Dear Michlelet NCSY Parents,

This has been an incredibly strong and powerful week in so many areas.  The experiences we are having are extremely bonding and the energy and connection felt here has been equally strong! I have been moved so many times this week – watching the girls connect in so many different venues and seeing how we have really come together with a connection that is hard to describe, as a real Michlelet Family. The bonds we are making here, and the excitement that is so alive, are extremely wholesome and part of the growing experience of Michlelet.

I have been watching the girls grow and bond through the learning that takes place here. With so many pressures of tests and the like nowadays, it is so refreshing to see young women, learning to really love learning Torah and with only positive associations.  Our learning here has been strong and powerful. It is so special to see how much the girls enjoy learning with each other and from their teachers and madrichot. This week, we had a priceless opportunity to have a question and answer session with Rabbi Sobolofsky, Rav in Bergenfield, NJ, Rosh Yeshiva at YU and NCSY’s posek.  The girls were awed by his breadth of knowledge and his ability to answer questions in all arenas. It is amazing how you could literally have heard a pin drop as our speakers this week, Rabbi Yamin Goldsmith, Rabbi Avrohom Willig, Rabbi David Katz and Rabbi Noam Fix spoke. The girls have really come to appreciate each and every opportunity to learn. When I spoke this week when we hosted Give NCSY and when Rabbi Willig spoke this week when we hosted Sulam, both for some learning and basketball, it was beautiful to see the pride our girls took in the learning that takes place here and how excited they were to share that pride with our guests!

Of course, just because they learn strong, doesn’t mean they can’t have great fun!  If anything, each enhances the other!  The bonds created through the fun we had this week were equally touching to see.  They laughed in sheer delight as they ran around the mall on Sunday night, in search of their madrichot who were dressed up hysterically and blended into the mall for a Madricha Scavenger Hunt. You had to see the way they cheered the night away, with such pride, energy and excitement at the basketball games against Give and Sulam this week.   Who can describe the cheering, ruach and unbelievable talent shown on Wednesday and Thursday during Color War! How special it was to watch the performances Thursday night, and see each girl shine and so involved!  How beautiful it was to hear their theme songs, sung with such sincerity about how much they have learned and grown on Michlelet and how much they have come to love it.

A different type of connection was built through the meaningful tiyul we experienced on Tuesday, during the nine days.  The girls had the opportunity of connecting to their past by going to Yad Vashem and hearing from Rabbi Hanoch Teller and others. They then had the privilege of going to Har Herzel, where our soldiers are buried, and to daven there and to learn about them, and be connected to them by hearing from Rabbi Michael Olshin and Rabbi Moshe Hamburg.  After that moving visit, they had the ultimate bonding experience ending the day in Rose Park in Jerusalem doing ODT, team building activities where they had to work together as teams to accomplish certain fun and interesting activities. They had a fabulous time!

Our chessed this week was another opportunity for the girls to form attachments through meaningful, chessed activities. On Sunday morning, the girls had a three hour professional training on how to be medical clowns. They then had the distinct chance to go to either Shaarei Tzedek or Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, and medical clown there. What a profound opportunity- to enhance the lives of the sick and their families, and bring smiles to their faces and joy to their hearts. What better a feeling can one have than to be a part of that enhancement of a fellow Jew’s lot and what better way can there possibly be to perform that chessed than to bond with each other through that experience? On Thursday, we had another moving experience and slightly different twist of a chessed trip. The girls had the opportunity to go to either the Dialogue in the Dark, otherwise known as the Blind Museum, or the Invitation to Silence, otherwise known as the Deaf Museum.  Another really connecting experience, as each group worked together as they were led through different interactive encounters to help become more sensitized to what it must be like for someone who is deaf or blind. It was very touching and will hopefully be something we take with us as we encounter people with many types of disabilities and challenges throughout our lives.

And who can describe the awesome experience of going to daven at Kever Rachel today, erev Tisha B’av? What an unbelievable z’chus to daven at Rachel Imainu’s kever, our mother who Hashem has promised, “in your merit, Rachel, your children will return home.”

So this week has been an incredible one, with unique and special experiences shared. We have really come together as a unit and formed ties which can only be built here, through such a rich combination of uplifting and exciting experiences.

We are looking forward to another beautiful Shabbos, filled with singing, bonding and ruach and pray that this Tisha Bav will be one in which we do not sit on the floor and cry, rather one in which we dance to the Beis Hamikdash!!

Once again, if you would like to donate to be part of the beautiful wedding we will be making this Monday, you can do so at  https://ncsy.org/michlelet-wedding-sponsorship/

Please feel free to be in touch with any feedback you may have.

Good Shabbos,

Rivka Yudin