My Life Changed Four Years Ago Today

Today is December 31st. To most people it is New Years. To me it is an anniversary of something that changed my life. Four years ago right now I was on my way to Israel for the first time. I went on a trip with Taglit-Birthright Israel. Those ten days shaped a lot of what I did over the next four years and started the chain of events that led to this blog existing.

When I landed at Ben Gurion Airport on December 31st, 2004, I was in a part of my life where I was becoming more religious and I was excited to be in Israel. My grandmother, the Jewish rock of my family, had recently passed away, and she was very excited for me to take the trip. My father and sister had never been to Israel (my sister has now been 3 times) and my mother had not been in about thirty years. I knew that I had family in Israel and that it was a Jewish homeland, but I knew little more than that.

December 31st, 2004 was Friday. My first night in Israel was Shabbos. On the bus, we drove straight to the tayelet, an overlook of the Old City of Jerusalem. I returned to the spot, just a short walk from my cousin’s house in Arnona, two years later. I remember being exhausted and mesmerized by the view over the most important place in Judaism.

We went from there to our hotel, the Prima Kings (another place I would later return to), and prepared for Shabbos. Our bus dropped us off at the Zion gate and we walked through the Jewish Quarter to the Kotel. The reformish Shabbat service did little for me, but while approaching the Kotel I was quickly whisked away by a group shouting “Minyan?”. I was emotionally overwhelmed at that moment and actually teared up as I was davening at the Western Wall of the Temple Mount.

Back at the hotel that night I remember having a few beers (which was a pretty big deal at the ripe age of 19) with new friends as we celebrated the approaching new year. We celebrated as 2005 hit a line of cities leading up to the one we were in, but the New Year was not what changed my life. I was already on that road.

That night walking back to the hotel from the Kotel, I was simply in awe of the city I was in. I fell in love with the most Jewish city in the world. I returned six months after that trip for a month in the Aish HaTorah yeshiva and went back six months after that for a five month stay at Hebrew University. The next winter I returned again with Hasbara Fellowships (my second New Years Eve in Jerusalem). I have not been back since, though I long for a trip to my favorite city in the world.

Do you have a similar story? Let us know in the comments.