MTA’s Makor Chaim Exchange Program is off to a great start, as 12 MTA sophomores and juniors arrived in Israel at Yeshivat Makor Chaim (YMC) on Tuesday, February 22. Located in Kibbutz Kfar Etzion, Yeshivat Makor Chaim was founded by noted Jewish educators Rabbi Adin Steinzaltz and Rabbi Dov Singer. Each year, a select group of MTA sophomores have the opportunity to live in Israel and attend Yeshivat Makor Chaim for an academic quarter. This immersive experience of Torat Eretz Yisrael allows talmidim to fully integrate into Israeli culture and absorb the spirituality of YMC. In turn, a group of YMC talmidim spend an academic quarter at MTA, where they enhance the spiritual culture of the yeshiva. This year, the program is open to both MTA sophomores and juniors. The MTA talmidim received a warm welcome as soon as they arrived at Ben-Gurion airport, where their madrich and Makor Chaim talmidim greeted them with singing and dancing. Their first week included getting to know the YMC talmidim and rebbeim, lots of amazing learning, a visit to the Kotel and nighttime tour of Yerushalayim, and tiyulim to the Kotel tunnels, Mamila, the Underground Museum and the Rav Kook Museum. They finished the week strong with an inspiring shabbaton at Gruss led by MTA alumnus and current Gruss semicha student Shlomo Anapolle (‘13), who also participated in MTA’s Makor Chaim program during his sophomore year. The shabbaton included a melave malka with the Director of the Yeshiva University Caroline and Joseph S. Gruss Institute in Jerusalem and Rosh Kollel of the RIETS Israel Kollel Rabbi David Miller.