Bar Mitzvah Israel Hike
Welcome to Orbi, here you can get ideas on how you can celebrate your bar / Bat Mitzvah in a unique, challenging and full of experiences for the entire family. The idea is to celebrate the Bar / Bat Mitzvah along the Israel Trail, when the highlight is the track to Jerusalem - to do Alia Laregel like in the old days.
Parents and children that are planning Bar-Mitzvah, here you will find information on how to plan the journey, the list of the angels on the track, list of equipment and more important - you can contact us for consultation and assistance.
For more information please contact us: almoga@012.net.il and we will be happy to help you
Few words from Or, the oldest son that did the Israeli track for his Bar-Mitzvah at 2007:
"Bar Mitzvah is only once in your life and in my opinion should take advantage of the situation and do something special. And I mean anything special then something really special not like regular version: ".... I flew to Orlando in the United States, the World Disney ..." or "... I flew to France and then to Holland and then to England ...".
Look, I'm not saying that those experiences aren't fun. On the contrary, I think they are great experiences, but they have no special meaning. They are not something unique, something you will remember when you will be 70 or 80 years old. You can fly abroad at any age and time you want (as long as you have enough money of course)
I chose this trip because I think it's something fun, original and interesting. I have not heard much about "parent and son or daughter" that did the Israel Trail (regardless of Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah).
... "(From a ceremony beginning of the journey, 03/16/2007)
In this website you can learn how build your own journey, and we will more than happy to give you: tips, recommendations, lists ... In short, everything that you need to do a Bar Mitzva track In Israel!
See you at the track
Or Almog
Ps
I want to emphasize that there is no obligation to go on 40 consecutive days in order to experience this special thing. We have many ideas of how you can celebrate a bar mitzvah in the Israeli Track in four days or any time you have available (recommended to go on for at least four days in a row ...) .
After the first track with Or his sister, Shahar, did for her Bat Mitzvah, a journey of four friends and 4 mothers.
And my brother's journey, Ziv, who invited: Howard and Isaac fromthe US to experience together an Alia to Jerusalem: Yehud to the Kotel, 74 km in five days
An article published in the local newspaper after the track of Ziv and Isaac: "Bar-Mitzvah - A journey of values"
The actual meaning of the words “Bar Mizvah” in Hebrew are a person who has come to the age where he's earned the right for doing mizvahs – no longer a little boy who sheds in his parents' doing, this is the ultimate crossroad between the children and adults' worlds.
When my son Ziv neared that crossroad, I felt as if the culture around me has little to offer in terms of ways to signify this important day. To the help came the tradition which emerged in my family for the past few years – what we, the Almogs, like to call “Journey of Values”. Sounds bombastic, true, but in reality there's nothing less basic and simple than that: you just take yourself, a close soul, and start walking. And walking. And walking. You connect with the landscape around you – the physical and the human landscape alike – through your stomping feet.
It began with my firstborn son Or – some six years ago on his Bar-Mitzvah, we took a 600 kilometers journey surrounding the Israel National Trail, a hiking path that crosses our small country from south to north (yet come to think about it, when you're confronted with walking through it all – Israel suddenly starts resembling the huge plains of Texas. Here's what a bit of walking can do to your perception).
My middle daughter Shahar also took a walking journey with her mother and three close friends at the time of her Bat Mizvah, and a full mizvahs circle was completed just last Passover with Ziv, my youngest son. We decided that this time we're going to walk all the way from our home in Yahud to Jerusalem – 5 days of unstoppable walk towards the holy city.
Only this time we thought, why not invite people to share with us what we already know is such an extraordinary experience? And so we wrote to the Jewish Agency, told about our plan – and soon came an answer from Howard and isaac – father and son from Brooklyn, NY, who never visited Israel before and wished to join us and celebrate this way Isaac's big 13.
For 5 days, the four of us walked 17-18 km, full of challenges and difficulties we simply had to overcome together. We visited Israel's memorial sites, heard about the area's history from different people and perspectives, and on the last day we got up and, well, conquered Jerusalem.
As Howard described it in his words, sent to us from Brooklyn a few weeks after their flight back, “Our hike was a unique way to get to Jerusalem, different from the tours anyone else goes on”. And summing it up in a few sentences that were thrilling to read, he also wrote: “Being with Isaac, just the two of us, created a memory and a bond he and I will share for the rest of our lives. It changed the way we interact and has helped him to meet the next set of challenges he is facing as he gets older”. I don't think there's a better way to illustrate the true meaning of the expression “Bar Mizvah