Both of us had Tiyuls today! :)

Cari's Tiyul

So I went to the Supreme Court and the Knesset! It was so very cool. I didn't get to take as many pictures as I would have liked. We went to the Supreme Court first and because we didn't have enough girls we only had a small tour of basically just where the court rooms were at. No courts were in session, so unfortunately we didn't get to sit in on any court cases. But it was really cool seeing the building. 

We got to see the largest court room too!

I was so mad when we tried to go into the Library...it was locked!! I wanted to cry though when I saw it.. and then again when I saw it was 3 stories!!!!!! The Library surrounds the pyramid area (which is right before the court room area), when you look up you are literally in a pyramid shaped room.

P.S. there was two sides of this ^

Leaving the Supreme Court :) 

We then went to The Knesset! Which was pretty awesome! Our tour guide was amazing. We first sat in one of the Committee rooms and watched a little video and had an introduction. Next we walked around and she talked a little bit about the history and what not. She showed us Israel's Declaration of Independence (see picture below) and she told us how it came to be signed. Apparently it was signed in trust before the whole thing was actually officially written (while it was blank). It was a very interesting and informative tour. I learned a lot about Israel and the way their parliament operates. In the end we even got to sit in the Plenum (or Chamber) where the supreme authority of the Knesset sits (120 members) it was amazing. Not all members were present at the time but it was cool to actually sit in while important matters were being discussed. 

The Chagall Hall was beautiful. Everything in the room was done by one artist whom the hall is named after, Marc Chagall (tapestries and mosaics covered the walls and floors). I only have pictures of 2 of the 3 tapestries, "the vision of the end of days", "exodus", and the return to Zion" are the names of the 3. Crazy it's not even paint painted on.. its of 100's of threads put together (took the artist 8 years to make them). Beautiful.

Baruch's Tiyul 

Hi everyone, this is my first time writing on our blog...here it goes. Today Shapell's Darche Noam Yeshiva traveled to Haifa to visit the Shem Olam institute. Cari did the same Tiyul, I think in January, so sorry for the repeat. Shem Olam is devoted to archiving and analyzing documents from the Shoah (Holocaust). They focus on the fine details of the events endured by the Jewish victims of the Nazis.

In the first picture below are objects discarded next to the Chelmno Death Camp. The objects, deemed sentimental by those that carried them on the way to the gas chambers include two Kiddush Cups, Two Shabbos Challah knives, a Star of David, etc. The second  picture is of a Passover Haggadah and pieces of a shattered Passover Seder plate. Despite the conditions in the Ghettos, people held on to their observance and risked their lives to practice the commandments to the best of their ability.

Below is a Torah scroll burnt by the Nazis. This was found in 2004 in the attic of a home, which was inside the Warsaw Ghetto, while the home was being renovated.

Following the touching lecture, we took a short bus ride to the Tel Aviv port. We had lunch  sitting in a public amphitheater seen below while we enjoyed the beautiful sights.

The guys of Darche Noam finished our day helping to box up food for the poor Jews of Israel. I could not help too much because of my back after the long day, but my friends were able to pack food, dish soap, and body soap into NINETY boxes that would be distributed by Yad Eliezer to the needy Jews of Israel regardless of observance.