reminded us of the importance of tiyulim in Israel. It’s part of Israeli culture to hike the land, and that day, we were doing the most Israeli thing that we could be doing. He told us that the day before, the government had even come out with a statement encouraging Israelis to get out and hike and not to let the storm and flash floods prevent them from doing what they love to do. After we concluded our hike, we were able to do another very quintessential Israeli thing, make homemade pita! We all crouched over the two small pita domes and awaited eagerly for our pita to cook so we could slather it with labaneh and olive oil, or even better, Israeli chocolate spread.
In the afternoon, Jamie led us to the Bar Kochba caves near Britain Park and we were given the option whether or not we wanted to crawl through them. One of my goals for the semester was to push myself out of my comfort zone, and those small dark caves were definitely way out there for me.
Despite this, I was encouraged by my fellow fellows to go in. At first, I was really hesitant, but was so happy that I went through the caves. It was so fun to go through with some of the other cohort members; we were constantly checking in with one another and making sure that everyone had light when going through and knew whether or not to crawl on our stomachs or on our backs.
Even though we couldn’t do what we had originally planned, the tiyul ended up being really fun. It was great to feel like we were really a part of Israeli culture, hiking the land, making pita, and spelunking in the Bar Kochba caves. It felt like the entire country was going on tiyulim that weekend, determined not to let the flooding prevent them from doing something that is so ingrained in the culture.
