\"That\'s when I miss you, you who are my home\" - \"Orange Sky\" lyrics

We began our second day in the land of Israel by visiting Yad Vashem, Israel\'s National Holocaust Memorial.

As we had just come from Poland, we did not go into the actual museum, but rather spent our time walking around the extensive gardens. Among other things, we saw all the trees marked with plaques, one for each Righteous Gentile (there are to this day about 22,000 documented ones). The name of Yad Vashem comes from Isaiah 56 in the Bible, where we read the phrase, \"I will give them a monument and a name. I will give them a permanent name that will not be forgotten.\" I won\'t dwell on this other than to say that, despite the oppressive heat, the walk was really nice and we got to see the many representations that the Israeli people - and the Jews in general - give to the Holocaust and their rebirth.

One of the most amazing parts of the day was walking for 30 minutes through Hezekiah\'s tunnel, which was used to fetch water as far back as 700 BCE!! I\'m pretty certain that it is the kind of

"Jerusalem, if I forget you, let my right hand forget what it's supposed to do" - Matisyahu lyrics

Our first day in Israel was somewhat unreal. First, it should be noted that we flew into Tel-Aviv at 5am and did not check into our hostel in Jerusalem (yes, completely different city) until the afternoon; in other words, we were straight to touring from the airplane. It is also important to keep in mind that I still had a full fever while this was going on, but, as usual, ascribed to the "mind over matter" axiom that leads me to (often erroneously) believe that I can kick my own sicknesses into remission, and kept pushing along.

We got off the airplane in an excited frenzy despite the dire lack of sleep and the less than desirable conditions provided by Lot airlines...those two elements quickly became worth it (personal bias here) when we: (a) happened upon the Israeli National Soccer Team at the airport and (b) knelt down in mass to kiss the ground. It was a muggy, hot, dark morning but we were here, we were in Israel!!

Our sojourn began with a visit to Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, which was named after the 26 year-old commander of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. It was oddly anachronistic to be in a place that was named after so