The actual experience turned out to be much more meaningful. There is something about the little country surrounded by its larger enemies, that creeps into the heart of all those who manage to experience its inner greatness.
There is a place in the land of milk and honey beyond the Dead Sea, Kotel, streets of Tel Aviv, terrible drivers and news reports of war and terror. a place that sits beneath the surface.
A place that makes cockroach-ridden flats, hot humid days and sleepless nights worth their suffering. A place called home, and home truly is where the heart is.
Like our ancestors we travelled our home land. Trading in the camels for an air-conditioned bus we crammed the whole state into a ten day action packed journey. The hardest part of Israel to stomach is that most of the people living there are completely secular.
Although secular they are not un-Jewish. Friday night suppers usually consist of a brief discussion of the week's torah portion without Kiddush or hamotsie and a brief meal after which children walk into the dark streets safe and alone to meet there friends and enjoy the freedom of youth.
I'm confusing you here with my feelings for a country I can't explain. But feelings that will stay with me forever. I would like to describe two such experiences with you.
The first would be watching the sun rise over the dead sea standing on Massada, an experience so awe inspiring it made waking up at four in the morning worthwhile. The second would be with my head pressed to the western wall bound in leather and feeling as though I'd found my inner peace.
To me Israel is more than a country with a Jewish flag. It is a place I can always turn to when the rest of the world is blinded by its own suffering. A real and true home away from home.
Gareth Hall, 16, a Netzer madrich from Johannesburg, tells