A Brief Description of School

Welcome to Yehuda HaLevi

A few weeks ago my brothers and I started school at a religious public school called Yehuda HaLevi.  I have been informed that in Israel there are three kinds of public schools: regular (secular) public school, Jewish (religious) public school and Arab public school.

In our school, Jewish religion and Torah are embedded in almost everything. For example, if our class gets yelled at, which is quite often, the teacher refers to the Torah and tells us what it has to say about what we did.  Every morning we pray Shaharit extensively.  (Since everybody speaks Hebrew we get through praying almost all the prayers.)  It takes at the most 25 minutes.

Yom Yerushalayim ceremony at school (Koby is third from left in the front row)

Through-out the week we have nine classes having to do with the Jewish religion:

•   Three classes of Torah
•   Two classes of Navi (Prophets)
•   Three classes of Gemara and Mishna
•   And one class at the end of the week which deals with Parshat Hashavua (weekly Torah portion).

My brothers and walk to and back from school alone almost every day.  So far school has been great to me and I have been enjoying it.  The kids are really really nice and do not make fun of my Hebrew.    

Water, Water and More Water

Water, Water and More Water

By Yonah Davis

View of terraced hillside in Sataf outside of Jerusalem

                Almost everybody says Israel does not have a lot of water. They most likely would add that it is important to conserve as much water as possible. It is true that everybody should try to conserve water, even if they don’t live in Israel. But is it true that Israel does not have a lot of water?

                On March 14 my family went on a hike in Sataf. Sataf is located on a hill outside of Jerusalem. Sataf is one of the many hiking trails in Israel. The trail was extremely beautiful. Along the trail we saw examples of how people lived a while ago.

                In biblical days most people were farmers. They would plant crops to feed their family. The farmers figured out a creative way to get the water to their plants.

                My dad, my brother and I walked down a set of steps toward a tunnel entrance. This tunnel led to the source of water in the middle of the hill. My dad, brother and I were out to find what was at the end of the tunnel. Equipped with four flashlights, we started on our adventure.

                After a few minutes and a steep step up, we reached the end of the tunnel. At the end of the tunnel was a cave and in the back was a natural spring where the water came from. The floor was a bit wet.

                We made our way back following the small stream. The stream led us out of the tunnel and back to the steps overlooking the collection pool that the small stream had formed. It was amazing to think that such a small stream could form a pool. 

                The collection pool was connected to irrigation tunnels. The irrigation tunnels went down the hill. At every place that needed water there was an irrigation tunnel that provided the plants with water. The water though, was not only used to water crops; the people used if for laundry.

                Today Israel’s population has grown and more people need Israel’s water. Israel lends water to its neighbor so there is even less water. Israel has water but a lot of it is not suitable for drinking. Think about the Dead Sea that is tons of water, but humans can’t drink it. Even people long ago thought about conserving Israel’s water.

Yonah and Koby in the tunnel to the spring at Sataf