Midreshet Moriah
Yishuv Shabbaton!
This past weekend we had our annual 'Yishuv Shabbaton'- a real highlight of the Midmo experience! Our Yishuv Shabbaton, or community shabbaton, is designed to enable to students to spend a weekend together in a religous zionist community that has many American families living alongside Israeli families, to enjoy the breathtaking view that Neve Daniel has, and to meet some interesting people and hear their fascinating stories.
On Friday afternoon the Midreshet students piled on buses and headed out to Neve Daniel, together with Rav Ezra and Devora Starr, Rena and Eitan Coren , Rav Adi and Bracha Krohn, Michal and Sam Porath Zibman and all of their families and joined local Neve Daniel residents Rav Eitan and Sally Mayer and family, and Fagie and Aryeh Reves and family for a weekend packed with excellent speakers, great Torah, fun activities, and some delicious homemade cooking that our Eim Bayit Fagie is famous for!
Friday night the girls davened in the various minyanim that the community has, including the very uplifting sing-song Carlebach minyan. We then had a beautiful seudat shabbat together. After dinner we had an interactive panel discussion where 4 women spoke to the students about their careers and the different challenges that they had while establishing themselves and their families. Next up on the program was guest speaker Yarden Frankel, whose hysterical stories about how he became religious and the experiences he had when moving to Israel kept the girls laughing for the entire duration of his speech. Even though it was late at night when he finished, we all played a crazy game together led by our ever energetic rakezet, Bracha Krohn.
The next morning the students split up amongst the various shuls, and then ate lunch at their hosts homes, while learning more about the families who had made the decision to come on Aliyah and live in Neve Daniel. We then gathered together in the Mayers backyard and split into groups, and each group together with a Midreshet staff member, and spoke about different experiences they've had over the year and how it impacted them. After that activity, we went back up the hill to Fagie and Aryehs for seuda shlesheet, where Sally Mayer was the guest speaker. Fagie baked up a storm which our girls, as tradition has it, devoured. There was some beautiful singing, and after Rav Eitan led everyone in Havdalla- Carelbach style, the students broke out into spontaneous dancing.
It really was a fantastic weekend!