Page 91 - Kol Bogrei Habonim - Winter 20
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boots, sweaty T-shirts and “kovaei tembel” this brilliant trip, we went all the way via
straight from the fields. Nearly everyone Nuweiba, Dahab and Sharm el Sheikh to Ras
went to shul on Shabbat. Shabbat meals were Mohammed, then north along the Gulf of
accompanied by zemirot and a dvar Torah. Suez to El Tor, from which the hardy tiyulit
took the dirt track inland to Jabal Musa (Mt.
Sinai). That mountain was a whole day’s
activity. At the summit, we rested in the small
mosque, on the whitewashed walls of which
some wag had written “Moses was here”,
before returning via the 3,000-step staircase.
At this stage, Shlomo and I had to leave the
group as they would be travelling on Shabbat,
and our madrich made arrangements with
another tour group to bring us back to Tel
Aviv, leaving us with money to spend the
night at the Santa Katarina youth hostel. We
The packing shed at Kibbutz Sa’ad
decided to keep the money and sleep on the
desert floor outside the monastery. Realising
When I worked in the mata, we would gather that we were totally alone, one of us slept
before daybreak and be in the orchards by while the other acted as shomer under the
first light in order to finish the day’s work just clear night sky.
past noon, when the summer heat would
become unbearable. By the time we went All too soon the year was over and it was
back to the kibbutz for shacharit (morning back to the UK to become senior ma’apilim.
prayers) and breakfast, we had put half a What did the dati version of Shnat
day’s work behind us. Hachshara teach me?
• It was quite possible to be religiously
observant and go on Hachshara, thanks to the
good-will of the authorities in Habonim.
• We may have been right, but at least
everyone else had a point.
• Bonding with your less-observant
friends is achieved more easily by shit-
shovelling than by shul services.
And a huge thanks to Michael and Shlomo for
The synagogue at Kibbutz Sa’ad the life-long friendship, and to everyone else
in our chevra who have always been so
tolerant and understanding. Hazak ve’Amatz!
Shlomo and I joined the main Hachshara
group for the Sinai tiyul (this was 1978). On
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