Israel, Me and the JWRP

There are over 90 women from 5 different cities. We have come together on the trip of a lifetime sponsored by JWRP...Jewish Women's Renaissance Project....to learn, to grow, to experience, to see, to....change the world....one woman at a time. I am on a bus with 50 of the women. We take turns going to the front of the bus to "tell our story." How did we get there? What are our thoughts? What will we take home? Why did we come? So we talk and we listen. This particular day we are on our way to Masada. We have already been to Tiberias, Safat, the Old City and parts of Jerusalem. We have heard talks on Lashon Hara (gossip), The kabbalah of You and World Perfect.

You can smell the holiness in the land of Israel...it's in the air. Stress has been eliminated for us on this trip...no cooking, no cleaning, no carpooling, no e-mailing, no laundry, no kids, no whining....No MEN. We can think about ourselves. When was the last time we did that? I cannot even remember. So we learn and we absorb. We think about ourselves, our families, our communities, our country and our world. Can we really save the whole world? So many people have come before us and in their merit we are able to be in Israel. We feel them around us...their stories, their lives, their legacies. We are inspired. Our eyes and hearts are open. We meet soldiers. They tell us their stories. We listen and our hearts go out to them. They are protecting this country. They are protecting the world.

We wonder....who are we as Jewish women? Lori Palatnik lifts us up and Rabbi Spiro and Esti Herskowitz (our tour guides) imbue us with history. So many people have worked so hard to provide us with this experience. We need to show thanks to this country...so we do what any good woman would do. Given a spare moment, we shop. We are helping the Israeli economy. We are paying back. But seriously, we have to ask ourselves how will we pay forward? How will we live our lives so that the next generation will merit to be in this land? We bring all this back and now...the work begins.