Day 1: Excitement, Exhaustion,

DMK:
I'm going to try to label my posts from now on. I have a feeling I will be the only one writing, but hopefully we'll have a guest appearance by my wife (aka MBCK) once in a while. Well it's finally here... June 14th... the date of our departure. We finally found an apartment yesterday! It's in Maalot Dafna, right by Ohr Somayach. I'm very happy with the location. Its close to Meah Shaarim, Town, walking distance to Rechavia/German Colony, and not too far away from Darche Noam and Midreshet Rachel.

I'm becoming more and more excited, although the truth is that although we leave in 5 hours, it still doesn't feel real. I spoke with Rabbi Wolinsky (of O.Z.) this morning about tearing kriyah at the Kotel. Basically, the first time you see the Kotel (the Western Wall) for the first time in a while, you are supposed to tear a piece of clothing, much in the way you would do upon hearing about the death of a close relative (G-d forbid). I have never really torn anything before, always relying on loopholes such as switching shirts with other members of my trip, so the clothing isn't really yours, therefore you don't have the authority to tear it. Rabbi Wolinsky said that it was find to take an old shirt, even one that is already torn, to use for the occasion. I have one or two shirts that fit the bill!

We are almost done packing. As someone said to me last week, we're about to "live the dream." I have grown so much in the 6+ years that I have lived in New York and its now time to take everything I've learned and use it to make this Israel trip one of tremendous personal and spiritual growth for both Melissa and I.