We started off our day with a visit to Mechinat HaEmek. A mechina is a gap year program aiming to strengthen Israeli teens’ abilities in skills that they need for the army and the rest of their lives. This place where 38 18 year olds live did not look like “the dream Israel”. The physical environment seemed to provide the simple necessities of life, without the ‘extras’. Upon arrival, I was handed an ice coffee from a random woman who seemed very excited that we were visiting them. This set the tone of the place for me, exemplifying the warmth of the people there.
The head of the mechina divided us into study groups where we delved into texts of the Torah- he said that this was something that the participants of the mechina, or chanichim, did each day. My group discussed a specific text that essentially said that G-d would return to you no matter what. Our group was divided into two opinoins on this topic; Some struggled with this because they thought it delegitimized Jews that didn’t believe in G-d while others found it comforting.
After discussing the texts chanichim of the mechina describe their experiences. A typical day consisted of learning and volunteering. There were also tiyulim, or trips, on certain weeks. On one tiyul, each person on the mechina had to spend a week in the desert, navigating their way around with only a compass and two dates to eat. On another tiyul, chanichim went to the bus station and were sent to a unknown place selected to challenge their way of thinking. For example, if you were very right wing, you were generally sent to the left wing area; if you were religious, you might be sent to a secular area.
Although the actual activities were very interesting, I found their philosophy particularly moving. The educators of the mechina said that they think Israel is straying away from the values the state was built upon. They felt as though the people of Israel are focused too much on themselves, money, and power. Therefore, this mechina strives to recreate the focus on equality and social justice that was once so central to Israel’s guiding philosophy.