Yuval Farjun, principal of OTS’s Jacob Sapirstein High School for boys in Ramot, Jerusalem, relates that about a month ago, one of the 12th graders approached him and said, “I need to correct something I did wrong.”  

It seems that a year and a half ago, when Farjun first became the school’s principal, he took the students for a sunrise selichot tiyul in the ancient hilltop fortress of Sartaba. “I suffered very much with all the hiking,” the boy told Farjun, “my shoes were torn and the entire trip I blamed you and the other faculty members for the nightmare. Today I am so sorry that I didn’t take full advantage of that journey and I understand that it was the best thing you could possibly have given to us,” he said.

Farjun told the boy – “Choose a day, whenever you want, and I’ll take you back there, and bring whichever friends you want.”

And here, in this photo, is the result of that conversation. After an exhausting night of hiking and climbing, joking, telling stories and engaging in serious conversation, the group of boys reached the top of Mount Sarta just as the sun rose. “The new day brought with it a sense of gratification and fulfillment for these boys who, having just graduated from high school, are standing on the brink of adulthood full of promise,” says Farjun.