2/2/00: 12:03pm JST- We are well into our flight to Israel. When we first began discussing the possibility of going to Israel together (in a meeting on 10/18/99) I never thought that we would get this far. But here were are at 37,000 feet going 575 miles per hour over Europe. Our plane was delayed over an hour and we are sitting in the narrowest seats ever invented but all else is going smoothly.

2/11/00- 7am JST. We just got back from the davening vatikin at the Kotel. (we prayed with the rise of the sun). When I was in 9th grade, Rabbi Fine taught is about the specific times of the tefilot (prayers) throughout the day. When he told us about the group of people who pray vatikin at the Kotel every day I thought that was the silliest thing in the world. Who wants to wake up that early. Over the past five years the minyan that I attend ends up finishing most days way BEFORE sunrise. I felt it was only fitting for me to get up early and fulfill this special mitzvah. I also had the zechut to lead the people in the morning tefilah.

2/13/00- 9:20am JST. Shabbos was great. Kabbalat Shabbat at the Kotel. Dinner at the Hilton. Shacharit at the Great Synagogue. Lunch at the Plaza. A Nap! Right after Shabbat we went shopping on Ben Yehuda. The famous Ben-Yehuda I have heard so much about all these years. We went from store to store collecting the many gifts we needed to buy for people back home. The Ben-Yehuda experience ended with a birthday celebration for Robert at Burger King. After working on the Burger King advertising account for more than ten years this is the first time I had actually eaten in one. Sunday morning and it was Vatikin at the Kotel. This time it was raining so we davened inside. On Friday we prayed with a group of young students who took advantage of great weather to daven early. Today almost everyone there in the room off to the side were the "hard core" Vatikin Minyoaires. There were about 150 people there davening in 10 different minyanim in every nusach imaginable. There was screaming and crying as far as the ear could hear until at one singular moment at the exact time of sunrise there was complete silence as EVERYONE in the small room began the Shmoneh Esrei together. In one voice Jews from all backgrounds praying in unison. There is no where else in the world to experience something like this. Over the past five years I have made it one of my goals to go to minyan every morning. This was one of my most meaningful tefilah experiences ever.