Elisheva Watson grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey, and made Aliyah with her family five years ago to Bet Shemesh. She attended Bruriah High School for 9th grade, and Chorev Yerushalayim for the rest of her high school career. Elisheva then spent a year learning in MMY, followed by a year of sherut leumi in Chorev as a madricha for the olot chadashot. Next year she is planning to go to Bar Ilan to study psychology and education. Elisheva had an amazing experience on Michlelet as a camper, and is super excited to be back as a madricha.
The girls in Elisheva’s chabura are Atara Benovitz (Ramat Bet Shemesh, Israel), Mindi Gelbtuch (Woodmere, NY), Sara Raizel Jedwab (Cedarhurst, NY), and Tamar Schwartz (Teaneck, NJ).
In her chabura titled “A Letter in A Scroll” (stolen from the title of one of Elisheva’s favorite books written by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks), Elisheva focuses on the concept of how each individual person is in essence a letter in a scroll. Just as a sefer torah that is missing just one letter becomes invalid, so too if just one person is Am Yisrael does not live up to their potential, this is not just a personal failing, but is detrimental to the entire existence of Klal Yisrael and its ultimate destination. The goal of this chabura is to understand the purpose of Am Yisrael as an Or Lagoyim, and what it means to build our Mamlechet Kohanim Vgoy Kadosh, and then zone into the role of the individual in order to develop her unique responsibility as a part of a bigger picture.
After discussing what it means to build our Mamlechet Kohanim Vguy Kadosh in its most ideal sense, what is your next step in contributing to this reality?
Atara: “In Shemot, it says: “ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש”- meaning we have to be G-d’s nation and an or lagoyim- show everyone else the “light”. This is our destination as a nation. But how do we get there? How do we achieve it? What is my next step to make it to that point?
On a national level, I believe, the thing we have to work on the most is achdut. The pasuk clearly says “mamlechet kohanim” is singular. Hashem wants us to reach the point where we can form one mamlacha, one unit. So this is the next step we have to reach. But how do we get there?
This brings us to the yachid, the singular in klal yisrael. I believe that if we all work on בין אדם לחברו- loving and helping each other, this will cause achdut in our nation. By giving and being nice to others we are bringing the whole nation together. How can you not feel a connection to someone who did something nice for you? But still the question remains, how do we do this? How can we reach that point of loving each other that much?
The answer is to start small. Don’t suddenly decide to create the biggest and most wonderful chesed project, or anything like that. This of course is beautiful, but most likely won’t work. Start small. Decide maybe to smile and greet everyone nicely in the morning, or maybe to say thank you to your teacher at the end of every class. These things may seem small, but they really can make all the difference.
In conclusion, we can all help get to the point of ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש on a personal level. We can bring achdut by doing small acts of kindness to one another, and by that bringing the whole nation together. Once we all come together, we can make one big ״ממלכה״, and by doing that bring the Mashiach very soon.”
Mindi: “If you look back to why the bechorim of Yisrael lost the kahuna by the egel, it’s because they transformed something physical to spiritual according to their own will (even thought they had good intentions) instead of doing it al pi Hashem. What we learn from the kohanim is the idea that we must raise all physicality to a higher level of spirituality (according to G-d’s will). We, as Jews, should emulate this concept of elevating the physical, and infuse the world with kedusha.”
Sara Raizel: “My next step is to increase my Israel Advocacy to the next level. I think that that is the modern way of being an Or Lagoim and apart of the Mamlechet Kohanim. Israeli news is constantly being covered in the Media, and most of the time not in a good light. Why should we care what they think? We should care not because Israel depends on the foreign support but because of the opportunity to fulfill the mission of a Mamlechet Kohanim. When we will be able to show the world that Jews no matter how different are able to work towards a common goal of a homeland, each in own way, each person respecting the method of his brother then the rest of the world will see the light.”
Tamar: “In order to build our holy nation and spread it throughout the world, I would have to first work on myself. The best way to promote our people is to make a good name for them for the world to see. I would have to affirm my beliefs and make myself the best image of a Jew. If I can represent myself as a person who makes a kiddush Hashem, I can be someone who inspires and is a role model for members of Am Yisrael. Bringing our geula and the opportunity to let our mamlechet shine throughout the world is most certainly a group effort, and if each member of Am Yisrael makes his or her effort to be a proud member of our goy kadosh, we will have the privilege of witnessing the geula shelaima.”