Friday's Early Tiyul

I've noticed how early mornings seem to be the best time to do things, as evidenced by my reactions to davenning, my day at the Schmeedas, and getting up early biweekly for out shabbats. This tiyul, however, involved no early wakeup whatsoever; I stayed up the whole night.

We left the yeshiva at 3:00 a.m., and arrived at the tiyul site around 4:15. The hour-plus trip seemed to pass in as much time it probably takes you to read this sentence. We began hiking up Mt. Arbell, chaperoned by Zevik, and met on the way by Rabbis Meir and Yitzchak. Now, Thursday I wrote about a place called Arbell, but I did not know it was a mountain. It was quite a climb, especially for an exhausted person such as myself. It felt like a 90-degree slope, but I may be underexaggerating. It was a tiring walk, but ultimately rewarding. The coolest part was climbing using ladder-like grips, seeing the sleeping valley stretched out before us in the fading darkness. When we reached the top, we sang some songs as we waited for dawn, when we could pray Shacharit. It was quite a prayer service, seeing the Sea of Galilee and the surrounding villages become illuminated as the seconds ticked by. Also, it was my first Shacharit with the group that week, so that was a plus. We got back to the yeshiva around 8:30, and hit the hay thereafter.

Shabbat was pretty average, I guess. I was invited back to my kibbutz family's for Seudah Shlishit, which was interesting because THERE WAS NO FOOD! At what is literally "the third FEAST." Whatever. It was restful, with reading, Cholent Bowl III, spiritual Kabbalat Shabbat. And as a kicker, the Clippers beat the Lakers to improve to 7-2.

And, for your viewing pleasures, some pictures. Enjoy, and shavua tov.