As we enter Shabbat, we reflect on the fantastic week of community, challenge, and triumph we’ve had together hiking and riding our cycling in northern Israel. 

We look forward to meaningful Kabbalat Shabbat tefillot, a festive dinner, and an evening program about the impact of our Tikvah programs on families. 

But most of all we look forward to some well-deserved rest before continuing our adventures on Sunday.

The moderate hiking group rode the new cable car up Mount Hermon, Israel’s tallest peak, and hiked to Gva’ot Ha’krav – “the Hills of the Battle,” in memory of the soldiers who fell liberating Mount Hermon. They took the chairlift and then the bus down the mountain. 

The advanced hiking group began with a ride to the shoulder of Mount Hermon. They hiked down the mountain via Mount Kahal and from there down to Neve Ativ.

Both groups went to the Tel Dan Nature Reserve for lunch, a site featuring Nahal Dan, one of the tributaries of the Jordan River, before returning to the hotel to prepare for Shabbat.

The Shoafim biking group traveled by bus to visit Agamon HaHula, the Hula Lake, which serves as a resting stop for half a billion birds of hundreds of species during the migration seasons between Europe and Africa. The bus then transferred the group to the Gadot Junction, where they began their ride north, crossing the Jordan River. They stopped at the heart-rending 1997 Helicopter Disaster Memorial near Moshav She’ar Yashuv. Some riders doubled back past Kibbutz HaGoshrim and then turned south through Moshav Beit Hillel.  

The Bogrim and Mumchim biking groups began their day with a bus transfer to Baram National Park, which is famous for its ancient synagogue as well as its beautiful landscape. They headed north and east along the border with Lebanon. Route 886 took them through the Galilee Panhandle.

All groups came to Kibbutz Kfar Blum, where they concluded their rides with lunch, followed by a bus transfer back to Kfar Giladi to prepare for Shabbat.

Shabbat Shalom from Kfar Giladi,
Amy Skopp Cooper, National Ramah Director
Rabbi Mitch Cohen, Senior Advisor
Rami Schwartzer, Trip Coordinator

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