Yesterday, the final FZY Israel Tour buses left for the airport. For more than 600 chanichim, three extraordinary weeks in Israel had come to an end. Bags were packed, friendships were celebrated, and parents waited eagerly for arrivals back in the UK.

However, this week’s parsha, Eikev, makes me wonder whether that is really the right way to think about it. As the Jewish people stand on the brink of entering the Land of Israel, Moshe tells them:

“וְזָכַרְתָּ אֶת־כָּל־הַדֶּרֶךְ” “Remember the entire journey…” (Devarim 8:2)

“וְזָכַרְתָּ אֶת־כָּל־הַדֶּרֶךְ” “Remember the entire journey…” (Devarim 8:2)

Not simply the destination; the journey. It is a remarkable instruction. After forty years in the wilderness, you might expect Moshe to focus on the Promised Land itself. Instead, he insists that the journey matters just as much as the arrival. The experiences, the challenges, the uncertainty, the moments of growth; all of these are part of what shaped the people standing before him. That strikes me as an incredibly profound description of education.

As Executive Director of FZY, people sometimes ask me what makes FZY Israel Tour so special. Is it Jerusalem? Masada? The Kineret? The desert? The FZY Maccabiah? The friendships? The hiking? The volunteering? The answer, of course, is all of those things, and yet, at the same time, it is none of them. Because Israel Tour has never simply been about taking young people to places. It has........

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