This past weekend was amazin. My sis Sara joined me for half the week so that was cool. We stayed by the Gars. (Shoutout to the Marcuses on Nathan and Marks bar miz trip). Steve Gar was our instructor at the shooting range in Caliber 3. Basically our fam raved about that day and how impressed we were by someone Whoes a soldier, a principal of a Yeshivah for disabled young men, is getting Smicha, and a father. He gave me his number to stay for a weekend so I took him up on that offer.
When we got there, well first of all it's Gorgous there. The weather was great and the houses are all made out of the classic Jerusalem stone. The first thing We saw when We got off the bus was a little boy maybe 4-5 Years old run across the street. Classic Israel. There are no cars driving around an hour before Shabbat so the streets aren't off limits. Ps. This is a settlement so it's really only Jews there.
So yeah we played with his kids when we got there. They were beautifullllll. 
I was blown away by their behavior. They were as wild as Israeli kids should be. Climbing on anything they can find and running around barefoot. What was cool to see was that they listen to their parents the first time they were asked to do something. It is crazy because the parents were so calm. They have four little kids and they listen to everything they say. They basically run a daycare with ages 3 to 9 and there is no nervousness.
So Friday night we went to shul. Obviously Steve has his big gun on him. After minyan no one was allowed to leave, we were so confused. Someone made an announcement in Hebrew basically saying that no one is allowed to leave shul yet. We waited around for a while with Steve not anywhere in sight and I figured he was outside of gun taking care of whatever was happening. So 20 minutes later they made an announcement that we could go home straight and fast. Steve is outside with his gun. He told us to go home not to worry and that he'd be there soon. He told his kids that we are Am Yisrael and that he must protect us.
What really impressed me was the way the oldest son, Gabi, who is nine years old took care of his little siblings. He was responsible enough to make sure they're all okay and to hold their hands and bring them home.
Dinner was great . We had a lot of great and meaningful discussions. Obviously I made them tell us all their stories. Steve's wife, Natalie is so cool. She's Canadian. She's also a great cook. She's a psychologist and You can tell she's like really bright.
Anyways lunch next day was chill. They had another family over. The parents made aliyah and all their kids are Israeli. It's funny because the kids were 18 16. 13 and nine. kind of like my family. In the back of my mind I was picturing my family. Imagine we made Aliyah??. I wonder how we would've turned out LOL
After lunch I read a little bit and Sara tanned LOL not really. But with the nice weather Steve took us on a walk and showed us some of the cool sites in his neighborhood. I didn't know that Elazar, a small settlement could be such an interesting place.
He showed us a balcony overlooking the rest of the Gush. By it was a grape vineyard that was planted two years ago. It was a Memorial for two soldiers that died in battle. In Israel you can't harvest fruit that is growing until the third year. (ערלה) So on the third since the grapes were planted, the family is going to make wine out of them and drink the wine in memory of the soldiers that died. I like how in Israel people make good out of the bad. (It's the second year now, so one more) They come to appreciate that they can live in Israel because of the people that have defended it. It's their friends and family members who do this.
After Shabbat Steve offered to take Sara and I in his Jeep and show us some sites that we couldn't see during the day. One of them is called Derech Haavot. Basically it's the exact road that Avraham Avinu and our forefathers walked on to get from Chevron to Jerusalem, two of the holiest cities in the country. He even proved to tell us with the way the road is situated on the mountain, that it's the same path. It made so much sense and it was so cool how the history is in his backyard. All of this was no more than a five minute drive. After that he showed us a mikveh which was probably dated back about 2000 years. He was telling us about a Gemara and how some of the pesukim correspond specifically to the way it was built. He came to the conclusion that the The mikveh was based on the Gemara because it was constructed with the exact measurements and details as it said. It also made sense that it was situated on the Derech Haavot because people need to be pure to enter Jerusalem or Chevron.
Israel is amazing. Not only is it our land, the land that was given to us, the land of we were chosen to live in, but all of our history has happened here. It's crazy how connected one can feel to a land. It really is home and It can be for so many different reasons but the history just brings it all together because that will never change.
Have a good week y'all
