Page 19 - Issue 19

here. I don't want to erase the parts that people see,
because they are real, but I do want them to see a fuller
picture.

Anyways, I left the conversation feeling profound
satisfaction, not because I had exposed my student to some
truths about the United States that I believe… although that
too was gratifying. Rather this chanich who I had spent the
past two-plus years believing in and loving and caring about
deeply, despite the many challenges, had shown me a
glimpse of the kind of information he could process. He
showed me with his curiosity, his questions and his attention
that he was interested in what I thought and that he was
capable of digesting new ideas and developing his
conception of the world.

The value of my hadracha can't be measured by individual
"results", or specific skills or ideas that my chanichimot have
now that they didn't have before. Nor am I so vain as to think
that my guidance is the only or even main source of personal
growth that my chanichimot have. But this conversation was
a reminder of why it is so important to treat every chanichol
with love, patience and care, no matter what they bring to
the mifgash. Even a chanichol who doesn't have the greatest
ability now is capable of growing and expanding. If we give
them the love and respect they need, we may some day earn
the privilege of seeing them demonstrate that capacity.

Lonny Moses, Kibbutz Keshet, Petach Tikva