Yasmine Novian

Staff Writer

Reporting from Israel – As our time in Israel is inching towards a discomforting close, I have come to cherish each last moment. On Sunday night, May 15, we departed for our monumental Yam L’ Yam journey. Our goal was to travel 50 kilometers across northern Israel by foot, literally from one sea to another.

We began our hike at the Mediterranean Sea by throwing a rock into the water, leaving a symbolic trace of ourselves in the land we have grown to love. The following morning we biked for two hours until we reached the beginning of the Israel nation trail. From that point on, we walked anywhere from 8 to 18 kilometers daily, slept in tents, and had no showers or bathrooms available.

An overwhelming sense of great care and trust has been instilled into our community here in Israel. When our dirty and aching bodies finally reached the Kineret, I felt one of the greatest feelings of accomplishment.

One could say that this was an exclusive experience, but it meant significantly more than that. Over the course of these four days, the true values we have gained from Tiferet became apparent. As we climbed through the upper Galilee Mountains across our whole country, we helped each other through the rocky terrain and carried each other on our backs across the creeks. We each held the responsibility of assuring that we would have enough food and water to last us throughout the day.

An overwhelming sense of great care and trust has been instilled into our community here in Israel. When our dirty and aching bodies finally reached the Kineret, I felt one of the greatest feelings of accomplishment. To close our journey, we each picked up a rock and through it into a lake, symbolizing the omnipresent mark Israel left on us, and the mark we have left on Israel.