While Shabbat was a guaranteed refuge from listening to bad American music and other “let’s make the Americans feel at home” meshugas, I was admittedly a little nervous. Given that I’m a conservative Jew, Shabbat in an orthodox setting is always a unique experience, some times better than others, so I didn’t know what to expect. While it was weird not wearing my talit and kippah, Shabbat at Kibbutz Ma’ale Gilboa, or as Gabe “Gabi” Segar calls it, “Shabbos on a hill!” turned out to be incredible.
The aspect of Shabbat that stood out the most was certainly their deep sense of community and family. Upon arriving at the kibbutz, our Israeli host Tamar’s mom explained that we were lighting candles ten minutes early in an effort to pray for the return of the three Israeli teens who were kidnapped at Gush Etzion. She proceeded to explain that while she certainly didn’t think lighting Shabbat candles early would bring back the children, she felt it was worth doing as it was something that brought the country together in a hard time. The rest of Shabbat most definitely showed me the true meaning of community, as the kibbutz is very closely knit. On Friday night at shul, I was reunited with a woman I had met at the Philly airport as we departed for Israel (I guess there’s some good in Amnon making us interview strangers?) who was originally from C-town, and whose sister was my Tanach teacher in third grade. She made me feel perfectly at home on her kibbutz. After a lively Shabbat dinner spoken in my native tongue of Hebrish, Ben, Avi, Gabi, and Solomon came over with their Israelis to snack and schmooze for hours. I felt the true meaning of family as we all sat around the living room, together with our Israeli Tamar’s family.
The next day after lunch the same crew came over, but this time Amnon, Mama Tina Fey, and the Shinshinim joined us as well, which further solidified my sense of family. Amnon and Co. drove over and told us about their visit to an art museum, preparing for our year two exhibit of family photos. While this discussion might seem irrelevant initially, the peaceful dichotomy of the religious and secular is truly descriptive of a family. Amnon and Co. were totally welcome to spend the afternoon with us and were also welcome to be open about what they did over the rest of Shabbat, although my host family wouldn’t do the same. The religious people in the room accepted the secular, and the secular were happy to be with the religious. Given that this isn’t so common in Israel, I knew that I was in the presence of a true family.