I write to you from an outdoor café where friends leisurely sip their coffee and wish each other a shana tova (good new year).
As the holidays approached at Yemin Orde, the village celebrated with more than just apples and honey. Classes were disrupted during the week leading up to Rosh Hashanah and instead the kids participated in Tikkun Olam (mending the world) projects. What does Tikkun Olam have to do with celebrating holidays and with life at Yemin Orde? It wasn’t until I joined the ninth grade on their visit to Rambam Hospital in Haifa that I understood.
I boarded a school bus together with over sixty ninth graders and managed to find a seat next to a girl with a very sweet smile who didn’t appear to speak much Hebrew or English. Over the sixty different hip hop songs blasting from every ninth grader’s cell phone (earphones are apparently not too popular) I managed to understand that the girl sitting next to me had arrived in Israel only two weeks ago from Poland and was studying in an ulpan (intensive Hebrew course) in the village. How brave she was to start a new life for herself in a country where she did not even know the language! Across the aisle from me sat an Ethiopian boy who asked me questions about life in America. “Are there other Jews in America?” he asked. “Do you like living in Israel?” I replied that for me Israel was the best and asked him about life in Ethiopia. He told me that Israel was better because in Israel he could learn many things. “What did you learn in Ethiopia?” I asked. “I didn’t go to school,” he replied, “I was a shepherd until I came to Israel three years ago.”
As the ninth graders filed out of the bus, I felt an overwhelming sense of admiration for the children who had each taken amazing journeys to be here.
But I hesitated as they headed toward the entrance of Rambam Hospital. Like most high schoolers they were loud, joking, yelling, and blasting their music. No one seemed particularly excited to visit sick patients and some kids loudly complained about coming in the first place. But as they turned the corner into the hospital wing and came face to face with patients in wheel chairs and hospital beds, everything changed.
As the ninth graders filed out of the bus, I felt an overwhelming sense of admiration for the children who had each taken amazing journeys to be here.
But I hesitated as they headed toward the entrance of Rambam Hospital. Like most high schoolers they were loud, joking, yelling, and blasting their music. No one seemed particularly excited to visit sick patients and some kids loudly complained about coming in the first place. But as they turned the corner into the hospital wing and came face to face with patients in wheel chairs and hospital beds, everything changed.
They took on the role of caregiver and with gentleness and pride wished a shana tova to the patients and their families. They handed out apples dipped in honey and Rosh Hashanah cards to the nurses and doctors. Smiles lit their faces and their confidence grew with every room they visited.
As the group was about to leave a man stopped them and said that an Ethiopian woman who had recently arrived in Israel and spoke only Amharic had recently been admitted to the hospital and had no visitors. The kids ran to her room and crowded around her bed, joking with her in Amharic and bringing beautiful smiles to both her face and theirs.
When the ninth graders returned to the village that evening they were not the same group that had left a few hours before. They walked a little straighter and smiled a little wider. The boy who had grown up as a shepherd, the girl who had just arrived from Poland, the kids who were struggling in their English classes, and those who were just starting to adjust to their new lives at Yemin Orde were suddenly not the ones asking for help. They were the ones bringing strength and happiness to others, and in turn they brought it to themselves. Yemin Orde functions with the belief that Tikkun Olam (mending the world) and Tikkun HaLev (mending the heart) are inextricably intertwined. It is this same belief that fuels Yemin Orde’s involvement in building the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda. By bringing their successful philosophy to Rwandan orphans, Yemin Orde graduates improve the world and improve themselves. In the ninth grade visit to Rambam Hospital, I came to understand this idea first hand.
As the group was about to leave a man stopped them and said that an Ethiopian woman who had recently arrived in Israel and spoke only Amharic had recently been admitted to the hospital and had no visitors. The kids ran to her room and crowded around her bed, joking with her in Amharic and bringing beautiful smiles to both her face and theirs.
When the ninth graders returned to the village that evening they were not the same group that had left a few hours before. They walked a little straighter and smiled a little wider. The boy who had grown up as a shepherd, the girl who had just arrived from Poland, the kids who were struggling in their English classes, and those who were just starting to adjust to their new lives at Yemin Orde were suddenly not the ones asking for help. They were the ones bringing strength and happiness to others, and in turn they brought it to themselves. Yemin Orde functions with the belief that Tikkun Olam (mending the world) and Tikkun HaLev (mending the heart) are inextricably intertwined. It is this same belief that fuels Yemin Orde’s involvement in building the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda. By bringing their successful philosophy to Rwandan orphans, Yemin Orde graduates improve the world and improve themselves. In the ninth grade visit to Rambam Hospital, I came to understand this idea first hand.In this new year and time of introspection, may we all have the ability to change our world for the better, and in turn to bring strength and happiness to ourselves.
