Somebody recently gave us a stack of magazines that they had read and no longer needed. One of them contained an interview with two women who lived on the kibbutzim in the south, were taken hostage, and later released.
I've always known that there was a hatred for religion in these places, but I did not know (I heard rumors) that every Yom Kippur they would barbecue pork and eat it. One of them explained that nowadays, it's more of a custom rather than something specific against the Torah, comparing it to turkey on Thanksgiving. Nonetheless, it gives you some insight. What gives even more insight into them is how much Arabic they knew and how much they knew about their Muslim neighbors, compared to how much they knew of their Jewish brethren.
One woman explained how she was instrumental in keeping a certain outreach rav from coming to the kibbutz to teach Torah. She showed the interviewer all the WhatsApp messages that she sent him, showing her violent reaction to such an idea and all her threats which led him to back away. She said that every time she went abroad, and somebody asked her if she was Jewish, she would reply, "No, I'm Israeli."
On October 7, her mother and her two children were killed in her home and she was dragged off to Gaza. While there, she started yelling at them in Arabic, "This is how you treat your cousins?!" To which they responded, "You are not Children of Avraham! You are not real Jews! You're Israeli colonialists!"
That hit her hard, hearing her own words slap her in her face.
Today, she is in close contact with the same rav and is spearheading the effort to build the kibbutz's first shul, with homes to accommodate religious families.
Another woman originally came from Russia. She was not against Torah but knew nothing of it. When she was kidnapped, (the recently released video of one of the hostages is her son), she was kept with another woman. And strangely enough, their captors were very interested in their religious knowledge. They asked her if she knew Torah? No. Have you ever read the Torah? No. Can you even name the Ten Commandments? Together, they named five.
The terrorists were furious with them and yelled at them, "This is not okay! How could you not even read your own Torah?" She said that throughout their captivity, they were yelled at for not knowing their own religion. Not for being evil Israeli baby-killers, but for simply not knowing any Torah!
After her release, she understood what Hashem wanted from her, and now keeps Shabbos, learns and davens on a regular basis. She was given a set of beautiful Shabbos candles, which she is saving to use when her son returns.
Regarding rebuilding the kibbutz that she is from and the anti-Torah rules that they had, she said something interesting. She said that she will go back and go back as a religious Jew. And if anybody has problems with it, she doesn't care, she's too old to care about them. Then she said (I don't have the quote in front of me, but it was like), "They are going to have to learn to get used to those of us who have become religious and be more open-minded." The key was the usage of the plural, being that others from the same kibbutz have also changed their lives around.
It will be interesting to see what will become of these (hopefully former) anti-Torah kibbutzes when they are rebuilt. But it's even more interesting how sometimes Hashem gives us messages which are very much tailored to where we need to improve.
May we all be able to see such messages, but not in such a dramatic way.
Okay, on to the parsha.
"She quickly emptied her pitcher into the trough and ran to the well again to draw water, and she drew water for all his camels. And the man was gazing at her, remaining silent, to know if Hashem had made his journey successful or not" (Bereishis 24: 20, 21).
An interesting question popped into my head this week. When Eliezer went to find a wife for Yitzchok, he davened that his mission should be easily fulfilled and informed Hashem what his "test" was to reveal; which girl would be an appropriate wife.
As soon as he finished, Rivka comes out to get water, Eliezer asks her for some, she gives some to him and offers to water his camels as well. At this point, his test was complete, since she fulfilled all of the conditions, and yet, he still remained silent "to know if Hashem had made his journey successful or not."
If it was clear that his conditions were fulfilled, why was he still in doubt whether or not his mission was successful?
There are a few answers to this question. However, I have another possible explanation.
Perhaps he was waiting to see if Rivka would complete the tasks that she said she would carry out. If she only did part of the work, perhaps this is not a good shidduch. However, if she did everything that she said she would do, that's a sign that she's the right one.
So many times, a person will offer to do this chesed or that chesed. They are more than happy to offer help. Yet, when it comes to actually fulfilling that chesed, they always have an excuse on why in the end they cannot, or why they can do only part of what they offered. In the end, the recipient of such "chesed" feels bad, since their needs were not fulfilled, yet at the same time they feel bad since the person DID something, but not what was actually needed.
It gets worse when the same thing happens with business.
I have a neighbor who moved out for a few years and rented out his home. In the end, they decided to move in, but before he did, he decided to gut everything inside and rebuild it from scratch. He's a former fighter pilot, a real go-getter. Obviously he's older than I am, with five times more energy than I have. Of course, I have more than double the amount of children he has, and his are married and out of the house. Either way, every day I would see him with this worker or another, working on different aspects of the house. Two weeks ago, I passed by and demanded a tour of the changes, which he graciously gave me. As he was telling me what changes he made, he said, "These 'shibutznikim' (hard to translate: people who work on building/repairing buildings) are all a bunch of thieves. You tell them what you want, they agree, they don't do the job, and then demand payment. So, I'm doing this all by myself."
With business you are actually agreeing to do something, and you are taking money to do it. If you only go halfway, you're not fulfilling your obligations and, in the end, are stealing from the client.
So, perhaps from this episode, we see the importance of keeping one's word. Whether you offer a chesed for free or agree to a business deal, it's important to do everything that you said you would do, to the satisfaction of the recipient.
With that, I wish you all a wonderful and quiet Shabbos!