A Taste of Redemption

This past Shabbat, parshat Mishpatim, was a very special shabbat in our local region Misgav. For more than a decade, every year our yishuv, the only religious yishuv out of 29 Jewish villages in our region hosts a Project Bar/Bat Mitzvah shabbat. On this shabbat, “religious” families with a son or daughter being Bar/Bat mitzvah’d that year will host 2-4 “secular” children of the same age from neighboring villages for an entire Shabbat. When the project first started I believe we were the only region in the county doing so and I expect it is still a very rare event – but it needs to spread! This year our yishuv hosted 100 kids from across Misgav and my family had the privilege to host 4 wonderful boys the same age as my son whose Bar Mitzvah is in 5 months.

The project is completely voluntary on both sides and the Rav meets with all the parents and the kids at each yishuv to explain what to expect. Before the meeting many of the secular kids believe they will have to eat cold food, use the bathroom in the dark, and sit around doing nothing for 25 hours. Many of them have never experienced a Shabbat in their lives and for many it may be the only Shabbat they ever experience. The brave participants agree to be hosted overnight by a family they have never met, put their cellphones aside, and come to Shabbat services and meals. That said, all participants are ensured the event is NOT to convince their children to become religious. It is to bring Jews of different backgrounds together, for both guests and hosts to ask questions in a respectful manner, and for guests to experience one of the most important parts of traditional Jewish culture and heritage that belongs to every Jew. The male guests are asked to wear a kippah in shul and at at kiddush and all are requested to dress in a modest way, as they would before going to any place where they wish to be respectful of local custom. Holding the event in the winter also helps ensure bodies are mostly covered 🙂

The kids are happy to comply because this is something they and their families want them to experience and it is only 25 hours – a magical 25 hours. One of the highlights for many is when Rav Uziel and all the boys are called up to the Torah and the community spreads a giant tallit (literally 9x the regular size) above their heads. The girls in the balcony section are prepared with bags of candies that they rain down on the boys before and after the aliya which concludes with the singing of Hamalach Ha”Goel Oti and special misheberach prayer for all who will celebrate their bar/bat mitzvah that year.

During Friday night dinner we went around the table and everyone shared where they, their parents, or grandparents came from and we discovered we had representation that might be more likely to find at a UN committee session: Egypt, India, America, Iraq, Romania, Russia, Hungary, Columbia, Turkey and even somewhere we never heard of! It was literally Kibbutz Galuyot – the ingathering of the exiles – at our Shabbat table.

Sometimes the kids do not always connect socially, but we were lucky to host 4 sweet boys with good manners clearly from homes with good family values and our family and our guests all enjoyed a wonderful Shabbat together. The event concludes with all the families meeting together in our social hall for a musical Havdala and a chance for the kids and families to trade phone numbers, say “Thank You”, and share their experiences.

In Talmud Bavli tractate Shabbat it states that if Israel would keep two Shabbatot, they will be immediately redeemed. And in the Jerusalem Talmud it says if they would keep even one Shabbat! Living in a country and society suffering from post-Trauma due to crisis after crisis for centuries, a country whose governments and media (“left” and “right” both) survive and prosper on dividing the people and turning them against one another, it certainly feels like a taste of redemption to be able to enjoy Shabbat with innocent and pure children from across Israel’s social spectrum in a community happy to do their part to help bring mashiach.

I highly recommend communities and regions across Israel conduct similar events. Everyone gets so much more out of it than they give.