It's been a very exciting week at Midreshet! On Sunday, we began our week with a tiyul to Nachal Og with our beloved tour guide Brian Shapiro, whom we had the privilege of learning from during our Lech Lecha trip back in October. Baruch HaShem we were fortunate to have such beautiful weather amid the almost surreal scenery. Climbing up the metal-rung ladders was our favorite part of the hike, as we all worked together to make it up the ladders before progressing as a group. Since this wasn't such a strenuous hike, we were truly able to enjoy each other’s' company. We would like to extend a special thank you to our incredible faculty -Rav Jason, Yaakov (Midreshet’s new Executive Director), Shelby, Avichayil, Aliza and our madrichot, Miriam and Leora, for joining us on the hike. Special thanks also to Rav Eitan and Ruthie for cooking the delicious barbeque that we enjoyed afterwards! Before the barbeque at Ein Fashcha, we took a small detour to a gas station where some girls took brief camel rides and even had the opportunity to lead the camel in place of the professional! Ein Fashcha couldn't have been a better location to spend the rest of our afternoon. 

Later that night, we were heard from a life coach named Abby Dishi on the topic of personal growth and empowerment in connection to Tu B'Shvat. We discussed the stages of plant growth and connected the process to our personal challenges and our commitments to making positive changes in our lives. "It was really interesting to learn about Hashem's creations in nature while transforming the physical into the spiritual," one student said. One main point Abby stressed is having patience throughout the growing process and not getting frustrated with ourselves when change doesn't occur instantaneously. It was a lovely evening and a meaningful way to end our full day of activities. 

On Monday we had a special guest speaker for Shiur Klali, Dr. Esther Shkopf, Dean of the Blitstein Institute for Women, HTC, Chicago.  Dr. Shkopf spoke about Tehillim, perek 8, and our connection to Hashem aiming to bring the shechina down to earth as well as elevating earthly matters up to Hashem.

Wednesday was Tu’b’Shvat and we had a great ‘Seder Tu b’Shvat with our very own Rav Ari Shvat. More about that in next week’s news so stay tuned……

Shabbat Shalom! 

Talia Klein, Victoria Kalmanowitz, and Libbe Kimmelman