A Shabbat of blessings

Shabbat shalom to you all! For nearly two years now we have been working hard to plan this trip.  Back in July of 2013 when we first selected the dates for our journey to Israel the first thing we programmed was this Shabbat (actually we programmed it for next week but because a number of our families are leaving for Israel early we needed to change the date to June 12). On this Shabbat most of our group was together at Temple Adat Elohim so our wonderful Rabbis and community could offer a special blessing for us as we prepare to travel to Israel.  The blessing we received was beautiful, but the lesson I took from last night's service was more profound.  Each person traveling in our group is the blessing.  Israel is the blessing.  Israel will bless us as we experience her beauty, history, her struggles and her triumphs.  And we who have the honor of being there will bless Israel by allowing ourselves to be fully present, by allowing our hearts to be totally open to the experiences that await us.

Traveling to Israel is a mitzvah, and I am honored to be one who is helping so many people fulfill this mitzvah.

After services we all congregated in the social hall to enjoy our oneg Shabbat.  And as usual, as the room started to thin out as people left Temple Adat Elohim, I found that those left were many traveling on this trip.  I think it was David Messe who first approached me and instead of offering a usual good bye handshake said, "See you in Israel." I was so taken with this statement.  For two years this group has been together many times, shared many moments, and we were never able to end our time together with these words.  

And now we can.

I literally threw myself into his arms for a meaningful hug (sorry David!) and what followed was a slurry of "see you in Israel" moments.  You could see the connections between people strengthening as we offered our hopes for safe travels to our home in the east.  Our normal hugs were held a little longer, with more meaning then normal.  

In many ways, Israel has already blessed and changed our group of travelers and we have not even stepped foot on her beautiful soil yet.  I look forward to helping you to share this journey with our travelers through this blog.  I hope it helps you to experience a piece of what we are feeling.  So as I said so many times last night...

See you in Israel!