The Genetic Power of Survival ‘Part 2’ To Build and Be Built

The Genetic Power of Survival “Part 2”
To Build and Be Built with Livnot U Lehibanot

Image courtesy of author.

When I returned home from Israel a couple of weeks ago, I was quiet. I was keeping the experience sacred for a bit longer. I knew I needed to share but wanted to stay in this “bubble of purpose” a little while longer. I knew something powerful was brewing inside of me. To be honest, I knew that this was a possibility even before I got on the ELAL flight. I craved to awaken the part of me that would inspire my soul to keep moving forward in purpose.

I knew that the transition back home, to life, to the everyday, would be challenging. I didn’t realize the depth of the impact the journey would make on me. The fact is that tapping into my courage and strength has never been more freeing or liberating or more joyful. Yes Joyful. Believe it or not, it was with a complete and total JOY working eight hours a day on Kibbutz Nachal Oz and Kibbutz Nirim with the incredible organization, Livnot U Lehibanot https://livnot.org/ and their team of men and women who guided us and taught us what we needed to know to prepare homes for families to return. Their supportive guidance was effortless and filled with depth and love. We quickly became a family. The experience has been life-changing for me and for the women that joined me on this mission.

Last week, I shared some specifics about the work we did on the Kibbutzim and the time we spent with survivors from the Nova Festival. I shared how we woke up early in the morning, prepared our meals and went off on a bus to rebuild homes and prep bedrooms for families to return to the life they once new. “The 99% Heaven” (a phrase shared by kibbutzniks) that they existed in and that they strive for again. Livnot U Lehibanot, which has been in existence for more than 45 years has been rebuilding and shaping communities for families, Israelis, and the Jewish people throughout Israel. After the war began, they moved most of their staff to the southern kibbutzim on the border of Gaza. Then Livnot recruited volunteers, these human beings who come and give of them themselves every week to give back to others. I was blessed to be among those volunteers. With Eliyahu as the lead, teaching us the skills needed to prepare a home for a family like the Shaked’s and the Cohen’s to come home with their children and rebuild a life they knew and maintain the life that they strive to have once again. Livnot is not about work. Livnot is about building one self through rebuilding for others. This experience is about our responsibility for humanity, our privilege to be on this earth sharing time with one another. This is about the Ultimate GOOD that we strive to exist in. That kind of Good we must and can only build together.

Now, with some time to reflect and process the week with Livnot, I do feel rebuilt. I feel like I will move forward with a plan to return to build even more. It takes a lot to exist in “99% Heaven” not just physically, but in our minds and in our souls.

When I met Missy, another amazing member of the Livnot team, she greeted each of us with abundant joy and the warmth a dear friend. At that moment, I knew I was in the right place at the right time. She immediately embraced us and she was so grateful to have us join her. Missy shared her love, knowledge and unwavering commitment to rebuilding our homeland. We couldn’t help but be swept in to becoming our best selves.

Livnot awakened in each of us our renewed commitment to Israel and the Jewish people and an even stronger sense of self and a personal commitment to becoming a Better Human Being. This is more than a thank you letter to Livnot U Lehibanot.

Maybe even a “Love note to Livnot.” It is much more than that. It is a Thank you to Aharon and Miriam Botzer, Livnot founders and dreamers, who opened their home and hearts to us and lead us into their unwavering dream of how to build our world.

Thank you for awakening in me the desire to be a better Human, to be a stronger Jewish woman and for reminding me through Eliyahu and Missy and so many others that I am Genetically Wired to Survive.

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I’ve written this in the memory of Eliezar Ben Aharon, May his eternal light continue to connect us in the deepest way to the Jewish people, to heroism, to survival and to miracles.