JWRP Trip B Day 8
We went to do “chessed” today. Chessed is an act of kindness. One of the three things Judaims tells us the world stands on. (The other two are Torah and Prayer in case you were wondering.) So we went to a place called Seeach Sod, a special education organization for people ages newborn to 120 years!! The woman in charge there is SO CLEARLY fulfilling her purpose in the world by running this program. She was blessed with a child with severe physical, mental and behavioral disabilities, and what could have been seen as a dark part of her life, she chose to use as a torch not only for her own child and family but for many, many other children, people and families as well.
We sang, and danced and made Chanukah art projects with a group of young women in their program. Our ladies were smiling ear to ear. We brought such amazing women on this trip and their beauty truly shined through today at Seeach Sod.
Our next stop was Har Hertzl and Yad Vashem. If you have not been to either of these places, then you have not truly been to Israel. I remember where I was when Yizchak Rabin was assasinated. And standing by his tomb was chilling.
Walking through the windy, narrow path in Yas Vashem, I was reminded by our fabulous tour guide that human beings ARE capable of such heinous acts. More importantly, however, if they are capable of such heinus acts, then they are also capable of HOLY acts. They tried to destroy us. They tried to extinguish our people. But look at us now! We have our Land and we have our People.
It was an emotional yet inspiring day in many ways and it ended perfectly with a visit to an army base. A wonderful organization called Thank Israeli Soldiers does incredible work in making our IDF soldiers feel appreicated and loved. We brought care packages, and I brought cards from the children at Denver Academy of Torah which the ladies gave out and the soldiers absolutely loved. I call them “soldiers” but really, any one of those young women were the same age as my daughter and the young men were the same age as my nephew. They are not just soliders, they are our children.
This week has been incredible. Tomorrow is our last day together. We came as 200 women. We will leave as 200 sisters.
Chaya Parkoff 