A core-group of religious-Zionist yeshiva students based in Kfar HaRo'eh founded a two-year-old outreach group, which operates in Emek Hefer, the Hefer Valley, in northern Israel.
Though Israel's Kibbutz movement has traditionally distanced itself from religious tradition, instead moving its educational system toward universal concepts, the students have found that parents and children alike are eager to embrace the new Jewish educational programs.
Last week, local children fashioned their very own shofars – ram's horns used in the High Holiday services. Yehuda David, one of the Gar'in Torani (literally "Torah seeds"), described the project to Israel National Radio's Yishai Fleisher and Alex Traiman.
"We brought 1,000 ram's horns to the local schools and we showed the kids how to smooth and polish the horns, hollowing them out," he said. "They had a 'blast' and 1,000 kids came home that day with a 3,000-year-old Jewish symbol in their hands. The parents asked about it, and it created excitement among the children to bring it to synagogue and even find out more about what it means within our tradition."
David sees the shofar as a metaphor for the Torah Seeds project itself. "The shofar is shaped so that the end we blow into is quite small, but projects great sound through the large end. Our actions in this world may seem small, but small things done here on earth have a great effect in Heaven."
Other Gar'in Torani (outreach group) projects include bringing five buses of young members of the HaShomer HaTza'ir youth group on a full-day tour of Jerusalem. The trip will include songs for Rosh HaShana and learning about the special prayers and customs.
Another campaign provides any member of the Kibbutzim in the region with free Torah-reading lessons for his Bar Mitzvah. The parents of the Bar Mitzvah students often develop a relationship with the families of the teachers in the course of months of classes and many choose to introduce varying levels of religious observance into their lifestyles.
"One of our most successful events was on Lag B'Omer last year," says Elazar, who coordinates the programs. "We went to Kibbutz Magal and had an arrangement that we would take care of the programming, and the secular members of the kibbutz would take care of logistics. They made a gigantic fire and brought in a huge concrete pipe with a crane that we used to simulate the cave that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai had used to hide from the Romans. There was a bow and arrow range and everything. In the end, almost everyone stood outside the 'cave' and listened to stories of Rabbi Shimon until the wee hours."
The members of the Torah Seeds program are surprised again and again by the openness of non-observant Israelis to learn more about Jewish heritage.
Members of the group provide religious services upon request to many of the Kibbutzim which do not even have synagogues. "When asked, we try to bring enough people to have a minyan [a quorum of 10 men for communal prayer]," Elazar recalls.
"Last Rosh HaShana one of the Kibbutzim asked us to come, but nobody showed up in the end. Instead we went door to door with the shofar, asking people if they wanted to fulfill the mitzvah to hear the sound of the shofar on Rosh HaShana. We blew the shofar for nearly every family individually. They were really into it – especially the young people. It was incredible."
Though Israel's Kibbutz movement has traditionally distanced itself from religious tradition, instead moving its educational system toward universal concepts, the students have found that parents and children alike are eager to embrace the new Jewish educational programs.
Last week, local children fashioned their very own shofars – ram's horns used in the High Holiday services. Yehuda David, one of the Gar'in Torani (literally "Torah seeds"), described the project to Israel National Radio's Yishai Fleisher and Alex Traiman.
"We brought 1,000 ram's horns to the local schools and we showed the kids how to smooth and polish the horns, hollowing them out," he said. "They had a 'blast' and 1,000 kids came home that day with a 3,000-year-old Jewish symbol in their hands. The parents asked about it, and it created excitement among the children to bring it to synagogue and even find out more about what it means within our tradition."
David sees the shofar as a metaphor for the Torah Seeds project itself. "The shofar is shaped so that the end we blow into is quite small, but projects great sound through the large end. Our actions in this world may seem small, but small things done here on earth have a great effect in Heaven."
Other Gar'in Torani (outreach group) projects include bringing five buses of young members of the HaShomer HaTza'ir youth group on a full-day tour of Jerusalem. The trip will include songs for Rosh HaShana and learning about the special prayers and customs.
Another campaign provides any member of the Kibbutzim in the region with free Torah-reading lessons for his Bar Mitzvah. The parents of the Bar Mitzvah students often develop a relationship with the families of the teachers in the course of months of classes and many choose to introduce varying levels of religious observance into their lifestyles.
"One of our most successful events was on Lag B'Omer last year," says Elazar, who coordinates the programs. "We went to Kibbutz Magal and had an arrangement that we would take care of the programming, and the secular members of the kibbutz would take care of logistics. They made a gigantic fire and brought in a huge concrete pipe with a crane that we used to simulate the cave that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai had used to hide from the Romans. There was a bow and arrow range and everything. In the end, almost everyone stood outside the 'cave' and listened to stories of Rabbi Shimon until the wee hours."
The members of the Torah Seeds program are surprised again and again by the openness of non-observant Israelis to learn more about Jewish heritage.
Members of the group provide religious services upon request to many of the Kibbutzim which do not even have synagogues. "When asked, we try to bring enough people to have a minyan [a quorum of 10 men for communal prayer]," Elazar recalls.
"Last Rosh HaShana one of the Kibbutzim asked us to come, but nobody showed up in the end. Instead we went door to door with the shofar, asking people if they wanted to fulfill the mitzvah to hear the sound of the shofar on Rosh HaShana. We blew the shofar for nearly every family individually. They were really into it – especially the young people. It was incredible."