Like all things that were abruptly interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, the year in Israel for Midreshet AMIT students ended in March. The students left Israel and went back home. But their learning didn’t stop. The students continued studying with their rabbis and teachers via Zoom from thousands of miles away. The distance didn’t shake the warm connection they developed for one another or the profound impact Midreshet AMIT had on their lives.
In this four-part blog series, Midreshet AMIT student Atara Globus shares her Reflections on the Volunteer Experience.
By Atara Globus
There is a famous midrash that says:
“יותר ממה שבעל הבית עושה עם העני, העני עושה עם בעל הבית ”
This translates to “more than the homeowner does for the poor person, the poor person does for the homeowner.” This quote really resonated with me because the idea of how one personally benefits from performing acts of chesed was so relevant to my experience volunteering with the Beit Hayeled this year, as well as my out-of-the-building chesed experience.
Initially, I came to Midreshet AMIT excited to have a good time with the Beit Hayeled kids and expected instant gratification for my volunteer work. I completely underestimated the amount of hard work that would have to go into building a relationship with my kid.
I’ll never forget my first day volunteering. I walked into the Harel apartment with an optimistic attitude and was instantly immersed in chaos. At that moment I realized the language barrier was the least of my worries. At first Noa would ignore me and tell me to go away every time I came to hang out with her, but as the weeks went by, we bonded over my broken Hebrew and her obsession with TikToks. She slowly became very attached to me, and only then did I realize that I had the opportunity to consistently be there for someone who lacks consistency and reliability within her personal family relationships.
As I built relationships with the children in my group, as well as the foster parents and the bnot sherut, I began to realize the impact that my volunteering had on my personal development this year. After a full day of learning Torah, I was putting everything I was learning into practice, which helped me develop more of a connection to Judaism in general.
This also applied to my out-of-the-building chesed experiences. I volunteered at a school for children with special needs that was quite challenging, but ultimately very rewarding. I was put in situations where I was pushed outside my comfort zone and I was applying what I was learning. Although our time volunteering with the Beit Hayeled had been cut short, I genuinely believe that every Midreshet AMIT student who continued to show up for their kid and put in the hard work, saw the fruits of their labor both in terms of personal character development and forming a connection with their kid.
The fact that chesed was built into our schedules this year gave us a unique opportunity to really put our learning and morals to the test on a regular basis, which ultimately contributed to each student’s growth throughout the year.
Thank you Shirelle Avreky and Bina Marcus for helping us coordinate these meaningful experiences that have been vital to everyone’s personal development this year.
