For 18 months, my husband and I drove up to the kibbutz from Bnei Brak every single Shabbos
As told to Sarah Pardes by Ricky Siton
Ilive in Bnei Brak, but the paths of Kibbutz Givat Hashlosha are as familiar to me as the streets of my native city. I first visited the secular kibbutz on Shabbos Hagadol and was enchanted. I felt the charm not only of the place, but of its people.
My initial visit was followed by many more. For 18 months, my husband and I drove up to the kibbutz from Bnei Brak every single Shabbos. We stayed in an apartment that was rented out by Ayelet HaShachar, a nonprofit organization created to bring together religious and nonreligious Jews in Israel. I was hired to be director of the organization’s chavrusa project.
We had five small kids at the time, and to drive up there every Friday with all our food — not just for ourselves but for the guests we brought from Bnei Brak to complete a minyan, plus all the guests from the kibbutz — was no simple matter. The three-hour drive home on Motzaei Shabbos, after cleaning the apartment, was no less difficult, but I welcomed the challenge.
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