By Nissa Gossom

After a very busy first day, a quiet, restful Shabbat was very welcome. It all started with a visit to the egalitarian section of the wall on Friday night. What an amazing experience to be able to pray together and a wonderful way to start Shabbat. I have lived in Israel before and had forgotten how quiet and calm Shabbat is in Israel and how much I had missed the peace and quiet.

I had the opportunity to explore more of the Old City and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre with a few people from our group. This is such a beautiful church, with a very interesting history with different branches of Catholicism that have control over different sections of the church. You can really see the difference in the architecture and the way in which services are conducted from one section to the next.

We ended Shabbat with a lovely Havdalah together and then went to the Tower of David for a light show to learn more about the history of Jerusalem. Once Shabbat was over, the city started to wake up and the streets came alive with people out enjoying the evening. It was at that time that our entire group went to grab some ice cream and go shopping, giving us an opportunity to become closer and start a new week refreshed.