The chavrusas:Gil Tal and Rabbi Yisrael Golombek, Moshav Ben Ami
When Gil Tal, a computer engineer and team leader at Intel, moved to the verdant Moshav Ben Ami in northern Israel, he was seeking quiet, serene surroundings where he could unwind from the pressure of his day job along with like-minded secular Israelis. But he found something entirely different.
Unbeknownst to Gil, someone else had also moved to the moshav — a religious rabbi named Rabbi Yisrael Golombek. He’d been dispatched to live in this secular setting by the Ayelet Hashachar organization, which spreads Torah values by placing religious families in secular areas and encouraging them to share their spiritual wealth in a warm, non-confrontational way.
“A week after I moved here, I met Rav Yisrael,” Gil remembers, “and we clicked right away. There’s something about his personality and humility that just makes you want to spend time with him.”
That time, for Gil, translated into a steady chavrusa session that has accompanied him through a religious metamorphosis.
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