To begin talking about my experience in Israel I feel I have to start by mentioning what brought me here in the first place. It all started when I heard about the Taglit Birthright trips. After my first visit in February 2007 as a Birthright Participant I went back to Costa Rica with the clear idea that my life would never be the same and the beginning of a big change in the course of it had started. I dedicated a big portion of my efforts that year to find out how I was able to get back to Israel. I found an organization called MASA-Israel Journey that gives grants to young Jews from around the world to experience life in Israel. I found myself all packed up and on a plane to Israel on January 2008. I knew that this decision would be completely life changing but could not even begin to understand up to what degree. Like the MASA song says, my journey had just begun.  

Since this date until now a lot of different emotions have crossed my mind but I’d have to say that the strongest feeling that doesn’t seem to find a way out of my thoughts is how amazing this country is and all the passion that is felt by it’s culture, people tradition, diversity, religion, language, and everything else that derives from all of this. Since I have had the chance to hear the Israeli point of view and experience it myself, I finally grasped a better understanding of the political and religious aspects and can come to my own conclusions of certain situations that before would only puzzle me.

Attending the MASA Shabbatons where I met young Jews from all over the world and learned about Israel and Judaism helped me broaden my mind and amplify my horizons. I was lucky enough to participate in MASA’s BFL (Building Future Leadership) course and among other rewarding things I was able to grasp a better idea of the Israel - Diaspora relationship and learn how to form a project to take back to my community or develop here.

Through my eyes, I have seen that here in Israel, just like in the Diaspora, there are many “degrees” of Judaism if you can call them that. Even though it is a small country you are able to see all type of Jews that live the religion each in their own way. Orthodox, Chasidic Secular, Modern Orthodox, all live in the Jewish state, all breathe the sacred land’s air but feel Jewish each in their own way. Yet, the difference with the Diaspora is that Judaism is lived “freely”. You do not have to go or belong to a synagogue to feel like a Jew because you are already living in the land of Israel, in a Jewish state.

Living here, and experiencing the Jewish holidays as another Israeli has helped me get much closer to my feelings towards Judaism and finally live it as what it is for me, a way a life. Finding mostly kosher products on supermarket shelves, not eating chametz in Pesach or not traveling on buses during Shabbat along with everyone else are just a part of what makes me feel I belong here. Seeing a complete city which is in constant movement stop for two whole minutes to commemorate the Holocaust and once again to commemorate those fallen in past wars was impressive. The fact that the entire country units in one same cause makes me feel I’m a part of something so much bigger than this, than me, than anything else I would have ever imagined.   

I have had the opportunity to travel to several parts of the country and learn about its history and how the state was formed. I had already been to many of these places before yet, they never cease to impress me. Every visit seems as though it were the first. They all have their own story to tell, a different theme placed mysteriously placed in its own era. They are flooding with stories of the past, of battles and conquests, of distant populations. Being there made me feel I was living in that time, living the anguish or the happiness, the fears, sorrow, pains or joys felt by the Jewish people that walked those lands before us.   

Two great experiences happened this month that I was lucky to be a part of, the presidential conference where I had the opportunity to see world leaders and the MASA LIVE Event that I had the honor to host. Both moments created memorable impressions that I will never forget.

These four months here have only strengthened my desire to become a part of Israel, of its people, of its land. Before, I didn’t feel complete, as if though something was missing. Now, living in Israel, I fell the missing part of the puzzle is finally in its place. Up to now my experience in this amazing country has been very rewarding. I’ve met new people, heard many different points of view, seen a part of the world at some point in my life I would never even dreamed of visiting and most of all experienced Judaism and the Jewish people in a completely different way than what I was used to. I have been given the chance to experience and live Israel and Judaism in my own way.

Since I got here in January I too have changed along with the Israeli weather. I felt chilly when I arrived during the winter and through spring I started felling colorful inside, now that the summer is here I feel all the possible warmth that Israel can give.