Today was the most stressful but amazing day of the trip so far. We woke up this morning nice and late (8:00 AM) and we began our day. It started with a quick breakfast and then we left our hotel in Tel Aviv heading South, to a less nice area of the city - as the guide put it, "the wrong side of the tracks". The place we headed was a secular Yeshiva called Binah. Normally we assosciate Yeshivas with orthodoxy and a strict following of the Halacha, however this Yeshiva is quite unordinary. To begin, the Yeshiva does not have a Kosher kitchen and it teaches about Jewish law/philosophy from a non-Jewish perspective, using modern Hebrew (secular) texts, as well as texts from other religions. On top of that, the normal Yeshiva agenda is to encourage stronger faith and Jewish practices, whereas this Yeshiva's goal is to use Jewish morals to repair the community. Going off of that idea, the Yeshiva does a lot of Tikkun Olam service in the community, working with Darfurian, Sudanese and Eritreran refugees seeking political asylum.
To really show us how tough life in this area is, our guide, Moshe, showed us around the local park where there were many homeless people, and the local mall/bus station resembled a ghost town. He explained to us the history of the area, and how ever since the community was founded in the 1920's, it has been struggling, and despite the city's greatest efforts, it continues to struggle today. Another interesting topic that we addressed today at the Yeshiva was the idea of giving thanks to G-d. We studied chapter 26 of Deuteronomy, where it explains what to do with the first harvest of the year. We learned that the common belief is that we give thanks and sacrifice our fruits to G-d, but in fact, we are meant to share the food with those who cannot provide for themselves, including the strangers and priests among us. The reason behind this is that the priest cannot own his own land, and the stranger cannot own his own land, and we are sharing our crop with them because it reminds us that like our forefather Abraham, who was not only a stranger in the land of Canaan, but he wasn't permitted to own land, we can also be the stranger and the one in need. Thus, we are empathetic to those around us and share our food with the Levite and the Stranger to remember Abraham and our roots.
After this activity we headed back on the bus to go to Rishon! The 20+ minute car ride felt like it was hours because we were all so excited to see our Rishonim. When we first got to the bus stop where they met us, we hugged and shouted and took pictures, and really ticked off some old lady waiting for the bus.
Then we headed to the Youth Center and we had a short party/snack break. After that, we went straight to work. Both the Seminar and the Camp staff had a lot to do in order to prepare ourselves for tomorrow (Tuesday). We were updated on some complications with the camp and we learned the life lesson that things don't always go as planned and you just have to pick your feet up, regroup, reorganize, and make the best of it. We had to put our heads together and re- plan in a mere 2 hours. It seemed impossible, but hey, we're MetroLezion and we can handle anything. After what I believe were the 2 most stressful hours of the trip/Diller year, we got picked up by our host families and went home for dinner. Then later that night, many of us went to the beach to see a light show for Tu B'av - Israeli Valentine's Day - where we had fun on the beach, got ice cream, and got marveled at for our American accents. Over all, this was not only an extremely thought provoking day, but it also was loads of fun and very exciting. Personally, I can't wait for tomorrow to see how the camp goes and I'm looking forward to really making an impact in this community!
- Josh Cohen
P.S. Choch, I'm doing fine and Leah is the best!
P.P.S. Michal says "Hi!"
Happy Tu B'Av (Israeli Valentine's Day). Leah!
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