Monica Rozenfeld is a first-generation Russian Jew who only recently fell in love with Israel and everything Jewish. Now she’s kind of obsessed and interviews people about their Jewish journeys on her blog, www.myjewspot.blogspot.com.

Last summer was my first time at the Kotel where the rumor was it goes one of two ways — You either cry your eyes out as you touch the stones of G-d, or, even more humiliating, you feel nothing at all. Your expectations are so high that you just get there and feel nothing.

My experience was a little different. It was nighttime when we arrived. I was on an organized trip and our incredible tour guide Tehila told those of us who have never been to close our eyes and hold hands until we are facing the wall. She played for us a recording of the 1967 war with bombs going off so loudly and the sounds of shouting from the soldiers – a passionate display that what I’m about to see is truly worth fighting for. And as we open our eyes, these stones, dimly lit brought chills down our spines. I was in awe.

Now I’m not sure why I, a girl who grew up unaffiliated without any feelings towards Israel, would be so lucky to walk right in and experience the Kotel firsthand when generations before me could not. But there was a reason I was there; a reason I was able to. And the reason I fell in love with Israel is because it made me stop and ask the deeper questions. Why are we here? What are we expected to do about it?

I went back to the Kotel four times that week. Each time with a new experience. On that Friday traveling to see it once more, my cab driver invited me over for shabbat dinner (to meet his son just out of the army, of course). And although I had to kindly reject his offer, it is still so beautiful the thought that there is a place in this world where I can trust a cab driver to take me to his home and gift me with a shabbat meal.

Israel offers a greater beauty, a greater meaning, than anything I’ve experienced outside of myself at home. Every time I forget what I’m doing, or why I’m not happy in this moment, I think of this one man I met in Sfat who owns this humble little pita shop. He invited us in to rest on his hookah lounge seating and shared with us his life story of when he was a London businessman, with money and women and the resources to travel the world. But, he said, I was never as happy as when I was in Israel. And so that’s where he stayed, physically and spiritually.

And although I can’t be there physically, I am always there spiritually. When looking for meaning, or direction, or making decisions right or wrong, I look to Israel and I trust that everything is beshert, meant to be.

The 60 Bloggers project is co-production of Jewlicious.com and the Let My People Sing Festival. It is published daily for 60 days to celebrate Israel’s 60 birthday.